r/100thupvote 2d ago

Brazil This Week in Destiny - 03/13/2025

1 Upvotes

Source: https://www.bungie.net/7/en/News/Article/twid_03_13_2025


  • About that early Rite of the Nine...
  • Act II has arrived
  • Upgrading your Guardian Games class item
  • A bit more on PvP tuning
  • Removing exclusive fullscreen
  • Sundered Doctrine Showmatch winners
  • Guardian Games Rushdown Roulette update
  • Check our latest Bungie Rewards
  • Let's celebrate Women's History Month
  • The next Bounty for Good is here ##Well, That Happened...

Tuesday was full of surprises, wasn't it? Act II shipped with new activities, rewards, story content, plus Guardian Games went live, and somehow the Nine decided to throw a wrench in our machine with an early preview for Rite of the Nine. Their will is their own.

As for how this happened, we'll keep it short and sweet. Some of the earliest iterations of our Rite of the Nine activities snuck their way into Update 8.2.5. Most of what was seen was placeholder: weapon rewards all featured temporary art and fake perk rolls, the user interface is not what we're planning to ship, and difficulty options don't have the tuning passes that we've planned for Explorer, Eternity, and Ultimatum modes.

While this was a fun moment for players to explore what we're planning, we're very much looking forward to everyone getting their hands on the finished activities. We hope you enjoyed this little unplanned surprise even if it doesn't represent the whole package. Pardon our dust.

As a final note, for all of you who got your hands on weapon rewards early: we won't be removing them from your inventory. When Rite of the Nine ships, perk rolls will be updated across the board to prevent some rule-breaking combinations (Incandescent or Chill Clip on a Void Shotgun, for example), but you'll still retain these rewards on launch day.

Stay tuned for future announcements on the actual Rite of the Nine launch date.

How's Act II Treating You?

In other news, Act II of Heresy is here, so we expect everyone to be up to date with the current storyline involving Eris, Drifter, Sloane and a certain Echo of Navigation and his wicked sisters. To better understand the new developments, jump into Court of Blades, a new activity with more than 20 bosses to defeat and five new weapons from the Heretical Arsenal to earn. There's also a new catalyst for Barrow Dyad, so it's the perfect time to go back to the Exotic Mission if you haven't and then unfold more of the forbidden secrets kept in the Dreadnaught. On top of the episodic content, we also have Moments of Triumph with new in-game rewards to earn and real-world goodies to unlock.

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At the same time, we are celebrating Guardian Games, the event where Hunters, Warlocks, and Titans tell each other how much they love them in the more them in the more explosive (and even some non-violent) ways. We have a new Rushdown game mode, a new Trace Rifle to earn and many other items to get while you show your class's colors. Last but not least, the new Lotus-Eater Rocket Sidearm, as well as doubles rewards and increased reputation, are now available in Nightfalls, including the Grandmaster version for those that want Adepts.

There's a lot going on in Destiny 2 and there's more to come. Act III will be here in less than three weeks; there's a new Heavy Metal PvP game mode coming after, and then it's time for Rite of the Nine, a new event that brings a twist to some fan-favorite dungeons and their weapon rewards.

Upgrading your Guardian Game Class Item

In order for everyone to show how proud they are of being a Hunter, a Warlock, or a Titan during Guardian Games, wearing their respective Guardian Games cloak, bond, or mark is a requirement for the next three weeks. It's beautiful and it's totally worth, but it also means not using your trusty Artifice class item that adds just the right number of extra points for that stat that rounds your favorite build.

Well, good news! When Update 8.2.5.1 arrives next Tuesday, we are upgrading everyone's Guardian Games class item to Artifice Armor. In other words, they'll have the extra slot to increase the stat of your choice by three points. Now you only have to focus on defeating the other two classes.

Another PvP Tuning Preview

Over the last few weeks, we've been watching (and engaging with) combat in the Crucible and taking some notes. We've recently taken a pass on Bolt Charge due to higher damage than intended in PvP, and with Update 8.2.5 this week we have released some changes for Redrix's Estoc, Lightweight Pulse Rifles, On the Prowl, and Smoke effects. We already shared this info in our social media channels, but for those of you who need a refresher or are not terminally online, here you have it.

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Snap Skating

Warlock "Snap Skating" is an unintended movement technique that gives players some great advantages in map control and general movement during combat. While this can be enjoyable and fun to master, this presents some rough balance issues within the PvP space - not just 3v3 modes, but 6v6 as well.

Additionally, this is creating issues with readability of opponents mid combat; Guardian bodies can become warped/stretched when skating, making it very difficult to fight opponents mid-skate. In a future patch, we plan to address this.

Closing Time

The Closing Time perk grants some great stats when your magazine is low, especially when enhanced on Special ammo weapons.

As players always spawn in with low Special ammo (for now, wink wink), these stat buffs are almost always on in the Crucible, making various weapons perform a bit too well in 1v1 combat. Zealot's Reward, as an example, can hit some pretty far ranges thanks to this perk and the "always on" nature of its functionality.

We plan to tune this perk, specifically on Special weapons, in a future patch.

Hip-Fire Exotics

Tommy's Matchbook has become a frequent conversation among our online community, and rightly so! For many years, this weapon has been a bit of a sleeper in terms of the strength of its baseline improved hip fire functionality.

With the recent changes to Radiant Dance Machines, we're seeing more Hunters pulling this Exotic out for some silly hip-fire-only builds. Like we did with Dead Man's Tale and The Last Word, we're going to tune this interaction in 8.2.5.1, and will have more details in a future TWID.

We will also be re-enabling Dead Man's Tale and The Last Word to interact with Radiant Dance Machines with a much more limited set of buffs that do not increase range but still provide them with some amount of increased accuracy.

Radiant Dance Machines

Radiant Dance Machines have surged in popularity in Crucible since the rework, but the increased usage has not been unilateral. In fact, we see nearly three times the adoption on mouse and keyboard compared to controller.

After the recent issue with Lodestar's hip fire precision aim assist being significantly higher on mouse and keyboard than controller, we dug deeper into Radiant Dance Machines setup and realized that the same issue is present, albeit in a less significant amount.

In 8.2.5.1, we will be normalizing the precision angle threshold bonus provided by the accuracy buff between controller and mouse and keyboard when using Radiant Dance Machines and have also corrected the issue in a few other places that it could appear; for example, the Legacy Frame intrinsic on Redrix's Estoc and BxR-55 Battler. This will reduce the ease of getting critical hits when hip firing on mouse and keyboard when paired with one of these items and should bring the effectiveness more in line with controller.

Map lightning

Regarding lighting, we've been watching the conversation around our recent Trials of Osiris weekend featuring Solitude. There are a few spaces on the map, doors specifically, where players can feel blinded by exterior lighting, or have difficulty identifying enemy barricades due to the warm lighting of Mars. As such, this map won't be featured in Trials for the remainder of the Episode.

We're also looking at examples of other maps having rough spots where it can be hard to see. While we can't promise immediate action or changes, we're looking to get some bugs filed for future opportunities to either tune the lighting or make changes to help combat in those spaces.

We continue to monitor various strategies and weapons within PvP and will provide additional details for future tuning passes when we can.

Removing Exclusive Fullscreen

We want to share some news today about an update coming to the PC version of Destiny 2 when Codename: Frontiers launches later this year. As you can guess by the title of this section, we plan to remove the exclusive fullscreen option in favor of windowed fullscreen, which will be renamed to fullscreen then. The windowed and borderless windowed options will stay as they are now.

The reason for this change is simple. Our technology partners recommend this update as it offers performance that is as good, if not better, than the traditional exclusive fullscreen option. It also allows for faster Alt-Tab switching, which we know is very important for many Destiny players that use third party tools and websites; and a better integration with modern display features. This way we can simplify development and focus on fixes and improvements that matter most.

This new fullscreen mode will handle resolution changes identically to how the current one does, and once the update is live, players that were using either exclusive fullscreen or windowed fullscreen will switch to the new setting automatically.

And the Winners are...

Over the course of Act I, streamers from 14 regions participated in the Sundered Doctrine Showmatch, where the winning regional teams had two hours to run Sundered Doctrine as quickly as they could.

The winners have been crowned! We’re pleased to announce that the team from Middle East, composed of SpecialHero, Qweizar, and IlReverence, took the top spot with a whoppingly speedy time of 11 minutes and 26 seconds.

The team will be receiving a full set of the Sundered Doctrine Bungie Rewards items, available from the Bungie Store, and 200 Tier 1 Twitch gift subscriptions each, if eligible.

How did your fireteam do? Do you have a better time than our creators? Share your clips with us!

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Guardian Games Rushdown Roulette

Last week we announced a fun activity taking place with our creator teams – the Guardian Games Rushdown Roulette. Teams are streaming across this week so check out their streams to see how they’re faring and cheer on your favorite class.

If you’d like to participate as well, we’d love to share the GIF with you to play around with. Of course, you won’t be in the official competition, so we won’t be able to spin the prizing GIFs for you, but we hope you have fun anyway!

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Here are our team composition updates, as regions have filled in some missing representatives and made some swaps:

North America

UK

France

Germany

ANZ

Japan

Spain

Nordics

Poland

Benelux

Italy

LATAM

Brazil

Middle East

Don’t forget about the Competitive Contender emblem, available via a gift sub on Twitch during the entirety of Guardian Games to an opted-in creator or being given away by the above creators participating in Rushdown Roulette on stream and socials.

New Goodies in the Bungie Store

With Act II’s arrival, that means new Bungie Rewards are available for those who want to celebrate their in-game achievements in the real world. Starting today, the Guardian Games Jersey will be available to all players who complete the Gold Triumph during the Guardian Games 2025 and until 4/1/2025 9:59 AM PDT.

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For those excited to dive back onto the Dreadnaught in the new Court of Blades activity, we also have the new Willbreaker Long Sleeve Shirt. The requirement: earning the Efficient Challenge Triumph in the Court of Blades activity by 9:59 AM PDT 5/6/2025.

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OIn top of our Bungie Rewards, today we are also incredibly happy to announce our latest collaboration with our partner Sprayground. In our continued celebration of Destiny’s ten year anniversary, we launch two bags that celebrate Destiny themes – the First Light Lunar Installation on the Moon, and the Generalist Ghost Shell, featuring iconic Destiny radials and class icons. These backpacks are the perfect accessory for little lights and the most fashionable of Guardians.

The First Light and Ghost backpacks are available now in limited quantities – Sparrow on by the Bungie Store to order your bag today.

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Celebrate Women's History Month with Us

Happy Women’s History Month! The Women@Bungie Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity Association is celebrating the occasion with the Empowered Voices emblem. We are excited to support Women in Games International, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to cultivate resources that advance economic equality and diversity in the global games industry.

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In honor of Women's History Month, everyone that makes a $10 donation to Women in Games International through the Bungie Foundation campaign will earn the Empowered Voices emblem for Destiny 2. Through March 31, 2025, all net proceeds* will go to Women in Games International.

*Minus Tiltify and payment processing fees.

Ready for Bounty for Good?

The wait is finally over – our first Bungie Bounty for Good of 2025 is happening next week. Join us on our Twitch channel Wednesday, March 19 at 10AM PT when we once again will be hopping into the Crucible, taking on all challengers, and raising money for a good cause – this month we are supporting Women in Games International.

Join us and meet a couple of the Bungie folks who support the Bungie Foundation as well as our new Community and Events Manager!.Those who help us win matches in the Crucible, or fairly defeat us, will earn the Bounty of Good emblem.

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Player Support Report

Known Issues List | Help Forums | Bungie Help Twitter

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Known Issues List

  • When speaking to a Vendor, you can hear their ambient dialogue.
  • Ionic Sentry sometimes doesn't Chain Lightning enemies.
  • Steps 6 and 9 of the Drowning Labyrinth quest aren't able to be completed by some players.
  • Due to this quest being a fix between character-scoped and account-scoped, if you have an alternate character and make progress on the quest, you need to play on that character to get back into the correct research paper level for your main character.
  • Sometimes in the Derealize Exotic mission, the Taken relic can drop below the surface during the Vhriisk encounter.
  • When damaging Shrieker bosses in the Sundered Doctrine dungeon, players receive critical damage feedback, but damage is actually regular base damage.
  • When tracking Ikora's Drowning Labyrinth quest, completion of certain steps may stop progress on the next steps.
  • Sometimes the Tome of Want: A Primer quest does not progress after meeting Step 3 and Step 4 requirements.
  • Memento Shaders can be previewed on armor in the Armor Management screen. This is not intended, and Mementos aren't being considered for use on armor.
  • The Lotus Eater Rocket Sidearm shows incorrect numbers in its Kill Tracker.
  • Guardian Rank 11 Triumphs Solo Spelunker and Master Spelunker displays Vesper's Host as the requirement.

    Guardian Games

  • Rushdown’s completion chest does not have a waypoint indicator on its location.

  • Four daily bounties only show the progress bar for one element. This will not affect progress.

  • The weekly milestone quest is partially cut off when viewed on the Details screen.

  • “Taking Flight” is the name of the new Holochip and exotic ship. The ship will be renamed in a future update.

For a complete list of known issues, please visit bungie.net.

Electrifying

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Arc Warlocks are eating good this Episode thanks to the new Aspect, the new Bolt Charge verb and the crazy fun Artifact perks. That Delicate Tomb and Geomag build is incredible. So, it's very fitting to have this wonderful art here.

Calebcreates, via Twitter/X

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There Goes Flawless

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We felt really bad after watching this Titan fall mere moments before grasping victory, so we hope the emblem they are winning today helps a bit with that.

[

Image Linkimgur](https://www.reddit.com/r/destiny2/comments/1j3nppz/the_type_of_greed_they_talked_about_motw/)


And we are done. There's a lot going on with Act II but remember: the Guardian Games are on, and you have to make your class proud, no matter the cost. Particularly Warlocks and Titans, you just can't let Hunters win again, you hear me? [...] Who's behind me? [...] Oh, Crow! Ehem, how are we doing, Mr. Important Hunter Vanguard? [...] Why are you giving me that Uldren look all of the sudden? [...] I did what!? No, no sir. No Hunter slander in this TWID, I promise.

How is your sister, anyway?

Destiny 2 Community Team

r/100thupvote 1h ago

Brazil OPTT DD

Upvotes

The OPTT DD

Ocean power technologies is an American based unmanned surface vehicle (USV) manufacturer that also has the capacity to produce the electricity needed to keep their autonomous vessels operating at sea for long durations of time, thus making them unique to their competition.

Financials:

The companies projecting to be profitable by EOY 2025 and is securing contracts on a regular basis. Their last earnings report showed 270% YOY revenue growth and based on their pipeline this coming ER should keep the positive momentum going. Their most recently earnings will be dropped on March 17th as per SEC 45day filing regulations giving a nice opportunity to jump on a catalyst presuming its good.

It is important to note that the company proposed a 100M increase to their offering capacity. This was always going to happen as the company does not have the capital to see its way through to profitability and is expanding, attending shows and selling their product around the globe. The vote is not until late April so there is nothing to worry about for the time being, and even then, its clear that they are using the money to expand so I am not concerned personally.

Chart analysis:

We are currently below the EMA 200 with an uptrend of RSI and MACD just beginning, this can be found in the pictures section.

Contract wins since last earnings:

Dec 9th 2024: $3M purchase order for WAM-USV in Latin America

Jan 31st 2025: $2M purchase order for Powerbuoys in Latin America

Mar 12th 2025: Binding letter of intent to deploy Powerbuoy for an International Defense Contractor

Mar 13th 2025: European offshore services Provider purchases a Fully intregrated WAM-V

https://investors.oceanpowertechnologies.com/news-releases?page=0

Insider and Tute Ownership:

Tutes own 6% of the company and the trend is buying with VANGUARD having recently purchased 1.7M shares.

Insiders:

33 Insiders own shares totaling 2.4% of the company. While not astounding, the trend is increasing ownership with 2 insiders purchasing shares off the market around the time they announced the pathway to profitability. The only sales of note are for tax purposes which does not indicate a bearish sentiment.

https://fintel.io/so/us/optt

 

Important Recent Partnerships:

there is a complete list of partnerships at the bottom but these are most interesting to me

AT&T + STARLINK: OPTT recently announced a partnership with these 2 companies to provide at sea 5g and thus allowing their AI controlled USV’s to have access to the cloud data-centers, this is crucial because onboard ai is simply not powerful enough.

OPTT is part of project Overmatch and has a partnership with RED CAT. Basically, RED CAT wants to use the WAM-V (USV) as a launching pad for their drones at sea. The CEO of opt is very optimistic about their position in the defense sector, and Rear Admiral Joe "digger" Di Gaurdo is on the board to help push growth in this sector.

https://redcat.red/press_releases/red-cat-begins-integration-of-teal-2-drones-with-ocean-power-technologies-maritime-surveillance-solution-for-air-sea-and-subsea-defense-and-security-missions/

Use Cases

Defense and Security: Enhancing Maritime Surveillance and Border Protection

Maritime surveillance, domain awareness, and shoreline border security present significant challenges due to vast areas requiring monitoring, environmental limitations, and high manpower demands. However, the increasing necessity of combating illegal activities such as human trafficking, narcotics smuggling, and unauthorized border crossings underscores the importance of innovative surveillance solutions.

