#Pred vs. Pred Battle

[mariacallous]

The Russian presidential elections are weeks away, and notwithstanding the surprising success—and hurried disqualification—of an anti-war candidate, the outcome is foreordained: Six more years of Vladimir Putin. The impending reelection of the man U.S. President Joe Biden called a “murderous dictator” and “pure thug” raises the question of the Biden administration’s Russia policy. Does the United States want a democratized Russia? Does Biden hope for Putin’s ouster? Without Putin, would Russia’s alliance with the People’s Republic of China crumble? Would the new axis between North Korea, Iran, China, and Russia dissolve?

We have no idea. Because the Biden administration has been strangely reticent on the question of Russia’s leadership, and, indeed, the relationship it wants with Russia overall. What is the Biden administration’s Russia policy? Does it even have one?

In short, the answer is: not really.

Odd as the missing Russia policy sounds, the reality is that since the end of World War II, its absence has been the norm rather than the exception. It’s not that the United States ignored global communism, captive nations, or the threat posed by the Soviet Union; rather, throughout much of the Cold War, the aim was the consolidation of the George Kennan-authored concept of containment, rather than the destruction of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). Containment implied the management of the Soviet problem; a true Russia policy would have gone beyond defending against the Kremlin’s predations to imagining a different future than communist tyranny.

For decades, U.S. policy focused on competing with the Soviets, not on achieving any particular outcome for Soviet leader Joseph Stalin’s successors. Nor was that especially odd, particularly in the shadow of two world wars that left tens of millions dead and wounded. If the Soviets wanted to keep on crushing their own, or even killing them—you will look in vain for a contemporaneous pronouncement from a U.S. leader on the question of the estimated 30 million dead at Stalin’s hands—that was the Kremlin’s business.

The United States and Europe, unified in the newly born NATO, were mostly focused on the fate of the Soviet Union’s captive nations in Eastern and Central Europe. Not so focused, mind you, that NATO would stand up in defense of either the Hungarians (1956) or the Czechs (1968) in their efforts to offload their Soviet overlords; but at the very least, interested.

Rather, the West was most energized in stemming the spread of Soviet communism and its proxy powers. Thus, the United States found itself engaged directly militarily in Korea and Vietnam, with much of the rest of the world sorted into the bipolar Cold War construct. And though the battle against the Soviet Union had ideological elements—freedom vs. tyranny, democracy vs. communism—the foundation of U.S. policy was strategic. For its first 40 years, the Cold War was much less about values and much more about the cold calculations deemed necessary to stem the Red tide.

Various presidents tweaked U.S. policy: John F. Kennedy’s “flexible response,” Richard Nixon’s détente, Jimmy Carter’s human rights-driven retreat from confrontation. But it was Ronald Reagan who represented the watershed in U.S. Cold War Russia policy. It was Reagan who labeled the USSR an “evil empire,” with emphasis on the morality-laden term “evil.” And it was Reagan who made the fundamental decision to take the battle to the Soviets the world over—in Afghanistan, Nicaragua, Angola, Mozambique, and other nations hitherto mysterious to the vast mass of Americans.

Like his predecessors, Reagan’s doctrinal approach was driven less by specific ambitions about the shape of a future Russia and more by a desire to erode the Soviet Union’s power, reach, and ability to foster the global spread of communism. But much more than his predecessors, he recognized that the shape of a future Russia would dictate the security of both the United States and its allies as well as the people who lived under Soviet rule.

Among the first public references to a desired outcome for Russian governance came in Reagan’s address to the Soviet people broadcast over Voice of America in 1986:

Whenever there’s a restoration of those rights to a man or a woman [Andrei Sakharov and Yelena Bonner], as has happened recently, it helps strengthen the foundations for trust and cooperation between our countries. And by the same token, whenever those rights are denied the foundation is seriously weakened. Much more can and should be done to strengthen that foundation. We welcome progress in this area as much as we welcome it in the effort to secure nuclear arms reduction. In fact, progress here and in all key areas of our relationship is essential if we are to build on this foundation.

More fundamentally, Reagan recast the question of balance-of-power politics for the first time since Winston Churchill declared the existence of the Iron Curtain. “My idea of American policy toward the Soviet Union is simple, and some would say simplistic,” Reagan told an aide in 1977, and repeated again during his presidency: “It is this: We win and they lose.”

In the end, the Soviets lost on a scale that likely would have shocked even Reagan. The Warsaw Pact, the captive Soviet Empire, Moscow’s fellow traveling nations—all crumbled into ashes more dramatically than almost anyone envisioned. And perhaps because of the wholly unexpected nature of that collapse, much of the West struggled to shape a new Russia approach appropriate to the “end of history.”

Again, it’s not that there weren’t components to a policy. Ex-Warsaw Pact nations were slowly welcomed into NATO. There were efforts at arms control and disarmament. There was a generic effort to support Russian evolution into a more normal country and even some consideration of U.S. taxpayer-funded assistance to Moscow. But since the end of the Cold War, there has been no vision for Russia—no coherent sense of a larger policy that drives the tactical decisions made every day.

Since the Clinton administration, the pattern has been the same: Grand hopes for the integration of Russia into the “community of nations,” and then a “reset” that inevitably regresses to the status quo ante. President Bill Clinton abandoned his initial Boris Yeltsin-centered Russia policy—including qualified pledges not to expand NATO—but was soon forced by circumstance and Russia’s own choices into NATO expansion, sanctions against Russian entities, and bombing Russia’s ally, Serbia.

President George W. Bush infamously saw into Putin’s soul, cementing a friendship solid enough that after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Moscow facilitated the resupply of U.S. forces in Afghanistan. But the end of the Bush administration brought disillusionment, with the president pulling a nuclear cooperation agreement with Russia over intervention in the breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazie in Georgia.

Ditto, almost literally, President Barack Obama, whose approach to Russia began with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton embarrassingly presenting Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov with a red “reset” button and ended with strict sanctions on Russia over its 2014 invasion and annexation of Crimea.

