#sigma balls range

[kyred]

Draw Deergle Range in a jingebell harness. It's seasonal and festive~ uwu

The ultimate weapon to surpass metaldeer…

[steelajeeg]

Snake Eyes and Timber

- from G.I. Joe Classified

- by Hasbro

This was a clearance find from last week (check your local Targets!)

I was already looking out for this two-pack, so I knew I had to grab it when I saw it for half the MSRP.

It's an incredible figure set.

First of all, I love all of the new articulation on the new Classified Joes. They have an approximation of Bandai's pull-down hips from early Figuarts - a ball jointed waist, along with an ab crunch - and a huge range of motion in the double joined neck.

Of course, it's still Hasbro Legends rubbery plastic with frustratingly detented knees and elbow. But if you know what to expect from Hasbro by now, that's fine.

The real surprise is Timber. Incredibly well articulated for a small dog toy! Swappable face plates, a ton of joints with a wide range of motion. All four legs are ball jointed at the body, so they can take a wide stance - and each paw has an ankle rocker!

Great sculpts on both toys. Incredible design on Snake Eyes - its giving me Sigma 6 vibes - and a massive array of accessories. Not bad for 20 bucks!

Note: Instagram's algorithm immediately deboosts any post with weapons in the first few pictures. Even for toys. So I had to take a few "boring" shots in this gallery to get past that restriction.

[Instagram link for this post]

[gamerbearmira]

Madrigals and who I think their top 3 in Overwatch 2 would be, in order most used to least, and why

Pedro- Reinhardt, Sigma, Baptise; He solely focused on protecting everyone. And Reinhardt is perfect, because he can charge anyone who gets in his way; Sigma has a giant shield, so he’s second. He likes using his Ultimate as well, because he can get rid of several people at a time. If his team needs a healer tho, Baptise is his go to.

Alma- Ana, Moira, Genji (Rarely); She mostly wants to heal, ironically. He follows behind mostly Dmaages, because she believes that Tanks can handle themselves, though she will heal anyone. If she needs to do damage, she’ll do Genji, but that’s RARE.

Julieta- Mercy, Ana, Sojourn (Rarely); Always healer, always Mercy. She WILL revive, and she WILL chase after anyone on critical or low health, trust she’s got your back no matter who you are. If there’s too many healers (which she says ‘there can never be too many healers), she’ll be Sojourn. But that’s even more rare then Alma.

Pepa- Pharah, Zarya, Sombra; Damage, Damage, Damage. She likes the flight that comes with Pharah, and she doesn’t have to aim with her bomb gun, so it’s really easy for her to get kill streaks. She likes how chaotic Zarya’ gun is, and how Sombra and slow people down. But Pharah is her number one, and she is not afraid to just go out on her own.

Bruno- Sigma, Ramattra, Zenyatta; Sigma is someone who can hide behind a shield and still do some good damage, so he’s tries to be him, because he likes playing Tanks. Ramattra is second, he likes the staff and he can do long distance damage though he’ll occasionally use Zenyatta if he feels like another healer is needed.

Felíx- Roadhog, Doomfist, Lucio; This man LOVES Roadhog, omg. He plays him at any given chance, and he abuses the hook. Like stay away from him, he’s one of those Roadhog mains who will pull you in and one shot gun you down. Doomfist is second, but he doesn’t like how little ammo he has, so he’ll try to use Roadhog. He just likes Lucío cause of his music, healing is just a perk.

Agustín- Hanzo, Reaper, Ramattra; He’s a little too good at Hanzo. Like he can shot anyone down in like 4 arrows, it’s crazy. And do it let him use the ultimate, cause he’ll bet everyone caught in that thing. If he’s not Hanzo, he’s Reaper, and again, his aim his a little too good. He can kill someone in about 6 shots, so don’t get close. Ramattra is kinda rare, he uses him when he wants to stay mid range.

Isabela- Widowmaker, Ashe, Sojourn; She is sniping everyone. Like you gotta watch out above because she’ll headshot you and act like nothing happened, she is a mencace as Widowmaker or Ashe. She prefers to stay above, so you gotta look up to spot her. Sojourn is used whenever she wants to get close, but this girl is never a tank or healer, always damage.

Dolores- Echo, Sombra, Tracer; She uses Echo all the time, she likes the long range and the sticky bombs. She doesn’t like getting close, she likes to keep away from the main battle, but if she needs to be closer, she’ll use Sombra and use the hack and invisible ability. Sometimes she’ll use Tracer, because she likes the Recall.

Luisa- Orisa, Mei, Symmetra; She’s always Orisa. Like if there’s an Orisa, it’s probably Luisa. She will always take a hit for someone and will knock anyone back. She doesn’t let anyone get hurt, and even if she doesn’t, she doesn’t care, cause she’ll just blast whoever killed her and then go back to protecting. If she wants to be a damage, she’ll mostly use Mei, because of the ice wall, and she’ll freeze anyone; Symmetra is really only because of her ultimate if I’m being honest.

Camilo- Junkrat, Cole Cassidy, Wreaking Ball; He’s blowing everything up as Junkrat. Bombs everyone, he’s blowing himself up and into the air to get the high ground, and the proceed to blow anyone in his way up. He’s crazy with the ultimate, running everyone over. Cole Cassidy, he just likes throwing the Molotovs and blasting on people, and he just rolls around and guns people down as Wreaking Ball, screw the objective.

Mirabel- D.VA, Junker Queen, Tracer; She’s a beast with D.VA. She rarely ever dies, and if she loses the mech, she manages to live long enough to get it back. She gets kill streaks and is on fire pretty often, and she loves the ultimate, she always says ‘nerf this’ and then blows everyone up. Junker Queen, she’ll blast and then disappear, and don’t let her team up with Camilo or Felíx as Junkrat or Roadhog. Same with Tracer, blast, Recall, move forward, blast, then Recall again.

Antonio- Winston, Wreaking Ball, Bastion; Animals. I mean yeah, he’s pretty good at protecting, but Winston is being used cause he’s an animal, and he thinks the rage mode is cool. He thinks Wreaking Ball is cute and likes rolling around in circles and swinging around. Bastion is mostly because of the bird, but don’t let him on the turret. The boy might not be able to aim but he can still do damage for some reason. Antonio is just there to have fun tbh.

Can you tell what games I've been playing a lot recently

[tauforged]

Do you have any pro sigma tips

i’ve answered an ask like thsi before i’m pretty sure, but it was a looong time ago and i can’t find it and i’m sure my opinions have changed so! here ya go!

disclaimer that i’m by no means a comp-level player, nor do i put in particular effort to keep up with whatever’s #meta nowadays. these are just my observations from the [checks career profile] ~106 hours i’ve racked up on him in the past year or so. i also tend to play sig fairly aggressive, but he’s also a decent tank for hanging back and sticking on point and holding the line, so don’t feel like you have to be throwing yourself into the fray with reckless abandon like i tend to do. he’s fairly flexible. get sillay with it.

also, this will be long. sorry.

- BOUNCE. THOSE. BALLS!!! this one is sooooo important seriously. take the time in practice range and vs ai to practice ricocheting your hyperspheres off walls, off the ground, off ceilings, off random map props, the possibilities are endless. you can shoot people around corners, trap them in a hallway, or even angle your shots around shields and damage-absorbing abilities like kinetic grasp. even if you don’t make a direct hit, they have a small aoe that will pull enemies inwards - i’ve even knocked people off cliffs with em on occasion! the wonky projectile physics CAN be weaponized. use them wisely.

- don’t forget that your hyperspheres AND accretion mass do self damage in close quarters - it’s not significant, but it’s enough to be mindful of in a team fight because there’s not much more embarrassing than not realizing how low your health is and accidentally killing yourself with your own balls. do keep in mind that you CAN weaponize this against other sigmas by sticking a barrier in their face or even just getting real close.

- if someone’s getting a little close for comfort, pocket boulder accretion mass will be your best friend. it DOES do self damage, but it also interrupts a LOT of abilities (genji and orisa’s deflects, sigma’s kgrasp, hog’s healing, and soldier’s ult to name a few off the top of my head) and knocks them back JUUUST far enough to give you some breathing room or let your teammates swoop in to finish them off

-accretion has a lot more range than your hyperspheres, although it’s a slower projectile and has a lot more weight to it. taking the time to practice arcing it over walls or shields will pay off. you can also use it to knock down a pharah, kill or seriously damage a riptire, or interrupt a resurrecting mercy or an ulting enemy sigma, so don’t be afraid to be trigger happy with it. one click of your primary fire and a shot with accretion can one shot lower health heroes like tracer, so keep that in mind if you’re dealing with flankers.

-use your melee. use your melee. USE YOUR MELEE. people will get all up in your business to take advantage of the self damage from your hyperspheres - almost nobody expects sigma to punch them in the face. i’ve chased flankers back into their spawn just by beating the shit out of them when they got too close. i’ve gotten into the habit of just punching between shots on reflex. most of the time i’m not actually sure if it actually cancels my reload or not, but it feels like i’m doing something productive (his reload is so short that it’s almost negligible in my eyes, but if you time it right you can shave a second off i guess)

- always manually withdraw your barrier to let it recharge instead of letting someone kill it if you can help it, because when it’s destroyed by an enemy it’s on a longer cooldown and takes longer to regen to full health. if you aren’t actively using that barrier or you can see that it’s not taking damage, pull that baby back in and let it fill up again. you can also use it for cover while backpedaling in a pinch, but keep in mind it's only got like, 700 health, so it can't take sustained heavy fire for very long.

- if you have a hard time focusing on the actual numbers of your shield, keep an ear out for sigma's voicelines - he'll ALWAYS call out when the barrier is starting to break. unless it's the only thing standing between a teammate and a potentially life ending incoming attack, take that as your cue to reel it in and let it recharge

- that said, you dont have to wait for your barrier to be at full health to use it. even if it's barely functional, sometimes it can be all you need to protect yourself or your teammates in a pinch. it's better to use it and lose it than keep it tucked in your back pocket but never actually protect anyone with it.