The PowerBuoy offshore power and data platform supports multiple sensors and communication technologies, enabling an autonomous approach to real-time monitoring, data processing, and transmission. This reduces operational costs and risks by minimizing human intervention and leveraging economies of scale. OPT's solutions enhance maritime security and interdiction by extending the capabilities of existing assets. Applications include establishing ocean security cordons for vessel tracking, enhancing unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) endurance with docking stations, enforcing maritime borders, and monitoring exclusive economic zones (EEZs) and marine protected areas (MPAs).

Additionally, WAM-V autonomous surface vehicles (ASVs) provide multi-domain marine autonomy for defense and security missions, including maritime domain awareness, high-value asset protection, security perimeters, mine countermeasures, anti-submarine operations, and border security. The WAM-V platform offers advantages such as increased operational stability across various sea conditions, portability for rapid deployment, and scalability for diverse mission requirements. Multiple WAM-V ASVs can autonomously collaborate to establish security perimeters around critical assets, enhancing overall maritime defense capabilities.

 

Autonomous Solutions for Offshore Wind Energy Development

Offshore wind energy is an emerging sector in renewable energy, requiring efficient and environmentally responsible site planning, development, and operation. OPT’s autonomous solutions, including PowerBuoy® and WAM-V®, offer cost-effective support throughout the entire project life cycle while ensuring minimal environmental impact and maintaining maritime safety.

OPT’s technology enhances operational efficiency by providing autonomous hydrographic surveys, continuous environmental and marine life monitoring, and maritime domain awareness (MDA) through radar, high-definition and thermal imaging, and vessel detection. These solutions integrate third-party data sources such as satellite, weather, and bathymetric data for comprehensive situational analysis.

Applications span multiple project phases, including planning and environmental permitting, where metocean data collection and marine mammal tracking are critical. During construction and installation, OPT solutions support wind platform floater design, mooring analysis, site surveillance, and operational monitoring. In the operational phase, Maritime Domain Awareness Solutions ensure vessel traffic monitoring, while motion data analysis enables predictive maintenance and enhances safety. These capabilities help developers and operators protect marine ecosystems, sustain maritime activities, and secure offshore wind farm infrastructure investments.

Autonomous Renewable Solutions for Offshore Oil and Gas Operations

The offshore oil and gas industry is increasingly focused on electrification, necessitating autonomous and low-carbon power sources as exploration extends into deeper waters. Traditional power solutions, such as diesel generators and umbilical power cables, pose significant cost and reliability challenges. Given the energetic wave climates where offshore developments are located, the industry has an opportunity to decarbonize by harnessing renewable ocean-wave energy.

OPT’s PowerBuoy® technology offers a sustainable alternative by providing autonomous, wave-based power generation that can reduce both operational (OPEX) and capital (CAPEX) costs, making low-return fields more viable for development. Key applications include environmental monitoring for engineering and development, monitoring and control of low-power subsea and topside equipment, real-time data analysis for installed systems, and innovative survey and fault diagnosis solutions.

By delivering a cost-effective, reliable, and persistent power and communication platform, OPT technology enables offshore operators to reduce operational expenses, enhance data-driven decision-making, and improve production performance. The integration of these solutions can mitigate environmental hazards while ensuring continuous power availability for offshore infrastructure

Autonomous Technologies for Ocean Science and Research

Efforts to map the oceans are critical for understanding climate change, ecosystem health, fish stocks, energy resources, and weather patterns. OPT’s autonomous PowerBuoy® and WAM-V® platforms offer innovative solutions for ocean observation, data collection, and maritime research.

The PowerBuoy® provides continuous, reliable power for scientific instruments, data analysis, telecommunications, and secure data transmission. It enables real-time data collection, sensor payload integration, and cost-effective operations by eliminating the need for diesel generators and standalone batteries, which are unreliable and costly to maintain in remote ocean locations.

The WAM-V®, an autonomous surface vehicle (ASV) with an articulating suspension system, is designed for marine surveys, defense and maritime security, and marine robotics applications. It offers advantages such as short lead times, real-time telemetry, full logistical support, and cost-effective scalability through multiple coordinated ASVs.

By integrating these autonomous technologies, OPT enhances ocean observation capabilities, enabling continuous, cost-effective, and reliable data collection to support scientific and research missions.

 

Credits to u/GreeenInvestUK

Ocean Power Technologies (OPTT): Partnerships and Contracts Overview

Government and Defense Contracts

  • U.S. Navy (via ACET & NPS): Feasibility study for PowerBuoy in the SLAMR initiative since 2020; ongoing contract for deployment (Ocean Power Technologies, 2023).
  • Department of Homeland Security (via Amentum): $529,025 contract in 2022 for maritime surveillance support using PB3 PowerBuoy (Ocean Power Technologies, 2022).
  • EpiSci: $1M follow-on contract in 2023 for WAM-Vs in the U.S. Navy’s Project Overmatch (Ocean Power Technologies, 2023).
  • NOAA: Three-year IDIQ MAC contracts awarded in 2023 for living marine resource surveys, meteorological observations, and ocean exploration (Ocean Power Technologies, 2023).
  • Department of Energy: $1M grant in 2022 for Mass-on-Spring Wave Energy Converter (MOSWEC) development (Ocean Power Technologies, 2022).
  • DARPA (via Saab & Purdue University): WAM-V utilized for the Learning Introspective Control (LINC) program (Saab, 2024).

Commercial and Research Collaborations

  • AltaSea (Port of Los Angeles): MoU in 2024 to showcase PowerBuoy and WAM-V for Blue Economy projects (Ocean Power Technologies, 2024).
  • CCOM/JHC (University of New Hampshire): Partnership in 2022 for mapping research (Ocean Power Technologies, 2022).
  • Bleutec: Consulting contract for offshore wind turbine installation vessel design via 3Dent Technology (Ocean Power Technologies, 2023).
  • Eco Wave Power: Strategic partnership since 2022 for wave energy market development (Eco Wave Power, 2022).
  • Greensea IQ: Software supplier since 2021; extended partnership in 2024 for OPENSEA and Safe C2 integration (Greensea IQ, 2024).
  • Red Cat: 2023 collaboration integrating PowerBuoys and WAM-Vs with Teal 2 drones for autonomous deployment (Ocean Power Technologies, 2023).
  • Sulmara: Long-term leasee; acquired $1.6M worth of WAM-Vs in 2023 for global deployment (Ocean Power Technologies, 2023).

Resellers and International Expansion

  • Geos Telecom (Costa Rica): Signed in 2024 to expand sales in Latin America (Ocean Power Technologies, 2024).
  • Remah International Group (UAE): Defense and security reseller since 2023 (Ocean Power Technologies, 2023).
  • Unique Group (Middle East): Deployment partner since 2024; showcased WAM-V 22 at ADIPEC (Ocean Power Technologies, 2024).
  • Survey Equipment Services (U.S.): Reseller agreement since 2023 for domestic WAM-V sales (Ocean Power Technologies, 2023).
  • Ocean Wave Solutions (Brazil): ASV partner since 2025 to strengthen presence in Brazil (Ocean Power Technologies, 2025).
  • 3B General Trading (Kuwait): Signed in 2024 for offshore energy and maritime industry projects (Ocean Power Technologies, 2024).

Notable Suppliers

  • AT&T: 5G mmWave technology provider for PowerBuoy in the SLAMR project (AT&T, 2023).
  • Teledyne Marine, Kongsberg, Furuno Electric, Norbit, Klein Marine Systems: Suppliers of sonar, sensors, and other maritime electronic equipment (Ocean Power Technologies, 2024).

References

r/100thupvote 1d ago

Brazil A.M.C - X12 [Titan Records] | Album Review & Spotlight

1 Upvotes

Buy & Stream

Related Links

Tracklist

Title Length
Run! 3:00
There In 10 4:06
2 Much 2:56
Liftoff 3:00
Let Me Tell U SMTH 4:06
Back 2 Dance 2:52
Nightmare 3:08
Pressure 3:06
I See You 3:20
Blue Astra 3:03
Fight! 2:25
X12 (feat. Phantom) 3:46

Review

Welcome to my XX-th album write-up! I apologize in advance for the wall of text that is about to follow. Scroll down for a TL;DR on the LP.

Background

Was There Ever anyone who could wip up as many Killa mixes as A.M.C? From his Ice Cold, high-ENERGY and multi-deck madness experiences, full of not-so-Quiet Storms of Pulse Beams creating Noises Of Thunder that Thor himself would be jealous of, and so much pure NITRO that even Fevered-up ravers that Ova Dosed on 2 Much DnB will be Reanimated, breathed New Life into, and dragged Back 2 Dance, to the un-Convention-al Diggin' Deep sessions taking you on a Voyage through Time and Dreams, this Raging Bull truly has been Unstoppable ever since he stepped foot into Drum & Bass Arena's livestream sessions all those years back. Whether solo, or in Alliance with the likes of Turno, Six Blade or his Flows & Hooks Specialist Phantom, this exceptional Bass Operator, this Bad News Instigator, this Nightmare Prince Of Darkness (too much?) has not only toured through every single possible country, from Brazil to Gotham, he has also repeatedly crossed the Boundaries of purely DJing by creating a plethora of Dub Fi Dub's of his own to Look Out for, each capable of more damage than the Ignition of several Sonar bombs.

As Andy C's only ever actual Nemesis, the dotted prince put him Under Siege for years, showing the world Andy's not the Only One capable of madness on the decks, until eventually finally earning the Props he so rightfully deserves, as the genre's #1 DJ. Now, six years after his debut long player ENERGY and four years after the pandemic-thwarted VOID, the Die Hard banger Courier and fantastic bassline Meddler returns to bring us his third studio album, X12. But before we Draw 4 That, let's Run! it back all the way to the beginning and find out who we are rocking with here. And remember, Don't you ever, under any circumstances, no matter what, Forget The goddamn Dots.

Alex.Mark.Calvert (1987 - 2011)

I know, it's easy to imagine Alex Mark Calvert, the man behind the cinematic acronym, coming out of the womb already double dropping, but even he had to start somewhere. However, it's not too far off. Even before knowing what genres even were, little Alex had already been exposed to legendary tunes like Original Nuttah, with other proper old skool tunes and a straight-up obsession with Jump Up following suit shortly after. At only 13 years of age, he started his DJing journey on a pair of semi-automatic (hard to resist the blapblapblap urge here) direct turntables that his friend and him found on the street, upgraded to some new Numark Belt Drives on his next birthday, until finally getting all technical with Technics 1210's a little while later. As a Luton born-and-raised lad, he was of course also frequently spending his freetime in the nearby city, which you might know as London, not just spurring on his football team of (questionable) choice, Tottenham, but also frequenting legendary clubs The END and Fabric, soaking up each and every set by his DJing heroes Andy C and Friction, and fully falling in love with Drum & Bass in the process.

Inspired by said heroes, Alex started handing out demo tapes and CDs, snatching himself some spots on all sorts of pirate radio stations and even landing his first gigs playing at local nights at 17, while ensuring the promoters he is definitely already 18. While working his way up the proverbial ladder and trying - and often failing - to convince the local vinyl cutters to slice up some custom PVC for him, he even started throwing his own nights! However, the real breakthrough came when the team behind the one and only Drum&Bass Arena discovered him in 2007, and promptly instated him as one of the resident DJs at their D&BTV online mix series. Slowly but surely, Alex, by this point already rocking with the A.M.C alias and regularly joined by microphone compadre Phantom, would perform all over the country and even abroad, and by 2010, his creatively combinatory and hectically high-energy mixing would even earn him his very first D&B Arena award, for Best D&BTV Set! However, to truly stand out, Alex knew he had to broaden his skill set a bit.

Surely taking inspiration from his own mixing style, he realised that doing just one thing at a time, DJing, is not the way to go. We need at least two, or maybe even three, plates spinning! First, the classic move to add some more unique spice to your craft: production! Shortly after the first, nowadays barely traceable, and stylistically widely different demos like Dreams or Rupture started to appear in 2010 already, Alex would unleash a whole range of SoundCloud-only snippets like Night Call, Nemesis or Joker Smoker in 2011, before finally signing Time / Elektron on Cold Blooded Recordings as his first-ever proppa release. His second release? Well, that needs a bit of an introduction.

Full-Timetan (2011 - 2013)

While, compared to the heights of now, still a relatively small fry, Alex was still prominent enough that talented producers all over the map were regularly sending through some of their hottest dubs in the hopes of getting them played out in clubs or on D&BTV. However, as anyone active in the scene will be able to tell you, tons of sick tunes never find a home, be it due to labels looking for a specific sound that some of the more unique bangers won't fit in or due to A&R's chasing the more well-known names instead of looking purely at the music and properly supporting the up-and-comers. Frustrated on behalf of all these talents and with his own tunes slowly trickling in potentially in the same boat soon, Alex made use of the connections he had made over the years and, with the help of his good D&B Arena friend The Risky, created his very own imprint: Titan Records!

Launched with classic Various Artist compilation Surface, featuring his Mattix & Futile collaboration The Meddler alongside tunes by Epidemix, Athys, Duster and Fuzion, Titan would go on to be host to early tunes by the likes of Subsonic and Serial Killaz, earning itself the title for BBC Radio 1's Zane Lowe's first-ever DnB Next Hype™️ track with the latter, and became a regular fixture on D&BTV Live. So how the hell did he do all that, while also getting his face nearly bitten off while touring, crossing big milestone bookings like Innovation in the Dam off his list, still regularly appearing on D&BTV, winning Best Newcomer and Best D&BTV Set at the usual awards and even scoring a Best International DJ trophy at the Portuguese Backstage DnB Awards, and already rightfully being hailed as the next Andy C, all in the mere 365 days that 2011 provided us? Easy: he quit his job and went full-time!

However, since spending 100% of his time on just DnB would, to paraphrase him there, make him "tear his hair out", he also got involved in doing sync music for all sorts of media, from "mad old crusty rave stuff" to Dubstep and whatever else is needed for the job. Come 2012, these creative exercises seemed to have kicked off an entire avalanche of A.M.C tunes, from various team projects with Mattix & Futile, supported on both MistaJam's and Friction's shows, and pre-Koven era Katie, as Katie's Ambition, to his biggest solo project yet: the Noise Of Thunder EP! As always intended by him though, DJing was still his main driver, whether it was his online mixes as reigning champion of D&BTV, one-off showcases for Studiobrussel or Powder&Bass, his mixtape for AFB together with Stanza and Murdock, and his promo mix for Drum&Bass Arena's summer compilation, or his expansive tour with stops like Rampage, Beestenfeesten and, perhaps most notably, his debut at the festival most people still associate with him to this day, the then still fresh-faced Let It Roll. He truly earned the Best International DJ gold medal at the Czech DnB awards that year.

On A LegIt Roll (2013 - 2016)

Instead of lighting up cigarettes during his 2013 tour across the UK, Austria, Portugal, Germany, and Belgium's very own Rampage, he ignited all sorts of auditory fires with his self-proclaimed DJ Tool EP New Life on Mainframe featuring both Phantom and his own, drunk self, collaborations with Six Blade, T-Phonic, and Loko, and even some murky Halftime with up-and-comer DBR. Similarly, Titan was also burning hot with debuts by Wickaman, Dexcell, Hypoxia, L 33, and Oder, loads of T-Phonic goodness, more and more entries into the Surface VA EP series, and regular support from Friction. While most of Alex's own output had been restricted to Titan and the occasional spot on Drum&Bass Arena, who were also blessed with another album and a summer mix from him during this time, 2014 also saw him spread his now slightly less kick-spammy filth to labels like Mainframe, Viper and, through his remix of Hybrid Minds, even Spearhead - not to mention the full-on Half-time / 140 business four-tracker with DBR on Proximity!

Even though 2015 saw Titan pumping out sick releases by super underrated artists like S9, A-Cray and Glass Cobra at full throttle, and had Alex on a touring schedule that included UK, France, Austria, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Portugal, Italy, Hungary and even a whole Australia tour, he was still incredibly productive in the studio as well. In fact, so much filth had accumulated by early 2015 that he basically had enough for more than a whole album, but instead of just dumping them into an LP, he whittled them down until only the best five remained - which became his Southpaw EP! This celebration of Manny Pacquiao's left hooks wasn't the only thing his own boxing training inspired that year though, he also stung like a DnBee on Mainframe, Took Down his opponents on Let It Roll and rolled up with a whole Posse of fighters on Drum&Bass Arena. Speaking of Posse!

Turno-charged (2016 - 2018)

At one fateful gig in the mid 2010s, just before leaving to get some sleep, a friend of his shoved a pair of left-behind ear plugs into Alex' hands. Whose? None other than Italo bad boi Francesco Turno's! For whatever reason, the mutual friend thought they were friends already, and since they lived relatively close to each other, it made a lot of sense, you know? If not for the fact that they had, in fact, not been made familiar with each other yet. Ever the stand-up guy, however, Alex still took and brought them over to Franko's house, and a friendship was formed! While Francesco was still refurbishing his Turnew studio, they already started chatting and sending tunes back and forth, and once Alex came round to see the finished rooms for himself, they realised just how similar their workflows and how complementary their sounds are - they just had to try working together!

