#the synergy between the two jobs is insane

[cosmicharm]

Just wanna be Wanna bewitch you in the moonlight Just wanna be I wanna bewitch you all night

[sanstropfremir]

what are some of ur favorite kpop choreos (if u havent already talked about them)

ah anon, i said i would write a fave choreo post back in like.......april, but i've been distracted by other asks and the existential dread of being a person. but to be fair, i have had a list sitting in my drafts since then, so i just gotta brush the dust off! i'm not going to include anything from this year (2021) because i'm planning a couple of year end roundup posts (fave stylings, fave choreo, maybe some others if peeple have suggestions), but here is a selected list of some of my favourite kpop choreos, in approximate order from excellent to personal-all-time-fave-make-me-insane.

✨

i'm in trouble - nu’est

honestly there’s nothing really that special about this choreography, i just find it very satisfying to watch because it really emphasizes the electric bass rhythm, especially with all the percussive moves against their bodies. the formation changes in the first verse and the first chorus are my favourite.

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4walls - f(x)

4walls you were so ahead of your time. it's hard to find a stable front facing version of this that shows the dance break well but there is a fancam here that's maybe the best? there's another one here that gives you a better idea of how they use their arms to shape the negative space and it's just so satisfying to watch.

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this love - shinhwa

the choreo that kickstarted voguing in kpop, a true icon. shinhwa i need you to come back the boys just aren't doing it like this anymore.

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lucifer - shinee

the og, the reason why we have dance practice videos, the queen herself. i have to pay respects and also i do actually love this choreo. here's a stage not filmed on a potato so you don't hypnotize yourself watching taemin's shirt.

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my valentine - vixx

the second best chair choreo and the best sexy chair choreo in kpop no i am not taking criticism. this is my favourite vixx choreo because it really takes advantage of their average height of 6'0 and their subsequently very long limbs. i love the levels and especially having jaehwan just pop in and out of frame like that. there's no dance practice for this, but there is a mislabeled fancam here where you can see it stable. also i love this one stage because none of the members stand up in the order the fanchant is in and it's very funny.

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cherry bomb - nct 127

nct choreos are so weird and i love them, but it's the splits walking for me. amazing job saving the power move for right at the end. also the ways in which everything is offset and how they do canons is so fascinating to watch.

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flower shower - hyuna

ranking dancers for that question a very long time ago made me rediscover this and i'm glad i did because my memory really is full of holes and i had totally forgotten what the choreography looked like. i love how the movements shift from loose and careless to structured and the choreo really uses the space and the number of dancers to maximum efficacy. my favourite bit is the 'flower field' where you don't realize they're arranged in a spiral until they start collapsing; it's not a very big detail but its very pleasing to the eye.

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criminal - taemin

obviously i love taemin's choreos but criminal really does amazingly on treading that line of slickly unhinged and out of control; both out of your own self control and under the control of someone else. there's such fine attention to detail (typical of all taemin's work), but my favourite in this is how all the wrist movements untwist the binding so that it can thrown off seamlessly, without any need for a quick release. this is unquestionably one of taemin's best works, the synergy between the song and the styling and the choreo and the mv is so perfect, i really have no complaints. ok i have two complaints and they are 1) needed more chainsaw and 2) it is a CRIME how short his promotional period was we DESERVED to have that gucci suit on a music show.

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i want you - shinee

the story of light is such a phenomenal piece of art that i am so glad exists, despite also simultaneously wishing that it never existed at all. one day i might write something about the use of nostalgia and different eras of retro aesthetics in the i want you/good evening/countless mvs but that's getting ahead of myself. i love the choreographies from this comeback (spoiler alert, good evening is also on this list), because their intention is so inwardly focused. these choreos are voyeuristic in a way that no kpop choreo has been or will ever be again, because yes they're letting us see, but it's not for us in the same way that every other kpop choreo is. koharu did a such a beautiful job with these two choreos, because while good evening maximizes on closeness, i want you maximizes on distance. there's no way to get the full impact of this choreo in music show camera language; the members are spaced too far apart and the stage is too empty to get any kind of density of frame. but that's what i love about how they filmed this dance practice, because 20ft away is the distance from which this is the most impactful. here's a stage so you can compare the difference in feeling. if i were to describe this choreo in one word it would be 'afterimage,' because that's what many of these formations are: afterimages, smear frames, the spaces between movements manifested. it doesn't matter about establishing the members and their faces because it isn't about them as individuals, it's about them as a whole; limbs of the same body moving through space in a way that we are only allowed to see from afar, never to truly know.

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the 7th sense - nct u

i still cannot believe that this was the nct debut. obviously sm is still/has always been on some crazy kind of crack with nct releases but WOW when the risks pay off they pay off. i love how inexplicable the energy and intention of this choreo is, it's so difficult and incomprehensible that no one other than nct is ever going to be able to pull it off. this is full of such strange shapes and movements and i think it's under appreciated.

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sunset - knk

do not be fooled by how small heejun looks, he is 5'11. yes knk really is that big. i actually really love knk choreos they are so unexpected and kinda weird and they use a lot of interesting partner/group structures that you can obviously see here, but you can also see in ride. their choreographer plays really well to the strengths of the group, which are 1) that they take up a lot of space and 2) they don't mind getting all up in each other's business, so we get a lot of choreo that is technically challenging in its timing and trust, but doesn't depend solely on athleticism like a lot of other boy group choreos. like with flower shower and with criminal there is such obvious imagery of the song in the movements and as a visual person i like that creativity. their debut choreo is also really interesting and i'm so in love with this stage for rain, like!!! using lasers for raindrops!!!! sorry not sorry this turned into a knk appreciation zone but also stan knk.

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want - taemin

i would have linked the dance practice but i despise how it was filmed because this choreo really is meant for a single stationary point perspective. more on that whenever i finally finish the writeup on this that's currently sitting in my drafts. i also adore how the backup dancers keep their hands in their pockets for the first minute. i also also love that stupid squid arms move it's so dumb and yet he makes it work. ok there's a lot of things i adore about this choreo, no one is surprised.

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black rose - taemin

believe it or not i am actually limiting the amount of taemin choreography on this list, but black rose i think might actually be my favourite of his because its just so beautiful to watch and this particular stage is filmed SO well and combined with the projections and lighting i just!!! i have a lot of feelings about black rose, that's why it's up so high on this list. there's a stable fancam here where you can see the full effect of that glorious spinning thousand hand move. also i just realized this is the second choreo on this list that's flower themed, oops?

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good evening - shinee

this choreo makes me insane. like the i want you choreo, at its core good evening is about distance between audience and performer, but this time in the execution it takes the opposition; emphasizing the distance with physical closeness. this dance practice is fine, especially if you want to get an understanding of the larger stage picture but where this choreo really thrives is in the music show stages. it is meant for close ups. there is a ton of member interaction and small movements designed to be caught in the hypercloseness of the camera, like the head move and foot taps at 0:40. the chairs themselves are specific, designed with a purpose to catch light and be a centrepoint, and there's a lot of speed variation in movements that doesn't necessarily read as well from a physical distance. but then how do they portray distance, you ask? because they don't look at the camera. shinee mentioned in an interview that they had to fight the broadcasting stations in order to not look at the cameras, because apparently it's a rule that idols have to look down the barrel of whatever camera is on them. but if you watch any of the good evening stages, they purposefully avoid the camera, not allowing you connection with them (there are a few times where they fuck up, but i can imagine it's hard to turn off the instinct that you've been honing for over a decade to look down every single lens that you spot. also they probably had to negotiate a bit with the stations. but also those few times where they do meet that gaze are so piercing because of that denial). long story long this choreography makes me insane and there will never be another one like it.

[florrickandassociates]

TGF Thoughts: 4x07-- The Gang Discovers Who Killed Jeffrey Epstein

What a weird episode. 

This episode is something else. The writers REALLY overestimated how much the audience (or at least the fandom) liked the pee tape and Melania divorce episodes if they thought this was a good idea.

My recollection of those episodes is that because everything was fake-but-real, the stakes wound up feeling lower and I stopped caring, and when I’m not on board with the plot, the surreal shit and the whimsy feel more annoying than innovative. This episode might fare slightly better in my opinion than the other two because of its central device (more on that later) but it’s (somehow!!!) even more audacious and wild than the episodes that came before. Not my favorite look for the show. 

I DO like the tributes to musicians we’ve lost to COVID-19 that play over the credits.My one quibble is that they could’ve used a little card to inform viewers what’s going on and why. Last week I caught the artist in the captions but this week I missed it (or it wasn’t there), though I figured out pretty quickly it was John Prine.

Starting off an episode with Liz is always a good choice. 

Liz and Marissa are, for reasons we’ll discover later, in New York and investigating Jeffrey Epstein’s “suicide.” 

It drives me INSANE that Marissa consistently has the sound on her phone on. I think we’d know she was taking pictures without it. 

Liz’s old boss, Wilbur Dincon, has tasked Liz to independently investigate what happened. If this case goes well, RBL will get more business from the DOJ.

I’m sorry, did you just say “S-H-U” instead of pronouncing it like “shoe”? I mean, I’m an expert on prisons because I watched Orange is the New Black so I know it should be said like “shoe.” (tbh i have no idea if one is more correct than the other)

This case has lots of details but it’s really only the thematic points that matter, so I likely won’t discuss any plot points… just what they’re going for. 

Good to know Liz was ahead of the curve on knowing Epstein was a dangerous creep. 

Liz is promised she can investigate anyone she wants and think outside the box. Sure. I believe this as much as I believe Diane is in charge of pro-bono stuff because STR Laurie has great intentions.

“Synergy” is such a great bullshit word. Has everyone ever said it for a reason other than the following three: (1) To mock the word synergy (2) as a euphemism for cost-cutting measures that will fuck over employees (3) because they think it sounds professional and want to cover up the fact they don’t know what they’re talking about?

In this case, “synergy” means that RBL needs to cut their payroll by 20%. Fun times.

Diane and Adrian (Liz is downstairs) are not happy about this, even when Mr. Firth reminds them it’s more money for them. They’d rather have less money personally but happier employees since they’re not soulless.

Mr. Firth says they have to do the layoffs. But if it’s any consolation, they get to hand pick who to lay off!

The dogs are still being walked through RBL, in case it wasn’t clear enough that STRL sucks.

The whole firm gets to work on sorting through the Epstein evidence. Liz tries to keep things organized-- murder evidence on one side, suicide evidence on the other.

Associates, however, immediately begin interpreting the word “evidence” loosely. Is there a photo of Epstein with someone they’d like to suspect of murder? Then it’s “evidence of murder”. Ok, Leah. 

As expected, this immediately turns into bickering over politics. Sorry Liz-- it’s going to be tough to keep your staff on target with this one. 

“No! No conspiracy theories. No insane charges. Everything we do, we need evidence, so let’s start here.” Ah, if only everyone could think like Liz.

The room focuses on evidence for about two minutes. Then they find a way to make it about conspiracies again. Go team! 

Also everyone at RBL thinks they have better knowledge than professional medical examiners of the marks left on someone’s neck after they hang themselves. They also all believe that pretending to strangle themselves is the best way to prove their point. It’s a hilarious sight for Diane and Adrian to happen upon.

Adrian and Diane immediately start seeing their employees as numbers and imagining the cost savings of laying them off. Marissa is making $89,000 a year with three years of experience. Jay is making $89,000/year with eight years. Damn, that is so unfair to Jay. (I could see it if Marissa is more vocal about wanting higher pay or if they’re more concerned with losing her… but being vocal about money is probably closely related to Marissa’s privilege and there is zero evidence Marissa is any better, more efficient, or more hardworking than Jay!)  I can’t remember how this plot ended last year, but I thought Jay ended up making more than Marissa after he complained?

Adrian seems to see Jay as the more disposable of the investigators, which is quite sad, especially since from what we see, Marissa and Jay seem to be equally skilled. 

I wish we got to see the salaries, rather than just billable hours, of the other associates. But I’m glad they finally get last names! 

Kevin Walker has been at the firm 7 years and has 2643 billable hours.

Diane imagines the red X over Marissa. I can’t tell if the Xs are to demonstrate who they think they should cut or just to show deliberations. 

Lucca has been at the firm for 4 years and has 2788. Her title is “associate” but shouldn’t it be “Head of Family Law”? 

Leah Davis has been at the firm for 3 years and has 2657 billable hours.

Jancie Muncy has been at the firm 11 years with 2456 hours; Micah Carroll has been there 5 with 2582 hours. John Danzette with 6 years and 2074 hours; Rosalyn Brock with 4 years and 1991 hours (we learn later she was on medical leave for part of the year). Josh Withers with 11 years and 2162. Linda Keller with 2 years and 2389; Mike Roberts with 3 years and 2147. So what I’m getting is that Lucca has the most billable hours of everyone? 

I wish it told us their salaries. How much do the billable hours matter if we don’t know how much $ each hour is worth?

I really like this device. It’s a good way of showing how tough this decision is and how dehumanizing the process becomes. 

Adrian jumps into the conversation and tries to convince everyone Epstein’s suicide isn’t a conspiracy-- it’s just incompetence. Apparently he has a sink that breaks every week and no plumber can fix it because they are all incompetent. I understand this analogy-- no one does their job perfectly 100% of the time-- but I am really concerned about Adrian’s sink. This sounds like a bigger issue than incompetence.

“People do just enough work to get by,” is a very true statement though. I have often thought that it’s kind of incredible the world is as functional as it is. 

If you have 4 or 5 conveniently incompetent breakdowns at once, though, I’m not sure I believe it’s purely incompetence. Feels a bit convenient. 

Diane jumps in and makes a case for why the conspiracy is also likely. This strikes me as counterproductive since what REALLY needs to happen here is for the associates to dig through the evidence. Why not go back to Liz’s original system where they look through the evidence and see where it leads them? 

Lots of news footage and photographs in this one.

Diane’s larger point seems to tie back into Memo 618: “We all have to obey the law. I mean, if we’re told we have to check into with the police every 90 days, we do it. But certain people don’t have to. They’re given special treatment.” Diane claims this is America-- “a special fucking off-ramp for the well-connected.” 

Isn’t it possible both are true? That there’s a lot of incompetence and also systems in place that protect the rich and powerful? Also none of this is evidence!!! 

(I do like this scene for showing Adrian’s POV (cynical about human nature) vs Diane’s (fed up with the government and the treatment of the ultra wealthy). And the show can’t really dig into evidence they don’t actually possess. But evidence-free speeches don’t seem productive!)

Liz is like, okay then… and splits the room into three groups to look at evidence. I am glad Diane and Adrian helped her so much.

Liz is NOT happy about the layoffs when Diane and Adrian loop her in. She’s opposed to cutting anyone. Diane says she could lose Kevin, but Liz sees Kevin as someone newer employees look up to. Adrian suggests Lucy (who?) and Liz says that Lucy actually should get a raise. Diane points out this will look bad to the clients. All good points. This seems like an impossible decision.

Case stuff happens. Lucca knows a “hairdresser to the stars” through Bianca.

And now for some scenes where Diane and Julius try to report Memo 618 to the government and do the right thing! The Kings have said these were intended for episode 8, and while they don’t really feel that out of place since there’s clearly a thematic link between 618 and Epstein’s connections, this bit of info explains two things: (1) Why this ep is 53 minutes long when it feels like it could make its point in less time and (2) why the Julius stuff that happens later in the episode feels a bit anticlimactic because so much else is also happening. My guess is in an episode where it’s more of the focal point it would feel like a much bigger deal.

Do you ever just see a shot of Diane and think, “Damn, Taylor Swift does really look like a young Diane?” Because I do. All the time.

Lucca visits the famous hairdresser and he makes time for her right away. And he gives her a letter from Epstein that he (a) has in his possession and (b) has in an unlocked drawer in his salon. Whatever. 

Lucca convinces him to let her have it, and RBL makes a video to establish chain of custody. I’m shocked we’ve never seen them do this before.

“It is Thursday, May 21st, 2020” Liz says. Nah. You’re in an office. It is not. 

The envelope contains a key, a secret code, and a letter that says “If I’m dead, watch out for BUD”. Welp, there goes any hope of this not turning into RBL chasing conspiracies! 

Rumors about layoffs (40%! Just paralegals! Everyone!) have spread, in case there wasn’t enough chaos. 

The partners are indeed discussing who to fire, and they can’t decide on anyone. So they decide it’s time to get out from under STRL and buy themselves out. It’ll take 20 million, but they can pull that together. 

This would play better if we knew why they decided to sell to STRL in the first place. Who WOULDN’T have seen this coming? 

Liz tells Adrian not to make any promises he can’t keep and he is like, this is like our marriage. Diane is still in the room which is awkward and funny.

Marissa finds “BUD” on a blueprint. A clue! Meanwhile, Lucca and Jay (really, Jay) figure out the code. 

This is the portion of the episode where I can leave the show playing on my phone and go check Twitter instead of writing any commentary. 

Julius gets arrested for speaking out about Memo 618! It feels less impactful than it should when it’s sandwiched between a bunch of scenes following the conspiracy. (Also I am a little surprised they didn’t have Julius and Diane go to the press before the government.)

The conference room squabbles again and Liz asks, again, to tone down the conspiracy theories. They instead begin fighting about even more conspiracy theories.

Unless there’s another conference room scene later, I think this was the moment I understood what the Kings were doing and started to like the episode more. As soon as I realized “BUD” was a Citizen Kane reference, I burst out laughing. This episode plays way better when you know the point they’re trying to make is that this is a lot of fuss that will ultimately be futile (though Marissa and Jay DO come close to finding BUD) than when you’re supposed to be riveted by watching people debate fake evidence. 

Why does Eli Gold have a cheerleader friend? Who knows! Who cares! 