- your barrier has RANGE, but cannot phase through walls or objects. if you’ve got a clear shot down a hall or street but can’t catch up to your team at your frail old man speed, clicking and holding will send your barrier as far as it can go directly in front of you, so you can send it ahead to buy your team some time. i’ve yet to actually reach a point where it runs out of range as opposed to bumping into something or hitting the ground, so don’t worry too much about it not reaching anyone.

- don’t be afraid to throw your barrier around just to disrupt people and then pull it right back in, either. it’s a good blocker for hog hooks or boulders from enemy sigmas just to name a handful. i’ve been experimenting with obstructing damage from orisa’s ult with it, with mixed results - sometimes it works, sometimes it don’t. good to keep in mind but don’t depend on it being foolproof

- if you’ve got other heroes on your team with mitigating abilities, try to communicate with them and coordinate your kinetic grasp around their cooldowns and vice versa. it’s not fun when half your team is so busy scrambling to nullify that incoming cassidy ult that nobody notices the sojourn picking off both supports and backcapping the payload. communication is key for sig especially because most of his ability cooldowns exceed ten seconds, so coordination will be very important to make sure your team isn’t vulnerable if all your abilities are used up for the moment.

- i like to wiggle back and forth with kinetic grasp up to catch as much as possible. spinning around will help with people trying to hit your back while it’s up, too, but can leave you vulnerable. don’t be afraid to ‘waste’ it - i’ll often pop it just to swallow a moira orb that’s bounced behind our team or to intercept someone going after our healers. absorbing a ton of damage and getting those overshields is very nice! but ultimately your job is to mitigate incoming damage to keep your team safe

- if you time it right, kgrasp can absorb cassidy, mei, hanzo, reaper, pharah, and hog’s ults, although hog’s duration outlasts yours so be prepared to handle those last few seconds. you can also eat incoming concussion mines, sleep darts/ana nades, biotic orbs, and junkqueen’s knife. keep in mind that kgrasp will NOT make you invincible. it only covers your front and can easily be angled around, and it can also be interrupted by any of the things that will interrupt your ult.

- ACTIVATING ANY OF YOUR OTHER ABILITIES BEFORE KINETIC GRASP IS DONE WILL CANCEL IT AND NULLIFY ANY OF THE OVERSHIELDS YOU GENERATED!!! try to avoid mashing buttons in a team fight for this reason especially because kgrasp draws attention to you and if you accidentally cancel it the enemy team will likely punish that

- on a related note, almost EVERYTHING can interrupt your ult. cassidy’s bomb, a sleep dart, a hook, a boulder from an enemy sigma, a smack from brigitte, i’m almost positive junkrat’s mine was doing it not too long ago but i’m unsure if it still does, but those are all the ones i can think of off the top of my head. when you ult, use that extra mobility to duck behind cover so you can finish it. going straight up is generally a bad idea, and holding down crouch will keep you on the ground.

- combo your ult when you can. ive had especially good results stacking ults with sombra to prevent anyone else from interrupting the flux, but anyone who does damage in an area will do excellently if you time it juuuust right. it doesn’t do too too much damage on its own (usually not enough to one shot most heroes), but it’s VERY good for keeping enemies stuck in one place or finishing people off in a sticky situation. it also removes them from the objective for a little bit, so it can help buy time while contesting. it also works really nicely with ramattra’s vortex and other aoe slowing or damage abilities that AREN’T ults, too.

- you can, in a pinch, use gravflux solely for mobility. i’ve slipped through the window on that one point on lijiang and hopped over walls with it just to get on point and contest while my team catches up - i don’t recommend burning an entire ult just for that, and you DO run the risk of getting interrupted or shot down, so make sure you’ve got a game plan once you get there. keep in mind it also makes you a giant floating target and everyone will be falling over eachother to headshot you while you’re up there, so don’t just float ominously at the enemy in a straight line if you can help it.

- there are some heroes that will just beat your ass mercilessly. symmetra still strikes the fear of god into me. don’t be afraid to fall back and ask your teammates for help. you are very slow and easily outmaneuvered, especially by beam or melee attacks, so having someone a little slipperier cover your back can be really helpful.

- sigma is a good solo tank, but he also works VERY WELL with a buddy if you arent in a role-locked gamemode. i personally really like pairing him with someone more mobile and who can dish a little more damage like junker queen or ramattra, that way i can focus on keeping our supports safe and pushing the objective while they cover the front lines and pull attention away from our dps by being big and scary and intimidating.

- you are a very large target, and the fact that you hover instead of walking means your head is usually in a very stable position, so snipers can get an easy pick on you if you aren't careful. jumping around, wiggling back and forth during kgrasp and gravflux, and ducking in and out behind obstacles between shots can help mitigate this, but it can also make it VERY hard for your healers to keep you alive, so try to be mindful of this. don't be afraid to seek and destroy a widow if theyve got one. boulders are good for this.

- because you float, you don't have ANY footsteps! if you're really feeling cheeky, you can use this to your advantage to sneak behind enemy lines, catch a sniper off guard, or support a teammate trying to backcap. your abilities and melee are all VERY loud though, so if you're really committed to the stealth sigma bit, be careful with em.

- if you are in the same game as me and you autolock him before i can even load in and youve got the asylum skin equipped im fuckin stealing something out your house!!!!!!!

[joewein]

I Bought A Snake

(Picture of Sisu’s litter. Unlike Ball Python’s, Boas are live born. Sisu is in there somewhere.)

As a kid in the 70s, I frequented pet stores and was enamored with the little snakes in there. There would be some Corn Snakes, usually Ball Pythons, and Boas.  The Ball Pythons and Boas looked similar as babies, but the pet shop shop people would guide me toward the Ball Pythons - the Boas got huge and were temperamental they'd say. Also, all the snakes ate mice, conveniently hoarded in a separate terrarium piled on top of each other for about a quarter each. This was a bummer. I liked the mice too (I will get into feeding another time). I thought the coolest snake was the Boa, with it's sleek head and more curious personality, but even if my parents allowed, I wouldn't want a huge, angry snake as a pet.

What I didn't realize is those Boas in the pet stores in the 70s were some of the very first Boas being sold as pet snakes. And the people selling them knew almost nothing about them. As they were bringing in exotic fish from South America, they'd catch and throw in some Boas for a little extra cash. There was not yet any regard for the type of Boa being sold. Weird to think snakes have been around 130 million years - with the dinosaurs, survived the ice age, adapted and evolved all over the planet - and these Boas end up in little shops at the same time I am walking in.

Vin Russo, author of The More Complete Boa Constrictor, worked in one of these pet stores. He was one of the early ones to recognize that these snakes coming in labeled as Boas actually varied in size, pattern, temperament and care. He was a pioneer of categorizing and captive breeding snakes.

Vin was on the East Coast, I grew up in the West. In Palm Springs, where the days were scorching but desert nights were cool. I'd frequently see snakes with the Kangaroo Rats and lizards as I'd walk around in the evening. I believe this is where my interest in these animals began, and I'm sure there's a certain nostalgia now.

Over the years since then, the classification of Boa Constrictors has been adjusted many times. The most common being the Boa Constrictor Imperator (recently changed to just Boa Imperator). But there are many types with distinct variances.

There are essentially three groups of Boa Constrictors:

The common pet store boa today, which is a mixed-bred BCI. These tend to make good pets as they are docile and attractive, but do vary in size and pattern and you don't really know what you're going to end up with. They also tend to get large.

Morph Boas, these are also mostly BCI, but are bred specifically for the pattern/look of the snake, which get pretty spectacular. There is a wide variety, with new patterns going for a high price. While you generally do know who the parents are (since they are specifically bred by breeders to achieve these patterns) I have observed you will get quite a range in terms of size and temperament, which is not what they are breeding for.

Locality Boas. These are captive-bred snakes that maintain a bloodline to the original locality they came from. It's sort of like purebred vs. mixed bred dogs. And like dogs, neither is better or worse as a pet and every individual has its own personality. But I would say with a purebred or locality boa, you have more information about the animal you are getting. Unlike purebred dogs, which were bred for specific traits, Locality Boas just don't introduce anything new - so it is a continuation of a bloodline of snake as it evolved in a given location. These are the Locality Boas:

Boa Constrictor Species Classification

Boa Constrictor Imperator or Boa Imperator (BCI) There are about 10 sub-species of these. Including Dwarf Boas from Belize, the popular Hog Island Boa from Honduras, and the pure Columbian boa from Barranquilla.

Boa Constrictor Sigma (BCS) These are Boas from Mexico, including the increasingly popular Tarahumara Mountain Boa, which are prized for their small size and dark exotic pattern. Although these are known to be "nippy" as babies.

Boa Constrictor Constrictor (BCC) These tend to be some of the more striking looking snakes, but also more irritable. And they can also get to be 12 feet. They include the Surinam, Brazilian, Peruvian, and others east of the Andes.

Boa Constrictor Longicauda (BCL) An interesting Peruvian Boa that turns blacker as it ages.

Boa Constrictor Occidentalis (BCO) The Argentine Boa is one of the largest and a very beatutiful boa.

Boa Constrictor Nebulosa (BCN) The Clouded boa, which I don't know much about.

Boa Constrictor Sabogae (BCS) The popular Pearl Island boa.

Boa Constrictor Amarali (BCA) A very interesting, thicker bodied Boa that I was leaning toward buying, but did not end up getting.

In all cases there is sexual dimorphism, the female is notably larger than the male. That is why I intended to get a male snake. But that is not what I ended up with.

I ultimately purchased a beautiful female Locality Boa directly from Vin and had her shipped to me.