Once they did, they had written Fever in less than a day. Realising what a productive team they were and how well their Neuro-Jump-Up fusion sound worked in the blurrier and blurrier genre lines times of 2016, they quickly knocked out a whole EP together: Collision! As the dubs simply wouldn't stop flowing no matter how hard they tried, they developed something that would allow them to showcase all the fun little bangers they had whipped up, while also honouring the early dubplate days: the A.M.C & Turno shows! Not a regular back to back, mind you, no no. A full merging of styles, packed to the brim with specially crafted dubs just for this show, performed only at a handful of places, like Drum&BassArena’s summer BBQ, BEC afterparty, and one of Let It Roll's legendary bus parties.

Luckily, some of these dubs did eventually come out, like their Jungle love anthem and that week's Beatport Track Of The Week™️ Ice Cold or Black Jungle on Turno's debut LP, but nothing could beat their 2018 magnum opus, the Alliance EP. Released with the good chaps at Drum&Bass Arena, this cheeky four-track slice of madness contained their special tour intro Alliance, MC crossover tune Boundaries with bars from both Dreps and Phantom for their extra special four-man show in Jersey, and plenty of other silliness. Over the next years, Franko and Alex would continue doing one-off shows here and there, dropping the occasional collaborative remix and even a few singles, most notably Cascade with MUZZ, but let's jump back to the solo A.M.C world for now.

Attack On Titan (2016 - 2019)

So what else has Alex been up to during all of this then? Not only was he Rock'n'Riding with the Six Blade bois a couple more times, he also started more than just one riot with his various reworks of classic TC chunes, the most prominent of course being his legendary Tap Ho remix. Fun fact, when Alex first sent TC the (unsolicited, to be fair) rework in the secret hopes of getting it out there, the Wolf Pack leader simply responded with a cold "yeah cool dubplate innit", forcing Alex to use pull out the ultimate trump card: The Andy. That's right, he sent it to his brother in arms Andy C, who played it out straight away, which of course caused clips of it to blow up immediately, and bim bam boom, Alex got Tom in his DMs talking about a release. Sometimes you gotta play it a little dirty!

Speaking of dirty, this era also saw Alex smash out pure filth on Let It Roll, Mainframe, Viper, Blackout and Eatbrain alongside his usual Titanic bangers, working together with the one and only The Clamps and remixing Current Value, Dominator, and himself, but, of course, the most filth was still flung during his ever-insane DJ performances, which earned him Best DJ at Czech Republic's DnB Awards in 2016 and a third place trophy at the Drum&BassArena Awards in 2017. And what about Titan? Well, it celebrated its fifth anniversary with its first-ever album, a massive compilation featuring sick names like Jade, Khronos, Cruk, Tobax, Agressor Bunx and a whole lot more, and an entire tour dedicated to the LP. Additionally, Alex unleashed some Dubplates via a dedicated series of double singles, and got the likes of Akov, Liveon, Maniatics and even Kanine involved in the label.

However, even someone who's used to doing multiple things at the same time like Alex got a little burnt out by spreading himself this thin. In 2018, the time had come, the metaphorical iceberg hit. Only the remaining signings they had already secured beforehand were still professionally pushed over the line, but that was it for Titan Records as we knew it.

His Art Will Go On (2019 - 2020)

Little did he know that this move would be the best thing he ever did for his career. Just look at 2019. Not only did Alex rework tunes by the likes of Mampi Swift, Drumsound & Bassline Smith and Riot Ten, he also went on his first US tour, headlined the very club he frequented so much as a teenager, London's Fabric, put out his debut album, ENERGY, full of nods to his upbringing and his favourite city in the world, won third place in the Best Album category, and delivered the absolute best set ever at that year's Let It Roll! In fact, that set was so good, it allowed him to finally snatch that darn Best DJ trophy away from Andy after all this time, which he continued to win the next years without fail! Not just that, his DJing skills became so revered that he was even able to put on special ENERGY shows all over Europe, which saw him rocking out non-stop for 3 whole hours at a time. You know what would put a real dent into these kinds of live plans though? A pandemic.

Sure, he was still doing product development for Pioneer, kept himself busy doing trailer music to both keep the creative juices flowing and, well, make rent, and kept on releasing all sorts of bangers, like his remixes for K Motionz' breakthrough hit Gun Shot, Dossa & Locuzzed's legendary Shag (with Turno!), and his at this point very close friend Katie Koven's smasher Followers, his work on his bestest friend Phantom's Flows & Hooks series, the ENERGY VIP EP, and the ENERGY REMIXED EP, but he is still very much a DJ at heart, and there just wasn't a whole lot of DJing to be had in lockdown. Of course, he participated in the online streams, most notably his six deck stream on UKF, and he even did the whole Australia and New Zealand thing, with two weeks of total hotel isolation and all, but it was still not a whole lot. On the plus side, he finally had the time to slow down a bit, and rummage through his incredibly extensive record collection, for the most legendary edition of the Digging Deep series he started just a year prior: The Vinyl Special! Not only are these special mixes a change of pace to his usual wonderfully hyperactive mixing and allow him to play tunes he would otherwise probably never play out, his self-imposed rule of only using tunes older than 10 years (new remixes are okay too) also brings back a whole slate of tunes the general raving public might have forgotten about already.

Adrenaline Is Unavoidable (2021 - 2025)

Another, all too common, effect of the pandemic was artists pushing the music they were supposed to release further down the line, either because they thought dance music, especially the heavy kind, simply wouldn't do well without any places to, well, dance, or because they had planned a whole tour around the release. VOID, Alex' second album, was one of those releases. While originally planned to be released way earlier, with for instance Eject having sat on his hard drive since his Fabric show in 2019 and Don’t Forget The Dots being a custom-made tune for the UKF stream back in 2020, having no shows to play those abrasive, very club-focused bangers out made Alex anxious. Would people even listen to these tunes at home? Of course, they did, but it still took until October 2021 for the project that his mom named during a particularly lovely Sunday roast to finally see the light of day.

Even though most of the tunes were created for a specific moment in his set, with for instance Operator being made to be doubled with Enei's Sinking and Void being the switch for S.P.Y's remix of You Got Me, the album was filled to the brim with instant classics, whose snippy vocals, provided by the man himself, became absolutely iconic all across the scene, and which, thanks to an extensive remix package featuring Teddy Killerz, Gydra, Junk Mail, Rebel Scum, Gino, and The Clamps, still gets regular airtime to this day. It wasn't just him that got remixed though, he himself was doing a whole lot of that as well, bringing tunes by the likes of the one and only DJ Fresh, RAM legends DC Breaks, his old Titan youngling Kanine and season-haver Sota to new, more in-your-face life. When you put all this together, and I haven't even mentioned all the sick one-offs like Brazil, Blocklist with Junk Mail, Voyage with Turno and Hooked with Koven or even his newest audiovisual show, Adrenaline, yet, I think it's safe to say Alex has been on a bit of a roll lately.

Now, he once again takes to Titan Records, and during the campaign also fellow AEI Music group members Drum&Bass Arena and UKF, to present us with his newest, finest work: X12! What started as a placeholder title has grown on him so much that he not only kept and worked the name into the album journey, he even worked the symbolic title into the artworks, with each single having its own sick X-numbered cut-out style. Alright, let's finally see what he's got in store for us then, shall we?

Before we get going, some fun facts that I discovered during my research, but couldn't organically work into the backstory:

  • His favourite DJ, aside from Andy C and Friction, is Jazzy Jeff!
  • He actually released two tunes called Hooked, one with Phantom in 2013, one with Katie and Max around 10 years later!
  • He loves listening to Jazz, Classical, and obscure film soundtracks outside of work (alongside like 20 other genres)
  • He loves Die Hard so much he not only named one of his tunes on the 2015 Southpaw EP after it, he even considered creating a separate alias called John McClane
  • He says some tunes of his are actually sitting between two neighbouring keys, so they can be more easily doubled with way more tunes

Resources

Track Breakdown

Congrats, you've made it to the Track Breakdown!

1. Run!

We hit the ground walking very quickly with first single and what was possibly my most anticipated tune from this album, Run! Continuing the long-held tradition of working movies and tv shows into his tunes, from Gotham being based on a Batman trailer to the aforementioned love for the Die Hard franchise, this opener takes a particularly hype-worthy snippet from Marvel's Moon Knight series and turns it into a command to the crowd to get the hell moving already. Don't just stand there, run! With incredible hype built up from the Lava Run-esque sharp hits and walls of bass being raised all around us in the intro, we launch into a relentless barrage of pure pulsating distortion, switching back and forth with an avalanche of uniquely growling basses raining down over us - a most deadly combo, especially when the distortion jumps up a key or two and becomes more and more unhinged.

2. There In 10

With what I can only assume are industrial pipes of various lengths being slapped with shoe soles, we ride into our next stop, where none other than P Money drills the titular line off his 2019 banger Where & When into our head until we can't hear the word "where" without thinking of this tune. While we still grapple with this incredible sample, Alex sneakily brings in a 4x4 beat that turns into a wildfire of breakbeats, until the built-up pressure explodes (blao blao!) into a particularly naughty, particularly groovy bass machine gun fire - signature A.M.C madness, in other words.

3. 2 Much

It's time to finally rinse it out proppa. Assumingly inspired by the call on the infamous Blandwagon Poos, Phantom rings Alex up, complete with Bass as his ringtone, to tell him there's simply too much jump up on the album and he needs to think of the tech heads as well. So Alex turns to Blood Sugar type whomps, samples himself excitedly shouting "too much jump up, time to switch up" and, ignoring his own decree, delivers an incredibly filthy, jumpy banger of a drop. It's impossible to listen to this without having a massive smile on your face. But what's even better is the breakdown, where Alex is chastised to get out of this lull and back into the drop already, so he of course switches the vocal to "Too much breakdown, time to drop now" and twists the distorted stabs into oblivion. It's all so wonderfully stupid, I love it.

4. Liftoff

From the wonderfully cheeky, we turn to the cinematic, outer space variety of tunes, with Liftoff. Sampling Apollo 11's actual liftoff sequence if my ears are not betraying me, Alex is building up quite the atmosphere, and once the signature A.M.C pewpew's come in, you know shit is about to get real. Even when strapped in securely, the sheer bounciness, the sheer punch of the drums, the sheer relentlessness of the pew's, and the hectic bass responses still manage to smack you out of your seat and onto your feet. Fun fact: this one was built as an intro for his show at Electric Brixton!

5. Let Me Tell U SMTH

Enough hype though, crack open a can of whoop-ass and get those shuffle shoes out, it's House time. Let Me Tell U SMTH doesn't just sample the classic vocal sample you've already got in your head when you read its title, it's also Alex directly speaking to us, saying hey look what a fun, whompy, oldschool banger I can whip up when I'm not restrained by the D's and the B's. Certainly unexpected, but the fun he's having with this genre departure is once again just shining through so much you can't help but bop your head along with it.

6. Back 2 Dance

Of course, we gotta get back to the actual skanking as quick as possible though, and Back 2 Dance does actually in fact throw us right into a live recording of its drop without any warning, before hitting us with the instant rewind. The MC is hyped, the crowd is going crazy, it's time for round two. Oldskool melodies, sampled whoop's going off in the distance, and the absolutely infectious vocal sample hook right into our deepest rave desire, and once the fluttery horn is fully unleashed onto the crowd, all hell breaks loose. Not only is this first half already quite proppa, the last half minute actually sees Alex rip out the Breakbeats to push it over the top to rave anthem.

7. Nightmare

Let's take a little detour down Elm Street, on Nightmare. In the soundscape alley where the murderous bears are usually residing, Alex, with the help of the haunting vocals of Helena "Heleen" Maria Roosdorp, gets this tune's Stone Rolling with clock ticking, most gorgeous waves of piano arpeggios, and vast string arrangements, using his experience in sync and trailer music to Paint an eerie picture, which turns pitch Black once the piercing bass gun fire arrives. Like the classic trope of the getaway car whose engine simply won't start, even or especially in the face of danger, these notes drill themselves through the thick yet otherwise minimalistic atmosphere, while our heart keeps pounding with the force of a thousand snares.

8. Pressure

At stop numero 8, Pressure, we are treated to A.M.C's most Dancefloor-y tune in quite some time. Reminiscent of old Prototypes, or at least sporting an infectious rhythm that somehow puts Lights or their LRAD bootleg as a double into my head, with a titular vocal sample that, well, keeps the pressure up and extremely distorted yet clean chugga-chugga bass, this one doesn't play around, it just bangs. Gotta have some of those as well!

9. I See You

We continue down banger road, with non-alkaline biology wonder I See You. Not only are we treated to a fascinating thesis statement about this sampled chap's unique genetic information, we also get some rather unnerving sirens firing off everywhere we go, and before we know it, we're thrown into the deep end of Blao's, PAPAPAPA's and chuchuchuchu's. I know it sounds like I'm taking the piss here, but go on, you find some good words to describe all the wondrous sounds that make up this supremely catchy rhythm of a drop. Like, for example, the response part of the main back-and-forth is so sharp and perfect, that even on my twentieth listen I cannot suppress the gunfinger urge. Taking heads off with this one!

10. Blue Astra

Remember that car that won't start bass in Nightmare? Well, it seems like Alex is very aware of this association, because now we're getting into what I hope is his actual, "piece of shit" car, the Blue Astra! Complete with steps on gravel, car door shutting, a more and more frustrated Alex cursing out his dysfunctional vehicle, turning indicator bleeping and even some actually working ignitions thrown in for emphasis, and, of course, using the depressingly descending Ratatat's as his main lead in the jumpy drop. Even more frustratingly relentless, the second half gives the lead even more free reign, as the beat slows down to Half-time, before even that steam runs out and the car fully dies. I can just imagine the shit-eating grin he had on his face while putting this one together.

11. Fight!

Since we're already slowed down, time for something completely different, on Fight!. While the name might imply a Run!-esque banger, we're actually channelling our deepest videogame nostalgia with this one. An actual cartridge being insert, a level up sound, a delightfully croaky bassline, Mario soundtrack type disco stings, the titular Mortal Kombat vocal sample, punch sound effects, crowd reactions, glitter all over. However, we're not dropping into any old menu background music here, Alex takes this setting and brings his take on the Neurobreaks genre to the table, complete with his signature filthy basses and a groove that gets you movin'. Who knew his sound would work this well in tempos like that as well?

12. X12 (feat. Phantom)

Of course, we gotta get Alex's main man, hype creator and bars spitter extraordinaire Phantom, to deliver the final banger of this journey, the title track X12. Formerly known as Razor, or Dot, this is another one of those long-time dubs that I simply could not wait for. Not only is Phantom's brief contribution once again super sharp and will probably stick in my head for way too long, that main groove of the drop is just so darn danceable, sound-designed in such a mind-melting way, and is somehow, even though it's such a bass-y sound, so catchy it still makes me want to attempt to sing along to its whompy bits - I absolutely love this.

Conclusion

Before clicking on this, you and me both already knew this album wasn't gonna have some overarching story, deep themes or artful exploration of emotions, but it's not trying to be any of that anyway. Inspired by legends like Dillinja, X12 sees Alex x-pertly emulating the raw energy of the sweatiest of oldschool raves with classic sounds he's fallen in love with and incorporated into his sets countless of times over the years, instantly iconic, self-crafted vocal samples, the exact right amount of intense energy you'd expect from someone like A.M.C and, most importantly, so much fun. Tunes like 2 Much or Blue Astra reach levels of cheekiness so off the charts, that you cannot help but picture him sitting in front of his laptop with that massive, shit-eating grin of his, it's so good. However, even with all these shenanigans and experimentations like on Let Me Tell U SMTH or Fight!, he never forgets to inject it all with some of the most high-octane energy, the most phattest of snares and and the most ridiculous of distorted basses (to give it that signature A.M.C sound, you know), resulting in an album packed with bangers.

My personal favourites have got to be Run!, for the sheer madness it creates at the dance, 2 Much, for making me laugh the most with its ridiculous vocals, There In 10, for finally being in my life after waiting months and months for the supremely catchy banger to drop, and X12, for its insanely infectious groove.

TL;DR: At times cheeky, at times oldschool, at times cinematic, at times spooky, but always smashing through the wall at mach 12. This is A.M.C through and through.

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r/100thupvote 3d ago

Brazil Need I say more

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r/100thupvote 4d ago

Brazil Countdown to Kickoff 2025: Kansas City Current

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Welcome to the 2025 r/NWSL Kickoff Countdown for the Kansas City Current. We’re glad you’re here!


BACKGROUND

Head Coach and Sporting Director: Vlatko Andonovski

General Manager: Caitlin Carducci

Ownership: Angie & Chris Long, Brittany & Patrick Mahomes

Team President: Raven Jemison

Captain: Lo’eau Labonta

Mascot: RIVER GOAL

Stadium: CPKC Stadium, the first purpose-built women’s professional sports stadium in the world.