Adrian suggests that he, Diane, and Liz involve their own homes in the scheme to getting 20 million dollars. Liz objects since she’s a single mom-- very fair. Adrian argues that they’ve done well in the past so they’ll get it back. Liz and Diane attack that idea before I can-- if that were really true, they never would have sold to STRL. 

Liz mentions losing ChumHum and the fallout from her dad’s scandal and then says “let us not forget why we joined STRL in the first place.” I feel like that line would work better if the “let us not forget…” came before the “we lost ChumHum”. Because we don’t actually KNOW why they joined STRL. And, as I said in a previous recap, I can roll with it for the sake of plot, but I can’t take lines like “let us not forget why we joined STRL” seriously when there was LITERALLY NO ON SCREEN DELIBERATION about it. 

Adrian says STRL doesn’t value them, their employees, their history, or their culture. To which I say, DUH. Why would you think they did?  

The only important thing about this cheerleader is that she’s played by the amazing Donna Lynne Champlin. Kind of sad she’s in this silly, non-recurring role. She’s so good. (Also she was totally on TGW playing a different role, shhhh). (Go watch Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, everyone!)

CONSPIRACY THEORIES! It’s another conference room scene. Maybe this is where I realized it was a Citizen Kane reference? But I think it was the earlier one.

Hey, it’s another Julius scene. Watching these and knowing they were meant for a different episode, I can’t help but notice that they do feel like pieces of the A plot of a different episode. The whole system is rigged, Julius and Diane realize.

Adrian, Liz, and Diane tell Mr. Firth they want out. Mr. Firth tells them they need to cobble together an impossible 80 million, not 20 million, because not all of the partners have been bringing in more revenue more than they used to. You see, Diane hasn’t been bringing in any money because she’s been in charge of the pro bono department. Ah.There’s the catch. 

I’m shocked they went up to Mr. Firth without reading every inch of that contract. Aren’t you guys partners at a law firm? I’m shocked Diane went ahead with taking charge of pro bono without looking for a catch. This sucks for the character and all, but how are these name partners at a liberal firm that’s seen more than its fair share of drama this naive about big corporations!? This plot twist is devastating… until I start to think about all the things they had to believe to get to this point. 

Still, it’s satisfying to hear Diane hiss “you fucker!” at Mr. Firth. 

Mr. Firth turns into a villain quite nicely. I wonder if we’ll see more of him next year. My guess is the remaining three episodes were going to tie together the corporate overlords plot and Memo 618 and wrap everything up more or less with a bow so they could do a new concept next year. I feel like they’ll either move on completely and tell us what happened, or do an episode like 2x02 (the one that wraps up all the Maia/Rindell Fund stuff in one go so it doesn’t hang over s2).

Dincon drops by unexpectedly and isn’t impressed with what Liz and the team have done, since all they’ve done is collect conspiracy theories (and possibly travel all over the country? Jay and Marissa go to the Virgin Islands; it is unclear if the architect and key maker and lawyer and everyone else were in Chicago…

In Dincon’s defense these conspiracy theories sound like complete nonsense. 

Dincon shuts the RBL team down, but Marissa and Jay are still off adventuring.

Diane asks Dincon what Memo 618 is because Epstein’s life was built on it. “Then you have your answer,” Dincon replies. This scene is another tell that those Julius scenes weren’t meant for 4x07. 

Aaaaand now we get the direct parallels to Citizen Kane, with some shot-for-shot remakes and even a sled (ha!).

There’s a secret door! Marissa and Jay are excited to investigate! Marissa references Parasite, which I haven’t seen yet because I’m awful at watching movies.

Marissa and Jay find nothing and leave. “I think we lost track of the real story: the underage girls,” Marissa realizes. Yup. That is the takeaway. Looking at all these conspiracies is fun but useless, and the most important truth has already been uncovered. 

After Marissa and Jay leave, we get to see what was in the secret room… BUD is Epstein’s penis. And… that’s a wrap on season 4? What a fucking weird way to end a season. 

[prettycottonmouthlamia]

F/GO 3-star Tier List

It is time for a 3-star Tier list. This one took a lot more time and deliberation and definitely has Servants whose placement is more arguable. There are also just a lot of good 3-stars in general, with most of them being A-ranks, although quite a few are pretty close to B-rank. 

Grails start making less of a difference here, to the point where this is the last time they’re worth mentioning. The boost in statistics helps 3-stars with better kits, typically later released ones, more than older Servants who have less useful kits. While a lot of 1 and 2-stars are significantly improved by Grails, 3-stars get more diminishing returns and so most of the time, bumps up the tier list are smaller. 

Also worth noting here: Casters who are more focused on dealing damage tend to get favored a little more. Assassins can be notoriously difficult enemies to face and having that defensive advantage can be really important. Casters are sub-par DPS usually compared to other Servants, but being anti-Assassin is really important. 

3-star Tier List (help me)

S-Rank Euryale: Euryale is on the lower end of S-rank. She is very focused onto her niche, but her niche is anti-Male, which is very wide and she's excellent in that niche. Between her NPs insanely high damage, her ability to charmlock, np drain, and lower attack, she can keep many Male enemies completely locked down. Even though Mental Debuff Immunity is more common, she still excels against the many male enemies regardless. Her very natrual synergy in Arts team is also noteworthy.

Grails will make her even more powerful than before. Her damage will be extremely high even against neutral and resisted classes, especially with support. Her initial niche problems still remain, but she'll still be really good.

Robin Hood: Robin Hood is one of the most consistent DPS Servants in the game. His bonus damage condition is incredibly easy to fulfill, since it can be applied to basically any Servant, he has two rather good skills, and his damage is incredibly high with zero offensive buffs to go with it. His face card damage is his only flaw as its rather weak, but his incredibly high NP damage will balance that out. An absolutely fantastic Servant. Watch out for Debuff immunity though.

Grails...will make him hit incredibly hard. A grailed Robin Hood can hit around 100k against neutral targets, so he's a very good grail invest.

Cu Chulainn: On the flipside from an extremely powerful nuke Servant, we have one of the most difficult to kill Servants in the game. Between Protection from Arrows, Battle Continuation, and Disengage, he can last a really long time against most enemies in the game. His NP will do a fair amount of damage too, although it has no real damage buffs to go alone with it. It's enough though, to do his job most of the time. Unfortunately, he has a major weakness against buff removal and Pierce Invul, and against certain bosses he might not be able to do enough damage to finish them off before he dies.

Grails help Cu out a lot. The extra HP makes him a lot tankier and he does more damage with the extra attack. A Level 100 Cu has a much broader range of enemies he can tank against effectively, although he still has the same weaknesses as before.

David: David is one of the best budget supports in the game, and it's almost purely because of his second skill, as one of the only sources of AoE protection in the game. He can also boost the party's Attack and has a lot of tankiness himself with his first skill. The only problem is that his NP is pretty weak, even against Saber targets, although it inflicts Skill Seal which can be helpful. David is a Servant that is very likely to end up in your party whenever there is an AoE NP coming your way, or to help protect fragile Berserkers.

Grails will make David's NP do a fair bit more damage, and he'll have fairly decent face card damage as well. It benefits him a lot less than other Servants because he's more support than tank or DPS.

Hassan of the Hundred Faces: If you've ever wondered who the stiff competition is for the Arts Assassin slot, its Asako. Her immediate strengths are not in super high NP damage, but it is in her amazing ability to loop her NP with the myriad modifiers to her ability to gain NP and her 13 hit NP. Not only that, but she also have an evasion skill and a really large heal that's not difficult to use, making her a strong solo Servant or in a party. Her NP will pretty much shut down enemy crits, although it is a little overkill, and she will reduce the enemy's Arts resistance by 20% to help support other Arts Servants.  

Grails will amp up her already rapidly escalating damage as well as give her more bulk. It makes her a more consistent solo Servant and gives her a stronger initial NP in a party. Overall great grail invest target.

Asclepius: Very easily the best healing support in the entire game. Medea Lily, BB, and Irisviel all have their niches, but Asclepius has some much in his kit to make him worthwhile. He has large heals, gives Guts, Debuff immunity, debuff clear, NP charge, NP gain up, NP seal...it's a very, very stacked kit. Asclepius can't really do damage and he's a little less effective if there isn't debuffs involved, but he's absolutely one of the best 3-star supports, period.

Grails will improve his HP, which can help Asclepius in more stall dedicated comps. It's not a great invest target though, because there are better stall Servants and he doesn't have a great benefit from having more ATK.

A-Rank (boy this is gonna be big) Gaius Julius Caesar: Caesar is a one man wrecking ball. He can do incredible amounts of NP damage thanks to his large buff numbers and upgraded NP, way surpassing other Saber DPS Servants like Bedivere. In addition, he can also be used as a viable support Servant, due to the fact that none of his boosts are selfish and either help the whole party or can be targeted. His lack of survivability and his more subpar NP gain hold him back from being a strong S-rank, but its pretty close.

Grails boost his damage to even more insane heights. He will still need help with his defenses since he still lacks any hard or soft survival, but he becomes a lower S-rank Servant with Grails just due to how powerful he is.

Boudica: Boudica requires a specific Servant to do anything, but on the plus side, she works with basically every Servant in the game. She is an insane damage booster support thanks to Romulus = Quirinus, giving a DPS 60% anti-Roman damage, 50% crit damage, 20% Arts performance, and a 20% Attack up, along with some Defense ups. It's enough to really send a Servant's damage sky high, which more than makes up for the specificity. If you're lucking enough to have Romulus yourself, you can use two Boudica for some really silly damage. Of course, Boudica doesn't do much outside of being a damage buffer, but she excels in what she does.

Grails will basically not improve her performance. She's not a tank like Mash and can't really do damage, so the extra HP and ATK are not super beneficial.

Ushiwakamaru: Ushi does really strong single target damage. She's not as absolutely crazy as Caesar is, but she has Evasion to keep her alive. Her buffs will make her do a lot of damage against Casters even on her own and with supports that damage can get a lot higher. She doesn't even have bad NP gain thanks to her first skill. What keeps her from S is that she lacks any utility and is a more selfish DPS than others.

Grails will naturally boost her damage even higher. It's enough to put her at the cusp of S-rank, a very, very high A-rank.

Alexander: Alexander is more of an offensive support Servant. He can certainly do good AoE damage, but he's a little outclassed in that regard but other Servants who are more consistent. His ability to buff the damage of Quick servants and remove buffs grants him a powerful support role while also having the ability to do damage and generate stars. He'll be less useful if there aren't Quick servants, but overall, he can still do fairly well in a support role.

Grails will primarily boost his damage out with his NP. He's still A-rank because his NP is not his primary role, but he makes a good invest target none the less.

Cu Chulainn (Caster): Caster Cu is a supremely sturdy Caster-class. He's got the same Protection from Arrows his Lancer version have, and Caster Cu has a mix of the two for his other skills. His Rune Magic is considerably better since it charges his NP charge, although his Disengage isn't anymore potent. With an upgraded NP and a 20% Buster effectiveness buff he'll do fairly decent damage, but his overall NP damage is still really low since its an AoE NP with only a small damage buff. Like his Lancer version, his strength is in his survival, not his raw damage.

Grails have a similar effect on Caster Cu that it does on Lancer Cu. It pushes him to a low S-rank because he still is a little inferior in terms of survivability and damage than Lancer Cu, but he's better at dealing with multiple enemies.

Lu Bu Fengxian: Lu Bu is one of the kings of single target damage. Thanks to his various buffs, he does a lot of single target damage and functions as a very powerful nuke that ignores defensive buffs. Unfortunately, two of his skills have some fairly hefty demerits and he needs outside support to do much after his NP. It's counterbalanced by his NP doing a lot of damage, but in several cases Lu Bu is not strictly needed and falls into a low A rank.

Grails make Lu Bu do more big boom kill and makes him a little less frail overall. It puts him in high A-rank, as it still doesn't solve any of the initial problems in his kit, but just makes him better at what he does.

Cu Chulainn (Prototype): Cu Chulainn Proto can be considered a more offensive version of normal Lancer Cu. It's a comparison that's waned since Cu has gotten strengthened, but Proto Cu still has very good survivability, crit damage, and anti-Wild Beast damage. He'll still be good in situations where normal Lancer Cu is, but less effective because of his lower overall DPS. Against Wild Beast enemies he'll vastly outperform him however.

Grails will improve Cu Prototype much in the same as Lancer Cu, and put him in a more mid ground S tier, similar to Euryale. Good servants who excel in their niche, although Cu is a little less extreme about it.

Paracelsus von Hohenheim: Paracelsus is one of the best Arts supports in the entire game. He has an amazing ability to enable Arts servants to do more damage and have a much better shot at looping their NPs, thanks to his Arts bonus and very high NP gain bonus. This is pretty much Paracelsus' niche however, as his NP is incredibly weak because of its lacking power and so will even struggle to take out waves of Assassin enemies. Fortunately, you don't really need him to do this, as whoever he is buffing is probably more than capable of doing it themselves.

Grails do not really benefit Paracelsus because he's still not a good farmer even with the extra ATK. He might be able to kill some Assassin waves but there are much better Servants to invest grails in and he basically doesn't change in viability.

Charles Babbage: Charles is probably the lowest A-tier on this list. He's generally pretty decent at dealing with Assassin waves and even bosses because of his good buffs and double buster deck. Unlike other Casters who do lack some synergy because of their triple Arts deck, Babbage can fully utilize a number of supports thanks to his second buster card and star absorption skill. He's not very useful outside of dealing with Assassins, but it is an important niche to have and Babbage is the best 3-star for doing that in terms of damage.

Grails have an unfortunate affect on Babbage. He has one of the lowest ATKs post grail which means they don't actually boost his damage all that much, but rather give him a lot of HP. It doesn't really help his position, but, it can still be useful if you want a decent budget Assassin killer.

Fuuma Kotarou: Fuuma is a pretty good AoE Assassin. He provides a lot of utlity to the team, from crit chance down to a targetable Evade, Buff Block and Def down along with a severe debuff resistance down, and an NP that provides a further defense down as well as the chance to inflict Skill Seal. It's a really good kit that allows him to excel in multiple situations. He's also pretty good at generating crit stars thanks to his good hit counts, but his primary weakness is that his NP is a little underpowered despite the Defense down on his 3rd skill, and his NP gain is not very good as his Quicks under perform in that regard.

Grails will boost his damage output to the point where he would qualify to fit in high A rather than mid-A. He's not quite S-rank with grails because his NP gain is still rather subpar and hence it is difficult for him to ramp up his damage past that.

Tawara Touta: Touta fits in mid A rank. He has a lot of bulk to work with, with his Evasion and multiple heals, and all of his damage buffs last for 3 turns which is very nice for overall damage. His NP will deal a lot of damage against Demonic enemies, of which there are several to where his niche will come in handy, and it can even be good against some Servants. Outside of his niche, he's just a bulky Archer with semi-decent damage, but he is very good at dealing with Demonic enemies compared to other Servants.

Grails will push him a little higher into A-rank, helping to keep his damage a little more consistent and a fair bit higher in his niche. The extra HP will also help his bulk out, and so he is a good invest target.

Bedivere: Bedivere is a very solid offensive Saber Servant. He has a decent Buster up on his NP as well as a modest NP damage up, as well as some defensive skills against debuff and an NP charge. His NP charge is what helps him remain in competition with Caesar as it makes his NP more consistent, although considerably less powerful. His Buster gets a lot better with Overcharge as well, so it is worth exploring that option because his scales considerably well. His lack of hard survival is a downside, and even though he has a 30% NP charge, his overall NP gain is a still a little low for his card set.

Grails help out Bedivere more than Caesar because Bedivere needed the extra power to compliment his consistency and better survival, which puts him in a solid S-rank compared to Caesar's low S-rank.

Jaguar Man: Jaguar Man stands out as the most offensive Lancer in the 3-star lineup. She has three powerful offensive buffing skills that make her face card and NP damage really good. She also has decent survival in her first skill with the 2 hit evasion, and more potential in Forest battlefields. However, Jaguarman isn't without fault. Her cooldown on her first skill is extremely long, and without the added star gen and star absorb on her third skill she may find it hard to crit. These are not insurmountable problems however, and she still has really good damage overall.

Grails boosts her durability which isn't very important but the extra damage you get is. It puts her in high A-rank with a very hard hitting NP and hard hitting crits, but her natural kit problems are still there unfortunately.

Billy the Kid: Billy is really good for being able to instantly pop an NP with Quickdraw and a 50% Starting NP CE. It not only ignores Evade and does fairly decent damage, but it also debuffs crit rate. Outside of that, Billy is a bit more mediocre than most. He has very high potential crit damage but he doesn't have a strong ability to generate stars so he will need outside support for that. He fits very well in low-A around where Babbage is because he is good when you need a quick ST NP, but may fall off.

Grails will boost Billy's damage to the point where he fits more solidly in A, although not quite mid A. It makes his NP do more damage which is what he needed because his NP is consistent already. A good buff in the future will definitely make him considerably better.

Christopher Columbus: The best AoE Rider in the 3-star rarity. He has a strong NP charge similar to Spartacus, as well as 3 steroids to boost his NP damage, one of which comes with a decent star bomb. His NP also comes with a large crit chance down to all enemies which is more than enough to shut them down entirely. He doesn't require supports but heavily benefits from them to improve his damage. He fits into low A because despite being the best AoE Rider and overshadowing numerous others, his NP gain is really bad so he will find it difficult to continue to perform in many cases.

Grails will put Columbus comfortably in mid A-rank. It improves his damage enough so it becomes pretty consistent overall, and although it doesn't help his NP gain, it helps with his initial game plan of a quick NP.