Sisu is a Boa Imperator from Barranquilla, Columbia. This just means they can trace back her lineage from Vin Russo to Gus Rentfro's company Rio Bravo before him. Rentfro originally caught and and began a captive-bred colony of Barranquilla Boas in the 70s and 80s.

Barranquilla are known for being docile, inquisitive, and not growing as large as many of the others (although they are not dwarf boas).

It is also believed Barranquilla Boas have ancestry of BCC, as Boa Constrictor Constrictor are indigenous to Columbia just on the other side of the Andes. As a a result, they have what I consider a very striking, wild look to them.

I have spent less than a month with Sisu. I started this blog to document my education and fascination with my new companion. I am glad they grow slowly.

[kiaaraagarwal]

Classroom of the Future: Audio Visual Education Takes Center Stage

Education is changing at an unprecedented pace with technology now becoming a more relevant factor in it than perhaps anything else. It remains unclear whether it is possible to name more significant improvements to the learning process in comparison with audio-visual education. Such radical changes are on the way with firms like Sigma AVIT leading the way, introducing innovative systems to classrooms globally. Through deploying the dream audio-visual class, Sigma AVIT is helping to model the future of education and making it more of interest, and affordance than mere receptiveness.

The Definition Of The Term ‘audio Visual Education’ is discussed

Audio visual education involves the use of sound and visual apparatus as tools for teaching the learners. It means that meetings can encompass a wide range of facilities such as interactive displays and projectors, sound systems, video conferencing apparatuses, and others. Sigma AVIT offers an innovative business solution for developing audio visual classroom, traditionally linked to the class process.

Every school that uses audio-visual education can expand beyond the traditional means of educating students, which can instead be made more captivating. Whether it comes to sharing multimedia content, interacting in real-time, or having remote conferencing options – the number of opportunities is endless. In this article, you are going to learn as to how the Audiovisual classrooms are enhancing Education.

The conventional classroom is no longer the traditional textbooks and blackboards of the past, today’s is a whole new ball game. Audio visual classrooms make learning richer as students are exposed to the new form of teaching and learning in one corner of the classroom. Here are some of the key ways in which audio visual education is making a difference:

Enhanced Engagement: The use of Audio visual education increases student interest in the course they are taking. An audio visual classroom makes it possible for students to work with digital whiteboards, touchscreen computers, and any multimedia in such a way that students are actively involved with instructional content. It is agreed that students achieve higher results when a subject is conveyed through a combination of a movie, audio, and text material.

Greater Collaboration: The 21st-century classroom is more than a roof under which the transmission of knowledge takes place. Using AV tools such as video conferencing and collaboration applications students and teachers conduct their activities even if they are not physically together. This makes work in groups more fluid and helps create the feeling of working among a team of people.

Accessible Learning: Another advantage of audio visual education is the Flexibility that it has to cater to all student's special needs. In an audio visual classroom learners who are challenged in terms of their vision or hearing can have access to screen readers, captions, or amplified audio respectively to enable them to view or listen to the content alongside other learners.

Remote Learning: Blending and distance learning have therefore emerged as a central feature in current learning systems. AV classrooms are identified as equipment that enables experts such as Sigma AVIT to incorporate types of equipment that enable instructors to teach from a distance and at the same time engage the students fully. The use of videos, systems that are shared by cloud, and recorded lessons enable learners to study in any location they prefer. 

Real-Time Feedback: Using the interactive tools allows a teacher to assess the knowledge of the students immediately and, if needed, correct or explain further. This real-time link helps in improving the learning process and makes sure that students are in line.

Sigma AVIT: Pioneering the Course in Audio Visual Education

• Offers complete school solutions for your school and other educational establishments.

• Concentrates on the ability to provide solutions that address particular class requirements.

• Provides system design services, installation, and training, along with system support.

• This leads to effective optimization of audio-visual classrooms to enhance positive learning outcomes.

• Gives solutions that are capable of being expanded or enlarged in the future.

• Recognizes the emergent nature of education technology and embraces changes on that basis.

• Approaches solutions as long and consistent commitments to the education’s future.

Perspectives of Implementing Audio Visual Classroom

The following are some of the important observations that indicate that audio-visual education will remain an important input in the future. Interactive, flexible, and easily accessible, audio-visual classrooms are therefore essential for educators who are trying to make learning more engaging.

Sigma AVIT, and others like them, are paving the way towards the future of education, and it will not be long before every company invests in their program to develop their future employees. This passion for driving innovative audio-visual technology is assisting schools in developing more effective learning spaces of the future – classrooms.

Therefore, let me emphasize that audio-visual education is not an option – it is the future of education and training. Used appropriately, the experts at Sigma AVIT are enabling schools to look to the future and make sure students are ready for today’s modern world.

[anonthefold]

In quickplay I have a pretty good win rate on Shambali Monastery with Sigma. I just had a game on defense and we held okay on point 1 but the Mei swap with Ashe Illari and Ana was like just not doing it. Too much range and it team was running psuedo dive.

Hamptur.

We held on the ramp to point 2.

Tl;Dr: my ball game is strong.

[gamingow]

Mid-Season 3 Tank Tier List

Mid-Season 3 Tank Tier List these are the ranking from the best to worst Tank heroes currently during the Mid-Season 3 patch. There will be a simple explanation on why each hero is within the category chosen. This is the Mid-Season 3 Tank Tier List.

S- Meta

Orisa Orisa is an S tier hero because of her relatively low cool downs on both her Energy Javelin and Javelin Spin. Her ability to cycle her abilities really efficiently with relative ease is one of my reasons as to why Orisa is in S Tier. Wrecking ball Due to the lower rate of crowd control, Wrecking balls speed and Adaptive shields he is very difficult to kill. Another reason is the fact that Wrecking ball's Roll ability giving him no head hitbox is another major reason as to why Wrecking ball is in S Tier. Ramattra Ever since Ramattra's movement speed buff on Nemesis he is still strong pick in the tank role. His ultimate despite the nerf is still very strong and can guarantee him a fight win if used correctly. He is also very difficult to punish due to his block ability and his nemesis cooldown being relatively low. Those are some of the reasons as to why Ramattra is in S tier.

A- Amazing

Reinhardt Reinhardt after his buff on firestrike and Charge abilities has become a very strong tank to face. While he is not S tier he can be useful in many different situations and can thrive due to his newfound mobility in overwatch 2. That is some of the reasons as to why Reinhardt is in A Tier. Junker Queen Due to her many buffs on Carnage, her health and her passive Adrenaline made her a much stronger tank then her counterparts. Her ability Shout also gives a lot of stats from movement speed to health it can be a game changer. These are some of the reasons as to why Junker Queen is in A Tier. Doomfist Doomfist is one of the most mobile characters in the game. His charged-up punch has huge potential and his Seismic Slam can help him reach anywhere he wants on the map. His ultimate can be used as a get ouf of jail free card while also giving him a lot of Overhealth if he lands on multiple enemies while also giving him empowered punch. These are some of the reasons as to why Doomfist is in A Tier.

B- Good

Sigma While Sigma is not as good as his counterparts he has his place on specific long-range maps that he can be really effective in. Maps like Havana and Circuit Royale are among the maps that he excels at. However he lacks impact on most maps due to them having tight spaces that more brawly tanks excel at. Those are some of the reasons as to why Sigma is in B Tier. D.va D.va is still pretty strong however her ultimate is arguably weaker than all the other tanks. Her reliance on teammates to dive with her can be a disadvantage more often than not. Those are some of the reasons as to why D.va is in B tier.

C- Bad

Winston Winston is arguable a lesser version of ball. From his more limited range of diving, way less tankiness and damage output during the dive and his large hitbox make him hard to pick over the other tank heroes. These are some of the reasons as to why Winston is in C Tier. Roadhog After the change to Roadhog limiting his 1 shot potential has made him drastically unplayable. His buff on his hook made him better into very niche situations however in most cases he is terrible. His huge hitbox and lack of armor in his healthpool is one of the reasons as to why Roadhog is in C Tier.

F- Horrible

Zarya due to some of her nerfs and the fact she is arguably the squishiest tank in the game. Her reliance on her bubbles to give her damage. Her ultimate having many different counters form Transcendence and Beat to Kiriko's Suzu has drastically lost it's power. These are some of the reasons as to why Zarya is in F tier.

Discussion

If you'd like to ask specific questions about our Tank Mid-Season 3 Tier List or if you're curious and would love to delve deeper in discussion Join our discord that offers that and much more!: https://discord.gg/M4gVncbqPg Read the full article

[m3chanical-rhythm]

bionicparrot​:

Triage didn’t much care nor worry about the route that Blackout would decide to take. She had done enough of her own research to pinpoint what she deemed as trouble areas. If she could neutralize these locations then she could position herself and the remaining enemies between her and her temporary partner. In theory it would make for easy cleanup. 

Honestly, the only issue she was factoring in was how pathetically short a timeframe they had too pull off what many would deem impossible. 

Getting inside was a trivial task. In the enemies’ confusion how could they prepare themselves for an adversary that seemed to have suddenly appeared among their midst? Not just an adversary but one that was riding on a mechanaloid’s whose size should have been easily seen coming even with their security in shambles.

They weren’t given much time to think on the failure of their security nor how they were far too slow to react to her so boldly appearing alone in the middle of a group of mavericks. There was supposed to be safety in numbers. A power that spread fear when outsiders heard the word maverick, but all that crumbled as her hound lunged forward with metal claws and teeth that expertly tore away metal armor. 

With beam saber in hand she made her move. Jumping down from her mount’s back she propelled herself through the crowd of enemies. Each move, each slash and lunge from her blade landed with surgical precision leaving them a crumpled husk on the ground when cpus and core lines were severed. Many were left in surprisingly good condition, at least the ones that Lima and Juliet didn’t sink their teeth into. 

Four minutes down. 