Even President Donald Trump, the putative Russian agent who entered the White House with détente-oriented hopes and dreams, ended up implementing a strict sanctions regime against Putin, though the former president’s recent statements—and his recent invitation for Russia to invade NATO members shorting their “dues” to the alliance—may indicate a radical shift ahead for the United States. But during his term in office, Trump successfully bullied NATO members into larger defense budgets and downsized the Russian diplomatic presence in the United States over the Kremlin’s 2018 poisoning of defected Russian double agent Sergei Skripal (a downsizing that remains in force, and is even greater today)—a remarkable deterioration in bilateral relations that has only worsened since Biden’s election and Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

So, is this post-Cold War history a tale of good intentions, good policy, and regrettable outcomes? Not really.

There should be little doubt that every U.S. president since Woodrow Wilson hoped to see a free and democratic Russia—or, at the very minimum, a normal Russia that set aside imperial ambitions. But hope is not a foreign policy. And the actual policies in place, particularly since the end of the Cold War and the demise of the concept of mutually assured destruction, have little to do with Russia’s internal policies and much to do with its external relations. Even Obama’s reset was more about “important areas to discuss with the Russians” and less about the future of Russia itself.

The core problem is that Russia’s internal situation and its foreign policy are inextricably intertwined. Dictators with visions of world domination or of reconstituting the greatness of the Russian Empire of yesteryear have long shaped the Kremlin’s choices, with devastating consequences around the world. Absent a specific policy for Russia, U.S. policy will remain reactive, with constant tactical adjustments that merely manage the problem.

Isolationists and realists will inevitably argue that putting in place a long-term pro-democracy policy for Russia is little more than a neoconservative prescription for endless and inconclusive U.S. meddling. But this is a false choice. Absent a stable Kremlin, the United States and its allies will be forced into a rinse-and-repeat cycle of confrontation with Moscow’s leadership. Now it’s over Ukraine. Previously, it was over Crimea, Georgia, and Syria. There is no reason to believe the cycle will change if U.S. Russia policy remains the same.

The place to begin is a new declarative policy in favor of freedom in Russia. This means exerting much more effort to support the Russian opposition—not with money or arms, but with Washington’s “Good Housekeeping” seal of approval. It means Reagan-style elevation of the issue of human rights in Russia, more aggressive information warfare and propaganda, and, yes, ensuring that Russia loses in Ukraine.

It should also mean an end to punitive policies that ultimately unite Russia’s oligarchs behind Putin. Right now, those who have enriched themselves with the Kremlin’s blessing are having their boats and villas and bank accounts expropriated or frozen. One need not have any sympathy for these thieves to understand that lumping their fate with Putin’s only consolidates his foundation of support. Rather, it is Russia’s money that should be in our sights. The Kremlin has $300 billion in foreign reserves in foreign banks. That money should be garnished to repay damages and underwrite the rebuilding of Ukraine.

If Russia loses in Ukraine—and its loss must be central to NATO policy—the humiliation will be an albatross around Putin’s neck. But even in the event of that loss, the Biden administration (like many of its predecessors) has no policy in place to exploit Putin’s failure. Needless to say, neither does the Republican Party.

If the policy is “we win, you lose,” what will Putin’s loss look like? Will Washington be satisfied to see another ruthless kleptocrat in his place? A Russian nationalist? Or is the U.S. aim to see Russia’s fearless dissidents—think Alexei Navalny or Vladimir Kara-Murza—lead a once-great nation toward freedom? If so, it’s time to make life more unpleasant for their jailers, Putin first among them. It’s time not simply to find and freeze his many assets, but to seize them. It’s time to advertise the details of his corruption to the Russian people via the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

Counterarguments that this will only back Putin into a corner fail to appreciate that he has long been in that corner, painted in with his own strokes. Indeed, his only way out is to hope that once the question of Ukraine is resolved, he will be able to reenter the community of nations, with all forgotten in the hopes of yet another reset. But no reset will stick absent fundamental change in Moscow. It’s time to orient ourselves toward facilitating that change.

[hungryfan45]

Pred Battle:

A vore Royale between the three Spidermen

Tobey Maguire vs. Andrew Garfield vs. Tom Holland

People were right when the accused Tom of padding his booty. but what they didn't know was WHO he was padding it with.

[3xm-draconic]

Ask me things!

If anyone is curious about me, the fanfics i'am writing or anything else i'am working on go ahead and ask. Iam also taking requests, so if you want me to write something for you Iam open!

here is my this of things I will do:

jjba ships.

headcanons & sonarios.

safe vore (protective pred and fluffy stuff).

hard vore (only with villains and antiheroes).

Faheei lore (if anyone is interested in learning more about them).

Mpreg (it's weird but i find it intriguing).

jjba battle match ups (like ultimate Karz vs Jostarblood drunk DIO).

gore, violence, death and horror (to some degree).

STUFF I WILL NOT DO:

any kind of vore that involves nsfw stuff (vore is not a fetish to me, it is more of a morbid fascination).

under age ships or toxic ships (yall get that nasty shit outta here!).

Kinks, this is not a kink blog but if you want to discuss kinks here i'am sorry but this is not the place for you.

please follow these rules.

#jjba #g/t #my blog #ask me stuff #have fun #requests open #blog rules

[heavenlyhischier]

https://www.tumblr.com/heavenlyhischier/748119120820748288/someone-tell-me-not-to-buy-a-ticket-to-the-preds-v

I can’t tell you not to because I’m having the same exact battle. Hometown team vs MY team. 😩 id give anything to go.

ahhh i hope you get to go!! it would be such a fun experience

#cait✨ #⭃ abby answers asks

[aijamisespava]

The Battle Of The Years (JESC Edition)

A couple weeks ago, I wrote a three-part post pitting the 2023 Eurovision entries against the 2024 entries by country. After talking to people (and by that I mean my sister) and coming up with ideas for fun posts leading up to the contest, I came up with the idea to do the exact same thing, but with the Junior Eurovision Songs!