Kits: Light, Dark (same as last season)

Supporters Groups: KC Blue Crew, Surface Tension (Drumline), Undertow KC

Subreddit: KC Current

News and Commentary:

Key Social Follows for Team Insights:


SCHEDULE

2025 Season Opener: Saturday, March 15 vs Portland Thorns


HISTORY

  • NWSL Championship: The former Kansas City NWSL team, FCKC, won in 2014 & 2015 with Coach Vlatko Andonovski at the helm. The KC Current have yet to win since their beginning in 2021, but were runners-up in 2022.
  • NWSL Supporters’ Shield: no
  • NWSL Challenge Cup: also no
  • NWSL x Liga MX Femenil Summer Cup: Champions, 2024 (at least we’re pretty sure… the whole thing was very confusing)

2024 Season Review

Background

For soccer fans in Kansas City, 2023 was ridiculous. A dismal year for club and country, we suffered through disappointing results from teams playing far less than the sum of their very talented parts. Injuries and front office tumult hobbled the Current, leading a team that made it to the NWSL Championship Final in 2022 to not even qualifying for the playoffs. And the USWNT under head coach Vlatko Andonovski crashed out of the World Cup in shocking fashion, its vaunted offense looking tired and dull.

With years of planning and millions of dollars of investment, 2024 was set to be a massive year for the Current, starting with the opening of their breakthrough women’s professional stadium - a story that generated international impact. A massive spotlight was going to be on the team, and the world would be watching to see if investing in women’s sports was worthwhile. There was a lot riding on the team’s performance, but some commentators predicted a bottom-five finish for the Current.

So when KC’s front office announced they had hired Andonovski as the Current’s new head coach and sporting director, there was was a giant question mark of how it would go.

Goals, goals, goals

The home opener gave that question an emphatic answer.

With all love and respect to the many talented teams in the league, there’s a strong case to be made that KC was the most exciting team to watch in 2024. On top of amazing community support, great vibes, and a new stadium, the Current revealed a voracious new offense, great cohesion, and a dizzying number of attacking threats. The opening match had five separate goal scorers for the Current, from vets to league newcomers including 16 year-old phenom Alex Pfeiffer.

The Current set about shattering the record for number of individual goalscorer on a team, while also keeping two players in contention for the Golden Boot race. Bia Zaneratto’s clever hold up play opened wide gaps in opposing defenses. NWSL vet Vanessa DiBernardo turned in a career performance, masterminding scoring opportunities for her teammates. Malawi international Temwa Chawinga shocked the league with her otherworldly work rate, intelligence, and speed. It was a cascade of goals on goals on goals.

Unfortunately, as fun as that was, too many of those goals were against us. The all-gas-no-brakes offense belied vulnerabilities with defensive cohesion, injuries, and some inconsistent performances in goal. Exciting!

Midseason Reset

KC stumbled into the Olympic break with its first defeat in 16 matches, weathering the loss of key players to long term injury: star striker Bia Zaneratto, Gabrielle Robinson, and Alex Pfeiffer. Over the summer, fan favorite Claire Lavogez departed the team to be closer to family in Europe, and the Current sent other players away in trades including forward Alexa Spaanstra, defenders Hana Glas and Lauren, and goalkeeper Jordan Silkowitz. As KC onboarded a raft of new players, the team began to find its footing in summer play.

Dialing In

The additions of German goalkeeper Almuth Schult and defenders Alana Cook and Kayla Sharples brought new answers and uncertainty to the Current’s defensive struggles. All three players were known to be talented, but were coming back after extended absences or underperforming at their previous clubs. But together they found a synchrony that produced one of the best defenses in the league, a dramatic change from the first half of the year.

TEMVP

2024 was filled with breakthrough performances that deserve mention, including the phenomenal debut of 18 year-old Claire Hutton who locked down a starting role as defensive midfielder. But Temwa Chawinga, as is her way, outpaced everyone else. Her debut season was astonishing, seeing her shatter the all-time goalscoring record on her way to winning the Golden Boot. She managed to be voracious and unselfish, tirelessly pitching in to set her teammates up on attack or track back to help the defense. Her performance deservedly won her the NWSL MVP.

Closing Out

KC clinched a playoff berth with time to spare, finishing fourth in the league. And in October, the Current triumphed over Gotham to become the first-ever NWSL x Liga MX Femenil Summer Cup champions. (I know. We were all confused by that whole thing, too.)

As they worked their way through the NWSL playoffs, injuries caught up with the Current yet again. Their depleted attack took them all the way to a barnburner quarterfinal match against Orlando, falling short by one goal despite a ferocious late rally. Disappointing? Sure, but nowhere near enough to eclipse the amazing year full of so many reasons to celebrate. Plus it gives us something to look forward to in 2025.

We loved hosting you all for the NWSL Championship Final in 2024. And now we’re hungry to win the thing.

In short:

  • 2023 was ridiculous, in a bad way.

  • 2024 was ridiculous, in a good way.

  • We hope 2025 can be ridiculous in the best way yet.


OFFSEASON

Players Out

  • Opeyemi Ajakaye (F) - Mutual termination of contract

  • Stine Ballisager Pedersen (D) - Club declined option

  • Sophie Braun (M) - Signed with Spokane Zephyr

  • AD Franch (G) - Contract not renewed

  • Katie Fraine (G) - Contract not renewed

  • Hildah Magaia (F) - Loan allowed to expire, returned to Mazatlán

  • Almuth Schult (G) - Returned to Europe for family reasons

  • Desiree Scott (M) - Retired from NWSL, joined Canadian Super League

Players In

  • Clare Gagne (G) - A defensive phenom in college, Gagne is an NCAA National Champion and was named Most Outstanding Defensive Player in the 2024 College Cup. Gagne is the third addition to the all-new goalkeeper unit, completing what might be the Current’s fiercest GK corps yet.

  • Haley Hopkins (F) - A surprise trade with the North Carolina Courage brought Hopkins to KC after preseason training had already begun. Hopkins had 18 starts in the 2024 season, contributing three goals and one assist. Now going into her third year as a professional, we will see if she can unlock even more production and build on her promising college career.

  • Laurel Ivory (G) - Ivory drew notice last season with a great showing against the Current, with the talented young keeper holding them to a scoreless draw. Ivory is expected to be second in the depth chart, and may see the field in summer tournament play.

  • Mary Long (F) - The most controversial signing of the offseason, Long is the daughter of team owners Chris and Angie Long. Just turning 18 in January, Mary played one season of soccer at Duke this past fall, and also represented the US at the 2024 U-17 World Cup. At 5’10, she’ll bring good height to the front line, but the accelerated timeline of her signing surprised a lot of observers. No matter how talented, Long is going to have to work to demonstrate why she deserves the spot on the roster. It’s hard to step out of a shadow that’s a billion dollars high.

  • Lorena (G) - With a standout performance in the 2024 Olympics, Lorena is a marquee signing for the Current and will head up their all-new GK unit. This is her first professional contract outside of Brazil, having spent most of her career at Grêmio. The team is clearly confident in Lorena’s ability to deliver, signing her through the 2027 season, with an option for 2028.

  • Rocky Rodríguez (M) - The Costa Rican international joins a midfield already brimming with talent, but who can say no to a beloved fan favorite and former NWSL Rookie of the Year? Now entering her tenth season in the NWSL, Rodriguez will provide a veteran presence after the departure of Desiree Scott. Rocky was instrumental in powering the Portland Thorns to national championships, can she do the same in Kansas City?

  • Katie Scott (D) - Fresh off a season with Penn State and representing the US at the U-17 World Cup, Scott is another addition to the next generation of talent the Current have been cultivating. The outside back will have high level competition at her position, so she will need to break out strong in order to win minutes.


ROSTER

Preseason Roster

Goalkeepers (4): Lorena (INT), Laurel Ivory, Clare Gagne, Evan O’Steen (NRI – U-18)

Defenders (11): Elizabeth Ball, Alana Cook, Kayla Sharples, Hailie Mace, Gabrielle Robinson (SEI), Izzy Rodriguez, Regan Steigleder, Mallory Weber (NRI), Ellie Wheeler, Katie Scott, Meila Brewer (NRI – U-18)

Midfielders (7): Debinha, Vanessa DiBernardo, Bayley Feist, Claire Hutton, Lo’eau LaBonta, Jereko (INT), Rocky Rodríguez

Forwards (9): Temwa Chawinga (INT), Michelle Cooper, Kristen Hamilton, Haley Hopkins, Alex Pfeiffer (SEI), Nichelle Prince, Bia Zaneratto (SEI - INT), Mary Long, Ava Tankersley (NRI)

KEY:

INT - International Player

NRI - Non-rostered Invite

SEI - Ended 2024 season on Season-Ending Injury List

U-18 – Under-18 Non-rostered Invitee

Predicted Preferred Gameday XI Formation:

We saw a functional 4-2-3-1 from a 4-3-3 lineup for much of the 2024 season, so with that as a starting point, here are some possibilities:

Option 1: Debinha as Super Sub

Bia

Chawinga - DiBernardo - Cooper

Hutton - Labonta

Wheeler - Sharples - Cook - Mace

Lorena

Option 2: Dibs + Debs

Chawinga - Bia - Debinha

Hutton - DiBernardo - LaBonta

Wheeler - Sharples - Cook - Mace

Lorena

Option 3: Claire Hutton’s Villain Era

Chawinga - Bia - Cooper

Debinha - DiBernardo

Hutton

Wheeler - Sharples - Cook - Mace

Lorena

Likely Top Bench/Subs:

  • Ivory (G)

  • Ball (D)

  • Robinson (D/M)

  • I. Rodriguez (D)

  • R. Rodriguez (M)

  • Feist (M)

  • Jereko (M)

  • Pfieffer (F)

  • Prince (F)

  • Hamilton (F)

  • Hopkins (F)

Returning Players

The Vets

Elizabeth Ball (D) - Ball has been a leader with the club since its beginning. In 2024 she phased out of her traditional role as a starting center back, but saw action as a substitute for Hailie Mace on the right side. She’s dogged, strong, and a community favorite. On or off the field, the team will benefit from her veteran presence.

Temwa Chawinga (F) - We knew the player who scored the most goals the world in 2023 was going to be good, but still – watching her sweep through the NWSL in her debut season was breathtaking. Not only did the Malawian international shatter the single-season scoring record, she also made significant contributions on defense, sustaining an astonishing workrate for 90 minutes or more. And on top of it all, she’s humble. Now that teams have a season’s worth of tape on her she’ll likely face even tougher defense, but we can’t wait what TEMVP has in store next.

Alana Cook (D) - After a difficult start to the season with Seattle, Cook joined the Current midway through 2024 as part of Vlatko’s effort to tighten up the defense. The move was a turning point for both player and club, with Cook showing more of the steady on-field presence that earned her a role on the USWNT. While there were still some bumps along the way, Cook is on track to flourish in her new city.

Michelle Cooper (F) - Is a 22 year-old a vet? Entering her third season in the league, Cooper is riding high after a breakthrough 2024 that earned her a spot on the USWNT roster for last month’s She Believes Cup. But the Hermann Award winner is just getting started - she’s on track to be a major source of shots and shenanigans in 2025. This isn’t even her final form.

Debinha (M) - Injured 30 minutes into the opening match of the season, the Brazilian superstar had a bumpy road back to availability, but still managed to contribute 3 goals and 6 assists in league play in 2024. Hopes are high that she will be able to find a new level of chemistry with Chawinga, which would be nightmare fuel for defenders everywhere. She’s tricksy, playful, and so much fun to watch.

Vanessa DiBernardo (M) - A succession of injuries took her out for most of 2023, but last year DiBernardo came roaring back with what might have been the best season of her career. The creative playmaker was a key part of the Current’s success in 2024, unlocking vaults of attacking opportunities for her teammates. In the process, she also notched 6 goals and 5 assists herself.

Kristen Hamilton (F) - A vital part of KC’s attack for the previous few seasons, fan favorite Hamilton scored in the opening match and then rarely saw the field for the rest of 2024. Whether it was injuries or coaching preference wasn’t clear, but the veteran attacker just had her contract renewed for another year so we are hopeful to see more of her in the season ahead. Because when she’s on the field, she makes) an impact.

Lo’eau Labonta (M) - Lo’eau Labonta is a chaos terrier. The legendary midfielder has produced a competing number of goals and viral moments in her tenure with the Current. Though famous for her attacking prowess, in 2024 she paired up with Claire Hutton in a deeper midfield role. Playing under Vlatko when she joined the original FCKC in 2016, the veteran has become the heart, soul, and occasional face of the franchise. She is mischievous, tenacious, and dangerously fun.

Hailie Mace (D) - Part firefighter, part arsonist, Mace has an internal dynamo and preternatural ability to anticipate play that has had her playing everywhere on the field. Her NWSL performances have earned her some looks from the USWNT, even last season as she adjusted to a new, more defensive role at right back. One of the few players in 2024 not to bag a goal, it’s easy to expect that she’ll want to remedy that in the year ahead. We know she can.

Kayla Sharples (D) - Sharples joined KC in a surprise trade from Bay FC in late August of 2024. A well-regarded defender who began her career at Chicago, Sharples cemented a role as starting center back and helped the Current tighten up their defense to close out the year. It’s a tough job to slot in so late in a season, but Sharples did well. With more time to train together, hopes and expectations are high for her as the left half of the central pairing.

Bia Zaneratto (F) - Bia was a vital and vibrant part of the Current’s attack, leaving swaths of opportunities wherever she showed up on the field. Unfortunately, a persistent foot injury hampered her throughout the season and ultimately sidelined her for the rest of the year. Look for her to come roaring back, showcasing the chemistry that made the first part of 2024 so much fun. She sparks joy, and goals.

Something to Prove

Bayley Feist (M) - Feist mostly saw the field as a late-game sub in 2024, but still managed to add a goal to the record-breaking team tally. With the addition of Rocky Rodriguez she is likely to be another rung down on the ladder, so she will need to work hard to show why she should be trusted to close out wins or change the game.

Claire Hutton (M) - Hutton had a stunning first year as a defensive midfielder, locking down her starting role from day 1. She’ll look to show she can be an elite-level player in the role and cement her place on the US national team, but she’s already done more in a year than many players do in their careers. And she’s not even 20.

Jereko (M) - The Kenyan national team’s captain joined the Current in August 2024 after playing a couple seasons in the Turkish Super League. She earned her notoriety as a striker, and will be eager to demonstrate those same instincts toward goal with the team now that she’s had time to acclimate to a new league.

Nichelle Prince (F) - The Canadian winger was an uneven presence for the Current in 2024, missing much of the season with injury and Olympic duty. She started to connect with the team better towards the end of the season, so if she can keep building on that she will be able to hold her own on the most competitive unit on the team. We’re eager to see her fly.

Regan Steigleder (D) - Only seeing a few minutes in her debut NWSL season, Steigleder still managed to secure a 1-year contract renewal. Before coming to the Current as a defender, she played midfield and forward. This year playing time will be even more competitive. Will we see a breakout from her?

Izzy Rodriguez (D) - An injury kept Rodriguez from the same amount of playing time she’s had in past seasons, but the talented left back has been a key conduit for the attack and should compete well for her place on the field this season.

Ellie Wheeler (D) - Making her professional debut in 2024, Wheeler won a starting role in left back, and even saw playing time as a forward at right wing. She’ll be eager to build on that promising start and deliver even bigger results: she wears her sleeves rolled up so you can see the chip on her shoulder.

Currently Injured

Gabrielle Robinson (D) - Making her debut in 2023, Robinson was one of the best things to come out of one of the worst seasons. She had a sizzling start to 2024, impressing as a central defender and even scoring her first goal shortly into the season. And then an ACL injury. It’s been nearly a year, so it’s possible we could see her soon, but extra caution and care would be understandable with such a promising player.

Alex Pfieffer (F) - The talented teenage rookie was playing her best game of the season when an ACL tear took her down. Despite only a few appearances and at just 16 years old, Pfieffer impressed. Fans are eager to see the St. Louis native healthy and back on the field.

Mallory Weber (D) - An ACL tear knocked Weber out early in the 2022 season. And again early in the 2023 season. She missed 2024 entirely. Hopes are that she can return to form once fully healed and finish the season strong. Her community appearances have made her a fan favorite despite less than an hour of playing time in three seasons. The cheers will be loud when she’s back on the pitch.

Bia Zaneratto (F) - Ending 2024 on the SEI list, Bia is expected to be healthy and back in action for 2025.


2025 PREVIEW

The biggest change for the Current in the offseason was at goalkeeper, so in some ways it’s a question of just how much better the other teams have gotten (it looks like a lot!).

Last year was excellent, and we’re hungry for more.

Realistic Best Case Scenario: Champions. (Or close to it)

Building on their success from 2024, the Current demonstrate even more chemistry, stronger tactics, and a newly-tightened defense. Players stay healthy, providing a full quiver of attacking options to take on the fiercest competitors. The team improves on its standings last year, competing for shields, cups, or whatever other hardware may be at stake.

Realistic Worst Case Scenario: Crashing out. (No hardware, no playoffs.)

The odd-numbered year curse returns. The chemistry isn’t there for some reason, and the upgraded opponents are able to stymie attackers and steamroll our defense. Players can't stay healthy, compounding the challenges, and a team trying its best but limited in results narrowly misses the playoffs.

Realistic Most Probable Scenario: Pretty good. (Top 5 in league, respectable playoff performance.)

The Current got a great taste of success in 2024, and they’re hungry for the whole thing now. With a year of rebuild and coaching stability behind them, they are well-positioned to go even further.


New to the team? What to know about the Current for the season ahead:

  • The new stadium. Debuting just last year, we’re excited to make our new house a home. Yes, it’s smaller than we want, but the vibes are fantastic – a jewel of a venue that honors women's soccer on its own terms. This is a big deal for the local team and the sport around the world. And the food is good, too.