She couldn’t help but wonder if Blackout’s nanites had found her yet. There was little doubt in her mind when it came to him sending them out, be they to spy or actually help her if need be. Perhaps both. Honestly, it was a shame that she couldn’t fully trust him, it forced her hand making sure she didn’t lay all of her cards on the table lest it could be used against her in the future. 

Still, she had to at least make sure he understood why it would be in everyone’s best interest if after this little mission they continued to play nice together. 

A brief moment was taken to tally up the least damaged of the mavericks that littered their ground in puddles of their own oil and coolant. With a series of clicks her hand retreated into her buster which was aimed at the reploid bodies. Each shot let off a dull sound, releasing a fist sized ball that rolled towards their targets. 

Each one unfurled, their sphere shapes stretching into long segmented bodies with mechanical wings folding outward. Six legs clicked into place with compound eyes scanning the bodies automatically seeking points of entry that were so carefully opened for each one to crawl into. 

Triage was rather proud them. Her once simple drones that were used merely for search and rescue now evolved after years of work into something dangerous. She did take some inspiration from the dragonfly like pararoids, one of the few mechanloids that had actually impressed her. A design she worked to improve and make her own. 

Seven minutes down. Time to see how far and what damage her partner had managed. 

From the moment she was in range of the base she had already been working on forcing her way remotely into the com system. It wasn’t too hard a task seeing as it was the least guarded as it wasn’t a core system. Once it was brought under her command she returned to Lima’s back. This time opting to stand on his shoulders as he walked confidently through puddles of oil leaving his monstrous paw prints behind. 

Those remaining in the base would hear her dramatically clearing her throat, “Attention remaining soldiers, mavericks. As a reward for your diligent efforts and loyalty to your commander Sigma. I would like to draw your attention to cargo bay two. Free entertainment will be provided.” 

With the offer of her location hanging in the air as she poked the proverbial beehive her voice cut out, now replaced with the sound of music taking over the com system. ((Music: XXXX))

A dramatic wave of her hand in tune with the cheeky music that now played around them had the pararoid infected bodies rising. What were once maverick soldiers now shuffled towards the doors, armored husks and weapons for her parasitic robots. 

Blackout’s nanites had indeed found her, and were of course, streaming all the footage they caught to another server that he would access later for study. They were ordered only to act if she looked like she needed help. Judging by the mess she left behind, however, she would be just fine against these mere foot soldiers. 

Hearing the intercom from his own cargo location gave Blackout pause. He’d expected a Maverick to be shouting orders, or in the worst case scenario, Sigma himself. So he was surprised to hear Odyssey herself on the line, offering...’free entertainment’. Blackout smirked to himself as the music came on. The two of them would get along just fine as business associates. He made a note to look into this song later, as it wasn’t one he’d ever heard before. 

As he’d expected, the parts he had told Odyssey would be here were almost entirely located here in these storage spaces. There were some unaccounted for, but those were most likely located closer to the main hub of the outpost near a Med Bay. Blackout sent out more of his nanites to the containers, to tally up what was here for them to collect.

In just ten minutes, the outpost had been reduced to shambles; only a fraction of the Mavericks who’d been assigned here were left, and they were scurrying mostly to Cargo Bay Two to meet with Odyssey and her aforementioned entertainment. They were making good time--so long as no reinforcements showed up early, there was a good chance they’d get 10 to 15 minutes to acquire the supplies and information they both wanted. 

Figuring he may as well check on his partner himself (and they had no wireless means of doing such), Blackout also made his was to the Bay Odyssey was in. There were a few Mavericks between him and his destination, sure, but they hardly posed a threat. Pathetic, really; for an outpost under the orders of Sigma himself, there wasn’t much in the way of a challenge. Perhaps Mavericks were growing soft...or Sigma only cared about quantity. Still, there was no reason for Blackout to drop his guard just yet, even as he flicked the coolant off his blade and rounded the corner into the hallway that led towards to Cargo Bay Two.

There was his partner coming out, as had been advertised, surrounded by Mavericks...but they were in pieces, shambling about rather than attacking. They moved like they were under a spell. A quick scan for their core signals gave Blackout the explanation he was looking for. Suddenly, the song choice made a lot more sense.

“You’ve made some friends.” Mused Blackout from the corner. “I think I decommissioned some of your prospective audience on the way here, though. My sincere apologies.”

He came down the hallway towards her and her zombified army, moving through them like a mere crowd of bodies in the city. Blackout wiped some coolant off his face with the back of his hand, flicking that away as well.

“Most of what we came looking for are located in these cargo and storage spaces in this wing. I expect to find the rest as I make my way to the main hub; there is a Med Bay right next to it, which should yield prosperous to you. Will you be joining me, or are you and your menstrals going on a tour of the base without me?”

[isabella-111]

Are you still doing ships? If so I’d love a Marauders era one! My friends literally have said Sirius, Regulus, James, and Remus so I need a tie breaker lol.

I’m 18 and 5’2” but act like I can destroy your whole blood line (I can’t I literally fell off a sidewalk from wind). My catch phrase is we’re here for a good time not a long time. Im a Leo, Gryffindor, and Italian so my only volume setting is loud. I have been a competitive figure skater for 14 years and I skate to classic rock (acdc, bon jovi, aerosmith, def leppard, zz top, etc). I also do trap shooting and I used to play golf but I quit because I only liked going to the driving range to see how far I could hit the balls (far because I took my anger out on the poor golf balls). I have adhd so good luck making sense of anything I say. I read tarot, collect crystals, and Im big into astrology (I vibe with Aquarius, Scorpio, and Pisces the best it seems). I am majoring in Human Resources and minoring in Anthropology. In hs I was in choir and AP classes and graduated with honors and Im currently a member of Phi Eta Sigma honor society with a 3.6 GPA and I am a “sophomore” as a freshman so definition of nerd, but I also drive a cherry red mustang, I own 7 leather jackets all in different colors to match my outfits, I love driving my grandpa’s 70 Roadrunner and my uncle’s 70 Firebird, and if I didn’t have EDS Id get a tattoo of the death tarot card on my ribs. I also have an office job where I literally dress like Emily Gilmore despite the dress code being jeans and t shirt vibes because Im always way overdressed, so I’m now seeing why people are getting mixed signals from me💀

TW: metions of ED

A/N : you seem so cool omgg . Im also 5’2 but if i prented im 6’10 long enough i think i can convince my self i am 😩. I also have adhd so no problem fast ,chaotic, and confusing are the only ways ik how to talk . Also im recovery from a ed so if you ever want to talk im here to listen :)

So im struggling here to you have so many qualities thats would make you and all 3 of those characters a good fit but the one my brain immediately went to was sirius soooo yah also ngl i literally switched the ship twice while writing it

i ship you with sirius black

- motorcycle rides are the go to, to blow off steam after a stressful day . And maybe trap shooting but you’d have to explain to serious that no animals get hurt cause he would feel so bad and not want to do it cause he thinks they’re real ducks

- concerts are something you guys share and adore

So raves , underground concerts , normal concerts all on your guys itinerary

- Sirius goes to every single one of your practices for ice skating and when he cant make it he’ll make sure to leave a letter in your locker ( if you have them if not he’ll give it to your coach) saying something like

Hey love , sorry I couldn’t make it to your practice today was helping moony out but your gonna do great go some kick ass love youuu

Love , Sirius

- on competitions know hes gonna be right there probably with a sign definitely with flowers and he’s gonna absolutely be yelling as soon as you finish your routine “ THATS MY GIRL” “ YOU KILLED IT”

- Sirius would absolutely give you crystal just randomly through out the week . Just as a way to show his love .

The first time he did that you were very confused

“ here love” Sirius said handing you a box with a palm sized orange crystal inside

“ whats this” you said excitingly

“ its called carnelian” Sirius said

“ no ik that but why’d you give it to me”

“Just felt like it” he said smiling as he walked away

- he would ask you so often for tarot card readings

- Sirius adores your cherry mustang ( so do i thats dope asf that you have one a brief pause for my fan girling) and love going in long drives with you with the windows/hood down

- Sirius is consistently amazed with how amazing , fun , smart , and cool you are he’ll just straight up be like “ your so cool” at random types of the day

- one time you went to go pick up Sirius after yoh got out of work so you guys could hang out ( you had no time to change) and his walburga was so impressed with how fancy and put together you looked she invited you to diner. Later ( at the diner) she found our that you actually dressed exactly like Sirius (dope as hell but she’s just rude ) and she was immediately like “ I should have expected less from Sirius” and you absolutely verbally fought her and defended Sirius and in that moment he has never been more in love

[space-time-duo]

Headcanon

Weapons and Miscellaneous Rambling

Tracer:

Pulse Pistols:

The Slipstream’s artillery condensed into twin pistols. With matching paint and tesla-pulse ammunition, anyone caught in its messy pseudo-gunfire will be burnt at point-blank range. 

She has used them since her first mission at Overwatch, and they have hardly aged a day. 

Instead of manually reloading the pulse pistols like Commander Morrison or Winston, Lena rewinds the guns into the state they were in before firing. The backwards twirl correlates to her recall, moving backwards in space and time. Essentially, back when they were loaded. After decades of use, shooting and rewinding and shooting and rewinding, the bullets seem to aggressively age matter.

After years of practice, she can rewind them into her grasp from an impressive distance provided they’re in her line of sight. 

If Lena’s particularly bored, she’ll blink the pulstels between her hands. Before she became adept at moving through time, she sent many stress balls into the fourth dimension. To this day, she’ll uncover once lost trinkets from time as she moves through it. Her favourite is a dinosaur tooth!

Pulse Bomb:

Releases an explosion of pulse energy once it's armed. Was originally scrapped, as it exploded in too little time to escape the blast radius. Once she learned how to teleport, Overwatch suddenly revived them. Lena also rewinds it into existence, to save on manufacturing costs and lessen the weight she carries. This too, wound up affecting time in its explosion radius, decaying things years into the future. 