Hozoin Inshun: Inshun is pretty controversial. He has a potentially explosive ceiling to his damage, but can't always consistently reach it. He functions very well as a solo servant or in certain team comps. He's a low A-rank similar to Babbage and Billy, but purely because of his incredibly high damage output. If he were more mediocre, he'd easily fall into B-rank. His kit has really good synergy which makes him good for solos, but he doesn't have the most potent survival options which hampers him a bit. He's tricky to use but not bad, and doesn't require Skadi as many people think. He will work well with many support Servants.

Grails will push Inshun to mid-A. He still only works in those specific situations, but the extra bulk makes doing solos a lot easier and the extra atk pushes his damage ceiling even higher.

Okada Izou: As we move out of the continual low-A ranks, we finally reach a Servant who is probably just one buff away from being an S-rank. He has very good damage on his NP thanks to his incredibly high Humanoid bonus, but also his high crit star generation and crit damage will allow him to continue to do high damage when his Huamnoid buff is in downtime, and he synergizes with crit based Arts supports even better than Asako. There are two main problems though: he is a limited 3-star, which means getting NP5 is more difficult and his viability will fall with lower NP levels because he needs to use his NP consistently, and he's extremely selfish and offers no real utility, just damage. Still a fantastic Servant overall however.

Grails will push Izou right into S-rank due to providing the extra damage he needs to be consistent overall. A fantastic invest target.

Avicebron: Avicebron is one of the strangest Servants on this list. He has a very consistent NP but it is not strong, and only has a modest overcharge effect. The reason he is here is because of his 3rd skill, which provides the party a solid heal and 3 hits of invulnerability when he dies. This is a really, really good skill for coming back from the brink, it works incredibly well with any Servant that has a hard survival option or Guts. He's even more consistent if you have something like the GUDAGUDA Poster Girl CE to reliably trigger his 3rd skill, although waiting for an NP is also a viable decision.

Grails don't really improve Avicebron since he's basically mostly used for his 3rd skill, and not for damage purposes. Extra HP may impede his ability to trigger his skill as well.

William Tell: Tell is a weaker Robin Hood in terms of raw NP damage and consistency. While his NP has similar numbers, it has a much harder condition to fulfill, and as of today, May 9 2020 (I’m keeping this here to show how long this one took comparatively), there is no way to give Evasion to the opponent, so there's no way to fulfill this condition without relying on the enemy. If this was all there was, he'd probably end up in B-rank. However, he has more than simply just his NP. He has a massive 30 crit star bomb, a very solid 3 turn Arts performance and 3 turn debuff immunity, as well as a massive 100% crit damage for 1 turn, so he can function with crit damage as well as NP damage and has enough utility to make it to A-rank, and his NP damage if the opponent has Evasion is even more nutty than Robin's, inconsistent as it is.

Grails boost Tell's damage output, but the problem with Tell is more in his consistency than his raw damage, which is enough as it is. He's not a bad grail invest target for sure, but until more reliable Evasion abuse comes into play, Tell won't rise into high A or S-rank.

Mori Nagayoshi: More is another limited 3-star, and another high A-rank. His damage potential is incredible, with a strong Attack up and an incredibly strong crit damage up as well. He even gives the team a star bomb when he dies, which is very useful. His NP is decent and inflicts a Def down plus giving Pierce Invul, but it is not the focal point of his kit and so even though he is limited, his NP level is less of a liability than Izou. Mori is incredibly frail however, as he gives himself defense debuffs, and once he boosts his crit damage, pretty much all buffs will fail on him. He still remains an absolutely insane crit monster though.

Grails will push Nagayoshi into low S-rank. In truth, he was a very high A-rank to begin with so even though he does more damage, it's not a massive leap in usefulness, but he's a good grail target none the less.

Mandricardo: Now for the Blackjack 21 A-rank, Mandricardo. Mandricardo is another solid A-rank, and competes with Ushi for the role of ST damage dealer. He doesn't do as much damage as Ushiwakamaru does, but, offsets that by his NP being an Arts NP, granting him a different set of supports as well as more potential for refund and looping. In addition, he also can give himself a Taunt which is always appreciated even if he is not much of a tank. He lacks any hard survival but makes up for it with good raw damage. His second skill is a great last resort option for dealing huge damage and removing an enemy's defensive buffs.

Grails will push Mandricardo to the very bottom of S-rank. He's a little higher than Ushi here because he's more likely to get multiple NPs off, and so the extra damage compliments the consistency that he is able to get. If he gets an NP interlude soon, he'll fit nicely into S-rank.

B-Rank (yes, they exist) Medea: Medea has some pretty good things going for her. She has buff removal on her NP and a hugely powerful NP charge on her first skill, allowing her to do buff removal on demand, and often multiple times very quickly. She also can clear debuffs and boost NP gain for a turn. Unfortunately, her NP damage is really bad due to having really low damage values on her NP, and with more servants getting buff removal her niche is no longer as strong as it was before. She's still good and with proper support she can do fairly good damage, but she's not always the best choice.

Grails do boost her damage, but unfortunately, its not really enough to push her out of B-rank.

Medusa: Medusa has a few pretty good parts of her kit, including a decent stun, NP charge, and NP gain up. Her NP will also boost the party's star gen and decrease enemy crit chance. However, unfortunately, Medusa's kit is a little disjointed without much synergy, she doesn't benefit herself from the star bonus, and her Quicks are terrible and make using her more difficult. She can be good if paired with Alexander, but she doesn't quite make the cut compared to Columbus, but still a high B-rank.

Grails help her damage out and will help to put her in low A-rank, a little higher than Columbus, since her damage will be better. She also trades Guts for a Stun, which is roughly even.

Romulus: Romulus has a very good kit that ties together really well: a lot of healing, an NP charge, a strong but inconsistent Attack and Defense up, and a targetable Guts with a Buster up attached to it. Romulus can do really surprising damage with his NP when he lucks out with Imperial Privilege, especially since its unupgraded. In addition, his NP will further boost his damage. Romulus is mid-A because his second buff is inconsistent and his 3rd buffs are extremely short lived, especially the Guts which hampers its use as a defensive tool.

Grails will boost his damage, but it doesn't solve the glaring problems in his kit. He will actually do more damage ungrailed with Imperial Privilege than Grailed without it, so it doesn't really change where he stands in B-rank.

Darius III: Darius is a pretty low-B. He has three pretty good skills in Golden Rule, Disengage, and Battle Continuation which all synergize well together. Healing, debuff removal, and Guts provides longevity while Golden Rule helps to make the NP more consistent. His NP will do decent damage to all enemies and debuff them, but he's not very high impact. Like Bloodaxe, who is similar, the lack of good steroids hurts, and both are outclassed pretty heavily by Spartacus.

Grails will put Darius in more of a mid to upper B-rank. He still has his flaws but he does more damage overall which is useful.

Hector: Hector is another AoE Lancer, and while he doesn't have the raw damage Romulus can have, he's more consistent and provides more utility, making him a solid B-rank. His NP drain and Stun are always inconsistent, but it is still a valuable tool especially on a 5-turn cooldown, and he also provides damage cut for the party, and can heal debuffs. His NP is very bread and butter but ignores Defense buffs which can be useful.

Grails will push him to an upper B-rank by giving his NP a bit more power to compete with Romulus more. Outside from that it's not especially impactful.

Fergus mac Roich: The Saber Buster gorilla. Fergus' damage can be kind of surprising because of his triple Buster kit and solid Attack steroid. He even comes with good survival options in an evade and a couple of defense buffs. His NP is AoE, does decent damage, and inflicts a Defense Down for more face card damage. Unfortunately, his NP generally requires either support or a Kaleidoscope to get consistently, which lowers his ceiling, and while his face card damage is good, he won't be able to keep up in ST with Bedivere or Caesar.

Grails give Fergus remarkably good stats, giving him a lot of HP and a pretty good amount of Attack. It's enough to push him into a low-A-tier because of it. Having the extra HP helps with building his NP gauge indirectly as well.

Kid Gil: Kid Gil is a pretty good silver AoE Archer. Unfortunately, he's not that great overall. He benefits from having a solid Charisma and really good NP gain with Golden Rule, but he only comes out of it with decent NP damage and an NP that's incredibly hard to time right thanks to its 1 turn debuffs. His Charm is also really inconsistent and not a strong point in his kit, thanks to having no survival options. He can overperform with the right timing, but overall is just a decent AoE with no real niche other than good NP gain.

Grails help to push him into high B thanks to his higher damage, but he's not going to be able to compete with Touta or Arash most of the time even with Grails. It is still, however, a decent option.

Geronimo: Geronimo has really good NP damage for his class, and his NP has a number of good, if a little underpowered, effects attached to it. The problem with Geronimo is that everything else is completely out of whack, and he barely qualifies for B-rank as a result. His Buster up isn't completely useless even those his Quick up is, and his NP gain is decent enough but nothing spectacular. Geronimo definitely has the potential to rise up into A-rank and be a really good Assassin killer, but he needs buffs to do that.

Grails push Geronimo to a solid B-rank by giving him more damage, enough damage to start being a threat to some neutral weak waves of mobs instead of just Assassins. It's not enough to carry him any further though.

Hassan of Serenity: Serenity fits very nicely in B-rank. She's nowhere near as good at dealing damage as Asako is, since her NP damage is pretty low due to low ATK and no damage buffs. On the hand, she provides a lot more utility than Asako does and fits nicely into more defensive teams. She has NP drain, crit chance down, crit star bombs, Skill and NP Seal. She can even do some fun DoT strats if you have the right units. Her NP gain isn't great though and using her offensiely is really tough to justify.

Grails push Serenity almost to A-rank. It's a sizable boost to her damage and makes her more consistent, which helps with her utility, but she really can't break into A-rank just because of specificity.

Red Hare: Red Hare is middle B-rank, and probably the worst of the 3-star AoE Riders. His kit is more crit based, having more abilities to make crit stars and do decent amounts of crit damage. The problem is all of his damage boosts are burst in nature, only working a certain number of hits, which doesn't work well with the crit strategy, and his NP damage is rather low and he doesn't have a good overcharge. He does have a good evasion though and can be useful, but isn't consistent enough.

Grails help out his damage, especially for his, and because of this he rises to just about Medusa. He can do more damage overall, but timing is still a problem with his skills, especially since they don't last too long.

Antonio Salieri: Probably the highest B-rank, and very close to an A-rank. Salieri is useful because he's a good offensive Avenger, with decent burst damage and crit potential. He's very similar to Red Hare, but being Arts is a bit more advantageous, and his overcharge eff is better on his NP. Unfortunately like Red Hare, he suffers from having similar issues with his skills, although it is more in terms of burst effectiveness rather than timing like Red Hare. His niche in killing Rulers and Berserkers is also really notable, as he doesn't face any competition except from Gold units.

Grails give him that extra oomph to land him in low A-rank, as he'll do more damage with his crits and his NP this way.

C-Rank Kiyohime: Kiyohime can do some fairly decent damage with her NP, but her kit lacks any hard survival skills and lacks any way to make her NP more consistent. She has a very good Quick and Extra card, but they really rely on other Arts card to generate a lot of NP. Her Def up is largely mitigated by her Stalking and her burn and stun gimmicks are too inconsistent to be used reliably. Overall, there are just better AoE Berserkers to use than Kiyohime.

Grails boosts Kiyohime's damage enough that she'll end up in low B-rank. All of her problems still exist, but she can deal enough damage with her NP to take out even more mid-tier waves and so can be useful there.

Gilles de Rais (Saber): Gilles is a heavily outclassed Servant, but can function as a pretty decent damage dealer thanks to his large buffs and psuedo-permanent Buster buff. Some of his weaknesses can be mitigated thanks to Command Codes, which helps out his bulk and consistency. Gilles would be a lot better if his Tactics did something useful to him, or if his NP buffs lasted longer and maybe give him more crit stars, but right now, he's a Servant who has a potentially good ceiling that requires a lot of help to get there.

Grailed Gilles is still a C-rank Servant. He can do more damage than before, and has a lot more HP to tank on, but he is still a flawed Servant that requires support and is only useful in certain situations.

Mephistopheles: Mephisto is a rather unique C-rank, because he does actually have a pretty relevant niche. His third skill inflicts a 3-time buff block, the best in the game in fact, and can make or break certain boss battles. Unfortunately, Mephisto is C-rank because that is pretty much where his usefulness lies. He has a mediocre Witchcraft which isn't ever fully reliable and a poor star regen skill, and an NP which doesn't do anything notable. Even upgrading his buff block doesn't do anything notable. Mephisto is probably the C-rank Servant you'll be using the most, but if you don't need buff block, there's no reason to use him over better Casters.

Grails improve his NP damage but it doesn't change his standing at all. His NP still isn't good and he has no way to boost its damage on his own. Grails aren't going to help someone whose niche is primarily a one-time skill use.

Jing Ke: Jing Ke is really close to being a competent B-rank. Jing Ke can do some really competent burst damage, but unfortunately, its only when the stars align (get it?). Her damage buffs only last for 1 turn and so don't have good uptime, he hit count is bad so she relies on her NP to generate stars, and she's incredibly fragile due to having low HP, no survival skills, and an NP that inflicts damage to her. A lot of launch Servant woes end up compounding onto Jing Ke, and while she's the best Quick Assassin DPS on a budget, it's not a niche that necessarily needs filling all that often, especially since Asako is far better than her on general DPS.

Grails not only boost her NP damage, but also give her more HP which helps Jing Ke have some breathing room. She's still pretty flawed but does become a low B-rank because of how grails help her. You might be better off waiting for more Jing Ke buffs before grailing her, however.

Diarmuid Ua Duibhne: Another high C-rank that is really close to being a competent B-rank. Diarmuid is a pretty outclassed Lancer that suffers from having pretty bad utility and low damage output. He is certainly usable, but has serious flaws. His NP gain is only mediocre even with two Arts cards, his third skill is completely useless on him due to his incredibly low hit counts, Love Spot is very situational and is a null skill most of the time, and his NP, while it removes buffs, does low damage compative to other NPs. Some more buffs to his kit would make him more usuable.

Grails give Diarmuid the damage boost he needs in order to end up in B-rank. A grailed Diarmuid will end up being a fairly servicable Lancer who is fairly useful against female bosses, although he is still pretty outclassed by most other Lancers.

D-Rank Gilles de Rais: While Saber Gilles is at least somewhat interesting, Caster Gilles has pretty much nothing that makes him remotely usable. His only niche is Terror, but if you need someone who has mediocre, AoE Stun, you can use Shakespeare instead. Gilles has pretty much no useful skills, he has a AoE NP with no good effects and no way to boost its damage, and will always be outclassed even by the more mediocre Casters.

Grails will make him do more damage, sure. He will still bring less to the table than other Servants, and hence, will still continue to reside in D-rank.

Henry Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: In contrast to Gilles, Jekyll and Hyde are a very interesting Servant with an incredibly unique gimmick. Unfortunately, having a gimmick is not the same as having a niche. Jekyll is completely dead weight as an Assassin, having no ability to deal damage, providing meaningful support, or generate stars. None of his skils are remotely usable as Jekyll, his hit counts are bad, and his stat spread favors HP. His NP will change his class to Berserker, give him a large Max HP and Buster bonus, and fully heal him, but Hyde is still a pretty mediocre Berserker vulnerable to buff removal. A lack of a damaging NP means he can't really make use of his buffs beyond mediocre face card damage. The best thing about Hyde is the most consistent stun in game at 160%, able to even pierce really high debuff resistance, but the effort required to field that isn't useful. Jekyll requires a Waver level rework to really be worth taking seriously.

Grails make him better statistically, sure, but it has no real impact on his performance. Grail him if you like psycho twinks.

[mythical-song-wolf]

BNHA Angst Week

Day 7: Rose // Time

White day was fast approaching and normally, after being in a relationship for so long, Izuku would be excited for that day. Because he gets to pamper and get pampered by his Kacchan.

But he can’t do that.

Why?

Because he’s back a good decade or so before he even started dating Katsuki. He’s back in middle school, a good month before the sludge villain and meeting All Might. Over a good year before he and Kacchan finally clear up that misunderstanding that was— is simmering between them since they were kids.

But Deku just wants his Kacchan, even if only for a moment. He’s knows it’s selfish. He knows it’s wrong. He knows he shouldn’t be doing things. But... the heart wants what the heart wants and Deku doesn’t know if he’ll be okay if he doesn’t at least do this.

Izuku goes out to buy somethings. He’ll need to be careful when buying it. Hopefully Kacchan doesn’t see him, he doesn’t know what he’ll do if he sees those beautiful crimson eyes again.

Katsuki stops over to class, irritated and patience waning since he woke up.

First his mom had to shout him awake, saying that her and the old man will be out to get stuff for White day and all that shit.

Second, he was reminded fucking White day was coming up. The day he was planning on asking that nerd... Before that bastard... No. He shouldn’t think of it. There’s no use thinking about it when he’s been set back by literal years. Him and Deku aren’t a thing yet.

Deku is still the derogatory nickname he used for Izuku for years. It’s not the name of a hero just yet.

Deku, to Katsuki at this point in the timeline, is a useless, Quirkless, weak pebble on the side of the road that Katsuki should not pay mind to.

But Katsuki knows better. He’s a goddamn time traveller, of course he would know better. He knows Deku has a better heart than most Pro Heroes. He knows Deku would sacrifice himself again and again and again to save someone. He knows Deku is stronger than anyone he’s ever met. He knows Deku is the name of a hero, of a Symbol of Hope.

He knows that Deku is the name that brought— will bring hope in people’s hearts. Brought— bring hope in the hearts of Ochako, Tenya, Shouto, Eri, Sir Fucking Nighteye, and various other people.

But to him, Deku is the name of the guy that was always chasing after him. The guy he’s known since they were kids. And while they were never on friendly terms before U.A.. They always had a strange synergy with each other. When they didn’t think about it they moved seamlessly and in tandem with the other.