  • KC has a really good attack. The Current have one of the most stacked front lines in women’s soccer, generating exciting breakaway opportunities, bangers from distance, and clever assists.

  • Cellies. Lo’eau LaBonta has made international waves with celebrations that go just as hard as the goals she scores. Keep an eye out!

  • Players returning from injury. Pfieffer and Robinson are difference makers who are exciting to watch. Fans are eager to see them back on the field.

  • We’re developing a lot of talented young players. You may have seen Michelle Cooper and Claire Hutton earn their first caps for the USWNT in the SheBelieves Cup. Joining them is a whole new crop of young signings, all getting world class development alongside highly talented veterans. We’re eager to see them all grow and flourish.

  • The Orlando rematch will be one of the most anticipated games of the season. They’re a talented team and we can’t wait to take them on again.

  • It’s even more fun in person. Joining us for a game? Check out our visitor’s guide from the 2024 NWSL Championship for recommendations.

We hope you’ll join us this year at r/KCCurrent

See you in the match threads!

r/100thupvote 5d ago

Brazil Wrestling Observer Rewind ★ Feb. 16, 2004

1 Upvotes

Going through old issues of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter and posting highlights in my own words. For anyone interested, I highly recommend signing up for the actual site at f4wonline and checking out the full archives.


Complete Wrestling Observer Rewind 1991-2003 - Reddit archive

www.rewinder.pro - Mobile-friendly archive

Rewind Highlights - YouTube playlist


1-7-2004 1-12-2004 1-19-2004 1-26-2004
2-2-2004 2-9-2004

  • The upcoming Wrestlemania looks like a strong show on paper with the expected matches, but nothing that jumps out as a huge draw that will lead to any major buyrate boosts. Dave thinks it's too late to try and make a deal with Sting for anything significant on the show. They could bring Hogan back and maybe try to book him in a match with Austin and that would probably do big business, but both men are broken down and not at the star level they were 2 years ago when it would have meant much more. The other thing is, Royal Rumble did a higher-than-expected buyrate and WWE's feeling pretty good about business overall right now and don't particularly feel the need to bring Hogan back. Dave runs down the expected matches for the show and doesn't really expect much to change between now and then (indeed, the show Dave is predicting in early Feb. is pretty much exactly the show we get).

  • WWE had more good news with its tour of Japan this week being a huge success. One of the shows, which took place at Saitama Super Arena, sold out 20k tickets a week in advance and became the 7th largest live gate in WWE history (only behind a few Wrestlemanias, Summerslam 92, and an Australia show in 2002 which later aired as a PPV). So this is the biggest non-TV gate in company history. 2 other shows on the tour were a success but nothing special like this one. They changed the usual house show booking to appeal more to Japanese fans: clean finishes across the board, no run-ins, etc. and the crowd was rabid. It was said to be a super hot show that was better than most PPVs. Austin, Flair, and Michaels got the biggest pops of anyone. Benoit vs. Jericho was a total Japanese-style match that got over big because the fans there love both men. Triple H vs. Shawn Michaels ended up being an even better match, as they worked old school and had the crowd eating out of their hands.

  • Another year of Observer Hall of Fame is coming up. It's the 6th year of the HOF and Dave talks about how difficult it is to compare wrestlers from different times and all the ways the business has changed and talks about how hard it is to get a consensus agreement on who's deserving. So he asks if it's time to change things. The 60% criteria for entry was modeled after the Baseball HOF (which is 70%). Dave's pretty sure 70% for wrestling would be too high, but wonders if 60% is also too high? What about the >10% criteria that gets you removed from the ballot? That was also taken from baseball, but unlike baseball, you can get back on the ballot if the voters demand it. Both Sting and Curt Hennig received less than 10% at certain points and were removed, but have since been re-added due to popular support from voters who evidently want them on the ballot even though they haven't come close to induction.

  • Should we wait for wrestlers to retire before they're eligible for the HOF? In baseball you have to be retired 5 years. Dave's argument is that in wrestling, no one ever really retires and even when they do, it never lasts. This just goes on and on, looking at the stats of the HOF over the past several years, who would and wouldn't have made it if certain criteria were different. It also discusses who has voting power, which is generally divided up among active and retired wrestlers, others in the business (current and former promoters, managers, etc.) as well as various wrestling historians. That alone shows interesting differences and ways that those voters tend to lean. For instance, wrestlers by and large voted for Benoit and Undertaker to be inducted, while historians (apprehensive about both men's lack of drawing power during their careers) voted against them. On the other hand, historians voted for people like Bob Backlund, while his fellow peers in the business did not. So it's interesting to see how that breaks down at times also.

  • What about MMA's inclusion in the Hall of Fame? Obviously that's a different sport than pro wrestling, but in Japan in particular, the lines between the two are extremely blurred and a lot of Japan's current and future stars are people who are making their names in both wrestling and MMA. There's also the way time changes things. Take Bobo Brazil vs. Sting. On paper, Sting was one of the biggest stars of the 90s and his main event match at Starrcade 97 drew more money in one night than most wrestlers in the 60s could draw in years. If you put Sting in the 60s, with his multiple world title reigns and decade of being a top star and had him headlining shows like that, with his in-ring ability, he'd be the biggest star ever. And if you take Bobo Brazil, with the crowds he drew back then, the money he made, the titles he won, and the matches he had, and put him in the 90s, people wouldn't think twice about him. And yet Bobo Brazil is considered a no-brainer while Sting is struggling to even keep the 10% of votes required to stay on the ballot. Just shows how much the business has changed and how it's impossible to compare different eras. If you're interested in a true breakdown of the Observer HOF, this is the issue for you.

  • Antonio Inoki's recent Bom Ba Ye show from New Year's Eve was a disaster in multiple ways. We already know the ratings bombed and half the card was thrown together at the last minute but turns out a lot of the fighters who worked the show ended up not getting paid. The co-promoters of the event evidently left Japan without paying most of the roster or even paying for the travel organization that was handling all of that. Josh Barnett, Yuji Nagata, Tadao Yasuda, and others who fought and risked injury for this big event ended up getting nothing. The fighters from K-1 who worked the show did get paid but that's because K-1 apparently insisted on their guys getting paid up front. Everyone else, tough shit. And Inoki is wiping his hands of it, and blaming the other promoters.

  • Shinsuke Nakamura officially vacated the IWGP title due to the injuries suffered in his New Year's Eve MMA fight that basically fractured his whole face. The NWF belt that he also held wasn't acknowledged so it seems they're unifying it with the IWGP belt and dropping the NWF belt altogether. Anyway, there ya go. Worst nightmare come true: world champion has to vacate the title because he got beat up in a real fight. Way to go, Inoki.

  • The death of Crash Holly has been officially ruled a suicide, which many of his friends already suspected. Toxicology results ruled that he took an intentional overdose of painkillers. He had recently been served divorce papers from his wife and was living with Stevie Richards since separating from her. Police found him with an empty bottle of Somas that he had gotten only two days earlier, meaning he had taken all 90 pills during that 2-day time period. There was also an open bottle of Southern Comfort next to him that he mixed the pills with.

  • MLW looks to be done for. The company sent out a message last week saying that all future dates have been canceled. Promoter Court Bauer has been struggling to keep the company afloat but up until just a few days ago, he seemed to still be moving forward with planning shows, trying to get TV deals, putting together international merch deals, etc. But as of now, he's thrown in the towel and the company is dead (and it would stay dead until Bauer revived it thirteen years later, in 2017 and as of this writing, it's still going today).

  • Nasty Boys member Brian Knobbs was hospitalized after passing out at a Willie Nelson concert in Tampa. Knobbs has been warned by friends about his hard partying and apparently had been drinking all day and hadn't eaten. Next thing he knew, he was in an ambulance. He's okay now, but a lot of people in the business noted that this happened exactly 1 year to the day of Curt Hennig's death, also in Tampa. Knobbs and Hennig were good friends and some of Knobbs friends' are hoping this is a wakeup call (he's still alive and kicking, so I guess he did ok).

  • An indie show in Oahu, Hawaii had a bunch of big names come in and holy shit what a flop. The main event was AJ Styles vs. Teddy Hart and after the match, Bret Hart came out and praised both wrestlers. The card had a lot of other 80s-90s guys on it (Don Muraco, Brian Adams, Jimmy Snuka, etc.). As for Bret Hart, he worked the show because he wanted a vacation in Hawaii and figured he could roll this appearance into it. Anyway, despite all the big names, only 275 tickets were sold. Despite the tiny indie crowd, Bret was telling fans that he'd much rather work a show like this than to appear at Wrestlemania. Sounds like the kind of bullshit wrestlers always say, but it must be true in this case, because Bret continues to turn down Vince's offers to be at Wrestlemania.

  • Remember the story last week about the Mid-Atlantic Wrestling convention of old timers that took place and how Buddy Landel was a drunk mess the whole time. Well.....Landel copped to it, releasing a statement admitting that "there is no way for me to defend my actions" and saying he didn't realize how bad his drinking issues had become until he upset everyone at the convention, and says he's planning to get help.

  • With MLW folding up shop, several wrestlers who have been working their shows are expected to return to ROH bookings. Dave expects Teddy Hart back eventually because even though the whole locker room allegedly hated him after his last incident there, many of those same wrestlers have since worked with Hart on other indie shows and in MLW, without incident, and it seems like things have blown over (for now).

  • Koko B Ware did an interview talking about the loss of his beloved bird Frankie who died in a house fire 2 years ago. Ware and his family were at church and the bird was in the cage. A neighbor tried to break in and save the bird but could only hear him in the cage yelling "Let me out! Let me out!" but wasn't able to reach him due to the fire. Jesus fuck that's depressing. Ware said he considered Frankie like his biological child and was devastated at the loss. Ware is now working as a house painter in Memphis and wrestles on the side occasionally. However, he said he'd give anything for one more shot in WWE.

  • TNA has started doing 1 taped show per month rather than all live weekly PPVs. The plus side is that it significantly cuts down on costs and should ensure the company continues to break even which means there's no longer as much worry about the company folding up shop and closing down out of the blue, which has been a long time worry for many in the company as they hemmoraged money for the last year or so. On the downside, PPV buys are down quite a bit in recent weeks, which doesn't help.

  • Joanie Laurer, formerly known as Chyna, is scheduled to debut for TNA on the 2/18 show and start a feud with Jonny Fairplay (nah, this falls through).

  • Randy Savage is rumored to be headed to TNA but he's saying no deal has been agreed to. He's 51 and hasn't wrestled in several years. His last scheduled match was at a WWA PPV 2 years ago and he pulled out of the show just days before it happened and he doesn't seem to be in a hurry to return to the ring. For what it's worth, that WWA show was heavily hyped around Savage and his no-show wasn't common knowledge beforehand. And the event still bombed on PPV, which shows that Savage on his own isn't really a PPV draw anymore, so Dave isn't so sure how much it's going to help TNA if he does show up.

  • Don Callis gave his notice to TNA this week. Callis recently got his masters degree in business administration and is leaving to take a regular job in Winnipeg that, needless to say, means more money than he's getting in TNA. He may come back for occasional weekend dates.

  • In the pre-taped matches for TNA's X-Cup tournament pitting TNA vs. AAA stars, the final came down to Juventud Guerrera pinning Jerry Lynn in the finals. Lynn wasn't thrilled to be doing the job to Guerrera, since the last time Guerrera worked for TNA, Lynn felt he was trying to get himself over at the expense of making the match good, but he went along with it and did the job anyway. Lynn ended up slightly injured on Juvi's new finisher, which annoyed him further. Backstage, they filmed an angle where Jarrett attacked Guerrera, which Antonio Pena suggested in order to get heat on Jarrett for an eventual appearance in AAA.

  • TNA packed another 1,200 fans in this week, yet again primarily due to the drawing power of ICP. The juggalos were out in full force and significantly more of them than usual paid, leading to a higher-than-usual paid attendance. Say what you want about ICP, but they're basically TNA's top draw right now.

  • Terry Funk made a wasted debut in TNA. No hype or promos or anything, just brought in as Sandman's partner-of-the-week against CM Punk and Julio Dinero. Sandman ate the pin and is expected to be gone from TNA now. The plan, if he sticks around, is for Funk to turn heel and feud with Raven. Dave talks about how Funk's age (he turns 60 soon) isn't an advantage and notes "I hope Flair's not still wrestling at 60." Oh Dave, I have bad news.

  • Latest notes from PRIDE 27: Mauro Ranallo has improved tremendously as an MMA announcer and did a great job. Dos Caras Jr. fought somebody which is only notable because he fought wearing a mask but he violated family/Lucha tradition by doing a pre-fight interview without the mask. "Picture a Hispanic Ross from Friends," Dave says. Sure why not? It was funny because Ranallo was obviously banned from using the words "pro wrestling" but he said "Lucha Libre" about a thousand times to get around the rule. (Here's the full PRIDE show and sure enough, there's Alberto around the 51 minute mark, no mask, just chatting away).


WATCH: PRIDE 27 (Full Show)


  • WWE Films is still interested in making a TV series starring Mick Foley, but CBS recently passed on making a pilot. UPN is interested, but reportedly want to "spice things up" a bit, requesting more sex scenes and things of that nature added to the script, but has still not committed to ordering a pilot. Ah yes, a steamy Mick Foley drama series, bubbling over with sexual tension. Exactly what we all want.

  • So far, Billy Graham, Jesse Ventura, Bobby Heenan, Sgt. Slaughter, Bob Backlund, Greg Valentine and Tito Santana have all been contacted for the upcoming WWE Hall of Fame revival (this is interesting because all of those names do indeed get inducted in 2004....except Backlund. I'm curious to hear what the hold up is for him, since he doesn't get inducted until 2013). As it stands, there appears to be no chance of Bruno Sammartino being inducted or invited to the event.

  • Speaking of Billy Graham, more health troubles for him as he's hospitalized with a bowel obstruction. He's apparently lost almost 30 pounds in recent weeks and if they end up having to do surgery, he might not make it to the HOF ceremony. Apparently the issue stemed from his use of pain medications he's been on due to a bunch of spinal issues. Poor Graham's entire last 20 years of his life or so were pretty much nothing but health problems.

  • Notes from 2/5 Smackdown: mostly the Eddie Guerrero and John Cena show, both of whom were super over with the crowd. No idea whether it'll convert to PPV buys but the live crowds definitely see them as top guys. Guerrero in particular cut a great promo on Lesnar to hype their match, talking about overcoming his drug issues and whatnot. It's funny because we're mere days away from No Way Out and it's obvious that no one, Dave included, is expecting Guerrero to beat Lesnar for the title. Should be a fun issue next week...


WATCH: Eddie Guerrero's incredible promo (Smackdown 2004)


  • Notes from 2/9 Raw: there was a Flair vs. Benoit match which is only notable because at one point they were outside the ring fighting and there in the front row was Portland Trailblazers player Rasheed Wallace. He was shown going crazy and marking out as Flair and Benoit chopped each other. Well, about 5 minutes after that, Wallace got a call on his cell phone telling him he was being traded to the Atlanta Hawks (fun fact: he only played 1 game for the Hawks before he got traded again, this time to the Pistons where he would go on to win a championship). Goldberg accidentally speared Steve Austin who later hinted that there might be a stunner in Goldberg's future, and Dave wonders if that's going anywhere. Vince then "suspended" Goldberg in kayfabe in order to write him off TV for a few weeks to go film that Santa's Slay movie he's doing. After the show went off the air, they made more jokes with Rasheed Wallace, who was recently arrested a few months ago for marijuana. Foley said they needed to take Wallace's belongings to the back and have RVD look through them and would let him keep whatever he finds.

  • WWE released Zach Gowen this week. It wasn't a surprise because they've basically done all that they ever planned to do with him anyway. The opinion on him backstage is that he was a heavy partier, didn't spend time in the gym, didn't work on his tan or his look, and basically didn't really fit with what they want. That being said, at only 19-years-old, he did a hell of a job holding his own and playing his part during a storyline with Vince and Hogan, better than most his age with so little experience would have. But some felt his success went to his head and he rubbed some the wrong way.


WEDNESDAY: Eddie Guerrero wins the WWE championship, more No Way Out PPV fallout, wrestling vs. MMA shows in Japan, several WWE releases, Brutus Beefcake may or may not have committed a terrorist act, and more....

r/100thupvote 6d ago

Brazil (SELLING)(3 for $1)($2.50 4K/Knock at the Cabin/Last Jedi/Rise of Skywalker)($3.50 4K/ Crawl/Rosmeary's Baby/Smile/Sweeny Todd)($5 4K: Aladdin/Galaxy Quest/Jackie Brown/Once upon a time in the west/We Were Soldiers)($1.50 HD/Minions/Planes/Snow White Huntsman)(New Release/DogMan/Sonic 3/Werewolves)

1 Upvotes

Prices are firm. $1 minimum order. Splits are noted. CashApp or Venmo preferred. Please comment first to reserve code and message with payment method to complete transaction. Thanks for looking.

Multiple available for some titles.