Of course, I'm not able to do 2024 as the Junior Eurovision songs for this year won't be out until well after the contest is over. So, I'm gonna do the 2022 songs vs. the 2023 songs by country, divided by where they finished on the board. I'm also not going to do explanations as that will make an already long post longer and...yeah.

France: Oh Maman! vs. Cœur. Winner: Cœur.

Spain: Señorita vs. LOVIU. Winner: LOVIU.

Armenia: Dance! vs. Do I My Way. Winner: Do It My Way.

United Kingdom: Lose My Head vs. Back To Life. Winner: Back To Life.

Ukraine: Nezlamna vs. Kvitka. Winner: Kvitka.

Poland: To The Moon vs. I Just Need A Friend. Winner: To The Moon.

Netherlands: La Festa vs. Holding On To You. Winner: La Festa.

Albania: Pakëz diell vs. Bota Ime. Winner: Bota Ime.

Germany: Ohne Worte

Malta: Diamonds In The Skies vs. Stronger. Winner: Stronger.

Italy: Bla Bla Bla vs. Un mondo giusto. Winner: Bla Bla Bla

North Macedonia: Životot e pred mene vs. Kaži mi, kaži mi koj. Winner: Kaži mi, kaži mi koj

Portugal: Anos 70 vs. Where I Belong. Winner: Where I Belong

Georgia: I Believe vs. Over The Sky. Winner: I Believe.

Estonia: Hoiame Kokku

Ireland: Solas vs. Aisling. Winner: Solas.

Kazakhstan: Jer-Ana.

Serbia: Svet bez granica.

#eurovision song contest #esc #eurovision #junior eurovision 2023 #junior eurovision #junior eurovision song contest #jesc2023 #jesc2022 #junior eurovision 2022

[thetoxicgamer]

Seattle Surge eliminate OpTic Texas from CoD Champs 2023

The Seattle Surge defeated OpTic Texas 3-2 today in the second round of the elimination bracket to end their season at the Call of Duty League Playoffs for the second consecutive year. OpTic wasted little time getting over yesterday's defeat to the New York Subliners as the Hardpoint hosted them at Mercado Las Almas for the first game of the series. The first set of rotations on the map were back-and-forth, with the score knotted at 113 midway into the final Hardpoint of rotations. But after that, both the kill stream and the scoreboard started to glow OpTic green. Texas put the pedal to the floor for the rest of the map and notched the first win of the series in a 250-163 victory. Both Shotzzy and Dashy were magnificent for the side of Texas, with the duo combining for 51 kills and K/Ds greater than 1.6. As well as OpTic played in the first map, they struggled in the second map. On Al Bagra Fortress Search and Destroy, OpTic took the first round behind three kills from Ghosty. But after that, it was all Surge. Seattle took six of the next seven rounds to win the map and even the series at one map apiece. Accuracy led the way with 10 kills, while Sib and Pred each chipped in with seven. Heading to a pivotal map three on Breenbergh Hotel Control, OpTic once again looked great. They took the first two rounds of play to earn a commanding 2-0 lead in the map. Seattle did manage to win the third round with a defensive stand, but Texas proved to be too strong. Seattle held a healthy life advantage while facing a 2-1 deficit, but the Surge couldn’t win the trade battles they needed as OpTic held on for the round and a 3-1 victory in the map. https://twitter.com/OpTicTexas/status/1670158440994357250 With the series shifting gears for the second Hardpoint, Al Bagra Fortress played host to the fourth map of the match as OpTic looked to close out the series and head into the next round of the elimination bracket. Fortress has been one of the team’s best maps in 2023, but Seattle flipped that narrative on its head. Sib and Pred were all over the map and they dropped 55 combined kills. But it was Mack who slammed the door on the Green Wall’s chances, picking up massive kill after kill at pivotal moments throughout the map. He ended with 32 kills to lead the lobby and sported a 1.78 K/D in the map to help his team push it to a decisive game five. In a win-or-go-home scenario, it was once again Seattle coming up huge in the SnD. Seattle picked up the first two rounds of Mercado Las Almas Search and Destroy before OpTic came back with two of their own. But the Surge seemed to counter OpTic at every turn, rattling off three straight rounds to put it to match point. Sib found himself in a tough one-vs-three situation in the eighth round but picked up a kill onto Huke immediately to bring it to a one-vs-two. Once he ripped Dashy off a heady, it was down to a one-vs-one against Ghosty. But it was Sib who managed to win the gunfight, giving Surge the round and series to advance to the next round of the elimination bracket. They will play the winner of the Atlanta FaZe vs. Boston Breach matchup for a spot in the elimination bracket finals and a top-four finish. A year after placing third at CoD Champs, Seattle have an opportunity to improve upon that if they can win two more matches. For OpTic, it’s back to the drawing board after a season that saw numerous roster changes, including a retirement from one of the greatest competitive CoD players of all time in Scump. It remains to be seen what players will remain on the roster, but after a year where they won no championships, it would be shocking to see them run it back with the same four players. There have been numerous rumors surrounding Seattle’s superstar, Pred, and a potential move to OpTic in the offseason. The team made an attempt to buyout the second-year player from Seattle earlier this year with negotiations falling through before the team signed Huke to its roster. Read the full article

[vorepred223311]

Oliver Queen vs. Slade Wilson pred battle

📷

📷📷

oliver moaned as he felt slade struggle hard inside him "yeah keep that up" he said as he rubbed his belly with one hand and played with himself with the other slade dested to be digested....

[voreboy]

24) it be interesting see who’d win in a fight. If they strengths are evenly matched despite body size. I can imagine she being a business women like him and they cross paths in a meeting. Though I feel she’d have to be smart given Rigo has two others who can help him overpower her.

RE: FEM PRED

Agreed. Would probably have a Elektra vs Daredevil vibe. A fight to the death between ravenous, gluttonous titans. Although Rigo might be one male Pred she'd specifically avoid if she becomes aware he's got back-up. Unless of course, she had a strategy to divide and conquer the three of them.