Blink:

A skip forward in time, teleporting Lena over a short distance. It doesn’t have to be in the direction she’s moving, and she is capable of instinctively blinking instead of flinching.

Lena can also blink objects she is familiar with, such as her hovercycle, pulse pistols, or… really anything she would linger around.

She adamantly refuses to blink other people or living things. The possibility of inducing chronal dissociation in someone else is terrifying and implies her condition is infectious. It’s already affected her weapons, too.

Chained Blinks:

Several time skips are chained together. If Lena were to jump and blink, she’d be launched skyborne, and combines blinks with parkour to scale buildings.

It takes many blinks’ worth of energy to teleport through thin walls. It’s also risky because Lena doesn’t have X-ray vision to compliment it.

Tracer can also blink downwards as she falls, through the floor. For reasons such as not knowing if there’s a basement, or wanting her legs to remain not broken, this is a bad idea.

Recall: 

Lena carefully dips into a state of chronal disassociation to rewind into the past. Various uses include wound removal, confusing enemies, insulting entropy, and reloading her pistols from the flow of temporal energy.

From a standing position, she tends to backflip or fall into the briefly created blue sphere where she enters and exits time. 

Armour:

Lena’s bomber jacket was a gift from Emily; her ‘crocs’ were designed for traction. Granted, they’re not metal, or protective, but it’s an integral part of her public image. She’s quite sentimental towards it, and still keeps the outfit during Overwatch 2.

The Chronal Accelerator is the only heavy weight on herself, because she literally couldn’t exist without it. The harness collects time energy, and secures Lena in the present. However, the energy they harness can hold far outweighs the amount needed to anchor Lena. The excess allows Lena to move temporally.

Tracer has a copy of the blueprints in her house, in an undisclosed location, and would have let Emily look if it wasn’t informationally compromising.

It’s constantly moving through time, and constantly gains charges to blink and rewind. Minuscule amounts are required to shift light, familiar objects, and the maximum amount of blinks Lena can discharge at once is roughly ten. Only after a week’s time will the harness collect enough energy to handle the strain again.

After an incident of falling into time after it ran out of fuel, Winston built a failsafe to prevent another lapse, which locks out time shifting until enough energy is collected. In that state, the harness stops glowing.

If it were to malfunction, Lena would start flickering out of the present.

Sigma:

Hyperspheres:

A very, very stable and concentrated version of a graviton surge, and Siebren holds a caged pair with ease. They explode to a casual observer, but upon closer inspection, they also implode launching debris airborne and inward. Even now, he gets injured from them when he forgets their trajectory. Luckily, his shields mitigate the damage.

Shot in a one-two rhythm, the charges mostly ignore gravity and explode after travelling approximately twenty-two metres. Outside of that range, accretion is his only attack. 

The hyperspheres pull objects towards their explosions, and may shred objects at its centre. They are cold but safe to touch, provided they are carefully handled.

He is capable of dual wielding them, but sacrifices burst damage for a steady firing rate. It proved inferior very quickly because he couldn’t use kinetic grasp or move the experimental barrier. Combining them into one large orb risks creating an actual black hole should it be weaponized. That’s obviously bad.

If he’s not attacking with the orbs, or collapsed them into raw energy. Siebren lets them gently orbit above his palm. 

Accretion:

He makes a rock from rubble, and artificial gravity lines it with purple where the stones fuse like a small planet. From a punch laced with gravitic energy, it bowls over opponents and is capable of immense structural damage. 

One of the first techniques he’s learned, sourced from a memory during his visit to the Horizon Lunar Colony. A moon rover was sent through the thin atmosphere and low gravity, careening into another. It was a ray of hope during his imprisonment, a sign of control.

After some practice, is able to create boulders larger than himself, though he’d have to concentrate for several seconds for sufficient momentum, and then bodyslam it. 

Another variant is a bullet hell of stones, resembling an asteroid belt. It’s his go-to cover fire, as he can sustain it for five minutes before strain accumulates in his harness. It’s one of his less dangerous abilities. Also the reason why he surrounds himself with junk once Talon frees him, his paranoia of being locked away is a subtle, constant presence in his head.

Experimental Barrier:

Manipulated with gravity, expanding like a net and contracts when withdrawn, collapsing into a flat cube that fits neatly into the palm of his left glove. He keeps a few spares in his armour.

It’s experimental because it malfunctions after taking excessive damage. The hard light turns transparent, becoming a combatively useless holographic film. It’s rumoured to have been initially created by Vishkar’s Symmetra.

It’s great for movie nights.

Kinetic Grasp:

Siebren creates a gravity well with his left hand, and shapes the collected solid matter into rudimentary shields building up his own. It falls off over time, and then disintegrates, leaving nothing behind.

He is also capable of creating sculptures with the matter, like ice statues. These also have fainter purple lines inside and out. Please don’t crack them open, they’re difficult to make, and Siebren only shares his favourites.

Gravitic Flux:

He has ten seconds’ worth of incredible power, with unrestricted flight before the melody becomes deafening and horribly distracting. Space distorts around Siebren and the selected area becomes a launchpad and crash site, roughly split between attacking or maneuvering to a better position. Does both on an ideal gravitic flux. 

A minute level flux is enough to float above the ground.

He has never considered the possibility of permanent side-effects to anything from manipulating their gravity. His equipment was strange and unconventional from the day they were devised.

Armour:

Carbon fiber bodysuit and green-tinted steel. Has textured surfaces to attach shields made with kinetic grasp. There’s also shoes.

Underneath the armour, the Gravitational Concentrator nearly resembles the Chronal Accelerator. Was based on Moira’s modifications to the Chronal Harness, adapted for gravitrons. Sombra stole them from Overwatch whilst it died from infighting.

Gravity moves through it and cancels out any involuntary shifts, though it doesn’t work quite as well, for Moira is a biologist first and foremost. Siebren goes out of his way to catalogue any issues for Moira, and all of his offered solutions were varyingly successful. 

This harness does not have a failsafe. It just stops. Not that they’ve encountered such an issue yet.

[nuttydefendoryouth]

Development of a Wireless Temperature Sensor Using Polymer-Derived Ceramics

A temperature sensor has been developed using an embedded system and a sensor head made of polymer-derived SiAlCN ceramics (PDCs). PDC is a promising material for measuring high temperature and the embedded system features low-power consumption, compact size, and wireless temperature monitor. The developed temperature sensor has been experimentally tested to demonstrate the possibility of using such sensors for real world applications.

1. Introduction

Accurate temperature measurements are crucial for many applications, such as chemical processing, power generation, and engine monitoring. As a result, development of temperature sensors has always been a focus of microsensor field. A variety of materials have been studied for temperature sensor applications, for example, semiconducting silicon and silicon carbide. Silicon based sensors are typically used at temperatures lower than 350°C due to accelerated material degradation at higher temperature [1, 2]. Silicon carbide based sensors are better than silicon based sensors in high temperature measurement and can be applied in temperatures up to 500°C [3–5].

Polymer-derived SiAlCN ceramics (PDCs) are another widely studied material that demonstrate properties such as excellent high temperature stability [6] as well as good oxidation/corrosion resistance [7]. PDCs have been considered as a promising material for measuring high temperature [8]. Our early works have showed that PDC sensor head can accurately measure high temperature up to 830°C [9] using data acquisition system from National Instruments. The cost and size of the sensor system must be significantly reduced before it can be deployed for real world applications. In this paper, we develop a temperature sensor using PDC and an embedded system. Comparing to the National Instruments data acquisition equipment used in the previous paper, the newly developed embedded sensor is much smaller (9.7 dm3 versus 0.3 dm3), lighter (5.97 kg versus 0.19 kg), and cheaper (approximately $8000 versus $170). A WiFi module is also added so the temperature measurement can be transmitted wirelessly. The embedded board and WiFi module used in this paper are commercially available. The experiments in this paper demonstrate the possibility of deploying PDC based sensors for real world applications.

2. Fabrication of the PDC Sensor Head

In this study, the PDC sensor head is fabricated by following the procedure reported previously [9]. In brief, 8.8 g of commercially available liquid-phased polysilazane (HTT1800, Kion) and 1.0 g of aluminum-tri-sec-butoxide (ASB, Sigma-Aldrich) are first reacted together at 120°C for 24 hours under constant magnetic stirring to form the liquid precursor for SiAlCN. The precursor is then cooled down to room temperature, followed by adding 0.2 g of dicumyl peroxide (DP) into the liquid under sonication for 30 minutes. DP is the thermal initiator which can lower the solidification temperature and tailor the electrical properties [10]. The resultant liquid mixture is solidified by heat-treatment at 150°C for 24 hours. The disk-shaped green bodies are then prepared by ball-milling the solid into fine powder of ~1 μm and subsequently uniaxially pressing. A rectangular-shaped sample is cut from the discs and pyrolyzed at 1000°C for 4 hours. The entire fabrication is carried out in high-purity nitrogen to avoid any possible contamination.

Pt wires are attached to the sensor head by two ceramic fasteners on the two mounting holes on the diagonal of the sensor head. To improve the conductivity, both mounting holes are coated with Pt plasma; see Figure 1.

To measure temperature using the PDC sensor, the processor needs to perform the following tasks: () supply voltage  to the circuit through DAC7724; () sample the circuit output  using AD7656 and convert the output to temperature measurement; and () transmit data to readers from the RS232 port.

The input signal  to the conversion circuit is a sinusoidal signal of ±10 V. The sinusoidal signal can bypass the parasitic capacitor in series to the PDC probe. The noise from the furnace coil can also be greatly subdued. The sensor output voltage  is approximately sinusoidal as well and its magnitude can be computed using Fast Fourier Transformation (FFT) or curve fitting using recursive least square method (RLSM) [11]. Comparing to FFT, RLSM is more computationally efficient but may have numerical instability because TMS320F28335 only supports IEEE 754 floating-point arithmetic. Here we prefer FFT for fast prototyping purpose because Texas Instruments provides FPU library that performs floating FFT routines on C2000 series microcontroller. Next we explain how the sensor works.