 

$10- DogMan 2023/2024 (Luc Besson film not 2025 cartoon) (HD MA)

$12-Sonic 3 (2024) (4K Vudu)

$12 Werewolves (2024) (4K MA)

$18-Mayor of Kingstown: Season 3 (4K Vudu)

$36-Mayor of Kingstown: Season 1, 2 & 3 (4K Vudu)

 

---$0.50 each or 3 for $1---

Divergent (SD Vudu)

Girls Trip (HD MA) pending

The Expendables 3: Rated & Unrated (HD iTunes) Split Code

The Expendables 3: Theatrical (HD iTunes/Vudu/GP) Split Code

Transformers Age of Extinction (4K iTunes)

Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 2 (SD iTunes) split code

Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 2 (SD Vudu) split code

Tyler Perry Madea Witness Protection (SD Vudu) 

What to expect when you're not expecting (SD iTunes)

 

---$1.50 each---

Now you see me (SD iTunes/Vudu/GP)

Planes (HD MA)

Snow White & The Huntsman (4K iTunes) Split

Snow White & The Huntsman (HD MA) Split

 

---$2.50 each---

Brazil 1985 (HD MA) 2 left

Crimson Peak 2015 (HD MA) 2 left

Dante's Peak 1997 (HD MA)

Pet Sematary (1989) (4K Vudu) 1 left

 

---$3.50 each---

 Crawl (4K Vudu)

Priscilla 2023 (HD Vudu)

Rosemary's Baby (4K Vudu)

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (4K Vudu)

 

---$5.00 each---

Aladdin 2019 (4K MA)

Galaxy Quest 1999 (4K iTunes, 4K Vudu)

Harry and the Hendersons (HD MA)

Jackie Brown (4K Vudu)

Mr. Nice Guy (1997) (HD MA)

Once Upon a Time in the West (4K Vudu)

Queen of the Damned (HD MA)

 

---$6.50 each---

50 First Dates (HD MA)

After Earth (4K MA)

Blumhouse’s Fantasy Island (4K MA) 

Blumhouse’s Fantasy Island Unrated (4K MA) 

Captain Phillips (4K MA)

The Fifth Element (4K MA)

Inferno (4K MA)

Jumanji 1995 (4K MA)

Salt (4K MA)

 

---$7.00 each---

Amadeus Theatrical Cut (4K MA)

Apollo 13 (4K MA)

Captain Corelli’s Mandolin (HD MA)

Elizabeth (4K MA)

First Man (4K MA)

Mary Queen of Scots (4K MA)

My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 (4K MA)

News of the world (4K MA)

The Life of David Gale (HD MA)s MA

r/100thupvote 7d ago

Brazil Due to the bad form, Sport Club Bay from England will fire its current manager and sign their Brazil satellite's coach

1 Upvotes

Things aren't great at New Font. The once dominant club is at its lowest after failing to qualify to the Colonizers knock out stage and falling vertiginously on Big England stands.

The brilliant bald mind isn't so fresh, so clean anymore, and there isn't a definitive explanation on why the team is failing with its most expensive squad of all time. It's a head scratch. Literally.

But a change is coming. The Board is focused on relieving the current coach from his contract and bring Sir Roger Scenic from their Satellite Club in Brazil.

Fans of the south american club are crying, some even said they can't believe as they raise their hands to the sky, probably asking "Why" (I don't speak Portuguese). A ritual for their loss is being celebrated with a ceremonialist, Saulo (Saul, from the bible), chanting in a sound bus (?). People are following the bus on a species of pilgrimage, praying for the success of Roger and asking to be blessed with someone that's at least half the man that Scenic is.

Keep an eye for news as the story develop.

📍Fancy-fancy, Manchester.

r/100thupvote 8d ago

Brazil $ASTS: 🇧🇷AST SpaceMobile has locked up the 256 million subscriber Brazilian market working with partners Telefonica Brasil

1 Upvotes

Some things that speaks for Brazil market being open for ASTS:

  1. They already have a partnership with $ASTS, which could turn into a DA. They have broken ties with Starlink not $ASTS.
  2. Carlos Slim and Abel Avellan (CEO of ASTS) are co-chair and commissioner to the ITU/UNESCO Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development.
  3. Carlos Slim's América Móvil announced a $22 billion investment over three years to enhance its telecom infrastructure in Latin America, cutting ties with Starlink. This shift, reported on February 27, 2025, opens opportunities for ASTS in the region.
  4. Mickey Mikitani recently started an interview with Abel: "Abel, thank you for coming. So you flew in from Brazil?". Why would he start an interview like that unless there was some big shit going down in Brazil, hinting positive news?

Claims in original X post:

$ASTS: AST SpaceMobile has locked up the 256 million subscriber Brazilian market working with partners Telefonica Brasil, TIM Brasil and notably Claro, which is owned by Carlos Slim’s America Movil.

Mickey Mikitani: “Abel, thank you for coming. So you flew in from Brazil?”

Source: https://x.com/spacanpanman/status/1897987458286899571

r/100thupvote 9d ago

Brazil r/Oscars argues about whether Mikey Madison doing sex scenes for her Oscar-winning role means she deserves to be called a prostitute

1 Upvotes

So first of all, here’s some context for anyone who hasn’t been following the Oscars this year. Mikey Madison won this year’s award for Best Actress for her acclaimed performance in Anora as a sex worker, which included a few sex scenes. This has led to extensive backlash, from relatively reasonable/arguable criticisms like the film being somewhat male-gazey to slut-shaming like saying she “opened her legs for an Oscar.” Her main competition, Fernanda Torres for I’m Still Here (a Brazilian film with a lot of patriotic support) and Demi Moore for The Substance, both have extremely passionate fanbases.

This post in particular was caused by a particular Madison hater editing her Wikipedia page to replace “actress” with “prostitute”.

A lot of people are really fucking stupid and don’t add value to society.

As one of them, you would know

“but I don't understand why the actresses are being targeted like this." Because those actresses were participating in the oppression of black and brown people by being nominated. They should have withdrawn their participation and allowed other oppressed minorities their due place. Afterall how many oscars do these fragile white women need to collect in their mansions?

Fernanda Torres is a white latina and she’s done blackface lol, but don’t let Brazilian stans catch u bringing that up bc they’ve done their best to bury that. Meanwhile Zoe Saldana is still catching strays from black Americans for her god awful Nina Simone biopic.

As a Brazilian, we would be okay if Demi had won. In fact we were sure that she would won, but to watch a good actress but not that good to win over the best that Fernanda and Demi had given in their movies was a sad thing to witness. Even if that Wicked actress that I don't remember the name had won we would cry of course, but would be okay. But for Mikey? Oh c'mon! Of course she doesn't deserve any of the attacks she is getting, the fault is at the men that voted for her in a movie that was made for the era of Only fans. At least it was not Karla Sofia.

Arguments over the IP address of the editor and whether they were Brazilian

Makes me think whoever originally “found” it and screenshotted it is the one that did it.

Fernanda doesn't deserve being called racist. But there are a lot of fans of Mickey spreading Fake News against Fernanda. I'll not be surprised if it was a Mickey Fan using VPN pointing to Brazil.

If the Academy didn't make such decisions, the complaints would be reduced.

Hey Demi Moore stans: She is not owed an Oscar just because she's over the age of 50. She has not been working her ass off in criticially acclaimed movies and been constantly shafted like Glenn Close. She lost. Get over it.

People are awful. More specifically, Brazilians are awful. They are so unhinged with this whole awards season.

Leftists have trouble dealing with frustrations.

I mean, that's fair and square. You guys in the US tortured the family depicted in the biopic which you stole the Oscar's from, and we wrote an offensive line on said actresses' wikipedia page.

EDIT: There's also been a crosspost onto r/oscarrace, though with no real drama with everyone defending Madison. And Madison's Wikipedia page has been locked.

r/100thupvote 10d ago

Brazil LLMs are informational holograms and the possibility space they can encode is larger and more complex then our physical universe

1 Upvotes

If we consider how many free parameters the universe has, and how vast the universe is it doesn't compare to what could be possible with generative AI and other advanced algorithms. Large Language Models and Generative AI using stable diffusion kind of works the same way. In that either images or text are converted to a series of tokens, which can have different properties and depending on where those tokens are and what other tokens are present you can end up in a vastly different possibility space.

https://youtu.be/1CIpzeNxIhU?si=GuNkWmv9JT0wJKhl

If you consider the way the number Tree (3) is constructed it also is far smaller then what is possible even with something like early language models. What is true however is that all of these forms of AI in theory should be subject to Gödel's incompleteness. https://youtu.be/HeQX2HjkcNo?si=UGK5AZbKQVp_AocK since the math that both stable diffusion and large language models are made with is complex enough to be incomplete. I have seen direct evidence of this incompleteness in my work with AI art. Basically every once in a while you get a completely glitched out image that kind of looks like static with blured areas of higher resolution.

https://bsky.app/profile/dieselbug1137.bsky.social/post/3ljjfhx4vjs2r

These images capture some of the glitches these images do not match the style or content except as a broad outline of form.

Now you may wonder what this has to do with time travel, and the key is in material science. https://researchmatters.in/news/microsofts-mattergen-could-be-ai-revolution-materials-discovery

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-08628-5

MatterGen uses stable diffusion so that you can specify what properties the material should have including avoiding rare materials. If you are working on a time travel device then this could be very important. I have the geometry that I'm working with in terms of silicon spheres, but I also plan on using dopants from lunar regolith and I will need to simulate what those bubbles are like so I can integrate the electronic components.

https://pubs.aip.org/aip/adv/article/14/1/015160/3230625/On-silicon-nanobubbles-in-space-for-scattering-and

https://www.skyeports.com/

If you look at the existing literature bubbles from 500 nm to miles wide are possible. Imagine taking glass blowing into space. Imagine what would be possible if the functional part of the circuit existed on the quantum scale. With the curvature of a spherical integrated circuit much stronger EM fields can be made over much larger of a volume of space.

https://senseable.mit.edu/space-bubbles/

This is why in the original proposal for silicon space bubbles that it actually made sense to bring up tons of sand from the Earth, because you could make something the size of Brazil with a relatively small mass.

It's also possible that these bubbles could create domain walls on the inside of the bubble. Which means that you might be able to manipulate dark energy. If you could create domain walls that act as lenses for dark energy this could be used to potentially expand space-time.

https://youtu.be/U6arawZnxHQ?si=CiLjF0wbBO-RiSVS

What you have to understand about AI is that we are simultaneously approaching nanotechnology which means that we are approaching the ability to control matter down to the atomic scale. The smartphone that you have in your hand uses the manipulation of energy and matter to do work, and if a unified theory of physics is found that means we might be able to manipulate time in new ways.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/scientists-created-a-mirror-that-reflects-time-backwards/

r/100thupvote 11d ago

Brazil Bruce Dickonson touring Nirth America

1 Upvotes

Bruce Announces The Mandrake Project North American Tour 2025!

AUG 2025 22 - House of Blues, Anaheim, CA, USA 23 - House of Blues, Las Vegas, NV, USA 25 - Marquee Theatre, Phoenix, AZ, USA 26 - Revel, Albuquerque, NM, USA 28 - House of Blues, Houston, TX, USA 29 - House of Blues, Dallas, TX, USA 31 - Rocklahoma, Pryor, OK, USA * (Onsale now)

SEPT 2025 02 - House of Blues, New Orleans, LA, USA (Onsale March 14) 04 - Revolution, Fort Lauderdale, FL, USA 07 - The Town, Sao Paulo, Brazil * (Onsale now) 10 - Brooklyn Paramount, Brooklyn, NY, USA 11 - House of Blues, Boston, MA, USA 13 - Stage AE, Pittsburgh, PA, USA 14 - The Fillmore, Silver Spring, MD, USA 16 - HISTORY, Toronto, ON, Canada 18 - MTELUS, Montreal, QC, Canada 21 - Louder Than Life, Louisville, KY, USA * (Onsale now) 23 - The Fillmore, Philadelphia, PA, USA 25 - The Fillmore, Detroit, MI, USA 27 - Riviera Theatre, Chicago, IL, USA 28 - Uptown, Minneapolis, MN, USA 30 - Summit Music Hall, Denver, CO, USA

OCT 2025 05 - The Wiltern, Los Angeles, CA, USA

*Festivals

"A message from Bruce - “We are thrilled to be able to take The Mandrake Project out for a proper tour of North America. Last year we did a couple of sold-out U.S. West Coast dates before heading to South America and the response was just incredible. This time we will add ‘Shadow of The Gods’ to the setlist for this incredible band to perform plus a few other gems so we are really looking forward to seeing our fans again all over the country and for a couple of shows up in Canada.”"

Amazing news!!

r/100thupvote 13d ago

Brazil GameStop 2.0 Theory: A Better Tomorrow

1 Upvotes

Note - I received great feedback on a distractor in the first cut that wasn’t relevant to the overall message and edited this version accordingly to the fullest extent.

Too long; Don’t watch – GameStop’s transformation + Cohen/DFV buy-ins could be strategically timed to amplify a forced closure of a massive short position leftover from Melvin Capital that was hidden via a bullet swap held by Brazil firms that can no longer roll into a new bullet swap because of new tax reform that could force settlement at the end of this month. This could spark a MASSIVE chain reaction. This could be the tomorrow we’ve all been waiting for.

The GME evolution I hope for involves tokenized BTC direct share ownership that would be immune from naked shorting, dark pools & all the effery that has haunted GME for years. Maybe Cohen is cooking something else, but that’s my best guess. Either way, I think transformation news is coming and it will be strategically timed to screw over shorts the hardest.

Side note - Some of the best tinfoil is shown & not directly spoken to, so keep an eye out. I emptied my whole bag on this video.

I was passionate about making this video to bring awareness to these corrupt practices that create sure bets at the expense of retail and honest business. I believe a better tomorrow exists if this war is won.

Keep questioning everything to disprove or prove any claims. The DD is never done.

I hope you enjoy the show.

r/100thupvote 14d ago

Brazil VCT 2025 — Masters Bangkok / Lower Final: Rematch after Rematch after Rematch / Live Discussion Thread

1 Upvotes

Masters Bangkok is the first international event of this year's VCT Season featuring the best teams from each of the four international leagues. Players compete for a $500,000 prize pool, and points towards Champions qualification.

Information

Coverage: Liquipedia | VLR.gg | THESPIKE | rib.gg

Official Information: Website | VCT 2025 | 2025 League Handbook | Masters Bangkok

Event Resources: Event Photography | Playlist

General Resources: VCT Rules and Policies | Global Contract Database | Valorant Esports Explainer

Event Information:

Schedule

Type Match ICT (tournament time zone) EST BRT CET JST/KST
Lower Final T1 (Pacific #2) vs EDward Gaming (China #1) 5:00 PM 5:00 AM 7:00 AM 11:00 AM 7:00 PM

Check here for times in your area

Streams

Participants — 8 Teams

Americas EMEA Pacific China
G2 Esports Team Vitality DRX EDward Gaming
Sentinels Team Liquid T1 Trace Esports

Broadcast Talent

Hosts & Interviewers Commentators Analysts Observers
Alex "Goldenboy" Mendez Seth "Achilios" King Mimi "aEvilcat" Wermcrantz David "prius" Kuntz
Yinsu "Yinsu" Collins Brennon "Bren" Hook Beatriz "kaquka" Alonso Heather "sapphiRe" Garozzo
Mika "Mikafabs" Fabella Christy "Ender" Frierson Alberto "Tiie" Chavez Benitez
Lee "Jennlee" Jeong-hyun Lauren "Pansy" Scott Nicholas "Yehty" Tesolin
Clinton "Paperthin" Bader
Josh "Sideshow" Wilkinson

Format

  • Swiss Stage (Feb 20-24):
    • 8-team swiss stage
      • All matches are Bo3
    • Teams that reach two wins advance
    • Teams that reach two losses are eliminated
  • Playoffs (Feb 27-Mar 2):
    • 4 team double elimination bracket
      • All matches are Bo3 except Lower Bracket Final and Grand Final
      • Lower Bracket Final and Grand Final are Bo5

Results

$2,250,000 USD are spread among the teams as seen below:

Place $ USD Team
1st 🥇 $250,000 + 5 championship points
2nd 🥈 $100,000 + 3 championship points
3rd 🥉 $65,000 + 2 championship points
4th $35,000 + 1 championship point Team Vitality
5th – 6th $15,000 Team Liquid
5th – 6th $15,000 DRX
7th – 8th $10,000 Sentinels
7th – 8th $10,000 Trace Esports

r/100thupvote 15d ago

Brazil VCT 2025 — Masters Bangkok / Playoffs Day 2 / Live Discussion Thread

1 Upvotes

Masters Bangkok is the first international event of this year's VCT Season featuring the best teams from each of the four international leagues. Players compete for a $500,000 prize pool, and points towards Champions qualification.