Alternatively, they could also fall madly in love and get married. Couples need activities they can do together. lol Red Sonja always said no man can have her unless he defeats her in battle.

deviantART | RP Guide (24+ ONLY/STR8 Guys Welcome) | Ageplay Guide | Vore Multiverse Guide | Send Me Anons (But State Your Age)

[mincedliveblog]

Kingdom Ep2 

I was like “why flashback” but oohh its to establish Blackarachnia as a little liar. I see :3

Wait why did Thundercracker say to Dinobot that they caught one of his “Maximal pals” spying - how do any of the Decepticons know about Dinobot’s wavering loyalties? Did BW Megs just announce that to them upon introduction lol

Wow OP really asking the Preds to not rescue their teammate and look for the allspark first instead huh. Bold ask from someone who not only lost it in the first place but did so at the potential expense of their entire planet. Primal right to be pissed off with this guy.

The way Bumblebee has to make the appeal and only after the BW crew mentions they are the last five (six) of TWO HUNDRED GUYS... 

And then OP still only gives them a strike team. AND drops an annoying “have faith” line. Primal did you maybe wanna wail on this guy again. 

Pretty sure when Primal says “Thanks for the backup” its supposed to be read as sincere but I’m choosing to read it as annoyed at how OP was being condescending about the whole thing. The voice acting is bad enough that I can do what I want.

Okay as much as I’ve been smack talking the voice acting BW Meg’s little “yess” when yelling at Dinobot was not the worst I’ve heard. Also lol @ Dinobot being like “I’ve always been loyal to you” honey we SAW the flashback scene when you tried to talk Blackarachnia into helping you give the disk back. Do you not remember that. 

Dinobot: “I have to follow orders.” *zaps Airazor* Okay first off 1) Megatron at no point ordered you to do that. He was just zapping her for fun two minutes ago and 2) HES NOT EVEN THERE IN THE ROOM HE LEFT. NO ONE IS THERE DINOBOT. THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO REASON TO DO THAT. 

BW Megs making all these anime “Uwha” noises like bruh

Okay I SWEAR im not trying to be down on the Beast Wars stuff being any different from the original considering I lit the past two series up for just copying their tf homework assignments but having BW Megs be kind of a kissass at worst and just genuinely loyal to OG Megs at best is... an interesting choice. 

Wheeljack and Rhinox working together to power the Ark back and Wheeljack being small next to Rhinox uwu

“The planet’s wildly varying terrain has been proving hard to navigate for some of us” says Arcee, while in robot mode. Girl did you even try to you know. Transform. The maximals look to be running over 3ft hills at best. I bet Elita One wouldn’t have this problem.

 Speaking of, where is she I wonder... are they going to cut back to her at any point? Missing the smartest girl in the room.

The allspark just being this floating Navi looking thing... again I’m not going to look back at the wiki but uh. Pretty sure it didn’t used to be like that.

IT BECAME MANGUS’S HEAD OKAY. Then quicksand... then Megatron is in the Nemesis’s captain’s chair and wakes up and rips the Matrix off? Okay. What am I missing. Was that a Matrix dream?

Dinobot explaining their time travel plan and its like whoosh right over my head. Its not going to make sense I’m not even going to try and make it make sense. 

Airazor [referring to Predacons vs Maximals] “It doesnt have to be binary” we stan a gender non-conforming queen

Haha jokes but really she is in a pretty traditionally feminine role... gets kidnapped... strong empathy... using emotions to sway others... I don’t actually remember hardly any of her personality from beast wars other than how she dates Tigatron so maybe its a carryover... sorry girl. 

WHY DID RATTRAP TURN BACK INTO ROBOT MODE TO “HIDE” ON THE CEILING LAMP WHEN HE WAS PERFECTLY CAPABLE OF GOING BACK INTO THE LITTLE CREVICE HE WAS IN IN RAT MODE HELLO

“Starscream is a ghost” says Dinobot. Haha get it. Like G1, where he’s a ghost. Can’t believe it took this long. 

Also but where did Starscream get the cloaking he is using actually... feel like I missed that. 

Dinobot really choosing to team up with Starscream and Blackarachnia. Honey. Also unclear on how much Dinobot knows about the future and like timeline affects and whatnot... like I said I can tell the show isn’t going to get into it in a way that makes sense so I’m not gonna think too deeply about it.

Okay but the entire team just waiting outside while rattrap snuck in... and then getting captured... I gave OP shit but you know what I take some of it back. They didn’t need all those guys lol.

THE REAL ASTROTRAIN IS LIKE FOUR FEET BEHIND THE DISGUISED MIRAGE I don’t remember alot about Scorponok either but was he really that dumb? Sorry dude.

Rattrap’s button bit / the mention of the Predacon’s having the “high ground” / Arcee’s sigh as the Predacon’s came down the hill: slight chuckles for all different reasons.

Optimus busting all dramatic out of the brush to turn the tide of battle where did you even come from my dude.

ALRIGHT PRIMAL PLAYING 5D CHESS AND HAVING ORDERED AIRAZOR TO BE CAPTURED LMAO. The funniest is Prime just going “Hmmm” like you KNOW he’s thinking “fuck that was a good idea. devious. damn. wish i did that.”

Okay and now the matrix is back on Megatron’s chest... literally what was that scene where he threw it off huh? 

#kingdom liveblog #lotta words with this one. tbd if good or bad.

[slliest-clownmari]

Hello again! For the month of June we decided to don our best Icarus costumes because we flew directly into the sun on this one! Extra long disclaimer this time. If you're interested in the technical side what we did and how it went wrong, or want to see the raw numbers, that'll be at the bottom of this post!

Disclaimer: There were two major errors during collection. The first one resulted in five people's views not being collected for the first half hour of the event.  These people were SMajor/Noxcrew, ItsFunneh, Squaishey, ASFJerome, and Mefs, amounting to about 56k views when added back. The second error left a 45 minute gap in the data where nothing is collected. While these are major errors general trends are still visible and neat to look at!