A high-priority interrupt service request (ISR1) based on a CPU timer continues reading a look-up-table and drives the DAC7724 to generate the input signal . The frequency of  is controlled by the frequency of ISR1. ISR1 also samples circuit output from AD7656 and adds the data to a 1024-point buffer if there is no FFT running. Once the buffer is filled up, ISR1 stops writing the buffer and the FFT routine starts. The FFT routine is implemented in another slower low-priority interrupt service (ISR2). Once the FFT routine is completed, ISR2 will give ISR1 the permission to clean and write the input buffer again. The magnitude from the FFT is used as the circuit output . The software flowchart is shown in Figure 4.

High temperature sensors capable of operating in harsh environments are needed in order to prevent disasters caused by structural or system functional failures due to increasing temperatures. Most existing temperature sensors do not satisfy the needs because they require either physical contact or a battery power supply for signal communication, and furthermore, neither of them can withstand high temperatures nor rotating applications. This paper presents a novel passive wireless temperature sensor, suitable for working in harsh environments for high temperature rotating component monitoring. A completely passive LC resonant telemetry scheme, relying on a frequency variation output, which has been applied successfully in pressure, humidity and chemical measurement, is integrated with a unique high-k temperature sensitive ceramic material, in order to measure the temperatures without contacts, active elements, or power supplies within the sensor. In this paper, the high temperature sensor design and performance analysis are conducted based on mechanical and electrical modeling, in order to maximize the sensing distance, the Q factor and the sensitivity. In the end, the sensor prototype is fabricated and calibrated successfully up to 235ºC, so that the concept of temperature sensing through passive wireless communication is proved.

This paper aims to develop a prototype for a web-based wireless remote temperature monitoring device for patients. This device uses a patient and coordinator set design approach involving the measurement, transmission, receipt and recording of patients’ temperatures via the MiWi wireless meter iot solution. The results of experimental tests on the proposed system indicated a wider distance coverage and reasonable temperature resolution and standard deviation. The system could display the temperature and patient information remotely via a graphical-user interface as shown in the tests on three healthy participants. By continuously monitoring participants’ temperatures, this device will likely improve the quality of the health care of the patients in normal ward as less human workload is involved.

Background

During the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak in 2003, hospitals became treatment centres in most countries. Because a patient’s core body temperature is one vital parameter for monitoring the progress of the patient’s health, it is often measured manually at a frequency ranging from once every few hours to once a day [1]. However, such manual measurement of the temperature of patients requires the efforts of many staff members. In addition, when the patients suffer from conditions that result in abrupt changes of the core body temperature, e.g., due to infection at a surgical site after surgery, the staff on duty will not know such a temperature change occurred until the next temperature measurement. Such a delay may lead to patients being unnoticed while their health conditions worsen, which is dangerous because a difference of 1.5 degrees Celsius can result in adverse outcomes [2]. Furthermore, there is always a need to have a monitoring system to improve the quality of health care [3], such as temperature monitoring of elderly and challenged persons using a wireless remote temperature monitoring system.

Body temperature can be used to monitor the pain level of a patient following an operation [4] or after shoulder endoprosthesis [5]. In some cases, the tissue transient temperature was monitored during microwave liver ablation [6] for the treatment of liver metastases. Instead of using a temperature sensor, pulse-echo ultrasound [7] was used to visualize changes in the temperature of the patient’s body. In addition, a non-contact temperature-measuring device, such as a thermal imaging camera [8], was successfully used to detect human body temperature during the SARS outbreak. However, it can be quite expensive to equip each patient room with a thermal imaging camera. In addition, there are a few wireless temperature measuring solution (e.g., CADIT���, Primex™, and TempTrak™) on the market that are used to monitor and store a patient’s temperature for medical research by using body sensor networks [9]. Most of these systems consist of an electronic module and a temperature-sensing device. The systems include a stand-alone electronic module with a display screen that allows the temperature sensor data to be transmitted over a secure wireless network.

However, these systems can be difficult to reconfigure to suit the current database system used in the hospital. In addition, the current systems using short message service (SMS)-based telemedicine [10] systems with hardware equipment were developed to monitor the mobility of patients. However, proper hardware and software to manage the messages and the patient’s temperature for display on mobile phones are not widely available.

Hence, a medical device to continuously measure the body temperature of patients using a wireless temperature receiver [4,11,12] is required. With such a wireless temperature sensor system, nurses will no longer have to manually measure the temperature of patients, which will free their time for other tasks and also reduce the risk associated with coming into contact with patients with contagious diseases, such as SARS. The readings will be transmitted wirelessly to the central nurse station, where they can be monitored by the staff-on-duty. In addition, the current and past history of the body temperature measurements can be stored in an online database, which allows the medical staff to access the database when they are not in the hospital.

To the best of our knowledge, a MiWi wireless (besides using the Zigbee[11]) temperature-monitoring system using a patient and coordinator set design that provides remote internet access to the temperature database has not been reported in any publication. The objective is therefore to develop and implement a prototype temperature-monitoring system for patients using a MiWi wireless remote connection to the nurse’s station for frequent real-time monitoring. The temperature monitoring system was designed based on a proposed patient and coordinator set design approach. The proposed temperature-monitoring system for use in normal ward will likely to improve the quality of the health care of the patients as the nursing workload is reduced. In this paper, the discussion on medical regulations and policy will not be included.

[mono-dot-jpeg]

what i have to say to every overwatch main

a/n: and so the roasting continues, this time im not forced by my friend to post this. im a flex player and I've played a bit of every hero, so here's what i have to say to every hero main

i usually play ana, junkrat and ashe the most so here's what i have to say as an ana, junk, ashe main. sprinkling a few other characters i play too but it's not much-

d.va - stop eating everything ffs and stop diving me-

orisa - ily but you pull me closer to death

reinhardt - just know the ana amari health insurance company doesn't guarantee living by the end of the team fight

roadhog - i like you but you're on thin ice only bc i play junkrat and i like the duo sm, but as an ana main, fuck you

sigma - keep chucking rocks at me, i fucking dare you

winston - as an ana main, please spare me and stop diving me-

wrecking ball - keep rolling into my trap, you can't spin forever with me around

zarya - as a junk main, im just a thankgiving turkey to you, huh?

ashe - as a fellow ashe main, i love you but we both know neither of us will win the 1v1 against each other

bastion - you're not invincible when you're going against a junk and sombra main who likes to ruin lives

doomfist - as a sombra main, let me take your kneecaps

echo - don't copy me and then win a 1v1 against me, i need to keep my dignity and pride

genji - the ana main in me hates you, but the junkrat main in me laughs bc you fall for my traps when you blade

hanzo - we get it, you can't play widow so you play hanzo instead

junkrat - TASTE, and let's 1v1- also if you're the type to constantly spam and not actually try and aim, i will switch to pharah

mccree - if you kill me with stun and right click again, i hope total mayhem kills you after

mei - i love you and hate you and for that i must kill u

pharah - i hate u but i play pharah so how much can i really say-

reaper - you reaper players are so easy to read but fuck you for killing me as ana with just one shot to the head

soldier 76 - i have nothing to say, you guys are okay

sombra - you may be invisible but you can't hide from another sombra main

symmetra - FELLOW TOASTER BEAM MAIN, I LOVE YOU

torbjorn - please don't whip out the hammer- NO-PLEASE-

tracer - you can't run away from me forever, fight me like a man

widowmaker - we get it, you know how to aim now please stop making me the target

ana - i feel your pain. i will sleep u and then leave if we have to 1v1

baptiste - you simp for this man, i can feel it but ty for saving my life, discount zen

brigitte - ah yes, you help instill fear into the enemy team, pls protect me from genji-

lucio - hehe frog go brrr

mercy - i also feel your pain, let's suffer together

moria - fuck you and your 20 meter range

zenyatta - im so sorry for you

[irispublishersagriculture]

Iris Publishers - World Journal of Agriculture and Soil Science (WJASS)

Exploring Indicators of Food Choice for Chimpanzees at Taï National Park, Côte d’Ivoire: Aroma and Antioxidants

Authored by Chahan Yeretzian

Taï National Park in the southwest of Côte d’Ivoire is the largest remaining tropical rain forest in West Africa and covers 555,000 ha. While it is recognized as a “Biodiversity Hotspot”, with a rich natural flora and fauna, it is also one of the last remaining habitats of many endangered species. The Taï Forest reserve was created in 1926 and promoted to National Park status in 1972. It was recognized as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in 1978 and added to the list of Natural World Heritage Sites in 1982. Among the many endangered species living in the Taï National park, one species of particularly concern is the chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes verus Blumenbach 1779), a member of the great ape family. Chimpanzees have already disappeared from four African countries, and are nearing extinction in many others, such as the Côte d’Ivoire where a survey reveals a sharp decline of 90 % (from 8 000-12 000 individuals in 1990 to 800-1200 in 2007) [1]. In the Taï National Park, the situation is currently stable with an estimated chimpanzee population of 480 individuals [2].

Primates living in such natural habitats face various constraints for their nutritional needs. Chimpanzees are regarded ripe fruit specialists [3]. Eating predominantly ripe fruits, chimpanzees obtain a higher dietary quality compared to other frugivorous monkeys, whereas during fruit scarcity also other plant parts are consumed [3]. Besides plant food, also vertebrates and invertebrates are part of their diet [4]. Chimpanzees are able to manage environmental constraints, such as e.g. seasonality of food availability. By adapting their feeding behaviour [5,6], they are able to take nutritional advantage of the temporal abundance of ripe fruits to reach a high supply of carbohydrate in their diet [4-7]. Similarly, they consume the fruit flesh (pulpa) of Sacoglottis gabonensis (Baill.) Urb. (Malpighiales: Humiriaceae) as well as the hard seed by using tools [8], again taking full advantage of the nutritional content of the fresh fruits.