The first time it happen outside of training and life threatening situations is after they had long since started dating and moved into the same apartment. They were making dinner one night and they weaved and moved around perfectly with the other, passing things along and moving as easily as they would in a battle. The realization that they didn’t say a word to each other during the entire time they were cooking hit them when they were eating as one of them started talking.

They paused, before they broke out in a fit of giggles. A warm fluttering in their hearts as they smiled and laughed so hard that their cheeks started to hurt and they could both barely breathe.

After they calmed down, Izuku sighed, looking at Katsuki with his shining green eyes, “I love you...” He smiled at him with his eyes shining like emeralds reflecting the colour of the sea during sunset.

Katsuki smiled back, “I love you too, dork,” He chuckled, “Now, let’s eat?”

Izuku chuckled, before nodding, “Yeah.”

Katsuki’s heart flutters at the memory, before it painfully coils. He can’t have that now. He can’t have that for a long, long time. He won’t wake up to Izuku’s cute freckled mug in the morning. He won’t come home to cuddle with Izuku on the couch after a rough day. He won’t have the cheesy but nice walks down the park or beach during sunset. He won’t have Izuku looking at him like he’s... no, Izuku already looks up to him. He just won’t have Izuku looking at him the way he looks at Izuku right now.

Katsuki goes out. He doesn’t want to— shouldn’t be home alone right now. He might do something stupid like break a window or make a dent in the wall.

Izuku was pacing through the market, a checklist in hand and a hood over his head.

“Let’s see, I need some chocolate, cream... cocoa powder... caramel... food colouring...” Izuku mutters, as he walks into a grocery store and weaves through the aisles of the store. Briefly glancing up to check the shelves for the item’s he’s looking for and picking out what he needs.

Izuku hums once he’s done, “Perfect! Now I just need to do— Oof!” He bumps into another person while turning the corner.

“Sorry—” The voice sounds familiar... probably one of his classmates... great.

Izuku shakes his head, “No, it’s fin—” Izuku looks up see pale blonde hair and crimson red eyes. His heart stops. No.

“De- Deku...” Kacchan mutters, hesitant and unsure, sounding nothing like the boy Izuku remembers him to be at this time. But Izuku doesn’t notice over the own ache in his heart.

Izuku swallows down the fear in his system, “Ka- Kacchan...”

The two just stand there for a few moments, staring at each other. As if they’re trying to find something that they have already accepted it isn’t there.

He’s not yours yet.

I know.

“We- Well, Kacchan, I- I need to go,” Izuku stutters, hopefully Katsuki doesn’t notice the crack in his voice, taking a step back before walking around Katsuki.

Katsuki breaks out of his haze when Izuku leaves, he sighs and combs a hand through his hair.

Good job, shithead. You scared him.

Shut up... He... he isn’t the... he’s not my Izuku.

Not yet.

Katsuki shakes his head, ignoring the stupidly hopeful whispers in his brain telling him to woo Izuku now and not make the same mistakes as before. He wants to, too. Oh how he fucking wants to. How much he wants to change how he treated Izuku. How much he wants to change how terrible they both were at communicating properly. How... he so badly wants to change how Izuku looks at him, with his pretty eyes staring at him like a rabbit sensing a predator. How Izuku seems to freeze the moment they lock eyes, unmoving and scared. Scared of Katsuki.

Katsuki shakes his head, telling his brain to stop, before he continues buying stuff from the store with the occasional sight of Deku’s fluff green hair.

Katsuki sees the flower display and spots a suisen.

Maybe I should...

Izuku was currently sleeping the warmth of his bed, a warm figure pressed against his back holding him close.

Izuku instinctually snuggles up closer to them, “Kacchan...”

“Mhm,” Katsuki grumbles, nuzzling his face into Izuku’s hair.

A part of Izuku’s brain jolts into awareness, you were sent back. Kacchan shouldn’t be here.

Another part, the selfish, foolish, hopeful part of his brain hopes that it’s a lies and wants this to be real. To just have Katsuki with him, right now. Let him have this. Please.

A soft voice whispers in Izuku’s eat, the warmth of their breath making Izuku shiver, “Deku... I’m not there... wake up, Deku, wake up... I’m not there, bunny.”

“Mhm,” Izuku grumbles in protest, “But you’re right here.” Izuku grabs onto Katsuki’s hand that rests on his chest.

Katsuki sighs, and it’s heavy, tired, and wary, “I’m sorry... but... I’m not. He didn’t send me back... Only you... time for you to wake up, Deku... Izuku, wake up.”

Izuku feels himself trembling, clutching onto the hand holding him close, “Please, let me have this,” Izuku begs, as he feels tears roll down his cheeks, “Just let me have him back, just this one moment. Please.”

Katsuki doesn’t say anything, but the warmth from his form is long gone now that Izuku is aware.

“I’m sorry, bunny.” Izuku can feel Katsuki’s presence fading, he turns to see Katsuki actually fading away like an illusion or a dream.

“Please... no... Kacchan... Katsuki... don’t leave me...” Izuku tries to grab some part of the fading figure.

“Please, Izuku, love, don’t cry. Please.” Katsuki places his palm on Izuku’s cheek and wipes away a few tears. Izuku leans into his touch and places his own palm over Katsuki’s, as he fades away and Izuku is left all alone.

When White Day came, Izuku and Katsuki went by the day as normal. Izuku with his isolation and notes, and Katsuki with his showboating. Neither interacting unless provoked by one of their classmates.

Lunch rolls by and the moment everyone leaves, Izuku places something on Katsuki’s desk.

Katsuki returns with his lackeys near the end of lunch to spot a box of chocolate on his desk with flowers. A white rose, a primrose, a red camellia, and a gladiolus. Katsuki looks at the box and the small bouquet for a moment, before glancing around to try and find Deku.

It couldn’t have... no. It’s probably some other idiot... but did this happen in the first timeline? Maybe I’m going a bit insane... but it could’ve only have been him...

Katsuki gently places the box and flowers in his bag.

The school day has ended, and Izuku isn’t surprised he didn’t receive anything from anyone. But it still hurts. A foolish and selfish part of him had hoped that Katsuki was sent back with him and would give him something, but Izuku knows better than that.

Upon opening his locker, a small note falls out.

‘Happy White Day, bunny~ <3

Love, your’s truly’

Bunny... Only Katsuki has ever...

Izuku’s heart flutters at the possibility.

It... it’s never bad to hope... right?

Inside his locker he finds a few more things, a small arrangement of flowers and a box of chocolates. A daffodil, a white camellia, a yellow camellia, a yellow tulip, and a blue iris that stands out amongst the brighter colours.

Izuku walks home holding the flowers and the box of chocolates close to his heart.

[lucidrook]

Typically I don't post much here but I wanted to give my thoughts about Cult of the Lamb as someone who plays a lot of roguelikes.

The entire game is great with an amazing artstyle, and I agree with some that the roguelike portion is a bit shallow. But it's still really damned enjoyable! A lot of roguelikes it feels like you are at the mercy of RNG, Binding of Isaac is an amazing example of this, if you get bad items, no matter how skilled you are, you will lose. Hades is a little different, it balances blessings and your own skill very well. But you CAN still get fucked by RNG, but Hades is likely the best example I can give of a Roguelike where you are not at the mercy of RNG.

Risk of Rain 2 (And it's predecessor) have the same issue of RNG fucking you up a lot and if you don't get good items you lose, no skill involved there, you just won't have enough DPS or survivability for the final bosses or to get through the game fast enough which is a shame.

Gunfire Reborn is another roguelike with the same issue, if RNG is not kind to you, you will lose- but luckily Gunfire is a sort of inbetween to games like RoR2 and Hades, where RNG can screw you but there is a bit of skill involved.

I could keep going on but, the point I make here is despite the shallow roguelike mechanics, Cult of the Lamb feels incredibly good to play, it gives me a similar feeling to Hades which is very, very good. And it involves /skill/ to be good. RNG helps but it is not your lord and master like in every other roguelike i've played.

You won't get the insane synergies of Risk of Rain 2, or Hades, or Binding of Isaac, but you will get the gift of not being at the mercy of RNG, RNG is at the mercy of you.

Nevermind the cult management portions of the game, which are really fun and rewarding. My only gripe with it is that it was a bit too easy to max out everything very, very early. On my first run on Hard I got everything in the cult maxed out before Shamura. On my second almost before Heket.

I honestly think my only gripe with the game is that its buggy (Which is no longer a gripe, most of the major bugs on Switch have been patched out.), The fact that you can't refight the final boss, which is a shame, it was a fun fight- and that I want there to be more content. There's a few minor quality of life things I wish you could do as well, like forcing certain followers to always do a specific job, more quest variety for what your followers ask you for, maybe more endgame? Like I'd enjoy an area where it essentially randomises the rooms between all four areas and randomises the boss so you can do more roguelike stuff.

But besides that, the game is honestly great, it isn't super polished but it's an indie Dev with only two other releases, I ain't expecting polish, I'm expecting a good game- and that was delivered.

[mdizonjr]

Lonzo Ball leader of the Lakers

I had to make this Russel vs Ball debate because of all the hype his getting for the Brooklyn Nets & the Laker fam wants to know if I ever regret the Lakers trading away D’Angelo Russel the answer is NO because we have a great point guard in LONZO BALL who I love.

First things first about RUSSEL!! It wasn’t about your talent. It was about your snitching also bringing your personal problems into the locker room & Lakers were forced to trade you because you couldn’t keep a guy on the team nobody liked or trusted. Magic said you weren’t a leader at the time for the Lakers & Magic had to Package you with Mozgov to get rid of his huge contract. Lakers drafted you high Because they knew you were talented but had to trade you because you were too immature at the time. I think Russel needed to get traded anyways in order for him to grow and fine himself as a player.  

Here is why I truly believe Ball is light years ahead of Russel. Zo came into the league with a very high basketball IQ and great defense we didn’t draft him for his scoring. Lakers drafted him for being a first pass PG, his vision on the court is very high even superstars in the league such as kyrie & cp3 etc etc are telling us that his very hard to play against and has a very good eye for the game.

Also as my bro Ryan said which I completely agreed with him was that Luke didn’t know how to coach Lonzo Ball Luke misused ball and great example was Zo would start to play great but would yank him out and most of the times won’t even put him back on the game some games he would play 35+ mins a game & than some he would barely get playing time but zo never ever complained he did what was told him when he played he killed it I would like to go back to the two games in January where the Lakers were still battling for their playoff lives coming off a huge game against OKC that was an insane game led by Balls defense they beat OKC 138-128 in overtime Balls final stats for that games was 33mins 18pts, 6rebs, 10ast, 1stl, & against the rockets they were up big vs the rockets we had that game won until Zo went down with an ankle injury in the 3rdquarter and the rest was history we eneded up losing that game in overtime 138-124 and zos final stats for that game was 22mins, 8pts, 3rebs,11ast,1stl,1blk I will go more in depth as to why Zos game is very impactful in the following.

Before Ball suffered the ankle sprain. Ball seemed to be finding his groove. He was a big part of a defense that ranked seventh in the league at the time posting a defensive rating of 106.3.

Laker Fans were starting to endorse him to an All-Defense team, which would be a high honor for just a second-year player. Expressing individual defense impact is not always clear but Ball was showing that if he stayed healthy he could have had a case going for him.

When we think of players for Defensive Player of the Year or All-Defense teams, typically the multi-positioned wing comes to mind like a Kawhi Leanord or the athletic defensive center that anchors the back line like a Rudy Gobert.

Guards aren’t the first thing we really think of and the last one to win the most prestigious defensive award was Gary Payton back in the 1995-96 season. Guards who make a big impact defensively; especially at a young age, are few and far between.

Ball, though, was a rare impact defender as a guard and was building a case as a potential All-Defense candidate in multiple different areas on the court.

For off-ball As the league becomes more screen heavy and advanced offensively, the ability to be a good off-ball defender with a consistent motor becomes a paramount skill for a good defensive guard. Ball’s a tremendous help defender who has made a living out of creating havoc while still having the ability to recover to his man. He led the Lakers in steals, steal percentage and deflections before going down.

Most of these come from him blowing up the opposition’s play by combining both incredible instincts and quick hands to create live ball turnovers.

The Lakers had a multitude of off-the-court issues, but there is no doubt the defense plummeted once Ball went down. The team went from seventh to a league-worst posting a 115.7 defensive rating in the games following his injury. Ball had a polarizing reputation nationally but in the way the team struggled during his absence, his value around the league certainly has grown.

Being a good on-ball defender in the NBA can be tough with the amount of offensive talent in the league, but Ball does a pretty good job staying disciplined while leveraging his quickness and length. He has good size for a point guard and uses that to contest high at the rim.

Per Synergy, Ball ranks in the 92nd percentile in defending jump shots off the dribble in 149 possessions. Ball allowed a shooting percentage of 30.9 percent and just 109 points for 0.732 points per possession.

On the perimeter, he does a good job keeping hands high and getting close without fouling shooters.

Ball’s season will end with him only playing in 47 games, an unfortunate situation as he seemed to have turned a corner on both ends of the floor. After a late start to the preseason last year due to surgery, he had started to look like he was just getting fully healthy.

The numbers started to back it up as well. For guards averaging at least 30 minutes, he was fourth in real defensive plus-minus and eighth in defensive rating.

In one of the most common actions he defended, Ball held opponents to 135 points in 157 possessions in high pick and rolls, ranking in the 83rd percentile. After a slow start to the season, from December 1 through present day, the Lakers had a defensive rating of 103.6 with Ball on the court and a rating of 112.9 with him off. That’s the difference between being the best defense in the league and the 28th-ranked defense.

It still would have remained to be seen whether or not he would crack an All-Defense team this year if the Lakers stayed healthy, but it’s undeniable he was a difference-maker on that end of the court.

[saviorownsoul]

My Thoughts on Nerfs/Buffs for OW Heroes

For the most part I think Blizzard has done a great job of balancing the game with its diverse set of heroes and unique abilities. Yes the dive meta is very annoying and feels much more luck-based than the other seasons but I think once people begin to optimize their synergies with diverse team comps, dive comp will have less value. That being said, here are my proposed buffs/nerfs/reworks for each hero as they stand now (btw this is from the perspective of a Master rank support/tank player):

Doomfist - Really hard to say how he’ll pan out in the grand meta of the game, but he seems like a potent bruiser who can peel for his backline or get a cheeky flank initiation for his team. His 4-sec instakill seems a bit much…maybe extend it to 6 seconds and give him slightly more health.

Genji - Seems alright atm, though his ult feels like one of the few dps ults that practically guarantees at least one kill everytime he uses it due to having the best initiation tool in the game (swift strike) along with cleave damage that ignores shields and matrix. Perhaps a slight nerf to it, but I wouldn’t mind if he stays the way he is.

McCree - Decrease flashbang timer, a slight buff to his damage falloff and he’ll be good.

Pharah - Honestly pretty balanced atm, a lot of ppl just don’t know how to deal with her optimally so it tends to be frustrating to fight against.

Reaper - After his life steal buff he’s super viable but I still think his teleport is booty other than for setup purposes. Just decrease the time it takes to actually teleport and I think he’ll be perfect.

Soldier 76 - Very solid right now but not broken, maybe a very small damage nerf. I wouldn’t mind if Blizz just left him alone for now.

Sombra - Honestly, I think she may need some nerfing. Yes she’s hard to play, but her ult has very little counter play except for Widow’s ult to alert you to her EMP positioning. I think once people begin to optimize her she’ll get an ult charge nerf but we’ll see.

Tracer - At the highest levels of play she is godlike. Insane mobility coupled with great damage makes her a huge asset. A good Tracer has no true counters, so I propose that she gets a slight damage nerf but her ult charge rate is increased so that she’ll have more reliable burst damage. If that’s not enough to mitigate the damage decrease they could decrease the time between her blinks so that she’s more harass-oriented.

Bastion - Honestly, he’s fine right now especially after his rework.

Hanzo - Strong and viable but scatter arrow will probably get changed sooner or later. It’s the next one-shot ability that people will call out once Hanzo makes his way further into the meta. They’ll probably just nerf its raw damage output.

Junkrat - The hero most in need of buffs/rework imo. Grenades need to be faster because they are impossible to hit anyone with that isn’t within Symmetra beam range. Also I think he should have access to two traps instead of just one, at least 50 hp buff to his tire ult, and his martyrdom passive should have more of an impact like a direct explosion upon death instead of just a bunch of grenades that never hit anyone.

Mei - Fine atm, maybe her freeze could proc slightly faster?

Torbjorn - Super underrated, I really don’t think he needs any buffing/nerfing but perhaps a quality of life change for his armor packs so that teammates know where they’re laying on the ground.

Widowmaker - Pretty good atm, I think venom mine should do a little more damage because it’s one of the least impactful skills in the game other than for calling out flankers.

D.VA - The hero most complained about atm for her unrivaled ability to completely shutdown 90% of heroes due to her matrix. Put her total health back to 500 (keep the hp:armor ratio tho) and let her matrix for 3 seconds continuously instead of 4. I think that’ll do the trick.

Orisa - Pretty solid atm, only reason she’s not played more is because dive is such a mess. Wishful thinking wants me to have her original damage output back, but as it stands now she’s fine.

Reinhardt - Once his 10% swing speed buff, charge hitbox changes, shatter debugs, and general jankness reversal hit live he will be awesome. A great change to charge that I think would make it the ultimate high risk high reward ability would be to give it a “shishkebab” effect where he can pin more than one person in one charge. Just imagine the plays… Also quality of life change that allows his teammates to see through Reinhardt while his shield is up so there's more incentive to stay behind it.

Roadhog - After careful thought I don’t think they really needed to change Roadhog the way they did even though the one shot hook combo was frustrating to play against. If Blizzard intends on keeping Roadhog like this, they should lower his hook cooldown back to 6 seconds and give him even more hp so that he could have more of a presence in the thick of a team fight. At the very least, they should just give him back the 6 second hook cooldown.