TL;DR: MCCP21 peaked with 627.4k viewers a little more than thirty minutes into the event. 65.4% of those viewers were watching the Pink Parrots, and 87.9% of those were watching Technoblade. The second most watched team was the Lime Llamas at 16.9% of viewership, 77.6% of that coming from Wisp.

For easier viewing of the graphs, check out the Google Slides version! Total Viewership Over Time

The event peaked with 627,421 viewers at 8:33PM which was during Sky Battle. Looking at the trend of the data, this statistic is unlikely to have changed if the missing 45 minutes had been counted, especially seeing how the peak of MCC14 was also easily in the first hour.  Data collection began about an hour before the event's official start at 8:00PM and ended an hour after the event's end at 11:08PM.

Viewership by Individual Over Time

A fun game you can play with this graph, sans the labels, is guess which one's Technoblade! So far everyone I've shown the unlabelled graph to has guessed correct.

Three people went live after the official start time of the event at 8:00PM, those being Technoblade, Grian, and AyChristeneGames. Four streamers had gone offline prior to the end of 20vs20 Dodgebolt at 11:08PM. Twenty of the 24 participants had gone offline within 5 minutes of the event end. This is in sharp contrast to MCC14 where it took 15 minutes to have half of the 36 participants to go offline. MCC14 participants were also more likely to start streaming well in advance of the event. (For context, only Twitch data was collected for MCC14.) This is probably a cultural difference between Youtube and Twitch.

Viewership by Team Over Time

The viewership drop off after a team fails to reach Dodgebolt is a lot more severe this time, and you don't really see the two teams who did get to Dodgebolt get a boost either. Best guess is this is because MCCP21 was non-canon so nobody really cared who won the whole thing if their favorites didn't make it. Another observation: Pink Parrots has a much more severe dropoff during the Bird App Poll than everyone else. Unseen here is the viewership increase when Wilbur's fire alarm went off :(

Viewership Breakdown at Peak by Individual

So, not the most diverse viewership. The most watched person at peak in MCC14, Tommyinnit, only had 21.1% of total viewership. Even if you combine that percentage with the runner-up Dream's numbers, you only get 38.4% of viewership going to them. There is not a single team from MCC14 who captured nearly 57.5% of the viewership. The most they could do was 39.9% (Green Guardians). Absolutely insane degree of domination.

Top Five (Unrouned) 1. Technoblade (360.8k) 2. Wisp (82.2k) 3. Grian (45.5k) 4. ItsFunneh (44.9k) 5. Joey Graceffa (23.5k)

Bottom Five 26. Burren (78) 25. SeaPeeKay (333) 24. Spifey (403) 25. AyChristeneGames (498) 26. InTheLittleWood (521)

Wisp's numbers were so hugely different from last time (0.1% to 13.1%) that I actually sought out people who watched him to confirm he really had over 70k viewers. He did. This probably has to do with having fewer big names to compete with and being on a team with Tommy and Tubbo. Plus, he’s more familiar to the Minecraft community than Joey Graceffa, so fans of Tommy and Tubbo would be more likely to watch Wisp to see their faves. This isn't meant to belittle Wisp or to attribute his viewership entirely to Tommy or Tubbo; MCC is an unfair measurement of the usual popularity of a creator.

Viewership Breakdown at Peak by Team vs Survey Data

The predicted viewership graph was generated using data from a poll I ran on Tumblr and a poll run by u/Epic_Ninja_Dude123 on r/MinecraftChampionship.

Difference from predicted counts (Pred. % vs Actu. %) Lime Llamas: +9.1% (7.8% vs 16.9%) Green Guardians: +6.3% (0.9% vs 7.2%) Purple Pandas: -6.3% (6.7% vs 0.4%) Orange Ocelots: -5.1% (5.5% vs 0.4%) Red Rabbits: -4.1% (6.2% vs 2.1%) Blue Bats: -1.9% (2.5% vs 0.6%) Aqua Axolotls: +1.3% (2.5% vs 3.8%) Pink Parrots: +0.9% (64.5% vs 65.4%) Yellow Yaks: +0.5% (0.0% vs 0.5%) Cyan Creepers: -0.3% (3.2% vs 2.9%)

Standard Dev. for MCC14: 10.22 Standard Dev. for MCCP21: 2.89

Thrilled by these statistics!! The MCC14 survey had nearly triple the sample size (862) as this combined survey, but still ended up closer to actual counts. Real life proof of what they tell you in stats classes! A representative sample is the best kind of sample to have. Something I did not consider when using the survey for MCC14 is its source, a blog on Tumblr that talks heavily about Technoblade and Philza, which obviously biased the audience who took it towards the Pink Parrots (Philza, Fundy, Wilbur, JackManifold). Not a surprise we did better this time but really neat to see logic in action! lol

Another interesting thing about the survey: Reddit and Tumblr do vary a little in taste. It's easier to just show you:

What's missing? I chose not to calculate average/median viewership for the creators involved due to the large gap in data. It wouldn't be correct most likely.

So, how did you do this and how did you mess it up?

(I, the writer of this post, mostly do the analysis part of this project, not the programming. Apologies if any programmers are reading this and it doesn't make sense. :[ )

Our initial plan was do do just what we did to collect the MCC14 data but for YouTube instead of Twtich. (For MCC14 we used a Python program to request the viewership data directly from Twitch using their API.) This was much easier said than done. Unlike the Twitch API, which allows you to get stream information very easily just using a streamer's name, YouTube API doesn't have a "front door" way of getting this stuff. So, we went in the "back door."

First thing we had to do was manually collect the user ID for each participant. The next step is where the first error occurred: we needed to get our program to recognize the user ID as a user ID, which was done by writing a rule. This was stuff like how long the IDs were and what symbols were included in the IDs. We failed to include a symbol that was present in five of the participant's user IDs, so the program didn't recognize them as IDs and didn't run them through the part of the program which found the stream ID and collected viewer numbers. This is why that data was missing for SMajor/Noxcrew, ItsFunneh, Squaishey, ASFJerome, and Mefs in the first 30 minutes.