Yet, they still have to deal with structural and chemical aspects of the available plants and fruits. As argued by Janzen [8], flora is not just green, but is colored by compounds such as morphine, caffeine, tannin or terpene. Particularly for fruits, chemical components and physical characteristics are often designed either to repulse or attract animals (or humans), with the objective to favour dispersion of the species. Impact of secondary plant metabolites and fruit colour on food choice are well documented in birds and mammals [9-13]. While colour is qualified as an honest signal of food quality and macronutrient rewards for birds [14,15], it might not be enough for a decisive answer on the maturity stage of the fruit. Therefore, primates were observed to use, in addition to colour, different sensory cues, such as the firmness (haptic) by biting and the smell (volatile aroma compounds) by sniffing the fruits, in order to judge the level of ripeness of a fruit. Hence, the aroma of fruits may be an important indicator of food quality, proving useful information to the animals about availability and presence of beneficial nutrients. Especially for nocturnal monkeys olfactory guided foraging plays an important role at narrow range as visual cues cannot be exploited [16].

 In this study, it was observed that chimpanzees from the Taï National Park smell on the fruits of the tree Sacoglottis gabonensis (Baill.) Urb., before deciding whether to eat or reject the fruit (N’Guessan, personal observation). Hence, in this study, we aim at examining the aroma composition of S. gabonensis fruits at different ripeness stages, in order to elucidate aroma compounds that may drive the selection of presumably ripe fruits by the apes. In addition, the antioxidant content of the fruits was measured to assess whether fruits, preferentially selected by the apes, were also characterized by a high antioxidant content.

 Methods

Study site and fruit collection

The study was conducted at the Taï National Park in the southwest of Côte d’Ivoire with the aim of identifying clues for food choices of the apes. Researchers have conducted studies on chimpanzees’ communities, fully habituated to the presence of human observers since 1984. It is known that Chimpanzees never consume Sacoglotis fruits in trees. After selection and collection of fruits on the ground, they put several fruits in their mouth, mash and eject the stone.

 During a field trip in September 2013 (by three authors of this paper: N’Guessan, Ahoua & Yeretzian), Sacoglottis gabonensis fruits have been collected in the natural habitat of the chimpanzees. Fruits were collected at the ground below the trees and the ripeness stages were judged by their texture, colour and smell. Fruits were separated in three lots of ripeness: unripe, ripe and overripe fruits. They were immediately processed by separating the flesh from the stone and immersing the flesh in liquid nitrogen (each in a small and labelled plastic bag) for storage in the Côte d’Ivoire. Later, for transport from the Côte d’Ivoire to Switzerland, fruits were transferred into dry ice.

 Aroma profile of Sacoglottis gabonensis fruits measured with HS GC-MS

After arrival in Switzerland, the fruits were stored at -20 °C. For sample preparation, fruits were directly taken out of the freezer, cut into small pieces and immersed in liquid nitrogen for two minutes. Approximately twenty g of fruit was then homogenized in a ball mill (MM400, Retsch, Haan, Germany). Five g of fruit slurry was put into a headspace vial and stored in the fridge for less than 60 minutes until analysis by headspace gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (HS-GC/MS). GC/MS analyses was performed on a 7890/5975N instrument (Agilent Technologies, Santa Clara, USA) equipped with a DB-WAX column (30m × 0.25mm ID, Agilent Technologies, Santa Clara, USA) in electron impact ionization mode. For the headspace equipment (Gerstel, Mühlheim an der Ruhr, Germany) a 2.5 mL headspace syringe with a syringe temperature of 55 °C was used with a flush time of 60 s. The incubation time of the sample was 10 min at 50°C while agitating at 250 rpm. The injection volume was 1 mL injected with an injection speed of 200.00 μL/s, a split of 5:1 and a helium flow of 1 mL/min. The GC run started at 35 °C for 5 min and was then heating with a ramp of 20°C/min to 240°C with a 5 min hold. For data analysis, the software MSD Chemstation (Version G1701 EA E.02.00.493, Agilent Technologies, Santa Clara, USA.) and a mass spectral library (NIST08, National Institute of Standards and Technology 2008) were used. Compounds were identified by comparison of MS spectra and retention times with the mentioned database. The volatile concentration in the headspace of the three ripeness stages was statistically analyzed using Kruskal-Wallis rank sum test, followed by a post-hoc test. For further differentiation between the samples, we performed a principal component analysis (PCA) on the HS GC/MS data, using the software package R (http://cran.rproject. org/, Tinn-R editor version 2.4.1.5, http://sourceforge.net/ projects/tinn-r/). Odour descriptors were taken from Flavornet by Terry Acree & Heinrich Arn (http://www.flavornet.org, © Datu Inc., 2004) and from The Good Scents Company™ (http://www. thegoodscentscompany.com).

 Antioxidant capacity of Sacoglottis gabonensis fruits

For the antioxidant measurements, 500 mg of fruit slurry (see preparation for headspace analyses) were extracted three times with 10 mL of 70% aceton / 30% water phase. The extraction process included 10 minutes treatment in the ultrasonic bath and 2 min of mixing in a vortex. After evaporation, the residue was solved in 25 mL of water and filtered before analysis using 0.45 μm PET filters (Machery-Nagel, Düren, Germany). The Folin Ciocalteu (FC) reagent assay is measured on a FIAlab-3200 instrument (FIAlab Instruments Inc., U.S.A.) applying a FIA method [17]. The sample (diluted fruit extract) or antioxidant standard (gallic acid) were injected (injection loop 100 μl) into the flow stream (flow rate 30 μl/sec) of the FC reagent (0.2 M concentration). After mixing with sodium hydroxide (0.25 M concentration, flow rate 30 μL/ sec), to raise the solution pH for higher reactivity, dispersion in the reaction coil (1m tubing length) led to a mixing of the components and the reaction product (blue colored metal complexes) was measured photometrically (λ = 765 nm, slit 10 nm). A calibration curve was produced by analysis of gallic acid (GA) standards (gallic acid monohydrate, purity > 99 %, Sigma-Aldrich, SZBB0130V) at 765 nm. A stock solution was prepared by dissolving 50 mg GA in 100 mL degassed water and diluting with degassed water to provide working standard solutions of 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 and 60 ppm. For comparison with other studies, all results were related to the antioxidant activity of gallic acid and presented as gallic acid equivalent (GAE).

 Results and Discussion

Aroma profiles of Sacoglottis gabonensis fruits

Chimpanzees were observed to actively sniff on S. gabonensis fruits prior to eating. Therefore, there have to be volatile cues emitted from the intact fruit that help the apes to judge e.g. its sensory quality and/or ripeness stage. Our analysis was performed on fruit slurry to increase intensities, which possibly takes also into account volatiles that might not be released and perceived from intact fruits (intact exocarp). Further, the protocol used here for sampling and storage of the fruit did only allow analyses of smashed fruits. However, among the detected substances were also typical fruit flavours, which would also be perceived through the intact exocarp.

 Analyzing unripe, ripe and overripe fruits 22 volatile organic compounds (VOCs) were identified in the headspace of the smashed fruit flesh and chosen for characterization of the fruit aroma and for comparison of three maturity stages (Table 1). Only the absolute values of the HS-GC/MS headspace signal intensities from the 22 compounds can be presented here since quantification of headspace volatiles is difficult due to unknown partition coefficients of the volatiles between fruit matrix and headspace. Taking this into account, we applied the highest significance level (p<0.001; 99.9 %) for the decision on flavour differences between the three ripeness stages. In terms of hypothesis testing (Ho: there is no difference between the aroma at different ripeness levels) we strongly reduce the risk for Type I error. Regarding odour evaluation, we use descriptions made by humans. To the best of our knowledge, no such information is available for great apes.

Table 1: Compounds detected with HS-GC/MS in fruits of S. gabonensis at different ripeness stages and their flavor descriptors are presented. Given are mean values of absolute headspace intensities and their standard deviation (SD). Statistical analysis was done with Kruskal Wallis rank sum test. Statistical differences are denoted by small letters after analysis with a post hoc test (p<0.001). The sources for the flavour description are taken from AFlavornet by Terry Acree & Heinrich Arn (http://www.flavornet.org, © Datu Inc., 2004) and BThe Good Scents Company™. (http://www. thegoodscentscompany.com). ***flavour with high odour strength, ** flavor with medium odour strength, description taken from BThe Good Scents Company™.

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[thenootshoot]

Professor (Sigma x Reader) Chapter 2

Class couldn't have gone by any slower. It felt like an eternity before the bell rang and you were dismissed. At some point in time, your professor had called a couple of the students over to his desk, talking to them for a minute before they returned to their seats. You didn't think too much of it. They acted as if they already knew him so perhaps he was just seeing how they were. You would have tried to listen in but you had slipped your earbuds in, using your playlists to come up with song ideas. Every now and then you would jot down a few notes to keep the beat in your mind.

You now walked out of the class, earbuds still in. You knew you had a lot of work to do once you had access to your laptop again. It had been years since you last wrote a song. Maybe you could finish the last one you started? You'd just have to find the sheet music first. You hadn't touched it since..well...

A sudden tap on your shoulder made you turn around, pulling a earbud out of your ear. Behind you was the girl from class. She had shoulder width blonde hair and was wearing quite a bit of makeup. You were almost certain she was the popular girl in high school.

"Hi! I'm Jane! Professor de Kuiper said you were new here and that I should get to know you." She told you.

"Oh, um, (y/n)." You gave a small nod. Is that what he had called her and the other students over for?

"Oh, and from experience. I know he makes everything sound complicated in the syllabus and all but he's actually really good at speaking stupid. I took his trigonometry class last year and passed with an A. I usually level out to a D in the simplest of classes." Jane told you. "He wanted me to explain that to you. Said you looked really nervous when he was speaking."