Winston - Super strong atm but I think that’s mainly from the meta rather than Winston himself. I think he’s pretty balanced but if they have to nerf him, they should just lower his damage output a bit since his value comes from the ridiculous amount of space he grants his team rather than his killing ability.

Zarya - Once her graviton’s true root capabilities go through to live she’ll be right as rain. A CC ult that takes almost 3 minutes to build shouldn’t be countered by a hero movement ability with a 2 second cooldown.

Ana - Fine.

Lucio - Also fine.

Mercy - Rework her rez to be lower risk lower reward but give her an extra ability that gives her staying power in team fights.

Symmetra - Pretty balanced but I think she should have a “continuing ult” capability where she is rewarded for continuously damaging the enemy team while her tele/shield gen are active. It’s a bit awkward when she relies on spamming chokes with her orbs and cheeky flanks to build ult…and then you get ult and have it out for extended periods of time…

Zenyatta - Is fine the way he is.

[ralphlayton]

5 Ways to Humanize B2B Content Marketing

“You’ve really got to put yourself out there. Don’t be too stiff.” “Be honest and sincere!” “Be vulnerable and relatable… and it doesn’t hurt if you can make ‘em laugh.” Is this advice for a middle-aged man trying online dating for the first time? Or is it advice for B2B marketers? Given the proximity to Valentine’s Day, can’t it be both? The point is, as good as this advice may be for marketers, it’s as vague as it is omnipresent. We talk about “person-to-person” marketing and “humanizing the brand.” But what does it really mean to humanize a brand?  [caption id="attachment_28012" align="alignnone" width="474"] Yes, these were the original Michelin Tire mascots.[/caption] In some cases, apparently, it means high-octane nightmare fuel. So, maybe don’t try and make an adorable mascot for your software-as-a-service solution. Here are some better ways to “humanize” your B2B content.

5 Ways to Humanize B2B Content Marketing

It can be hard to bring out the humanity in B2B content, especially when your product is intangible. Not many folks feel a warm sense of empathy with a cloud-based data solution. You can’t take adorable Instagram photos of happy customers cuddling with your supply chain logistics platform. That just means that B2B content marketers have to be more creative than even our B2C counterparts. 

Get Real about Personalization

We all know there’s a fine line between being personal and being overly familiar. But we have to find that sweet spot between, “Hi, [firstname]” and “Hey Bob Johnson, 42, who ate a hamburger for lunch, how was your recent prostate exam?” For B2B marketers, think more about smarter segmentation and less about personalizing on the individual level. As Ardath Albee (persona expert extraordinaire) puts it, “In B2B, we don’t need to know their shoe size and we don’t need to talk about their gender. We don’t need to know they live in the suburbs and have a wife, two kids, and a dog, and they drive a red Corvette.” What we do need to know are the general challenges and aspirations people with a specific job title in a specific industry might have in common. Then we can customize content to suit their job-related needs — even the ones that don’t relate directly to the product. 

Find the Emotional Core

It’s hard to imagine someone getting emotional about a B2B product — jumping up and down with excitement, wiping away tears, or eagerly unboxing the latest model. For B2C, the product itself might inspire these emotions. For B2B, the emotion comes in at a different angle. It’s not about the solution itself — the emotion comes from what the solution can do. For example, the product may be a software solution that enables automation. The emotion comes from an employee who is able to finally leave work on time to be at home with their family.  Or it’s the thrill of earning a promotion with the help of a new analytics tool. Or the intertwined hope and anxiety of starting your own business, using a web hosting platform to launch your first site.  [bctt tweet="“Find the emotional stories that your solution makes possible, and make them the star of your content.” @Nitewrites " username="toprank"]

Design a Content Experience

We know that valuable, best-answer content is the minimum for reaching an audience. That’s the new table stakes.  But B2B marketers are frequently accustomed to no-frills, straightforward presentation for all that thoughtful content. It’s called a white paper, after all, not a plaid paper. But when we’re thoughtful about the content experience, we can show off the brand’s creativity and personality, while at the same time showing respect for the audience. Think about turning a long-scrolling asset into a beautiful and unique interactive experience. Or that series of interview posts into a long-form video series. Content experience is all about telling your audience, “Hey, we know that people need to be entertained. We’re people, too! So we made this not only useful, but also beautiful to look at and fun to play around with.” 

Earn Trust By Asking for Help

I know, it’s tempting to present your brand as the alpha and omega, be-all and end-all source of all knowledge. If your wisdom isn’t absolute, why would people trust you as an authority? But the truth is, humility builds credibility more than the most dazzling display of knowledge does.  It’s called the Ben Franklin effect: When you help someone, you tend to like them — even more than if they helped you. So, give your audience an opportunity to help you out.  Ask questions that you genuinely want to hear answers to. Engage with their responses, ask more, let their expertise drive an ongoing conversation. This type of engagement accomplishes multiple goals:

Your audience gets to show off their expertise

Even those who don’t participate can now see themselves in your content

Your brand becomes relatable and interactive

You might actually learn something that can drive your next big idea

Involve More Actual Humans in Content

Brands don’t create content; people do. But frequently we hide the human content creators behind the monolith of the brand. If we’re trying to connect with people on a personal level, we’ve got to let the people shine through. That means giving employees and executives alike a voice in your content. But don’t stop there: Feature your customers and prospects, too.  Think about including influencers in your content as well, and not just as a one-off. Yet another of the endless perks of influencer marketing is that humanization of your brand. Influencers add credibility and prestige to content, but don’t overlook how they add personality, humor, and humanity, too.

Embrace Your Human Side

As a creative writer with a weird sense of humor, I’m incredibly lucky to be in marketing right now. Just a decade ago, B2B marketing would have driven me insane by my third dry-as-dust eBook. There’s only so many times you can write about “utilizing and leveraging synergy” in third-person passive voice before the gears start to slip. Fortunately, B2B content marketing has finally caught up with B2C in terms of creativity, emotional import, and essential humanity. We have “permission” to do it right — so what are we waiting for? Humanize your brand with some great influencer content this year: Here are 25 ideas to get you started.

The post 5 Ways to Humanize B2B Content Marketing appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.

5 Ways to Humanize B2B Content Marketing published first on yhttps://improfitninja.blogspot.com/

[samuelpboswell]

5 Ways to Humanize B2B Content Marketing

“You’ve really got to put yourself out there. Don’t be too stiff.” “Be honest and sincere!” “Be vulnerable and relatable… and it doesn’t hurt if you can make ‘em laugh.” Is this advice for a middle-aged man trying online dating for the first time? Or is it advice for B2B marketers? Given the proximity to Valentine’s Day, can’t it be both? The point is, as good as this advice may be for marketers, it’s as vague as it is omnipresent. We talk about “person-to-person” marketing and “humanizing the brand.” But what does it really mean to humanize a brand?  [caption id="attachment_28012" align="alignnone" width="474"] Yes, these were the original Michelin Tire mascots.[/caption] In some cases, apparently, it means high-octane nightmare fuel. So, maybe don’t try and make an adorable mascot for your software-as-a-service solution. Here are some better ways to “humanize” your B2B content.

5 Ways to Humanize B2B Content Marketing

It can be hard to bring out the humanity in B2B content, especially when your product is intangible. Not many folks feel a warm sense of empathy with a cloud-based data solution. You can’t take adorable Instagram photos of happy customers cuddling with your supply chain logistics platform. That just means that B2B content marketers have to be more creative than even our B2C counterparts. 

Get Real about Personalization

We all know there’s a fine line between being personal and being overly familiar. But we have to find that sweet spot between, “Hi, [firstname]” and “Hey Bob Johnson, 42, who ate a hamburger for lunch, how was your recent prostate exam?” For B2B marketers, think more about smarter segmentation and less about personalizing on the individual level. As Ardath Albee (persona expert extraordinaire) puts it, “In B2B, we don’t need to know their shoe size and we don’t need to talk about their gender. We don’t need to know they live in the suburbs and have a wife, two kids, and a dog, and they drive a red Corvette.” What we do need to know are the general challenges and aspirations people with a specific job title in a specific industry might have in common. Then we can customize content to suit their job-related needs — even the ones that don’t relate directly to the product. 

Find the Emotional Core

It’s hard to imagine someone getting emotional about a B2B product — jumping up and down with excitement, wiping away tears, or eagerly unboxing the latest model. For B2C, the product itself might inspire these emotions. For B2B, the emotion comes in at a different angle. It’s not about the solution itself — the emotion comes from what the solution can do. For example, the product may be a software solution that enables automation. The emotion comes from an employee who is able to finally leave work on time to be at home with their family.  Or it’s the thrill of earning a promotion with the help of a new analytics tool. Or the intertwined hope and anxiety of starting your own business, using a web hosting platform to launch your first site.  [bctt tweet="“Find the emotional stories that your solution makes possible, and make them the star of your content.” @Nitewrites " username="toprank"]

Design a Content Experience

We know that valuable, best-answer content is the minimum for reaching an audience. That’s the new table stakes.  But B2B marketers are frequently accustomed to no-frills, straightforward presentation for all that thoughtful content. It’s called a white paper, after all, not a plaid paper. But when we’re thoughtful about the content experience, we can show off the brand’s creativity and personality, while at the same time showing respect for the audience. Think about turning a long-scrolling asset into a beautiful and unique interactive experience. Or that series of interview posts into a long-form video series. Content experience is all about telling your audience, “Hey, we know that people need to be entertained. We’re people, too! So we made this not only useful, but also beautiful to look at and fun to play around with.” 

Earn Trust By Asking for Help

I know, it’s tempting to present your brand as the alpha and omega, be-all and end-all source of all knowledge. If your wisdom isn’t absolute, why would people trust you as an authority? But the truth is, humility builds credibility more than the most dazzling display of knowledge does.  It’s called the Ben Franklin effect: When you help someone, you tend to like them — even more than if they helped you. So, give your audience an opportunity to help you out.  Ask questions that you genuinely want to hear answers to. Engage with their responses, ask more, let their expertise drive an ongoing conversation. This type of engagement accomplishes multiple goals:

Your audience gets to show off their expertise

Even those who don’t participate can now see themselves in your content

Your brand becomes relatable and interactive

You might actually learn something that can drive your next big idea

Involve More Actual Humans in Content

Brands don’t create content; people do. But frequently we hide the human content creators behind the monolith of the brand. If we’re trying to connect with people on a personal level, we’ve got to let the people shine through. That means giving employees and executives alike a voice in your content. But don’t stop there: Feature your customers and prospects, too.  Think about including influencers in your content as well, and not just as a one-off. Yet another of the endless perks of influencer marketing is that humanization of your brand. Influencers add credibility and prestige to content, but don’t overlook how they add personality, humor, and humanity, too.

Embrace Your Human Side

As a creative writer with a weird sense of humor, I’m incredibly lucky to be in marketing right now. Just a decade ago, B2B marketing would have driven me insane by my third dry-as-dust eBook. There’s only so many times you can write about “utilizing and leveraging synergy” in third-person passive voice before the gears start to slip. Fortunately, B2B content marketing has finally caught up with B2C in terms of creativity, emotional import, and essential humanity. We have “permission” to do it right — so what are we waiting for? Humanize your brand with some great influencer content this year: Here are 25 ideas to get you started.

The post 5 Ways to Humanize B2B Content Marketing appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.

from The SEO Advantages https://www.toprankblog.com/2020/02/humanize-b2b-content-marketing/

[gamerszone2019-blog]

Wolfenstein: Youngblood Review

New Post has been published on https://gamerszone.tn/wolfenstein-youngblood-review/

Wolfenstein: Youngblood Review

Most parents hope that their kids will one day surpass them, but failing that we’ll settle for staying out of prison and not asking for money too often. So if I were in the shoes of legendary run-and-gun shooter protagonist William “BJ” Blazkowicz, I wouldn’t be mad about my twin daughters’ debut performance in Wolfenstein: Youngblood

, but I would be disappointed. The young Blazkowiczs’ approach to co-op is, on the whole, serviceable but does cramp the style of its inherited trust fund of combat and stealth gameplay. Without a similarly outlandish cast of characters to liven up the alternate-history setting in which Nazis won WWII with the help of fire-breathing robot dogs, it’s perfunctory compared to the extremely high standard set by Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus.Nearly everything about Youngblood feels like a step down from Wolfenstein 2’s distinctively zany plot and satisfyingly energetic Nazi-slaughter action. Outside of a single reveal, this story – the daughters’ search for an MIA BJ in Paris, which is still lousy with Nazis about 20 years later – has nothing surprising up its sleeve to add to the Machinegames Wolfenstein reboot series’ collection of WTF moments. That’s partially due to the minimal number of story cutscenes within the main missions, but really it’s because of a stark lack of interesting characters to fill the shoes of batshit insane companions like Super Spesh or Set, to name a few. Abby, the daughter of Wolfenstein 2’s Grace Walker, is about as bland a hacker helper character as you’ll ever find, and the monotonously cackling villain isn’t fit to shine Irene Engle’s jackboots. Admittedly, Wolfenstein 2 is a tough act to follow in those departments, but Youngblood barely seems to try.

BJ himself is among the weaker characters in the previous two games (aside from those flashbacks to his childhood), and in that respect his apples haven’t fallen far from the tree. Soph and Jess’ defining character trait is being snort-laughing dorks together, who would be at least a little adorable except for their constant use of fist-bumping and horrible ‘80s slang (read: “tubular!”) like gender-swapped frat bros. They’re not unlikeable when they’re chatting about memories of hunting with their dad or novelist aspirations in heavy Texan accents, but they’re not exactly breakout stars I want to see more of, either. They’re… fine.

The sisters, who have identical abilities thanks to their power armor suits, start with at least a few of the key moves BJ has to work for in Wolfenstein 2 – most notably the double-jump – and earn plenty of upgrades from there. To Youngblood’s credit, there are too many upgrades to get them all without playing exhaustively, so specialization does matter, though not to the extent where I see opportunities for a lot of synergy between abilities. You can focus on buffing up your health and armor maximums, intensify your melee damage, gain the ability to pick up and upgrade heavy weapons, and more. We also get pretty much all the same arsenal of pistols, shotguns, SMGs, rifles, etc. that the twins’ father wielded two decades earlier (though annoyingly, only pistols can be dual-wielded), and they can all be upgraded with modifiers like muzzles, sights, and stocks that increase their power as you go. It’s the most visible representation of progression because those changes are reflected on the gun models you’re holding. Seeing the stock SMG become a tricked-out version is a satisfying transformation.

The Blazkowicz twins aren’t exactly breakout stars I want to see more of. They’re… fine.

“

But the addition of a leveling system for both the girls and the Nazis they fight doesn’t do the combat any favors. For one thing, as a veteran of the first two games in this series it was jarring to see a name and number pop up over the head of an enemy when I aimed at them to indicate how their power level compared to mine. More importantly, it messed up the balance of about two thirds of the fights: when you’re going up against techno-fascists who are right at your level, combat feels just about how it should, but enemies that are beneath your level are mere fodder and those above are annoying bullet sponges that reward you with only a little more XP. When you’re dealing with heavily armored super-soldiers, that’s not much fun.

This leveling system clashes with Wolfenstein’s design: unlike in Fallout or Borderlands, there’s no loot to make the potential reward worth the risk of taking on a bad guy several levels out of your league. Seeing one just means you should turn around and come back later, and defeats the purpose of the non-linear structure of Youngblood’s missions. Sure, I can travel to zones in any order I want, but if they have a big burly bouncer at the door they can’t exactly be done in whatever order I choose anyway.

Wolfenstein: Youngblood

Those zones are adequate but similarly pale shadows of what’s come before. The best example is seeing vestiges of a parade that immediately reminded me of Wolfenstein 2’s Nazi parade scene in New Mexico – which has to be a deliberate callback – but without any of the liveliness. Beyond that it’s largely a collection of high-tech Nazi facilities and war-torn city blocks, distinguished mostly by good use of multi-story structures to double-jump around on and the lightest of Metroidvania design touches, asking you to use one of the three heavy weapons – a laser, an electric zapper, and a sticky grenade launcher – to blast open new areas.

No Quiet on the Western Front

Of course, shooting Nazis until their faces fall off is only two thirds of the magic of Wolfenstein’s previous success. The other is stabbing them repeatedly, occasionally while cupping a hand over their mouth and whispering “Ssssh, it’ll be over soon, you goose-stepping douche” into their ear – then doing the same to about a dozen of their friends before you get around to the shooting part. Naturally, Youngblood messes this up, too. Its level and enemy layouts simply aren’t designed with stealth in mind, and attempting to play it in the way I’d had success with previously almost always went poorly. Either you’re spotted by a flying drone or there’s no way to separate and pick off a group of enemies, forcing you into noisy combat.

Instead, you’re supposed to use the blatant design Band-Aid of the cloaking device, an ability so essential it’s one of two you choose from when initially creating a character (and quickly unlockable if you choose the Crash ramming ability instead). Even before you upgrade it to last longer and let you move faster, it lets you walk right up to an economically anxious German, step around him, and stealthily ventilate his spleen. It feels like a cheat, probably because it absolutely is a cheat. The designers cheated not only the game, but themselves. They didn’t grow. They didn’t improve. They took a shortcut and gained nothing. They experienced a hollow victory. Nothing was risked and nothing was gained.

The cloaking device feels like a cheat, probably because it absolutely is a cheat.

“

Co-op does get a fair amount right. From the start, it’s conveniently and seamlessly drop-in and drop-out because your sister is always with you, controlled by either a friend, an internet rando via quickmatch, or a mostly competent (because it cheats and warps around bigtime) AI when you’re playing solo. Youngblood also does a good job of letting you play with anybody you want regardless of your respective levels – when I was level 25 someone joined me with a brand-new character and was able to hold his own, just with fewer abilities unlocked. His character even got to carry their progress back to single-player, which is always appreciated. That said, I had more than once incident where my co-op partner would experience an annoying lag between when they pulled the trigger and when the enemy they shot would actually take damage – and this even happened on a LAN, so it’s unlikely to be connection-related.