Another big way in which the YouTube API differs from the Twitch API is that YouTube has a quota system. Every action you can take with the API has a certain number of points connected to it, and you're only given so many points to spend a day per application. We thought we were only making one call to get viewer data for every streamer, but instead we were making a separate call for each streamer. That destroyed our quota pretty quick, resulting in the 45 minute gap in data collection. This problem was solved by moving our code into another application which granted us more quota.

This is an important lesson in testing your programs thoroughly before use!

On the bright side, the YouTube API is much more active than the Twitch API, which would update streamer numbers seemingly at random and not all at once. The YouTube API updated numbers roughly every 15 seconds and updated for all streamers, not just a few. That's why our graphs are higher resolution this time!

Here is the raw numbers: Click me!

Let's talk about next time

SO. Obviously this time around was not super ideal, which is partially on us for not testing more. (At least this was not the only scuffed thing about MCCP21. We were just being on brand, if you think about it.) However! Good news! The quota won't be a problem next time as MCC15 won't be Youtube exclusive.   We have already fixed the YouTube program we used this time around and have begun to merge the two. We might even be able to collect YouTube subscribers and Twitch followers by next time but we're focusing on making sure we get all the data next time.

Thank you all so much for reading! Again, any and all critique and questions are welcome! :]

#mcc #minecraft championships #mcc pride 2021 #minecraft #technoblade #mcyt #minecraft championship pride 2021 #my stuff

[toasttojost]

i was bored today so i figured i’d make a tier list this my tier list for the 21-22 season!

i explain why every team is where they are under the cut for anyone who gives a shit lol

this is all for fun and my own opinion so pls don’t be offended

i’ll just start off at the bottom of the list with the eff you category:

leafs: i’m canadian and i’m just sick of canadian hockey media always talking about the leafs and auston mattews 

blues: binnington. need i say more?

vgk: i knew a bandwagon fan and he was so obnoxious about how good vgk was during their first season, just left a bad taste in my mouth. those gold helmets though? no thanks. i would like to go watch a game at t-mobile one day though.

onto the i don’t like you category:

bruins: 2011.

stars: no reason tbh, i just don’t like them lol

blackhawks: the kyle beach stuff and how they handled it

moving on... the i forget about you sometimes category:

coyotes: i only think about them when i’m looking into going to a canucks games because tickets to canucks vs coyotess tend to be inexpensive lol

canes: i don’t follow the eastern conference as much and don’t usually hear much about them in the media i follow also fuck tony d’angelo

cbj: i genuinely never hear about them lol i’ll definitely be following them more if they play nick blankenburg 

preds: i forgot about them when i did a name all the nhl teams quiz... they were the last one and i just couldn’t remember them lol

sabres: they’ve been so mediocre, i never hear about them. but now that they’ve signed owen, i have a better reason to go to the canucks vs sabres game again next season. i took my mom this season cuz tickets were cheap lol

sens: to me, they’re the least popular canadian team so i never hear about them. they do have lots of good young players there though 

rangers: i don’t really hear about the rangers very often tbh

okay so the you’re okay category is the biggest one. i’m indifferent on the teams in this category, i’d watch them if there isn’t a canucks or avs games on:

tbl: there’s a more personal explanation but essentially, this is my shitty ex’s favourite team. other than that, i cheered for tampa during the 2020 scf cuz i don’t like the stars lol

ducks: i love their young players now but i definitely didn’t like the team when they had both getzlaf and perry. with perry on tbl and getzlaf retiring at the end of this season, the ducks are probably gonna move up the list

red wings: i wouldn’t have cared about them during their rebuild but mo seider has been fun to watch 

wild: they would’ve been in the i forget about you category but they have tyson jost and flower now so i watch occasionally lol

panthers: would’ve been in the i forget about you category but they’ve been pretty good this season so i always hear about their comebacks 

caps: i don’t mind watching caps games, heard a lot about ovi moving up on the most goals record for a while

kings: i would like to give drew doughty for making ✨a team like that✨  a thing. they have both stech and edler and i love them both so they’re the only reason watch kings games

jets: i honestly enjoy watching most of the canadian teams, but pld is the only reason i care about the jets lol

kraken: hoping the PNW rivalry will heat up soon, it’s been lonely with the battle of alberta and the battle of california. they’re only like 2 hours away from vancouver so i’m hoping to go to a game in seattle soon. might go to the kraken game at the end of the month is matty is playing lol

oilers: i only watch their games to watch mcdavid and draisaitl tbh fuck them for signing kane though

devils: i actually followed them a lot more when they got cory schneider from the canucks cuz i was devastated when we traded him AND lu. the fact that the canucks never beat the devils for 8 seasons then finally beat them this season at the game i was at!! to be honest, i only really watch them because nico 🥰

isles: okay, to be honest, i find isles games boring, especially when they were playing defensive style hockey throughout the whole game. i’ve watched them a few times though when there’s no better games on 

pens: i don’t follow the pens very much but i have a friend that's a fan so i watch sometimes to have something to banter about like that 11 goal game vs detroit

sharks: i watch sharks games every now and then, but they’re never really on my radar. i’ll definitely follow them more once bords starts playing for them

on to the i like you category!! 2 of the teams are in the eastern conference so i don’t actually get the opportunity to watch them very often because time zones. their games are usually over or just about to end by the time i’m off work :(

flyers: i only really watch their games for carter hart if he’s not playing i dont watch lol i also had a PE teacher that’s a flyers fan so i saw this jersey very often. i also liked that one training camp series they released on youtube when AV was hired

habs: that 2021 stanley cup run by them really impressed me and i was definitely rooting for them against tampa! i love how the team has turned around since st. louis took over and caufield is playing so well under him! im hoping for a better season next year, the first half of this year has been a hard one to watch

flames: with all the vancouver flames/calgary canucks jokes, i was bound to watch the flames a lot when they signed both marky and tanev in 2020 then traded for toff this season! they’ve been pretty exciting to watch this season and i’m happy to see all the ex canucks thriving over there, especially marky because our defense was like swiss cheese in front of him