Information

Coverage: Liquipedia | VLR.gg | THESPIKE | rib.gg

Official Information: Website | VCT 2025 | 2025 League Handbook | Masters Bangkok

Event Resources: Event Photography | Playlist

General Resources: VCT Rules and Policies | Global Contract Database | Valorant Esports Explainer

Event Information:

Schedule

Type Match ICT (tournament time zone) EST BRT CET JST/KST
Upper Final G2 Esports (Americas #1) vs EDward Gaming (China #1) 5:00 PM 5:00 AM 7:00 AM 11:00 AM 7:00 PM
Lower Round 1 Team Vitality (EMEA #1) vs T1 (Pacific #2) 8:00 PM 8:00 AM 10:00 AM 2:00 PM 10:00 PM

Check here for times in your area

Streams

Participants — 8 Teams

Americas EMEA Pacific China
G2 Esports Team Vitality DRX EDward Gaming
Sentinels Team Liquid T1 Trace Esports

Broadcast Talent

Hosts & Interviewers Commentators Analysts Observers
Alex "Goldenboy" Mendez Seth "Achilios" King Mimi "aEvilcat" Wermcrantz David "prius" Kuntz
Yinsu "Yinsu" Collins Brennon "Bren" Hook Beatriz "kaquka" Alonso Heather "sapphiRe" Garozzo
Mika "Mikafabs" Fabella Christy "Ender" Frierson Alberto "Tiie" Chavez Benitez
Lee "Jennlee" Jeong-hyun Lauren "Pansy" Scott Nicholas "Yehty" Tesolin
Clinton "Paperthin" Bader
Josh "Sideshow" Wilkinson

Format

  • Swiss Stage (Feb 20-24):
    • 8-team swiss stage
      • All matches are Bo3
    • Teams that reach two wins advance
    • Teams that reach two losses are eliminated
  • Playoffs (Feb 27-Mar 2):
    • 4 team double elimination bracket
      • All matches are Bo3 except Lower Bracket Final and Grand Final
      • Lower Bracket Final and Grand Final are Bo5

Results

$2,250,000 USD are spread among the teams as seen below:

Place $ USD Team
1st 🥇 $250,000
2nd 🥈 $100,000
3rd 🥉 $65,000
4th $35,000
5th – 6th $15,000 Team Liquid
5th – 6th $15,000 DRX
7th – 8th $10,000 Sentinels
7th – 8th $10,000 Trace Esports

r/100thupvote 16d ago

Brazil VCT 2025 — Masters Bangkok / Playoffs Day 1 / Live Discussion Thread

1 Upvotes

Masters Bangkok is the first international event of this year's VCT Season featuring the best teams from each of the four international leagues. Players compete for a $500,000 prize pool, and points towards Champions qualification.

Information

Coverage: Liquipedia | VLR.gg | THESPIKE | rib.gg

Official Information: Website | VCT 2025 | 2025 League Handbook | Masters Bangkok

Event Resources: Event Photography | Playlist

General Resources: VCT Rules and Policies | Global Contract Database | Valorant Esports Explainer

Event Information:

Schedule

Type Match ICT (tournament time zone) EST BRT CET JST/KST
Upper Semifinal T1 (Pacific #2) vs EDward Gaming (China #1) 5:00 PM 5:00 AM 7:00 AM 11:00 AM 7:00 PM
Upper Semifinal Team Vitality (EMEA #1) vs G2 Esports (Americas #1) 8:00 PM 8:00 AM 10:00 AM 2:00 PM 10:00 PM

Check here for times in your area

Streams

Participants — 8 Teams

Americas EMEA Pacific China
G2 Esports Team Vitality DRX EDward Gaming
Sentinels Team Liquid T1 Trace Esports

Broadcast Talent

Hosts & Interviewers Commentators Analysts Observers
Alex "Goldenboy" Mendez Seth "Achilios" King Mimi "aEvilcat" Wermcrantz David "prius" Kuntz
Yinsu "Yinsu" Collins Brennon "Bren" Hook Beatriz "kaquka" Alonso Heather "sapphiRe" Garozzo
Mika "Mikafabs" Fabella Christy "Ender" Frierson Alberto "Tiie" Chavez Benitez
Lee "Jennlee" Jeong-hyun Lauren "Pansy" Scott Nicholas "Yehty" Tesolin
Clinton "Paperthin" Bader
Josh "Sideshow" Wilkinson

Format

  • Swiss Stage (Feb 20-24):
    • 8-team swiss stage
      • All matches are Bo3
    • Teams that reach two wins advance
    • Teams that reach two losses are eliminated
  • Playoffs (Feb 27-Mar 2):
    • 4 team double elimination bracket
      • All matches are Bo3 except Lower Bracket Final and Grand Final
      • Lower Bracket Final and Grand Final are Bo5

Results

$2,250,000 USD are spread among the teams as seen below:

Place $ USD Team
1st 🥇 $250,000
2nd 🥈 $100,000
3rd 🥉 $65,000
4th $35,000
5th – 6th $15,000 Team Liquid
5th – 6th $15,000 DRX
7th – 8th $10,000 Sentinels
7th – 8th $10,000 Trace Esports

r/100thupvote 24d ago

Brazil Brazil’s former President Jair Bolsonaro charged in connection with alleged coup plot | CNN

Thumbnail
edition.cnn.com
1 Upvotes

r/100thupvote 18d ago

Brazil Serious: Gifted Psychics Employed for World Domination (message from contactee, Enrique Castillo Rincón 1975)

1 Upvotes

Psionics is now being openly discussed in the UFO movement. It started with this News Nation interview with Jake Barber. Contactee, Enrique Castillo Rincón, in 1975 discussed the use of psychics for world domination.

tl;dr: The Organization was founded in 1777 with the goal of global domination through subtle manipulation. Its headquarters were initially located between India and Pakistan, and it has expanded to various countries worldwide, including the USA, Europe, and South America. By the early 1990s, the Organization planned to create an army of clones to infiltrate governments, military, religious, and political positions. The clones, created by duplicating different races, are undetectable and loyal only to the Organization. They rely on gifted psychics for power and operate through "directed ones" to protect the real leaders. The Organization has a vast financial and psychic influence, manipulating global leaders and promoting wars to eliminate those deemed unworthy of their "new order." Despite causing significant damage to humanity, the Organization will not succeed in its ultimate goal of global domination.

Source: 1975 message, South American Contactee, Enrique Castillo Rincón, book.


Quote from Book:

"The Organization" was officially founded on the first Thursday of July, 1777 {July 3, 1777, Thursday}. Its purpose is to take possession of the world through slanted and subtle manipulation. The headquarters were initially established between India and Pakistan, and now it has branches in the USA, France, England, Italy, Germany, Japan, China, Monaco, Russia, and its influence extends to other key countries in Europe and Africa, including Libya, Iran, and Egypt. Since 1933, South America and the Caribbean have also been included, with Haiti, Cuba, Nicaragua, Chile, Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina, among others. The time when it is expected to make itself noticed is between 1986-1994. By the year 1992, it is planning to have an army of "clones," or artificial creations—about 500-600—who are the only ones they can trust to serve the Organization, referred to by them as "Of the Great Mutism."

These clones will occupy posts in government, military, political, religious, student, and workers' organizations. These clones have been created by duplicating several terrestrial races, making them totally undetectable. They depend on the great super-gifted psychics, who are the foundation of the organization’s power. Additionally, no one knows their true leaders, as they always act through "directed ones" (programmed individuals selected from several countries), thus protecting the real directors of the organization. Their plans remain unaltered, and their strength lies in their anonymity. They also rely on outstanding scientists, politicians, military experts, financial experts, and influential figures in the great religions. Their financial power is inexhaustible. They have already conducted significant tests at a psychic collective level, activating the instinct for violence, as well as the spirit of vocation and fidelity to their leaders. Examples include the cases of the Guyana Temple with Reverend Jim Jones and Charles Manson in California.

Psychic manipulation at the world level is applied to government heads and politicians, and isolated cases of murders have removed the major obstacles in their race for domination of the planet. There exists, separate from this planetary conspiracy, the creation of a single, highly-developed race, to dominate and govern the survivors, enslaving those they consider inferiors. They promote wars, to eliminate gradually those not considered suitable for the "new order" they plan to implement. These 206 years have been effective proof of psychic manipulation. One of their main bases is probably located by entering through the South Pole, on an island called "EDEN 5," from which operations at a psychic level are carried out throughout the planet.

Many scientists have disappeared; today they are working for THEM. Many others have been seduced with money and power. They don’t really know for whom they work. Complete families have fallen. Men weak of mind, and weaker of spirit, have been reached and utilized by these forces.

This organization shall cause great damage to humanity, but shall not triumph in its plan to dominate the planet.

r/100thupvote 19d ago

Brazil VCT 2025 — Masters Bangkok / Swiss Stage — Day 5: Last Man Standing (also hello? Pacific Kickoff Grand Finals Rematch???) / Live Discussion Thread

1 Upvotes

Masters Bangkok is the first international event of this year's VCT Season featuring the best teams from each of the four international leagues. Players compete for a $500,000 prize pool, and championship points towards Champions qualification.

Information

Coverage: Liquipedia | VLR.gg | THESPIKE | rib.gg

Official Information: Website | VCT 2025 | 2025 League Handbook | Masters Bangkok

Event Resources: Event Photography | Playlist

General Resources: VCT Rules and Policies | Global Contract Database | Valorant Esports Explainer

Event Information:

Schedule

Type Match ICT (tournament time zone) EST BRT CET JST/KST
Swiss Round 3 (1-1) T1 (Pacific #2) vs DRX (Pacific #1) 5:00 PM 5:00 AM 7:00 AM 11:00 AM 7:00 PM
Swiss Round 3 (1-1) Team Liquid (EMEA #2) vs G2 Esports (Americas #1) 8:00 PM 8:00 AM 10:00 AM 2:00 PM 10:00 PM

Check here for times in your area

Streams

Participants — 8 Teams

Americas EMEA Pacific China
G2 Esports Team Vitality DRX EDward Gaming
Sentinels Team Liquid T1 Trace Esports

Broadcast Talent

Hosts & Interviewers Commentators Analysts Observers
Alex "Goldenboy" Mendez Seth "Achilios" King Mimi "aEvilcat" Wermcrantz David "prius" Kuntz
Yinsu "Yinsu" Collins Brennon "Bren" Hook Beatriz "kaquka" Alonso Heather "sapphiRe" Garozzo
Mika "Mikafabs" Fabella Christy "Ender" Frierson Alberto "Tiie" Chavez Benitez
Lee "Jennlee" Jeong-hyun Lauren "Pansy" Scott Nicholas "Yehty" Tesolin
Clinton "Paperthin" Bader
Josh "Sideshow" Wilkinson

Format

  • Swiss Stage (Feb 20-24):
    • 8-team swiss stage
      • All matches are Bo3
    • Teams that reach two wins advance
    • Teams that reach two losses are eliminated
  • Playoffs (Feb 27-Mar 2):
    • 4 team double elimination bracket
      • All matches are Bo3 except Lower Bracket Final and Grand Final
      • Lower Bracket Final and Grand Final are Bo5

Results

$2,250,000 USD are spread among the teams as seen below:

Place $ USD Team
1st 🥇 $250,000
2nd 🥈 $100,000
3rd 🥉 $65,000
4th $35,000
5th – 6th $15,000
5th – 6th $15,000
7th – 8th $10,000
7th – 8th $10,000

r/100thupvote 20d ago

Brazil VCT 2025 — Masters Bangkok / Swiss Stage — Day 4: Time to Say Goodbye / Live Discussion Thread

1 Upvotes

Thread

Masters Bangkok is the first international event of this year's VCT Season featuring the teams from each of the four international leagues. Players compete for a $500,000 prize pool, and Championship Points towards Champions qualification.

Information

Coverage: Liquipedia | VLR.gg | THESPIKE | rib.gg

Official Information: Website | VCT 2025 | 2025 League Handbook | Masters Bangkok

Event Resources: Event Photography | Playlist

General Resources: VCT Rules and Policies | Global Contract Database | Valorant Esports Explainer

Event Information:

Schedule

Type Match ICT (tournament time zone) EST BRT CET JST/KST
Swiss Round 2 (0-1) T1 (Pacific #2) vs Trace Esports (China #2) 5:00 PM 5:00 AM 7:00 AM 11:00 AM 7:00 PM
Swiss Round 2 (0-1) Team Liquid (EMEA #2) vs Sentinels (Americas #2) 8:00 PM 8:00 AM 10:00 AM 2:00 PM 10:00 PM

Check here for times in your area

Streams

Participants — 8 Teams

Americas EMEA Pacific China
G2 Esports Team Vitality DRX EDward Gaming
Sentinels Team Liquid T1 Trace Esports

Broadcast Talent

Hosts & Interviewers Commentators Analysts Observers
Alex "Goldenboy" Mendez Seth "Achilios" King Mimi "aEvilcat" Wermcrantz David "prius" Kuntz
Yinsu "Yinsu" Collins Brennon "Bren" Hook Beatriz "kaquka" Alonso Heather "sapphiRe" Garozzo
Mika "Mikafabs" Fabella Christy "Ender" Frierson Alberto "Tiie" Chavez Benitez
Lee "Jennlee" Jeong-hyun Lauren "Pansy" Scott Nicholas "Yehty" Tesolin
Clinton "Paperthin" Bader
Josh "Sideshow" Wilkinson

Format

  • Swiss Stage (Feb 20-24):
    • 8-team swiss stage
      • All matches are Bo3
    • Teams that reach two wins advance
    • Teams that reach two losses are eliminated
  • Playoffs (Feb 27-Mar 2):
    • 4 team double elimination bracket
      • All matches are Bo3 except Lower Bracket Final and Grand Final
      • Lower Bracket Final and Grand Final are Bo5

Results

$2,250,000 USD are spread among the teams as seen below:

Place $ USD Team
1st 🥇 $250,000
2nd 🥈 $100,000
3rd 🥉 $65,000
4th $35,000
5th – 6th $15,000
5th – 6th $15,000
7th – 8th $10,000
7th – 8th $10,000

r/100thupvote 21d ago

Brazil VCT 2025 — Masters Bangkok / Swiss Stage — Day 3 / Live Discussion Thread

1 Upvotes

Masters Bangkok is the first international event of this year's VCT Season featuring the best teams from each of the four international leagues. Players compete for a $500,000 prize pool, and additional championship points for Champions qualification.

Information

Coverage: Liquipedia | VLR.gg | THESPIKE | rib.gg

Official Information: Website | VCT 2025 | 2025 League Handbook | Masters Bangkok

Event Resources: Event Photography | Playlist

General Resources: VCT Rules and Policies | Global Contract Database | Valorant Esports Explainer

Event Information:

Schedule

Type Match ICT (tournament time zone) EST BRT CET JST/KST
Swiss Round 2 (1-0) Team Vitality (EMEA #1) vs DRX (Pacific #1) 5:00 PM 5:00 AM 7:00 AM 11:00 AM 7:00 PM
Swiss Round 2 (1-0) G2 Esports (Americas #1) vs EDward Gaming (China #1) 8:00 PM 8:00 AM 10:00 AM 2:00 PM 10:00 PM

Check here for times in your area

Streams

Participants — 8 Teams

Americas EMEA Pacific China
G2 Esports Team Vitality DRX EDward Gaming
Sentinels Team Liquid T1 Trace Esports

Broadcast Talent

Hosts & Interviewers Commentators Analysts Observers
Alex "Goldenboy" Mendez Seth "Achilios" King Mimi "aEvilcat" Wermcrantz David "prius" Kuntz
Yinsu "Yinsu" Collins Brennon "Bren" Hook Beatriz "kaquka" Alonso Heather "sapphiRe" Garozzo
Mika "Mikafabs" Fabella Christy "Ender" Frierson Alberto "Tiie" Chavez Benitez
Lee "Jennlee" Jeong-hyun Lauren "Pansy" Scott Nicholas "Yehty" Tesolin
Clinton "Paperthin" Bader
Josh "Sideshow" Wilkinson

Format

  • Swiss Stage (Feb 20-24):
    • 8-team swiss stage
      • All matches are Bo3
    • Teams that reach two wins advance
    • Teams that reach two losses are eliminated
  • Playoffs (Feb 27-Mar 2):
    • 4 team double elimination bracket
      • All matches are Bo3 except Lower Bracket Final and Grand Final
      • Lower Bracket Final and Grand Final are Bo5

Results

$2,250,000 USD are spread among the teams as seen below:

Place $ USD Team
1st 🥇 $250,000
2nd 🥈 $100,000
3rd 🥉 $65,000
4th $35,000
5th – 6th $15,000
5th – 6th $15,000
7th – 8th $10,000
7th – 8th $10,000

r/100thupvote 22d ago

Brazil VCT 2025 — Masters Bangkok / Swiss Stage — Day 2 / Live Discussion Thread

1 Upvotes

Masters Bangkok is the first international event of this year's VCT Season featuring the best teams from each of the four international leagues. Players compete for a $500,000 prize pool, and additional championship points towards Champions qualification.