The co-op-first nature of Youngblood’s design does take its toll on the single-player experience, as you’d expect. The first problem I noticed was that you can’t pause, even while playing by yourself. You can go to the menu screen, yes, but then you just get to listen as the Nazis and their suicide-bomber dogs (yes, those are a thing) murder you. Also, every level has annoyingly common doors that require both players to heave them open, no doubt intended to keep you from wandering too far from your partner.

But whether you play with a buddy or solo, death is a lot harder to come by in Youngblood than in previous Wolfensteins because, as is standard in the co-op shooter world, it has a down-but-not-out system where you can revive each other endlessly, as long as you get to the injured person within about a minute. This one is actually unusually generous, because even if you’re both downed you have a pool of up to three “shared lives” that let one of you self-revive to get back on your feet before it’s game over.

Once that generous system runs out, however, the consequences of death can be, as they say in Germany, uber stupid. For example, the final battle in the Brother 2 Tower mission (there are three of these that make up the bulk of the 15-ish hours of story) killed me several times – thanks for nothing, AI-controlled Jess. Each time, it booted me so far back that it took me about 15 minutes just to get back to the boss fight, including battling through or sprinting past several miniboss mechs and running through the longest jumping puzzle section in the entire campaign. Just as bad, Youngblood restarts you at the nearest checkpoint with the amount of ammo you died with, not what you had when you first reached it. And if you didn’t go down without a fight, that usually means your good stuff is depleted. That makes you spend a bunch of extra time scrounging for ammo, and it’s actually worse when the checkpoint starts you right in the thick of the action effectively unarmed – as it does in the tedious final boss battle.

There’s plenty to do in Youngblood beyond the story missions, including dynamic “actions” that pop up and invite you to plant bombs or listening devices or straight-up murder some dudes “when you have a moment” en route to your larger objective, and tons of side missions you can take on by talking to a handful of completely forgettable characters idoly standing around the hub area. That’s arguably the meat of Youngblood and could carry you forward for another dozen or so hours of cathartic, justifiable homicide, but frankly I’d rather spend that time replaying The New Order and The New Colossus.

Source : IGN

[theinvinciblenoob]

Cyril Ebersweiler Contributor

Cyril Ebersweiler is co-founder and managing partner of HAX, and a general partner at SOSV.

More posts by this contributor

What every startup founder should know about exits

70 years of VC innovation

Benjamin Joffe Contributor

Benjamin Joffe is a partner at HAX.

More posts by this contributor

What every startup founder should know about exits

70 years of VC innovation

John Chambers, Chairman Emeritus of Cisco (now founder of JC2 Ventures), knows a thing or two about tech acquisitions: he bet his career on a first one in ’93, and went on to complete 180 M&As during his 20 years tenure.

His latest message for large corporations is an alarm bell. In a fireside chat at the HAX M&A Masterclass that followed the publication of his book: Connecting the Dots: Lessons for Leadership in a Startup World, Chambers issued a clear warning: learn about tech M&As or the future might happen without you.

Here are the key lessons to take away (video and transcript are here):

1. M&As Are A Vaccine Against Irrelevance

When stepping down from Cisco in 2015, John Chambers said that 40% of companies will be dead in 10 years. And 10 years might now be conservative.

It took about 20 years to Amazon to challenge WalMart, barely 10 to Airbnb with hotels and to Uber with taxis and car ownership. The next wave might just take 4–5 years. Since no company can invent everything — even Apple or Google buy startups routinely — you’ll need to either buy or partner seriously with startups (more on that later).

2. Tech Is Entering Every Sector

‘Every company you’ll acquire over this next decade will probably be indirectly or directly a tech company’, said Chambers.

Non-tech companies need to get up to speed on how to work with tech, and startups. Many of the corp dev executives who attended our last event were not from tech.

I met recently power tool companies from US and Europe . They had just set up CVC arms. They were looking into acquisitions, saying ‘we don’t know software’. They’d better tackle that M&A learning curve quickly!

Where do you fit the software?

3. Your Customers Can Tell You What To Buy

There was only one Steve Jobs, who just knew what to build. For others, your customers will might you what to buy. Listen to them and pay special attention to market transitions to buy next generation products.

Like Chambers experienced early in his career at IBM with mainframes, and at Wang Laboratories with mini-computers, missing a critical shift might be the end of you! The corollary for startups is: do something cool for key customers of a corporate, and you’ll get on their radar in no time!

4. Pick The Right Match

“When you buy a company, everything is negotiable except strategy and culture”, said Chambers.

Oracle has mastered takeovers but for most others, acquisitions can fail due to a poor alignment of vision for the industry and each company’s role, cultural mismatch, geographic distance or lack of integration of systems (once you scale your number of acquisitions, having different divisions or subsidiaries use different software will make your CFO insane).

There is generally more than one possible M&A target, and Cisco often walked away from potential buys for the above reasons. It also developed efficient processes: ‘I used to view process at bureaucracy, but process done right can give you speed that others cannot match’, Chambers added.

Are they customer-focused and share their success with their employees?

5. Build Your Playbook(s)

Back in the 90’s tech M&As were often failures. Chambers and his team researched why and built Cisco’s playbook, then tweaked it for 2 decades. According to Chambers, most of it can apply to other companies. So save yourself some time and costly attempts by getting his book ;)

Interestingly, they approached the leadership transition in the same way: they studied what made them work or fail, and made it as smooth as could be when John stepped down in 2015.

6. Do Your Homework

One common trait of experienced corp dev teams is the amount of work they put in before they approach a startup.

Not only are they aware of many through their own research, their customers, business units, CVC arms or the media, but also via extensive networks, including with VC firms.

Like investors, you’re only as good as your deal flow. Corp devs then model the value a startup might bring, and pay the right price for it (more on this below).

7. Pay For What The Value Is To You

A hot startup can command a high price, but is it worth it for you?

If it offers no complementarity or synergies, it might in fact be of negative value. On the opposite, the current revenue of a startup might be irrelevant if you can blow their product through your channels and make it 10x or 100x.

The company Chambers bought in ’93 for close to US$100million only had US$10 million in revenue. It paid off in droves.

8. Keep The Talent

When you buy a tech company, you must try and keep the talent — especially founders, emotional leaders and engineers.

Understand ‘Leaders Currency’: Track record, Trust and Relationships. So involve your HR team to answer key questions and help define attractive career paths within your organization for the acquired teams. If you fail to do so, people will leave or underperform, and you will not get the new products you hope for.

At Cisco, about 1/3 of the top leadership came from internal promotions, 1/3 from recruiting and 1/3 from acquisitions. At peak it likely had about 100 former CEOs on payroll!

9. Expect Some Failures

Despite its stellar track record, about 1/3 of Cisco’s were failures. Reasons may vary, and some might be caused by market changes. When it decided to shut down Flip Video within 2 years after its $590 million acquisition: Apple had just added cloud video capabilities, it was game over.

Expect them, learn from them, and be ready to cut losses and, ideally, redeploy people.

10. In The Future, M&As Might Not Be Enough

As the pace of innovation accelerates, and top talent joins startups rather than large companies, startups might become threats faster than you can buy them.

Chambers suggested that the next-level skill to develop is the ability to form strategic partnerships very early on with startups, such as this recent JV between Boeing and the much smaller 5-year-old A.I. startup SparkCognitionfor urban aerial mobility.

Joint Ventures Between Startups And Corporates Might Become More Common

Thanks to speakers, participants and supporters of this Masterclass series, in particular: Natasha Ligai (Logitech), Todd Neville (IBM), Christina LaMontagne(Johnson & Johnson), Anne Samak de la Cerda (former CFO, Withings), Dan Fairfax, (former CFO, Brocade), Amanda Zamurs and Larry Chu (Goodwin), Kate Whitcomb and Ethan Haigh (HAX).

via TechCrunch

[fmservers]

12 key lessons about tech mergers and acquisitions from Cisco’s John Chambers

Cyril Ebersweiler Contributor

Cyril Ebersweiler is co-founder and managing partner of HAX, and a general partner at SOSV.

More posts by this contributor

What every startup founder should know about exits

70 years of VC innovation

Benjamin Joffe Contributor

Benjamin Joffe is a partner at HAX.

More posts by this contributor

What every startup founder should know about exits

70 years of VC innovation

John Chambers, Chairman Emeritus of Cisco (now founder of JC2 Ventures), knows a thing or two about tech acquisitions: he bet his career on a first one in ’93, and went on to complete 180 M&As during his 20 years tenure.

His latest message for large corporations is an alarm bell. In a fireside chat at the HAX M&A Masterclass that followed the publication of his book: Connecting the Dots: Lessons for Leadership in a Startup World, Chambers issued a clear warning: learn about tech M&As or the future might happen without you.

Here are the key lessons to take away (video and transcript are here):

1. M&As Are A Vaccine Against Irrelevance

When stepping down from Cisco in 2015, John Chambers said that 40% of companies will be dead in 10 years. And 10 years might now be conservative.

It took about 20 years to Amazon to challenge WalMart, barely 10 to Airbnb with hotels and to Uber with taxis and car ownership. The next wave might just take 4–5 years. Since no company can invent everything — even Apple or Google buy startups routinely — you’ll need to either buy or partner seriously with startups (more on that later).

2. Tech Is Entering Every Sector

‘Every company you’ll acquire over this next decade will probably be indirectly or directly a tech company’, said Chambers.

Non-tech companies need to get up to speed on how to work with tech, and startups. Many of the corp dev executives who attended our last event were not from tech.

I met recently power tool companies from US and Europe . They had just set up CVC arms. They were looking into acquisitions, saying ‘we don’t know software’. They’d better tackle that M&A learning curve quickly!

Where do you fit the software?

3. Your Customers Can Tell You What To Buy

There was only one Steve Jobs, who just knew what to build. For others, your customers will might you what to buy. Listen to them and pay special attention to market transitions to buy next generation products.

Like Chambers experienced early in his career at IBM with mainframes, and at Wang Laboratories with mini-computers, missing a critical shift might be the end of you! The corollary for startups is: do something cool for key customers of a corporate, and you’ll get on their radar in no time!

4. Pick The Right Match

“When you buy a company, everything is negotiable except strategy and culture”, said Chambers.

Oracle has mastered takeovers but for most others, acquisitions can fail due to a poor alignment of vision for the industry and each company’s role, cultural mismatch, geographic distance or lack of integration of systems (once you scale your number of acquisitions, having different divisions or subsidiaries use different software will make your CFO insane).

There is generally more than one possible M&A target, and Cisco often walked away from potential buys for the above reasons. It also developed efficient processes: ‘I used to view process at bureaucracy, but process done right can give you speed that others cannot match’, Chambers added.

Are they customer-focused and share their success with their employees?

5. Build Your Playbook(s)

Back in the 90’s tech M&As were often failures. Chambers and his team researched why and built Cisco’s playbook, then tweaked it for 2 decades. According to Chambers, most of it can apply to other companies. So save yourself some time and costly attempts by getting his book ;)

Interestingly, they approached the leadership transition in the same way: they studied what made them work or fail, and made it as smooth as could be when John stepped down in 2015.

6. Do Your Homework

One common trait of experienced corp dev teams is the amount of work they put in before they approach a startup.

Not only are they aware of many through their own research, their customers, business units, CVC arms or the media, but also via extensive networks, including with VC firms.

Like investors, you’re only as good as your deal flow. Corp devs then model the value a startup might bring, and pay the right price for it (more on this below).

7. Pay For What The Value Is To You

A hot startup can command a high price, but is it worth it for you?

If it offers no complementarity or synergies, it might in fact be of negative value. On the opposite, the current revenue of a startup might be irrelevant if you can blow their product through your channels and make it 10x or 100x.

The company Chambers bought in ’93 for close to US$100million only had US$10 million in revenue. It paid off in droves.

8. Keep The Talent

When you buy a tech company, you must try and keep the talent — especially founders, emotional leaders and engineers.

Understand ‘Leaders Currency’: Track record, Trust and Relationships. So involve your HR team to answer key questions and help define attractive career paths within your organization for the acquired teams. If you fail to do so, people will leave or underperform, and you will not get the new products you hope for.

At Cisco, about 1/3 of the top leadership came from internal promotions, 1/3 from recruiting and 1/3 from acquisitions. At peak it likely had about 100 former CEOs on payroll!

9. Expect Some Failures

Despite its stellar track record, about 1/3 of Cisco’s were failures. Reasons may vary, and some might be caused by market changes. When it decided to shut down Flip Video within 2 years after its $590 million acquisition: Apple had just added cloud video capabilities, it was game over.

Expect them, learn from them, and be ready to cut losses and, ideally, redeploy people.

10. In The Future, M&As Might Not Be Enough

As the pace of innovation accelerates, and top talent joins startups rather than large companies, startups might become threats faster than you can buy them.

Chambers suggested that the next-level skill to develop is the ability to form strategic partnerships very early on with startups, such as this recent JV between Boeing and the much smaller 5-year-old A.I. startup SparkCognitionfor urban aerial mobility.

Joint Ventures Between Startups And Corporates Might Become More Common

Thanks to speakers, participants and supporters of this Masterclass series, in particular: Natasha Ligai (Logitech), Todd Neville (IBM), Christina LaMontagne(Johnson & Johnson), Anne Samak de la Cerda (former CFO, Withings), Dan Fairfax, (former CFO, Brocade), Amanda Zamurs and Larry Chu (Goodwin), Kate Whitcomb and Ethan Haigh (HAX).

Via Jonathan Shieber https://techcrunch.com

[flauntpage]

The Outlet Pass: Don't Worry About the Rockets, They Have...Eric Gordon

An Ode to Eric Gordon

I want to talk about Eric Gordon because more people should and not enough do. How many players in the entire league—who have his talent and pedigree—would be happy occupying the intricate space Gordon does, in the collective shadow of James Harden, Chris Paul, Clint Capela, and even P.J. Tucker? The more I watch him this year, the more I appreciate how he feels like the personification of an overlooked albeit crucial cog; a barometer for the Houston Rockets, which also makes him a pivotal character in the narrative of this season.

Fighting through an early-season slump that he’s determined to burn through with the help of his own comically short-term memory, the Houston Rockets need Gordon to be so much more than an accessory from here on out. Pre-Chris Paul, he was James Harden’s right-hand man in a situation that inevitably provided little oxygen for anyone but James Harden. Gordon won the Three-Point Contest, claimed Sixth Man of the Year, and ended his first year in Houston with more threes than everyone except Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, and his own bearded teammate.

Since then, he's comfortably shined outside Harden’s orbit, punishing defenders who want nothing more than a moment to catch their breath after the ball gets swung his way. What they get instead is a mental breakdown. His self-reliance—Gordon has no conscience and knows he’s good enough to get where he wants without a screen—is their worst nightmare. He’s a pugnacious, perma-green light who’s happy to launch a picturesque jumper whenever a defender starts tap dancing at the sight of his jab step (or ducks under a pick 30 feet from the basket).

Gordon's pressure is relentless. He’s a one-man salvo of between-the-leg dribbles that seemingly have no purpose until they magically catapult him into the paint. According to Synergy Sports, the only players who’ve been more efficient on at least 30 isolation plays are Khris Middleton, Bradley Beal, and Kemba Walker. He can hit Capela with a pocket pass and lull defenders into a panic as part of Houston’s devastating Spanish pick-and-roll; every once in a while he tries to end someone’s life by exhibiting a genuinely sneaky athletic burst above the rim.

The Rockets can’t function properly for 48 minutes on either end without Gordon, but they’d especially struggle to master the switch-everything defense he’s built to thrive in. Like, how many guards who do all the stuff Gordon does on offense can also switch onto a bear and not get mauled? His low center of gravity is appreciated, but he also understands how to shrink the floor after that initial switch, so whoever then defends his assignment doesn’t feel like they’re on an island.

Gordon is currently shooting 35.4 percent and the first few weeks of this season featured a four-game stretch in which he launched 67 shots and made only 18 of them, but all in all he might be the single biggest reason I'm not worried about the Rockets. We know his splits will course correct—his True Shooting percentage is 57.5 in the last five games—because his struggle doesn't affect his shot selection. Gordon lives without brakes. He’ll miss a layup on one play and then jack up a quick three the next time down. If it's an airball, he'll take an even deeper shot 15 seconds later. When the defense gives something, he takes it.

Contrast that audaciousness with his expressionless demeanor and what you get is Gordon’s own brand of fortitude, a resiliency that makes you wonder how high his numbers would soar as the first option in Orlando or Brooklyn. When he’s on the floor, Houston’s offense scores 13.6 more points per 100 possessions than when he’s not (from second best to the third-worst offense in the league). Nobody could even attempt to play quite like Gordon does without losing minutes. He's two steps to the left of the spotlight, with a mentality so daring it borders on reckless. Gaudy, stone-faced, and even more threatening outside the parameters of Houston’s system while quintessentially representing what Mike D’Antoni wants it to look like, Gordon is not a perfect player. But watching him steer his skill-set beneath the general NBA fan's radar, on a team that's all in to win it all, is a pleasure to behold.

The Clippers Don’t Shoot Threes (and Couldn’t Care Less)

With the highest winning percentage in a Western Conference that was expected to rip them up, the Los Angeles Clippers are the story of this season. Nobody on their team has ever played in an All-Star game, but their depth, complementary design, youthful exuberance, and two-way tenacity have, so far, eclipsed any questions related to talent. Winning eight of their last nine games—a run that includes victories over the Warriors, Grizzlies, Trail Blazers, Spurs, and Bucks—the Clippers have the sixth-best offense in the league, and are nearly averaging as many points per 100 possessions as they did during Lob City’s heyday. And they’re doing it without the three-point shot.