LAST BUT DEFINITELY NOT LEAST, my faves 🥰

canucks: the team that started it all for me back during their 2011 stanley cup run. there isn’t much more of an explanation other than that they’re my hometown team. they’re the team that got me into hockey over a decade ago and will always be my number one. i’ve even been contemplating half season tickets because i love watching hockey live. if anyone has experience going to hockey games alone, please pm me to ease my anxiety about potentially doing that next season lol

avs: not sure why i started watching them at the beginning of the 19-20 season, but i did and they’ve been my second favourite team since. i even bought a jersey at the start of this season that i’ll get to wear once a season when the avs come to town lol funny story, i got the jersey as a blank and had jost added after as a birthday gift to myself, picked up the jersey like 2 weeks before jost was traded and i cried about it lol i try to watch as many avs games as i can but i’m usually still at work when they start but i usually catch the second half of second onward. hoping to travel to denver in the future to go to a game at ball

#for the 0 people who care or asked for this #cuz yenno my opinion really matters lol #mich talks #about me #<- i guess?

[hungryfan45]

pred battle ross vs ryker lynch

Ross patted his full belly. he's the big brother now.

[confused--castiel]

Omg just realized we’re having battle of the cats later xD wild vs preds

#wild lb #minnesota wild #nashville predators

[vorepred223311]

Oliver Queen vs Superman (Tyler Hoechlin version) pred battle?

📷

📷

superman came with the goal to stop olver from eating everyone but all that acomplished was him sliding down olivers cock into his balls it was ther superman became a super load for oliver

[thrashermaxey]

Mathieu Perreault Set to Shine and Other Good Options for the Week Ahead

  All fantasy owners need help in the short term AND the long term. The Looking Ahead feature identifies one player to plug into lineups in the short term, a second to invest in for the long term, a third to bench for the coming week, and a fourth who will struggle to meet expectations for some time. All players discussed are selected based on their upcoming schedule. Stats in this article updated through December 21st – HAPPY HOLIDAYS

  The Immediate Fix (Grab this guy and use him for the next several days)

Oliver Bjorkstrand, RW, Columbus (Available in 92 percent of Yahoo! Leagues) – Bjorkstrand has bounced between the 2nd, 3rd and 4th lines in Columbus this season, which is fairly typical for a Tortorella-coached team, but he’s produced consistently for a young player – and sees power play time – and is in a great spot while Cam Atkinson and Alex Wennberg are on the mend. In the first game without the aforementioned Jackets, Bjorkstrand saw 17:16 (his third-most ice time on the year) and got on the scoresheet with an assist and a +1 with 1SOG. Bjorkstrand is more a set-up man than a Cy Young winner, with 6G-18A, so he should especially be targeted by players lagging in the assist category.

  The Building Block (Buy now, sit back and enjoy the production)

Mathieu Perreault, RW, Winnipeg (Available in 82 percent of Yahoo! Leagues) – With Mark Scheifele out 4-6 weeks, that’s a great opportunity for a player that should really already be owned in most leagues, even as a 4th-liner. Perreault now gets the chance to jump up with Bryan Little and Nikolaj Ehlers, so his ice time should rise from the 12:24 he’s currently seeing on average to something closer to the 16-minute range. Perreault has 9G-11A in only 26 games with that minimal ice time – including 8PPP – and should look to improve on that with his new role.

  The Odd Man Out (His short-term value is cause for concern)

Oliver Ekman-Larsson, D, Arizona (Owned in 90 percent of Yahoo! Leagues) – OEL is still one of the league’s best fantasy defensemen, so in no way, shape or form should he be dropped, but there are a lot of factors that make shipping him out or at the very least benching him the right decision. As mentioned below, the ‘Yotes only play three games in this next stretch which obviously hurts, but OEL has only one assist (no goals) going back to November 30th. He’s still playing 20+ minutes a night and getting the puck to the net, but as a consistently minus player that doesn’t collect a ton of hits or blocks, he needs to get points to retain value. OEL’s young counterpart Jakob Chychrun has put up 1G-4A in that time, which makes OEL’s points drying up look even worse.

  The Anchors (They’ll do nothing but disappoint even over the long haul)

Scott Darling, G, Carolina (Owned in 53 percent of Yahoo! Leagues) – Here’s an idea of how poorly Darling has performed this season: he’s losing his starting job (handed to him almost sight-unseen) to CAM WARD – Ward with the career .909SV and negative GSAA over his career is beating out Darling on what should be a good Carolina team. Darling is currently sporting a sub-.900 save percentage, has only eight wins in 23 starts, and has let in four or more in six games this season. There are better backup goalies sitting on the wire (Aaron Dell, Malcolm Subban, etc.), so Darling can safely be dropped.

  Love ‘Em (These squads are sure to pay dividends in the coming days)

Ottawa – The Nation’s Capital is having more than their fair share of struggles these days, especially defensively, but their schedule is loaded in this period. The Sens play seven times, which unfortunately means three separate back-to-backs, but on volume alone any Senator player still hanging around fantasy teams should be used. They play five of the seven at home, and travel only to Detroit and Columbus, which is not a lot of wear & tear.

Toronto – Ontario’s OTHER team (oft-forgotten) also has seven games in this period, and with Auston Matthews and lines that should stick together, look for lots of scoring and fantasy success with Leafs players upcoming. Once the Leafs are back from Colorado and Vegas to close out 2017, the Leafs are at home for five straight with no back-to-backs. The competition is a little tougher than what Ottawa gets, but there is a Battle of Ontario that should lengthen the scoresheet.

New York Islanders – The Islanders have one of the best lines in hockey with Lee-Tavares-Bailey, one of the most exciting second lines in hockey with Ladd-Barzal-Eberle, and have scored three or more in eight of their past ten games. With games at Winnipeg, Colorado and Philadelphia mixed with home games against the Devils and Penguins, look for the Isle to keep putting the puck in the net with ease.