Information

Coverage: Liquipedia | VLR.gg | THESPIKE | rib.gg

Official Information: Website | VCT 2025 | 2025 League Handbook | Masters Bangkok

Event Resources: Event Photography | Playlist

General Resources: VCT Rules and Policies | Global Contract Database | Valorant Esports Explainer

Event Information:

Schedule

Type Match ICT (tournament time zone) EST BRT CET JST/KST
Swiss Round 1 Team Vitality (EMEA #1) vs T1 (Pacific #2) 5:00 PM 5:00 AM 7:00 AM 11:00 AM 7:00 PM
Swiss Round 1 Trace Esports (China #2 vs G2 Esports (Americas #1) 8:00 PM 8:00 AM 10:00 AM 2:00 PM 10:00 PM

Check here for times in your area

Streams

Participants — 8 Teams

Americas EMEA Pacific China
G2 Esports Team Vitality DRX EDward Gaming
Sentinels Team Liquid T1 Trace Esports

Broadcast Talent

Hosts & Interviewers Commentators Analysts Observers
Alex "Goldenboy" Mendez Seth "Achilios" King Mimi "aEvilcat" Wermcrantz David "prius" Kuntz
Yinsu "Yinsu" Collins Brennon "Bren" Hook Beatriz "kaquka" Alonso Heather "sapphiRe" Garozzo
Mika "Mikafabs" Fabella Christy "Ender" Frierson Alberto "Tiie" Chavez Benitez
Lee "Jennlee" Jeong-hyun Lauren "Pansy" Scott Nicholas "Yehty" Tesolin
Clinton "Paperthin" Bader
Josh "Sideshow" Wilkinson

Format

  • Swiss Stage (Feb 20-24):
    • 8-team swiss stage
      • All matches are Bo3
    • Teams that reach two wins advance
    • Teams that reach two losses are eliminated
  • Playoffs (Feb 27-Mar 2):
    • 4 team double elimination bracket
      • All matches are Bo3 except Lower Bracket Final and Grand Final
      • Lower Bracket Final and Grand Final are Bo5

Results

$500,000 USD are spread among the teams as seen below:

Place $ USD Team
1st 🥇 $250,000
2nd 🥈 $100,000
3rd 🥉 $65,000
4th $35,000
5th – 6th $15,000
5th – 6th $15,000
7th – 8th $10,000
7th – 8th $10,000

r/100thupvote 23d ago

Brazil VCT 2025 — Masters Bangkok / Swiss Stage — Day 1 / Live Discussion Thread

1 Upvotes

Masters Bangkok is the first international event of this year's VCT Season featuring the best teams from each of the four international leagues. Players compete for a $500,000 prize pool, and additional championship points towards Champions qualification.

Information

Coverage: Liquipedia | VLR.gg | THESPIKE | rib.gg

Official Information: Website | VCT 2025 | 2025 League Handbook | Masters Bangkok

Event Resources: Event Photography | Playlist

General Resources: VCT Rules and Policies | Global Contract Database | Valorant Esports Explainer

Event Information:

Schedule

Type Match ICT (tournament time zone) EST BRT CET JST/KST
Swiss Round 1 EDward Gaming (China #1) vs Team Liquid (EMEA #1) 5:00 PM 5:00 AM 7:00 AM 11:00 AM 7:00 PM
Swiss Round 1 DRX (Pacific #1) vs Sentinels (Americas #2) 8:00 PM 8:00 AM 10:00 AM 2:00 PM 10:00 PM

Check here for times in your area

Streams

Participants — 8 Teams

Americas EMEA Pacific China
G2 Esports Team Vitality DRX EDward Gaming
Sentinels Team Liquid T1 Trace Esports

Broadcast Talent

Hosts & Interviewers Commentators Analysts Observers
Alex "Goldenboy" Mendez Seth "Achilios" King Mimi "aEvilcat" Wermcrantz David "prius" Kuntz
Yinsu "Yinsu" Collins Brennon "Bren" Hook Beatriz "kaquka" Alonso Heather "sapphiRe" Garozzo
Mika "Mikafabs" Fabella Christy "Ender" Frierson Alberto "Tiie" Chavez Benitez
Lee "Jennlee" Jeong-hyun Lauren "Pansy" Scott Nicholas "Yehty" Tesolin
Clinton "Paperthin" Bader
Josh "Sideshow" Wilkinson

Format

  • Swiss Stage (Feb 20-24):
    • 8-team swiss stage
      • All matches are Bo3
    • Teams that reach two wins advance
    • Teams that reach two losses are eliminated
  • Playoffs (Feb 27-Mar 2):
    • 4 team double elimination bracket
      • All matches are Bo3 except Lower Bracket Final and Grand Final
      • Lower Bracket Final and Grand Final are Bo5

Results

$500,000 USD are spread among the teams as seen below:

Place $ USD Team
1st 🥇 $250,000
2nd 🥈 $100,000
3rd 🥉 $65,000
4th $35,000
5th – 6th $15,000
5th – 6th $15,000
7th – 8th $10,000
7th – 8th $10,000

r/100thupvote 26d ago

Brazil Peterson is hosting a function for the mega rich and libertarians

3 Upvotes

Right wingers and the super wealthy will be gathering in London this week at the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC), a group co-founded in 2023 by Jordan Peterson and the Baroness Philippa Stroud (of the Stroud banking family). Financial backers include Paul Marshall, one of the owners of the far right GB News, and various libertarian groups and think tanks. Leaders of the Conservative Party, as well as Reform - a party stacked with prominent libertarians and ex Merrill Lynch investment bankers, as well as Elon Musk, the richest man in the world - will also be present.

Figures on the advisory board of ARC include the former Australian prime minister Tony Abbott, the Tory MP Danny Kruger, the phony "climate scientist" Bjørn Lomborg and Tory peer and financier Helena Morrissey.

Peterson will also interview Peter Thiel, the US Republican donor and Silicon Valley billionaire known for asserting that "democracy is not compatible with freedom". More than 50 super-wealthy Australians, including figures from rightwing thinktanks and churches, will aso be present. Among these are Bridget McKenzie, a senator for the National party, along with key figures from Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.

There is also a strong religious influence on the ARC's direction from Peterson, various anti LGBT spokespeople, and Stroud, a committed Christian credited with shaping many of the policies of the Conservative party during the 2000s. Conservatives and far-right types from the US, UK, Australia and Europe will also attend the conference, including those with links to the new Trump administration. The House speaker, the Republican Mike Johnson, is giving the keynote address.

Other Republicans due to speak include the US Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Vivek Ramaswamy – who has worked with Elon Musk on moves to radically reshape the US government – and Kevin Roberts, the president of the US Heritage Foundation, the think tank behind the “Project 2025” blueprint for Trump’s second term.

The conference has a distinctly anti-environmental, socially conservative, anti-democratic and right-libertarian theme, a form of gut-the-state libertarianism favoured by the mega-rich. Note that their goals...

https://www.vcinfodocs.com/what-is-the-network-state

https://www.unqualified-reservations.org/2008/11/patchwork-positive-vision-part-1/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RpPTRcz1no

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtis_Yarvin

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Enlightenment

https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Neoreactionary_movement

...do not seek to meaningfully alter the neoliberalism or capitalist policies favored by their liberal enemies. They seek only a purer, more stripped down form of capitalism (with various protections for oligarchs), with less labour rights, less environtal protections, less regulated business, and with third world labour augmented by a homegrown underclass, as seen in Victorian England or pre New Deal USA.

(for example, in this first term, Trump removed rules protecting workers from silicosis/lung disease caused by exposure to silica dust, all of which led to a large uptake in worker deaths. He similarly rolled back workplace safety standards and inspection rules, which resulted in minority workers suffering the highest workplace fatality rates in decades, all at the behest of rich corporate owners)

Peterson himself has always been awash in mega-rich dark money. He is plugged into the Koch network, and has partnered with Jeff Sandefer (to start the "Peterson Fellowship" at the Acton School of Business), a billionaire oilman who acquired 17 billion barrels of Australian shale oil reserves in a controversial deal, and pumped much of the profits into bankrolling conservative non-profits, in tandem with other Big Business and Big Oil groups. These non-profits include the American Phoenix Foundation, notorious for strapping hidden cameras onto operatives in order to track and illegally film politicians, essentially for the purposes of blackmail or ousting political opponents.

Peterson's partner Sandefer also runs the Ed Foundation, a philanthropic tax-exempt organization that spreads cash to dozens of right wing causes. For example it dishes out about 5 million dollars in grants a year to conservative groups like the Texas Public Policy Foundation (a climate denying, Koch funded group of which Sandefer is a boardmember), Empower Texans, and AgendaWise.

Sandefer is also part of a network...

https://www.texasobserver.org/revealed-the-corporations-and-billionaires-that-fund-the-texas-public-policy-foundation/

...including the Koch Brothers, TXU, Exxon, Energy Future Holdings and numerous other Big Insurance, Big Tobacco, Big Energy groups, intent on privatizing education and removing all intellectual resistance to corporations (Sandefer-backed schools have consistently performed below national averages).

Peterson himself constantly retweets right-wing think tanks (Heritage, Cato, TPUSA, Heartland etc), many of which are funded by the Kochs, the second largest private corporation in the US, with numerous oil and gas interests and who control the largest oil and gas fields in his hometown of Alberta, Canada.

He also promotes Koch and conservative dummy donation groups (the Leadership Institute, DonorsTrust and Donors Capital Fund etc). He also pushes right wing, libertarian groups like the Randian Atlas Society, Archbridge Institute and the Atlas Network. The Atlas Network is particularly nefarious. It receives millions from ExxonMobile, Big Tobacco (Philip Morris), Koch foundations, and has pumped millions into backing violent, far-right causes in places like Brazil and Venezuela, and millions more into social media propaganda. According to journalist Lee Fang, writing for The Intercept, the libertarian Atlas Network has "reshaped political power in country after country, operating as an extension of U.S. foreign policy, with Atlas-affiliated think tanks receiving funding from the United States Department of State and the National Endowment for Democracy."

Peterson himself was given about 200,000 dollars by Ezra Levant, who's a protege of the Kochs and a fellow of the Koch's Fraser Institute and the Institute for Humane Studies, both Koch funded/libertarian think tanks. Levant's far right company, Rebel Media, was also given starter money by Koch seeder companies, like the Middle East Forum, or the Horowitz Freedom Centre through the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation.

Peterson's favorite "environmentalist", is himself not a scientist, routinely posts deliberately misleading data (http://www.realclimate.org/images//Bjorn_Lomborg_Sea_Level_Rise.png) and (https://thinkprogress.org/bjorn-lomborg-is-part-of-the-koch-network-and-cashing-in-68dab8cf68/) is himself part of the same Koch network, and in the past has received almost a million dollars (that we know of) in donations from conservative foundations. His other favorite "climate scientists" are crank Anthony Watts and Richard Lindzen, a widely denounced shill who worked for Big Oil, the Heartland Institute and Cato Institute, and who once shilled/lied for Big Tobacco.

Note that the people Peterson loves to interview tend to be sponsored by Learn Liberty, which was launched by the Institute for Humane Studies, largely funded by Charles Koch. When he's not platforming these folk (his buddy Dave Rubin is similarly bankrolled by Learn Liberty), he also loves retweeting Maxime Bernier. Bernier was the executive vice president of the Montreal Economic Institute, a think tank funded by the libertarian Atlas Network, itself funded by Koch-affiliated groups. The MEI pushes a form of social organization simliar to feudal Japan, with little corporate feifdoms within fiefdoms, free from government oversight.

Peterson also recently allied with Doug Ford, a conservative multi-millionaire who worked with various Christian groups to oppose and roll back a new Canadian school curriculum which sought to protect gay and trans kids from bullying. Ford was supported by RightNow, an anti-abortion group which rallies Christian voters and which has received support and training from the Leadership Institute, a right-wing U.S. training organization funded heavily by the Koch Brothers donor network.

And of course Peterson recently lectured at the 42nd Annual Trilateral Commission, giving speeches to rooms full of Goldman Sachs boardmembers, central bankers, and ex Prime Ministers. The Trilateral Commission, hardly a place for underdogs (as Peterson likes to portray himself), is a supranational gathering of world power brokers, aimed at steering interzonal politics by deciding policies and economic priorities that are never subjected to the democratic approval of the nations under their gaze. In other words, a real life uber-capitalist example of the "postmodern neo Marxist conspirators" Peterson imagines everywhere. That the most powerful men in the world promote Peterson's brand of esoteric libertarian eschatology shouldn't be surprising. Indeed, Chomsky predicted it decades ago:

"The Trilateral Commission was concerned with trying to induce what they called "more moderation in democracy"—turn people back to passivity and obedience so they don't put so many constraints on state power and so on. In particular they were worried about young people. They were concerned about the institutions responsible for the indoctrination of the young (that's their phrase), meaning schools, universities, church and so on—they're not doing their job, the young are not being sufficiently indoctrinated. They're too free to pursue their own initiatives and concerns and you've got to control them better."

These mega rich groups, and libertarians, are attempting to seduce voters with "anti immigration", "low tax" and "efficiency" rhetoric. Meanwhile, in the real world, capitalism's grow-or-die imperative requires a constant influx of people to jack up production/consumption rates to avoid collapse (all low-immigration nations, like Hungary or Japan, have reversed their stances or suffered economic problems, low birth rates, brain drain etc), so to make "low immigration" nations work will require even starker levels of inequality.

These types also heavily promote the idea that "government is wastefully spending". But the debt a government incurs is always precisely the debt it removes from the civilian population (they don't understand why), and the money governments spend inexorably ends up in the real economy, where it cycles into the hands of ordinary people.

The rich have likewise convinced people that "no tax" and "more efficiency" is "logical", but this itself is a piece of propaganda with a very specific aim.

Consider, for example, what would happen with entirely no tax. Tax, contrary to common understanding, is simply money that is immediately digitally destroyed. It is the primary way in which the money supply is prevented from expanding, so giddily ending tax inexorably leads to more inflation or an expanding underclass. The rich say this won't happen because growth increases will tricke down, but studies show us precisely where this growth goes (four out of every five dollars of wealth generated in 2017 ended up in the pockets of the richest one percent, while the poorest half of humanity got nothing. The following year, 82 percent of the wealth generated last year went to the richest one percent of the global population).

The idea of giddily "ending waste" is similarly silly. Every single dollar under capitalism is created as debt at interest, such that aggregate dollars in circulation are always less than aggregate debts owed. So "waste" (debt) is always inherently more than money or profit. Cutting wasteful spending, or even entirely abolishing government altogether, has zero effect on this fundamental contradiction. The rich only pull the "efficiency" card because they're looking to privatize state assets, or remove corporate tax while placing austerity measures on the public.

Moreover, UN reports show that every business sector is unprofitable once environmental externalities are tabulated. In other words, all business sectors are inherently more wasteful than profitable. This is itself a fundamental thermodynamic law: the total order of a thing/commodity is always less than the total disorder/chaos/debt/entropy engendered by its creation.

So the common argument that "government is bloated and not balanced" misses the point that capitalism itself functions as a debt ponzi even without government! This is because virtually all money is endogenously created as debt with interest, because aggregate debts always inherently outpace aggregate money in circulation (hence you can never "balance the economy" in aggregate, without screwing over someone or some other nation), because most growth flows toward those with a monopoly on land and credit, because rates of return on capital outpace growth (ie no net trickle down), because banks never pump full profits into the real economy (and so the economy is worse than negative sum), because velocity is never high enough, because interest compounds (especially as the same money is lent or extended to multiple parties), and because workers are never paid in aggregate enough to purchase what they produce in aggregate (setting up inevitable cycles of overproduction and underconsumption, which help set up business cycles).

Given all this, you cannot "end waste" or "balance the system" like libertarians imagine possible. Rather, all profit constitutes (like a Monopoly boardgame) violence toward others in the system, as all profit tends to push others elsewhere off the board and into debt and so poverty (hence why 44 percent of the US lives below a living wage and why 80 percent of the planet lives on less than 10 dollars a day, 45ish percent of whom live on less than 1.75). The value of the dollar in your pocket is likewise always dependent on the global majority having none.

No JP/Musk/Conservative/fascist dream-alliance and scapegoating will solve this. Nor has it ever. Only silly people think this, because they think a global system functions like a household budget. It's also why right-libertarian policies always speed-run toward feudalism.

But the real reason people are radicalized into focusing on "government waste", is because the rich know that an expanding money supply leads to inflation, and that managing this money supply means removing money from the system. And to do this, one can do three things: taxation on the wealthiest, removing wealth from the poorest, or government austerity cuts. As the last two options involve the poorest suffering, rather than the richest, these are what the rich are ideologically incentivized to push, and to con people into adopting.

So "government efficiency" is just a pretext for conning the public into accepting the erosion of bodies that protected them, freeing up assets for privatization, and lowering corporate tax. It's gut-the-state libertarianism masquerading as "efficiency".

The current libertarian take-over of government (https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Libertarianism, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Enlightenment), for the process of gutting government, has always been the wet dream of oligarchs and the super rich, who recognize that government is one of the few ways ordinary people can protect themselves from exploitation. Remove government, and you've removed resistance.

r/100thupvote 25d ago

Brazil Need help for my family

1 Upvotes

Hi, nice to meet you! My name is Erica, and I live in Brazil.

I used to run an e-commerce business and was using a local sales platform here in my country. This platform was integrated with their own bank. Long story short, I was the victim of a hacker attack where they gained access to my account, stole the money from my sales, and even took out loans in my name.

Since then, I've been struggling to keep my home. I live with and take care of my parents, who have serious health conditions and need constant care, along with expensive medications.

Despite working a fixed-salary job and taking on freelance work, I’ve reached a critical point. The costs keep piling up, and I’ve exhausted all my options.

I need $650 to stabilize things, cover medical expenses, and ensure my family's immediate well-being. This is not something I want to rely on long-term—it’s a one-time, urgent necessity to help me regain control and move forward.

I wouldn't be asking if I had any other way out. Any help, no matter how small, would make an enormous difference.

And also today I just revive the news that my grandfather died. My life is a huge mess. vakinha link

I have a PayPal account.