Last week, I asked Doc Rivers if he wanted to shoot more of them. Here’s what he said: “I’d rather stay in the top ten in offense. You know it’s funny though, really, I think we’re six or five or seven, I don’t know where we’re at, but if we were that and shot a lot of threes I’d say ‘yeah let’s shoot a lot of threes.’ The goal is scoring. It’s not how you score. It’s to score as many points as you can. And we’re doing that. So there are games where we think we should’ve taken more threes, but there are also games where we thought we should take more layups, you know? So we don’t care how it adds up, and that’s what we talk about. If we can get to the 120 number or something like that, I don’t care if they’re ones. Let’s get there as quickly as possible.”

That’s all very fair, and, to a glass-half-full optimist, suggests that L.A. has yet to reach its offensive potential. Quality shots attempted behind the arc are good, and despite ranking 28th in three-point rate, the Clippers are basketball’s most accurate team from the corners; fifth-best from deep, overall.

“That’s something we’re still figuring out, how to get easier threes,” forward Tobias Harris said. “I think we can do a better job of locating them off turnovers on fast breaks, but we’re an ever-improving team. Every night we’re figuring out different things and I think once guys get more into their comfort zone [and let threes] fly, it’ll open up a lot more of the game for us. But it’s something that we do put an emphasis on.”

“We just hoop, bro.”

They’re built to attack in a modern way, with stretch fours (Danilo Gallinari, Mike Scott) and one ascending wing (Harris) representing three of the most lethal spot-up shooters in the league. Others—Lou Williams, Patrick Beverley, Avery Bradley—are way below their career average but still respected enough to open lanes for their teammates, be it Montrezl Harrell rumbling through for a lob or space for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to penetrate. (The Miami Heat are the only team currently averaging more field goal attempts from drives to the rim.)

There’s also an undeniable “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” vibe surrounding this team. They rank in the bottom five in assist rate, and as the league’s better teams shift away from the pick-and-roll by adopting a more diversified and unpredictable half-court attack, no group runs the pick-and-roll more than the Clippers, per Synergy Sports. They’re anti-style and post-analysis, but so far it all feels sustainable. We’ll see how long it lasts, or if they’ll inevitably need to embrace the arc a bit more than they have. Until then: “I’m gonna be honest with you,” Lou Williams told VICE Sports. “We just hoop, bro.”

Noah Vonleh!

Noah Vonleh is 23 years old, and last week New York Knicks head coach David Fizdale called him “probably, overall our most complete player.” Everything in that sentence is real.

Heading into this season on a contract that still only guarantees him $100,000 before January 10, Vonleh was viewed as a bust—an instant journeyman on his fourth team in five seasons. Before they salary-dumped him onto the Chicago Bulls, the Portland Trail Blazers spent a couple years bouncing Vonleh between spot-starts and a seat at the end of their bench. Nothing stuck. It was a frustrating NBA existence for a promising talent who, as a teenager, was frequently compared to Chris Bosh.

When the Knicks signed Vonleh in July, he was a buy-low, no-risk commodity for a team that's prioritizing the future over the present. So far he's made the most of the opportunity, averaging per-36 minute career highs in points, assists, steals, and blocks. The Knicks are 15 points per 100 possessions better with Vonleh in the game, an absolutely insane number. At worst, he's currently a positive trade asset, someone New York may use to get off a larger contract (like Courtney Lee) before the trade deadline. At best, he's an untapped, young, cheap contributor who's showing the league what New York's player development staff may be capable of. If kept around beyond this season, Vonleh can play two positions, post-up, move his feet, and, theoretically, fit beside Kristaps Porzingis. Athletic big men who rebound, shoot, switch, and protect the rim do not grow on trees.

Of note: His three-point rate tripled from October to November, and for the first time in his career he's making over 40 percent of them (42.1 on just under two tries per game). Vonleh is averaging 10 points, 10.3 rebounds, and 2.7 assists at Madison Square Garden, and has the 32nd-highest Real Plus-Minus in the league, with Mitchell Robinson as the only other Knick in the top 100.

It's still early, and we'll see how Vonleh's impact will be affected if/when he goes through a shooting slump, but so far it's cool to see him find minutes role in a league that was so close to spitting him out. This is an NBA player.

Free Rodney Hood

Rodney Hood is too good for the Cleveland Cavaliers. He doesn’t fit into their short-term goals (i.e. only six teams have a better offense when Hood is on the floor; when he sits only the Chicago Bulls and Atlanta Hawks are worse) and, as a 26-year-old unrestricted free agent this offseason, won’t be onboard the next time they make the playoffs.

His pick-and-roll game is crafty yet stable—Hood hardly ever turns the ball over—and whenever he curls off a screen and draws two defenders the result is usually a simple pass to the open man. Coming off an awkward postseason run that didn’t go as well as he hoped, in the interest of boosting his monetary worth, Hood belongs on a good team, surrounded by good players. (Thanks to his current one-year deal, he can veto any trade the Cavs involve him in, though it behooves him to accept whatever happens.)

The Rockets—a pseudo-contender forever hungry for three-point shooters, iso-creativity, and adjustable defenders—are an obvious suitor. After Hood is eligible to be dealt on December 15th, would Houston attach a protected first-round pick to Marquese Chriss? A Harden, Paul, Hood, Gordon, Tucker lineup would give the Rockets five able three-point threats without sacrificing their switch-everything defensive system—Capela can exist in this group, too—and if the Golden State Warriors are still the only team on their mind, we already know that Hood can be a difference-maker in isolation on the biggest stage.

The fit isn’t perfect: Hood adores the mid-range and has already shot more long twos than the entire Rockets roster this season. He’s isn’t shy about lowering his shoulder into a defender, but still rarely gets to the rim. But in theory, Hood is skilled enough to give them a boost on both ends at an outrageously low cost.

If not Houston, Hood can upgrade just about any situation outside the one he’s currently in. (Would the Philadelphia 76ers part ways with Markelle Fultz for Hood?)

A Three-Headed Sixth Man Race!

This year's Sixth Man award is a subtle microcosm of the league’s bottomless talent pool. At the season's quarter mark, the number of credible candidates is immense. But with apologies to *takes deep breath* Lou Williams, Julius Randle, Spencer Dinwiddie, Dennis Schröder, Terrence Ross, Marcus Morris, Josh Hart, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Dwyane Wade, Evan Turner, Shelvin Mack, Jonas Valanciunas, and Patty Mills, three players have separated themselves from the field: Montrezl Harrell, Domas Sabonis, and Derrick Rose.

A walloping punch of adrenaline who turns “the little things” into momentum-shifting uppercuts, Harrell is probably the frontrunner (though I’d vote for Sabonis if the season ended today). He’s wildly efficient on rolls to the rim, protects the paint, and has proven that last year’s production in 16 minutes per game could be extrapolated into a larger role without any drop off. The guy is second in Win Shares per 48 minutes and eighth in PER. He is the NBA's Incredible Hulk. In a word: incredible.

Next is Indiana's backup center. If there ever was a player who showed how detrimental the wrong fit can be for an incoming rookie, look no further than Sabonis's brief, progress-stunting tenure with the Oklahoma City Thunder. Back then, which feels like six million years ago, his daily duties were: 1) Get out of Russell Westbrook’s way, 2) Don’t screw up when Russell Westbrook needs you to get him his tenth assist, 3) Get out of Russell Westbrook’s way.

About a third of all Sabonis’s shots were three pointers, and according to Synergy Sports, he only posted up 94 times in 1,632 minutes, a crime considering how useful he was/is leveraging his size, footwork, and vision on the block. Instead, Sabonis hardly ever drew fouls and lived on the perimeter. Today, he’s attempted five threes in 469 minutes. (A couple weeks ago, Sabonis tapped his chest to apologize for taking—and making—a three. That's incredible.)

He’s one of the five most serviceable passers at his position, an automatic double team with his back to the basket, and someone who functions as a hyper-efficient fulcrum on a Pacers team that plays at a 60-win pace when he’s on the floor. Last month he dunked on Joel Embiid harder than anybody ever has and tried to decapitate Hassan Whiteside later in the same week. There’s unteachable confidence here. A soft touch and dainty footwork spliced with the strength of a musk ox.

Remember when I said Harrell was second in Win Shares per 48 minutes? Sabonis is first. He also leads the league in True Shooting and few are greedier rebounding in traffic. Even though Indy has been fine with Sabonis and Myles Turner both on the floor, the question of whether they can co-exist long-term should and will linger until they succeed/fail in the postseason. Sabonis turns 23 in May and is eligible for an extension next fall. If the Pacers let him become a restricted free agent, some team may (should!) offer even more than the $80 million over four years they just gave Turner. Semi-related: The Pacers are outscoring opponents by 9.5 points per 100 possessions when Sabonis is on the floor without Victor Oladipo, the franchise player. He’s been that good.

Somewhat on the opposite end of the NBA spectrum is Rose, a 30-year-old who nearly washed out of the league. Right now, he’s averaging 19.1 points (his most since the first torn ACL) and 4.5 assists while legitimately boosting a Timberwolves team that desperately wants to make the playoffs. The unprecedented explosion that hurtled him towards an MVP award is no longer accessible in the same way it once was, but in its place is a rhythm jump shot defenders suddenly have to respect.

Rose is shooting 45.2 percent on pull-up threes and 45.9 percent on spot-up threes. Those two numbers are unsustainable, but they'll live on in opposing scouting reports for the rest of the season. Defenders will be less willing to help off Rose, instead doomed to close out hard and run him off the line. Earlier this month, Sacramento Kings head coach Dave Joerger called time to chastise Willie Cauley-Stein after he dropped back and gave Rose a wide-open shot. That would’ve been unthinkable six months ago.

Rose is finally healthy and comfortable, resulting in the successful marriage of a sinister first step with an outside shot. For that alone, if he doesn’t win Sixth Man he should be in the conversation for Most Improved Player. It’s opened up driving lanes for himself and teammates—Minnesota has a top-five offense with Rose and produce at a bottom-two rate without him—while forcing opponents to acknowledge the myriad ways he can attack in the open floor.

According to Synergy Sports, Rose is averaging 1.25 points per possession as the ball-handler in transition, which, given his volume, is an excellent mark rivaled by two or three players in the entire league. (He’s scored more transition points than Kemba Walker, Kyle Lowry, James Harden, and Damian Lillard.)

A lot can happen between now and April, but be surprised if neither Harrell, Sabonis, nor Rose is named Sixth Man of the Year. They've been dominant in their role.

Orlando's Science Experiment

Maybe it’s because I’m a weirdo (spoiler: yes), but few occasions from this NBA season hype me up more than whenever Jonathan Isaac and Mo Bamba share the court. To be clear, there is no rational reason to feel this way. The basketball is typically atrocious, chaotic, and disheveled. But every so often, like the Loch Ness monster emerging from a fog-topped lake, a rare glimpse of what can one day be Orlando’s norm rises into view.

Steve Clifford's defensive principles are simple. He wants his bigs to stay in the paint and let his guards and wings chase shooters up top, usually over screens in an attempt to take away the shot and funnel them towards waiting rim protection. The previous three seasons, the Magic finished 24th, 22nd, and 25th in the percentage of opposing shots that came at the rim. This year they're sixth. When Isaac and Bamba are the two primary defenders involved, whoever's up against them can feel their brain melt into ice cream.

Orlando's lineups that feature those two have been bad, but that's not 100 percent their fault. Most of the minutes come at the start of the second and fourth quarters, when they're joined by other reserves (like Jerian Grant or Jonathon Simmons) who make little sense supporting them on offense. When Evan Fournier and Terrence Ross are in, though, Orlando can breathe a bit more with the ball. Sometimes that's because Bamba and Isaac are good enough shooters to invert the floor and create space for those guys to maneuver in the paint.

Here they are both hanging above the arc, bringing their own big defenders with them:

Separating the two, Isaac has already flashed the chops of someone who should appear on multiple All-Defensive teams. The speed (in his feet and hands), length, and intuitive feel are locked in place—to beat him off the dribble is to evade one’s own shadow—but the 21-year-old isn’t muscular enough to stand up the league’s more brutish scorers. That's fine right now. He'll grow. Until then, at 6'10" with a 7'1" wingspan, Isaac is good enough on the perimeter to reach in, get crossed over, then recover back to smother his man from behind. As a help defender, Isaac tends to chase the ball a bit too much, but that tendency should iron itself out as he matures.

Bamba is a supernatural beanstalk who plants himself in the paint, then tries to use his uncanny physical dimensions to race out and contest along the perimeter whenever his man is about to line up a three. (He's usually a step too slow.) Bamba's physical dimensions are unprecedented, but can’t mask the learning curve he'll eventually need to master if he wants to become a great all-around anchor. Together, he and Isaac are still feeling their way through the league, but it’s a thrill to daydream about what they may become. I mean, just imagine you're Kyle Kuzma on this play:

De’Aaron Has the Eyes of a Fox

I used to think nothing in life was perfect, and then I saw this pass.

The Outlet Pass: Don't Worry About the Rockets, They Have...Eric Gordon published first on https://footballhighlightseurope.tumblr.com/

[leehaws]

The Outlet Pass: Don’t Worry About the Rockets, They Have…Eric Gordon

An Ode to Eric Gordon

I want to talk about Eric Gordon because more people should and not enough do. How many players in the entire league—who have his talent and pedigree—would be happy occupying the intricate space Gordon does, in the collective shadow of James Harden, Chris Paul, Clint Capela, and even P.J. Tucker? The more I watch him this year, the more I appreciate how he feels like the personification of an overlooked albeit crucial cog; a barometer for the Houston Rockets, which also makes him a pivotal character in the narrative of this season.

Fighting through an early-season slump that he’s determined to burn through with the help of his own comically short-term memory, the Houston Rockets need Gordon to be so much more than an accessory from here on out. Pre-Chris Paul, he was James Harden’s right-hand man in a situation that inevitably provided little oxygen for anyone but James Harden. Gordon won the Three-Point Contest, claimed Sixth Man of the Year, and ended his first year in Houston with more threes than everyone except Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, and his own bearded teammate.

Since then, he’s comfortably shined outside Harden’s orbit, punishing defenders who want nothing more than a moment to catch their breath after the ball gets swung his way. What they get instead is a mental breakdown. His self-reliance—Gordon has no conscience and knows he’s good enough to get where he wants without a screen—is their worst nightmare. He’s a pugnacious, perma-green light who’s happy to launch a picturesque jumper whenever a defender starts tap dancing at the sight of his jab step (or ducks under a pick 30 feet from the basket).

Gordon’s pressure is relentless. He’s a one-man salvo of between-the-leg dribbles that seemingly have no purpose until they magically catapult him into the paint. According to Synergy Sports, the only players who’ve been more efficient on at least 30 isolation plays are Khris Middleton, Bradley Beal, and Kemba Walker. He can hit Capela with a pocket pass and lull defenders into a panic as part of Houston’s devastating Spanish pick-and-roll; every once in a while he tries to end someone’s life by exhibiting a genuinely sneaky athletic burst above the rim.

The Rockets can’t function properly for 48 minutes on either end without Gordon, but they’d especially struggle to master the switch-everything defense he’s built to thrive in. Like, how many guards who do all the stuff Gordon does on offense can also switch onto a bear and not get mauled? His low center of gravity is appreciated, but he also understands how to shrink the floor after that initial switch, so whoever then defends his assignment doesn’t feel like they’re on an island.

Gordon is currently shooting 35.4 percent and the first few weeks of this season featured a four-game stretch in which he launched 67 shots and made only 18 of them, but all in all he might be the single biggest reason I’m not worried about the Rockets. We know his splits will course correct—his True Shooting percentage is 57.5 in the last five games—because his struggle doesn’t affect his shot selection. Gordon lives without brakes. He’ll miss a layup on one play and then jack up a quick three the next time down. If it’s an airball, he’ll take an even deeper shot 15 seconds later. When the defense gives something, he takes it.

Contrast that audaciousness with his expressionless demeanor and what you get is Gordon’s own brand of fortitude, a resiliency that makes you wonder how high his numbers would soar as the first option in Orlando or Brooklyn. When he’s on the floor, Houston’s offense scores 13.6 more points per 100 possessions than when he’s not (from second best to the third-worst offense in the league). Nobody could even attempt to play quite like Gordon does without losing minutes. He’s two steps to the left of the spotlight, with a mentality so daring it borders on reckless. Gaudy, stone-faced, and even more threatening outside the parameters of Houston’s system while quintessentially representing what Mike D’Antoni wants it to look like, Gordon is not a perfect player. But watching him steer his skill-set beneath the general NBA fan’s radar, on a team that’s all in to win it all, is a pleasure to behold.

The Clippers Don’t Shoot Threes (and Couldn’t Care Less)

With the highest winning percentage in a Western Conference that was expected to rip them up, the Los Angeles Clippers are the story of this season. Nobody on their team has ever played in an All-Star game, but their depth, complementary design, youthful exuberance, and two-way tenacity have, so far, eclipsed any questions related to talent. Winning eight of their last nine games—a run that includes victories over the Warriors, Grizzlies, Trail Blazers, Spurs, and Bucks—the Clippers have the sixth-best offense in the league, and are nearly averaging as many points per 100 possessions as they did during Lob City’s heyday. And they’re doing it without the three-point shot.

Last week, I asked Doc Rivers if he wanted to shoot more of them. Here’s what he said: “I’d rather stay in the top ten in offense. You know it’s funny though, really, I think we’re six or five or seven, I don’t know where we’re at, but if we were that and shot a lot of threes I’d say ‘yeah let’s shoot a lot of threes.’ The goal is scoring. It’s not how you score. It’s to score as many points as you can. And we’re doing that. So there are games where we think we should’ve taken more threes, but there are also games where we thought we should take more layups, you know? So we don’t care how it adds up, and that’s what we talk about. If we can get to the 120 number or something like that, I don’t care if they’re ones. Let’s get there as quickly as possible.”