"Thanks." You said softly. "But I'm not nervous about that. This is my first time away from..." You paused before speaking again, "home, in a long time."

"It's alright. This place is pretty good at making you feel at home away from home. The dorms are super nice, especially the ones in the building beside this one. That's where mine is."

A rich girl. Good to know.

"Cool. Well, I've got to get my laptop and start working on stuff. I already have homework." You just didn't feel like talking to her anymore.

"Oh no problem!" Jane handed you a piece of paper. "Here's my number and social medias if you need me for anything." 

You took it and nodded. "Alright. Thanks." You simply said before putting your earbud back in and walking away.

________________

Working on the song was a bit easier than you thought. Once you had the tempo down it was just a matter of coming up with notes and words. Words were the hard part though. You couldn't seem to come up with anything that you thought would fit the song. The heat from your car didn't help. You didn't feel like being forced to eat in the cafeteria though so the heat would do for now.

"I guess words can wait." You mumbled to yourself after a bit. You had the melody of the song at least and still needed to get a harmony and instruments in there and had the entire school year to come up with words. You looked at your phone to check the time. "Half an hour until my next class. Nothing wrong with showing up early I guess."

You packed up your laptop, deciding to take it with you. At least now, you could start working on getting the rest of your project when you have time. You did have a break between this class and your last one for the day. Maybe you could work in the library. That or find stuff to read.

_________

Once you made it to the library, it was very empty. Second class after lunch was when most students were in class. The few that didn't were most likely in their dorms. They were lucky.

"Alright. Let's see what I can do." You said softly to yourself as you sat at a table.

Instantly, you put your earbuds in, deciding to experiment with a few sounds you had made previously. Unfortunately, as you worked with them, you realized that they didn't fit what you had in mind and couldn't be edited to do so.

You were so focused that you didn't realize someone had been approaching you. A sudden hand on your shoulder startled you and, out of habit, you curled up in a ball, shielding your head. Your earbuds fell out in the process.

"I'm sorry!" You yelled, not knowing who it was.

"Whoa. It's alright. I promise, I don't hit my students."

It was Professor de Kuiper.

You slowly came out of your defensive position, looking to your professor. He looked about as tense as you, hands up as his body leaned back slightly to show he meant no harm. Great. Two in one day.

"Oh, I-I'm sorry professor." You looked down for a moment before going back to your computer.

It was silent for a moment before he set a book down beside you. "This has helped some of my students in the past. I can see you have not taken any classes recommended to take before astrophysics."

"Thank you. I'll go through it when I have a free moment this week." Your voice was a bit shaky. You couldn't believe you did that. You thought you had gotten over it.

"I appreciate it." He moved so you could see him, standing behind a chair. "And, if you ever need to talk about anything going on, our guidance counselor is available to talk anytime."

"Thanks for the offer but I'm fine, really." You told him, grabbing your earbuds to put them back in.

He gave you a nod before leaving, stopping to talk to the librarian before he left though. You could only imagine what he had to be telling her. I mean, who could just leave after making a student scream in fear. 

Maybe college wasn't right for you.

[wgsphoenix]

messy tldw on the current meta. this is just first thoughts and i havent reviewed vods yet so i cant go over the interactions in detail. 

the base comp is sigma/ball, echo/tracer/ashe/sometimes mccree, zen/brig/mercy. orisa/sigma is also sometimes played but is only viable in limited situations

this comp is not dive so much as it is spam. the backline is too tanky to make diving useful, so it usually comes down to breaking sigma shield and forcing his cooldowns

theoretically a rush comp could mess with them, but after losing one fight it would be pretty easy to play around it (+ rein sucks). double shield has its moments on certain maps but losing one fight w/ it makes it hard to ever set back up and makes it hard to get value out of the dps that r strong rn

more in depth stuff under the cut

why ball/sigma is played

ball is the foundation of this comp. his speed, shield, disruption, and area denial w/ mines means he can literally spin circles around the other main tanks. winston has less of a capacity to survive cc than him and rein just is bad bc shatter sucks, limited mobility, he cant do anything when shielding, etc. orisa IS sometimes viable as a counter bc of fortify and supercharger, but she has no mobility and running anything but sigma with her is ineffective. hog/zarya doesnt work either but ill get to that later

its sorta a chicken or egg type thing but to me the rest of this comp is focused around denying the enemy ball value/capitalizing on your ball’s value. for this reason, sigma is the other tank paired with ball. his rock is a useful bit of cc, his shield can block burst and piledrive damage and destroy mines, and his grasp helps defend his supports from burst damage. his ultimate is also very good at isolating targets for a kill and also gives him high ground

none of the other main tanks are able to do everything that sigma does. winston can’t protect the backline and can’t poke at enemy shields, rein is bad, and orisa could protect her backline but this comp also focuses around shield break a lot so it’s easy to force her cooldowns and kill her

zarya isn’t played because she’s basically a free kill once her bubbles are used, she doesn’t have as much survivability as sigma does and she’s unable to do damage as she can’t get close enough to the other team’s backline to be effective. her ult is just worse flux specifically bc it doesnt give her high ground and it takes eons to charge. hog has good survivability, but can’t protect his backline during a push. hooking anything vs this comp would be very hard. his ult is comparatively shitty area control and he’s pretty helpless during it so he does fast. dva gets chewed up pretty fast by the dps and again this comp is very tanky so she can’t get much value out of dives. in terms of defending the backline, she’s just worse sigma. she might be playable on certain maps with lots of high ground, but i wouldn’t risk it. 

the mobility + burst dmg of the dps mean that hog/zarya isn’t viable anymore bc they just get burst down so fast, and neither of their ults/abilities do much compared to ball/sigma bc the comp is so spread out. also neither of them are able to protect the supports at all

runaway tried zarya/sigma for like 2 minutes and it sucked because they dont really have a frontline in this case and neither can begin an engage vs a dive

why tracer/echo/ashe is played

what makes dps strong in this meta is their ability to counter and synergize with ball. dps have to be able to chase him down, deal enough damage to force him away, and have the mobility to quickly switch targets to the enemy backline as soon as the ball is forced back. they also can’t be dps that he can feasibly 1v1. in terms of synergy, ball’s disruption makes for quick picks on out of position heroes, which means you need a LOT of focused damage, speed, and (vertical) mobility. on those qualifiers, widow, reaper, hanzo, junkrat, and doom are out. sombra and reaper can’t easily get assassinations so theyre out as well. sym torb and mei output a lot of damage and counter ball, but have no mobility and generally don’t synergize well with ball. bastion is (imo) always debatably playable in some kinda weird bunker setup, but usually not worth the risk and only works on certain maps

out of the heroes we’re left with (ashe, echo, genji, mccree, pharah, s76, and tracer), echo ashe tracer and mccree emerge as just. better versions of the others. echo has great mobility and her beam is essential for dealing w/ ball and enemy shields. her ult also fucks. pharah is just a worse version of her and can’t get as much value. tracer has a lot of survivability and mobility, and her kit allows her to get quick picks by sheer spam and force ults. genji has mobility but can’t survive as well as tracer and you have to invest a lot more into making his ult get value. ashe outputs a lot of damage, charges her ult fast w/ dynamite, and also has vertical mobility with her coach gun. her ult is good for area control. mccree is more or less the same, but you trade mobility for cc and slightly more tankiness. s76 has none of those and just sucks

i’ve only seen the cree played in APAC a bit as a replacement for the tracer, i think to give more stability to the backline and to make it easier to handle the echo. that feels more like a playstyle thing than anything else. 

the sigma pick is mostly a reaction to these dps. echo absolutely chews up tanks (minus sigma), and sigma can eat pulse and echo right click on top of having a shield + cc so hes kinda a must pick

tracer/echo is the most common duo, with tracer/ashe, ashe/echo, mccree/echo, and ashe/mccree being played on certain maps/by certain teams. NA/EU hasnt played anything with mccree so far. i dont have a complete handle on how they stack up yet but i think i like mccree/echo and tracer/echo best so far

you Could try to run a more divey dps duo i guess, but that’s more easily counterable than sticking with meta

why zen/brig/mercy is played

lucio and moira can’t be played because they have extremely limited range. dive is easily countered right now, so your backline isn’t going to have any easy escapes. zen is the most played support in this comp bc he does tons of damage to shields + discord is great for quick kills (havent made specific notes of it but itll be interesting to see where his harmony/discord usually go). trance is good for surviving flux + surviving spam in general. ana has more heals, but less value bc her nade is pretty easily blocked/eaten and bc nano is single target

brig + mercy are viable in different situations. brig is still sorta tanky + can defend against ball w/ cc and has rally as a backup while also doing pretty good heals. mercy is played on maps with good vertical mobility, usually alongside the ashe. balls have to play more carefully in that circumstance to not die. mercy also allows for echo to go hyper aggro, + valk is a good tempo ult. im not sure which i prefer, and id need to vod review to look at the interactions in detail

misc notes/interactions off the top of my head

echo and tracer end up chasing the ball off a lot and/or killing him, especially w/ beam. ball has to play REALLY careful in this comp and will still take a lot of damage regardless. ults charge fast

tracers duel each other sometimes, but i dont think ive seen many echo fights

echo beam also is good against sigma shield and uses her right click to force grasp so tracer can pulse (ive seen that like once but i think its happening more than that)

in this meta piledriving as ball into more than one target can be a death sentence. jihun did this a lot and was punished harshly for it, but his team also was always Right There when he did (kalios shielded right in front of him so he’d take less damage), but i think it just ended up burning more cooldowns than getting value

individual teams are centering different players, and running different dps/supports to do so. i don’t think there’s an optimal playstyle when it comes to revolving around different dps and that its based on player comfort. the one thing you absolutely should not do is make your ball the playmaker cough cough abang cough

if i have to see one more team pull out the genji i’m gonna scream