  Leave ‘Em (These squads will leave fantasy owners sorely disappointed in the short term)

Los Angeles – Los Angeles gets to spend their New Year’s shuttling back-and-forth in Western Canada, as the Kings’ road trip against Vancouver, Edmonton and Calgary is split up by the holiday. Their fourth and last game in this period comes at home against Nashville, thanks to their bye week.

Washington – The Capitals have struggled to score lately – especially on the power play – getting shut out twice (back-to-back) before finally getting three non-shootout goals on the Bruins. They’ll need the mini-bye week that’s not officially their bye week to reset – they only play four times between the 30th and 9th, and have their actual bye week starting the 13th.

Arizona – The Coyotes have one of the softest schedules in this stretch thanks to the holidays and the start of their bye week: only three games for the Desert Dogs between Dec. 29th and Jan. 10th, and the three games come against much better teams (not that that’s a stretch). @ Anaheim on New Year’s Eve, then home vs. the Preds and Rangers, not much of a cakewalk. Put any Coyotes on the shelf.

December 29th to January 4th

Best Bets

STL 4.415 – Away DAL – Home CAR NJD VGK

ANH 4.3 – Away VAN EDM- Home CGY ARI

TOR 4.28 – Away COL VGK – Home TBL SJS

PIT 4.2375 – Away CAR DET PHI – Home CAR

NYI 4.185 – Away WPG COL PHI- Home BOS

Steer Clear

VAN 1.9425 – Away – Home LAK ANH

WSH 2.1 – Away CAR – Home NJD

FLA 2.7025 – Away MIN BOS- Home MTL

SJS 2.755 – Away DAL MTL TOR- Home

BUF 2.8025 – Away NJD MIN- Home NYR

December 30th to January 5th

Best Bets

PIT 4.19 – Away DET PHI NYI- Home CAR

NYI 4.1325 – Away COL PHI – Home BOS PIT

VGK 3.9475 – Away STL CHI- Home TOR NSH

FLA 3.795 – Away MIN BOS DET- Home MTL

SJS 3.6575 – Away DAL MTL TOR OTT- Home

Steer Clear

VAN 1.9425 – Away – Home LAK ANH

CGY 1.995 – Away – Home CHI LAK

PHI 1.995 – Away – Home PIT NYI

NYR 2.095 – Away BUF – Home CHI

WSH 2.1 – Away CAR – Home NJD

December 31st to January 6th

Best Bets

TOR 4.4475 – Away VGK – Home TBL SJS VAN

ANH 4.195 – Away VAN EDM CGY- Home ARI

PIT 4.19 – Away DET PHI NYI – Home CAR

NYI 4.1325 – Away COL PHI – Home BOS PIT

EDM 3.995 – Away DAL- Home WPG LAK ANH

Steer Clear

NJD 1.9 – Away STL DAL – Home

VAN 1.9475 – Away TOR- Home ANH

MTL 2.0475 – Away – Home SJS TBL

CAR 2.645 – Away PIT BOS- Home WSH

BUF 2.8025 – Away MIN WPG – Home NYR

January 1st to January 7th

Best Bets

NYR 4.28 – Away BUF ARI VGK- Home CHI

PHI 4.2 – Home PIT NYI STL BUF

STL 4.1675 – Away PHI WSH- Home NJD VGK

PIT 4.1475 – Away PHI NYI – Home CAR BOS

NYI 4.1425 – Away PHI – Home BOS PIT NJD

Steer Clear

CAR 2.645 – Away PIT BOS – Home WSH

ARI 1.995 – Away – Home NSH NYR

VAN 2.8025 – Away TOR MTL- Home ANH

WSH 2.0475 – Away CAR – Home STL

NJD 2.85 – Away STL DAL NYI- Home

January 2nd to January 8th

Best Bets

TOR 4.2 – – Home TBL SJS VAN CBJ

STL 4.1675 – Away PHI WSH – Home NJD VGK

PIT 4.1475 – Away PHI NYI – Home CAR BOS

PHI 4.2 – Home PIT NYI STL BUF

NYI 4.1425 – Away PHI – Home BOS PIT NJD

Steer Clear

ARI 1.995 – Away – Home NSH NYR

WSH 2.0475 – Away CAR – Home STL

CAR 2.645 – Away PIT BOS – Home WSH

VAN 2.8025 – Away TOR MTL – Home ANH

BUF 2.85 – Away MIN WPG PHI – Home

January 3rd to January 9th

Best Bets

OTT 4.19 – Away DET – Home SJS TBL CHI

STL 4.115 – Away PHI WSH – Home VGK FLA

CHI 4.0625 – Away NYR OTT- Home VGK EDM

TBL 3.9525 – Away MTL OTT DET – Home CAR

BUF 3.9525 – Away MIN WPG PHI – Home WPG

Steer Clear

ANH 1.9 – Away EDM CGY – Home

NJD 1.9 – Away DAL NYI – Home

LAK 1.995 – Away CGY – Home NSH

ARI 1.995 – Away – Home NSH NYR

DAL 2.1 – Away – Home NJD EDM

January 4th to January 10th

Best Bets

MIN 4.3 – Away COL CHI- Home BUF CGY

TOR 4.1475 – Home SJS VAN CBJ OTT

STL 4.115 – Away PHI WSH – Home VGK FLA

CHI 4.0525 – Away OTT – Home VGK EDM MIN

OTT 4.0475 – Away TOR- Home SJS TBL CHI

Steer Clear

ANH 1.9 – Away EDM CGY – Home

NJD 1.9 – Away DAL NYI – Home

LAK 1.995 – Away CGY – Home NSH

ARI 1.995 – Away – Home NSH NYR

DAL 2.1 – Away – Home NJD EDM

from All About Sports http://www.dobberhockey.com/hockey-home/looking-ahead/mathieu-perreault-set-to-shine-and-other-good-options-for-the-week-ahead/