That’s all very fair, and, to a glass-half-full optimist, suggests that L.A. has yet to reach its offensive potential. Quality shots attempted behind the arc are good, and despite ranking 28th in three-point rate, the Clippers are basketball’s most accurate team from the corners; fifth-best from deep, overall.

“That’s something we’re still figuring out, how to get easier threes,” forward Tobias Harris said. “I think we can do a better job of locating them off turnovers on fast breaks, but we’re an ever-improving team. Every night we’re figuring out different things and I think once guys get more into their comfort zone [and let threes] fly, it’ll open up a lot more of the game for us. But it’s something that we do put an emphasis on.”

“We just hoop, bro.”

They’re built to attack in a modern way, with stretch fours (Danilo Gallinari, Mike Scott) and one ascending wing (Harris) representing three of the most lethal spot-up shooters in the league. Others—Lou Williams, Patrick Beverley, Avery Bradley—are way below their career average but still respected enough to open lanes for their teammates, be it Montrezl Harrell rumbling through for a lob or space for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to penetrate. (The Miami Heat are the only team currently averaging more field goal attempts from drives to the rim.)

There’s also an undeniable “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” vibe surrounding this team. They rank in the bottom five in assist rate, and as the league’s better teams shift away from the pick-and-roll by adopting a more diversified and unpredictable half-court attack, no group runs the pick-and-roll more than the Clippers, per Synergy Sports. They’re anti-style and post-analysis, but so far it all feels sustainable. We’ll see how long it lasts, or if they’ll inevitably need to embrace the arc a bit more than they have. Until then: “I’m gonna be honest with you,” Lou Williams told VICE Sports. “We just hoop, bro.”

Noah Vonleh!

Noah Vonleh is 23 years old, and last week New York Knicks head coach David Fizdale called him “probably, overall our most complete player.” Everything in that sentence is real.

Heading into this season on a contract that still only guarantees him $100,000 before January 10, Vonleh was viewed as a bust—an instant journeyman on his fourth team in five seasons. Before they salary-dumped him onto the Chicago Bulls, the Portland Trail Blazers spent a couple years bouncing Vonleh between spot-starts and a seat at the end of their bench. Nothing stuck. It was a frustrating NBA existence for a promising talent who, as a teenager, was frequently compared to Chris Bosh.

When the Knicks signed Vonleh in July, he was a buy-low, no-risk commodity for a team that’s prioritizing the future over the present. So far he’s made the most of the opportunity, averaging per-36 minute career highs in points, assists, steals, and blocks. The Knicks are 15 points per 100 possessions better with Vonleh in the game, an absolutely insane number. At worst, he’s currently a positive trade asset, someone New York may use to get off a larger contract (like Courtney Lee) before the trade deadline. At best, he’s an untapped, young, cheap contributor who’s showing the league what New York’s player development staff may be capable of. If kept around beyond this season, Vonleh can play two positions, post-up, move his feet, and, theoretically, fit beside Kristaps Porzingis. Athletic big men who rebound, shoot, switch, and protect the rim do not grow on trees.

Of note: His three-point rate tripled from October to November, and for the first time in his career he’s making over 40 percent of them (42.1 on just under two tries per game). Vonleh is averaging 10 points, 10.3 rebounds, and 2.7 assists at Madison Square Garden, and has the 32nd-highest Real Plus-Minus in the league, with Mitchell Robinson as the only other Knick in the top 100.

It’s still early, and we’ll see how Vonleh’s impact will be affected if/when he goes through a shooting slump, but so far it’s cool to see him find minutes role in a league that was so close to spitting him out. This is an NBA player.

Free Rodney Hood

Rodney Hood is too good for the Cleveland Cavaliers. He doesn’t fit into their short-term goals (i.e. only six teams have a better offense when Hood is on the floor; when he sits only the Chicago Bulls and Atlanta Hawks are worse) and, as a 26-year-old unrestricted free agent this offseason, won’t be onboard the next time they make the playoffs.

His pick-and-roll game is crafty yet stable—Hood hardly ever turns the ball over—and whenever he curls off a screen and draws two defenders the result is usually a simple pass to the open man. Coming off an awkward postseason run that didn’t go as well as he hoped, in the interest of boosting his monetary worth, Hood belongs on a good team, surrounded by good players. (Thanks to his current one-year deal, he can veto any trade the Cavs involve him in, though it behooves him to accept whatever happens.)

The Rockets—a pseudo-contender forever hungry for three-point shooters, iso-creativity, and adjustable defenders—are an obvious suitor. After Hood is eligible to be dealt on December 15th, would Houston attach a protected first-round pick to Marquese Chriss? A Harden, Paul, Hood, Gordon, Tucker lineup would give the Rockets five able three-point threats without sacrificing their switch-everything defensive system—Capela can exist in this group, too—and if the Golden State Warriors are still the only team on their mind, we already know that Hood can be a difference-maker in isolation on the biggest stage.

https://oembed.vice.com/i7tPwsS?media=0&app=1

The fit isn’t perfect: Hood adores the mid-range and has already shot more long twos than the entire Rockets roster this season. He’s isn’t shy about lowering his shoulder into a defender, but still rarely gets to the rim. But in theory, Hood is skilled enough to give them a boost on both ends at an outrageously low cost.

If not Houston, Hood can upgrade just about any situation outside the one he’s currently in. (Would the Philadelphia 76ers part ways with Markelle Fultz for Hood?)

A Three-Headed Sixth Man Race!

This year’s Sixth Man award is a subtle microcosm of the league’s bottomless talent pool. At the season’s quarter mark, the number of credible candidates is immense. But with apologies to *takes deep breath* Lou Williams, Julius Randle, Spencer Dinwiddie, Dennis Schröder, Terrence Ross, Marcus Morris, Josh Hart, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Dwyane Wade, Evan Turner, Shelvin Mack, Jonas Valanciunas, and Patty Mills, three players have separated themselves from the field: Montrezl Harrell, Domas Sabonis, and Derrick Rose.

A walloping punch of adrenaline who turns “the little things” into momentum-shifting uppercuts, Harrell is probably the frontrunner (though I’d vote for Sabonis if the season ended today). He’s wildly efficient on rolls to the rim, protects the paint, and has proven that last year’s production in 16 minutes per game could be extrapolated into a larger role without any drop off. The guy is second in Win Shares per 48 minutes and eighth in PER. He is the NBA’s Incredible Hulk. In a word: incredible.

Next is Indiana’s backup center. If there ever was a player who showed how detrimental the wrong fit can be for an incoming rookie, look no further than Sabonis’s brief, progress-stunting tenure with the Oklahoma City Thunder. Back then, which feels like six million years ago, his daily duties were: 1) Get out of Russell Westbrook’s way, 2) Don’t screw up when Russell Westbrook needs you to get him his tenth assist, 3) Get out of Russell Westbrook’s way.

About a third of all Sabonis’s shots were three pointers, and according to Synergy Sports, he only posted up 94 times in 1,632 minutes, a crime considering how useful he was/is leveraging his size, footwork, and vision on the block. Instead, Sabonis hardly ever drew fouls and lived on the perimeter. Today, he’s attempted five threes in 469 minutes. (A couple weeks ago, Sabonis tapped his chest to apologize for taking—and making—a three. That’s incredible.)

He’s one of the five most serviceable passers at his position, an automatic double team with his back to the basket, and someone who functions as a hyper-efficient fulcrum on a Pacers team that plays at a 60-win pace when he’s on the floor. Last month he dunked on Joel Embiid harder than anybody ever has and tried to decapitate Hassan Whiteside later in the same week. There’s unteachable confidence here. A soft touch and dainty footwork spliced with the strength of a musk ox.

Remember when I said Harrell was second in Win Shares per 48 minutes? Sabonis is first. He also leads the league in True Shooting and few are greedier rebounding in traffic. Even though Indy has been fine with Sabonis and Myles Turner both on the floor, the question of whether they can co-exist long-term should and will linger until they succeed/fail in the postseason. Sabonis turns 23 in May and is eligible for an extension next fall. If the Pacers let him become a restricted free agent, some team may (should!) offer even more than the $80 million over four years they just gave Turner. Semi-related: The Pacers are outscoring opponents by 9.5 points per 100 possessions when Sabonis is on the floor without Victor Oladipo, the franchise player. He’s been that good.

Somewhat on the opposite end of the NBA spectrum is Rose, a 30-year-old who nearly washed out of the league. Right now, he’s averaging 19.1 points (his most since the first torn ACL) and 4.5 assists while legitimately boosting a Timberwolves team that desperately wants to make the playoffs. The unprecedented explosion that hurtled him towards an MVP award is no longer accessible in the same way it once was, but in its place is a rhythm jump shot defenders suddenly have to respect.

Rose is shooting 45.2 percent on pull-up threes and 45.9 percent on spot-up threes. Those two numbers are unsustainable, but they’ll live on in opposing scouting reports for the rest of the season. Defenders will be less willing to help off Rose, instead doomed to close out hard and run him off the line. Earlier this month, Sacramento Kings head coach Dave Joerger called time to chastise Willie Cauley-Stein after he dropped back and gave Rose a wide-open shot. That would’ve been unthinkable six months ago.

Rose is finally healthy and comfortable, resulting in the successful marriage of a sinister first step with an outside shot. For that alone, if he doesn’t win Sixth Man he should be in the conversation for Most Improved Player. It’s opened up driving lanes for himself and teammates—Minnesota has a top-five offense with Rose and produce at a bottom-two rate without him—while forcing opponents to acknowledge the myriad ways he can attack in the open floor.

According to Synergy Sports, Rose is averaging 1.25 points per possession as the ball-handler in transition, which, given his volume, is an excellent mark rivaled by two or three players in the entire league. (He’s scored more transition points than Kemba Walker, Kyle Lowry, James Harden, and Damian Lillard.)

A lot can happen between now and April, but be surprised if neither Harrell, Sabonis, nor Rose is named Sixth Man of the Year. They’ve been dominant in their role.

Orlando’s Science Experiment

Maybe it’s because I’m a weirdo (spoiler: yes), but few occasions from this NBA season hype me up more than whenever Jonathan Isaac and Mo Bamba share the court. To be clear, there is no rational reason to feel this way. The basketball is typically atrocious, chaotic, and disheveled. But every so often, like the Loch Ness monster emerging from a fog-topped lake, a rare glimpse of what can one day be Orlando’s norm rises into view.

Steve Clifford’s defensive principles are simple. He wants his bigs to stay in the paint and let his guards and wings chase shooters up top, usually over screens in an attempt to take away the shot and funnel them towards waiting rim protection. The previous three seasons, the Magic finished 24th, 22nd, and 25th in the percentage of opposing shots that came at the rim. This year they’re sixth. When Isaac and Bamba are the two primary defenders involved, whoever’s up against them can feel their brain melt into ice cream.

Orlando’s lineups that feature those two have been bad, but that’s not 100 percent their fault. Most of the minutes come at the start of the second and fourth quarters, when they’re joined by other reserves (like Jerian Grant or Jonathon Simmons) who make little sense supporting them on offense. When Evan Fournier and Terrence Ross are in, though, Orlando can breathe a bit more with the ball. Sometimes that’s because Bamba and Isaac are good enough shooters to invert the floor and create space for those guys to maneuver in the paint.

Here they are both hanging above the arc, bringing their own big defenders with them:

Separating the two, Isaac has already flashed the chops of someone who should appear on multiple All-Defensive teams. The speed (in his feet and hands), length, and intuitive feel are locked in place—to beat him off the dribble is to evade one’s own shadow—but the 21-year-old isn’t muscular enough to stand up the league’s more brutish scorers. That’s fine right now. He’ll grow. Until then, at 6’10” with a 7’1″ wingspan, Isaac is good enough on the perimeter to reach in, get crossed over, then recover back to smother his man from behind. As a help defender, Isaac tends to chase the ball a bit too much, but that tendency should iron itself out as he matures.

Bamba is a supernatural beanstalk who plants himself in the paint, then tries to use his uncanny physical dimensions to race out and contest along the perimeter whenever his man is about to line up a three. (He’s usually a step too slow.) Bamba’s physical dimensions are unprecedented, but can’t mask the learning curve he’ll eventually need to master if he wants to become a great all-around anchor. Together, he and Isaac are still feeling their way through the league, but it’s a thrill to daydream about what they may become. I mean, just imagine you’re Kyle Kuzma on this play:

De’Aaron Has the Eyes of a Fox

I used to think nothing in life was perfect, and then I saw this pass.

The Outlet Pass: Don’t Worry About the Rockets, They Have…Eric Gordon syndicated from https://justinbetreviews.wordpress.com/

[teacuphistorian]

Finding a defined sense of self

So my latest challenge is something I realised more clearly yesterday: the reason I’m so uncertain at the moment is that I have no anchored sense of self, no self-contained plan. I’ve even forgotten how to have alone time and podcast dark time lately. I did manage to settle down enough to listen to podcasts yesterday but I hadn’t been in a podcast phase for several weeks. It’s been all videos recently because I need something to be going on. So I need to find a way to have my own distinct sense of self within my relationship.

This problem has several sub-issues. 

Number one: I really, really like spending time with my partner! I remember describing it early on as being better than alone time. Why be yourself by yourself when you can be a super version of yourself with someone else and experience that synergy and amplified enjoyment when you get to truly share something. There are so few situations where we don’t have this experience that I have a mini existential crisis every time I like something and he doesn’t. I forget that it’s a possibility. So I just really struggle to want time by myself when he’s around.

Number two: whenever I’ve bought a personal planner in the last few years I haven’t been able to maintain it. It worked insanely well for me in my first year of university and ever since then I’ve had to do makeshift wall calendars if I want to have any sense of time at all. If I could just maintain one I think it would give me a more defined sense of self. But at the same time it’s just not as appropriate for my life at the moment. Maybe I should just get a month-based calendar as those are the ones I’m always creating. As I’ve always said, sometimes it’s more realistic to pay attention to an existing, persistent pattern and build your solution around that. Why do I always want to buy calendars at the end of the calendar year??

Number three: I have this leftover social pattern form living with my mum where I feel like I have the responsibility to keep the person I’m with company. If there are three or more people it’s fine because it’s not just on me, but my mum always clearly wanted to be spending time with me, so every time I chose to have alone time when it was just the two of us, I was deliberately making her sadder. I apply this to my wider life more than I should.

Number four: what I used to do in my alone time is now effectively what I intend to do for my job. It’s not even like I’m employed to write on certain topics, either. Everything which could be made into a substantial article should be prepared as part of a portfolio or submitted to a publication (neither of which I have done yet). So whenever I feel like blogging, it feels like time and energy which should be kept for work time. Except that creativity works best at the time for me (as demonstrated here). Whenever I say I’m going to have alone time and I’m going to use it to write or to develop skills and creative interests, it feels like I’m going to be pushing myself too far.

Number five: I have a fear of pushing myself too far left over from my year by myself. In that year I had to stop blogging due to social complications and I often didn’t have the energy to ground myself in any other way.

Number six: everything I used to just blog about (and thereby ground myself with) is now something I discuss with my partner, so I don’t have very many things left over to discuss. This also means I don’t get into the habit of writing every day through little everyday things the way I used to.

Number seven: I struggle a lot with the prospect of alone time and with the idea of alone time as a distinct concept because in my year on my own those things were never distinct. Alone time became more about filling time with whatever I could: videos, long podcast after long podcast, calls whenever I could. I got switched around and then I got directly into living with my partner so I never re-established my comfort with alone time and the concept of it being equal to or more important than social contact.

Number eight: I always disliked that my dad wasn’t spending enough time with my mum when I was a teenager and I saw how unhappy it made her. They weren’t unhappy with each other, it’s just she needed to spend time with him and he didn’t have the time or energy for that. So I made a point of spending time with my partner after work and that along with dinner made me not really have alone time. Between dinner, discussion, football and watching something, that’s the evening gone. Alone time? What alone time?

So I guess ultimately this is an issue of having somebody and having nobody. It’s also an issue of having difficulty shutting off my awareness of people I care about. It’s not really an issue of not having anything to say or any impulse to be creative. I just struggle to have a sustained sense of something I have to do which doesn’t involve someone else being involved. 

I’ve always found that the best way to solve problems is to approach them head-on. Making a sharp change can help to jump-start your brain into a new routine. You just can’t do it too abruptly or it’ll never last. But at some point you do have to decide to just make a change.

It’s happened recently with my decision to go and work in cafes again. It’s always been really effective as a workspace for me. It encourages me to get the right clothes / costume on, get just the stuff together that I need (and become structurally aware of what I have with me) and then makes it so that me and that stuff are distinct as a unit from the rest of my stuff and the rest of my possibilities, without having to worry about sustenance, comfort, workspace or temperature. The exercise helps me relax. It’s just excellent for comfort and focus.

I’ve been feeling that weirdness a lot lately: a certain unease with how I’m just passing time by watching youtube videos because they’re my plan and not because I want to or need to. I think I’m in a place where I could do this again.

I’m realising that I never actually gave myself the opportunity to get to know alone time again. It became just passing time until my world is made real by people again, or time to collapse between work. I never re-established it as a time in which I write as an extension of my thoughts. I need to try to make the decision to do that with alone time again. I think that’s how my blog started in the first place: a decision to honestly share the challenges in my life. To give other people the insights into myself that I wish I had into others.

I don’t know whether I’ve found a solution in this post. I guess that’s the challenge of adult life: finding time for yourself. I think I need to have more faith in my alone time and see it as a time for creative endeavours.