NA LCS Playoff: CRS vs CLS Quarterfinals

--- Game 1 ---
Crs Bans: Vayne, Zed, Kha'Zix
CLG Bans: Tristana, Alistar, Corki
Crs: Nidalee, Nocturne, Syndra, Lucian, Zilean
CLG: Lulu, Nunu, Kog'Maw, Twitch, Thresh
Unusual team comps from both sides?  You think that it's something that CLG brought back from Korea, but then they let the Nidalee get away from them.

--- Game 2 ---
Crs Bans: Vyne, Twitch, Alistar
CLG Bans: Tristana, Corki, Kog'Maw
Crs: Nidalee, Nunu, Syndra, Jinx, Braum
CLG: Maokai, Kha'Zix, Ryze, Lucian, Zilean
CLG lets Crs have the Nidalee again, but lane-swaps to try and keep Quas down, but no.

--- Game 3 ---
Crs Bans: Vayne, Twitch, Alistar
CLG Bans: Tristana, Syndra, Nidalee
Crs: MaoKai, Nunu, Yasuo, Corki, Zilean
CLG: Lulu, Evelyn, Ryze, Kog'Maw, Nami
Okay, now CLG has banned Nidalee, but their comp is still unusual.

NA LCS Playoffs: DIG v TSM Quarterfinals

Reminder - they have a Roku channel now for VODs, so get yourself some snacks and settle in for eons of watching LCS if you've got one.

EU playoffs was pretty dull, what I caught of it, so I'll quickly sum up NA playoffs and then get to the rest of the vods.  It'll be brief, but you'll know what to watch.

DIGNITAS VS TSM, QUARTERFINAL

--- GAME 1 ---
TSM bans: Nidalee, Lulu, Ryze
DIG bans: Zed, Nunu, Alistar
TSM: Maokai, Lee Sin, Syndra, Kog'Maw
DIG: Nasus, Kha'Zix, Zigs, Corki, Thresh
This one is quite interesting, especially at the very end.  It's another great showcase for ZionSpartan; he's had a few of those.

--- GAME 2 ---
TSM bans: Nidalee, Ryze, Lulu
DIG bans: Zed, Lee Sin, Alistar
TSM: Maokai, Elise, Syndra, Lucian Nami
DIG: Dr. Mundo, Nunu, Zigs, Kog'Maw, Thresh
This one was quite long, due to DIG getting behind early and then ever-so-slowly digging their way out of a gold deficit.  DIG gets it all the way back to even, then there was another wacky base race at the end very similar to game 1... Crazy times. 

--- GAME 3 ---
TSM bans: Nidalee, Zigs, Ryze
DIG bans: Zed, Lee Sin, Alistar
TSM: Lulu, Nunu, Orianna, Tristana, Nami
DIG: Maokai, Kha'Zix, Ahri, Lucian, Braum
TSM gets rid of the Zigs long-range tower defense and then plays Protect the Tristana.  Wildturtle gets god-like damage by the end and there's no stopping him.

--- GAME 4 ---
TSM bans: Nidalee, Zigs, Ryze
DIG bans: Zed, Lee Sin, Alistar
TSM: Lulu, Nunu, Syndra, Lucian, Nami
DIG: Olaf, Kha'Zix, Xerath, Corki, Thresh
In all of these games, there's been a 'cheese' - well I wouldn't go so far as to call it a cheese, but there's been a 'gimmick' at the very least, and I'm pretty surprised that the bans in the next game never reflected that.  Maybe I'm really falling out of touch with the science behind bans.  But, despite not banning Nasus in game 2, DIG never played it again, and have instead opted for a new gimmick: Olaf / Xerath.  Nasus was successful and TSM never came up with an answer, why not give him another go?

EU LCS W8D3 (Spoilers)

--- ALL vs GMB ---
It's been a long super-week, and Kha'zix, Kassadin, and LeBlanc were all banned, so you can forgive me if my attention started to stray when ALL started to lose this game.  Froggen was on Lulu, after all, and not only is that largely un-entertaining to watch, GMB is also virtually a sure thing once they've carved out even the smallest of advantages.  But this is one of the only examples on record of how to come back against GMB, even if ALL wasn't actually all that down in gold.

--- SK vs ROC ---
Pretty non-risk filled game.  You could probably guess that from Lulu mid and Kayle support.

--- MIL vs SHC ---
This is your chance to see some Olaf top and Zilean support.  Also, SHC just doesn't look dominant anymore, and MIL has somehow gotten their act together?

--- FNC vs SK ---
Another fine upset for SK, who actually look like a valid team now.  Gotta love EU, where all the teams can just end up tied at the end of the season.

--- SHC vs CW ---
As we have seen before, Amazing on Lee Sin is a surprisingly terrifying prospect.

EU LCS W8D1-D2 (Spoilers)

--- CW vs FNC ---
Ugh, the worst for me, since I hate Lulu mid and Annie support.  And somehow, they still win.  Someone make this trend go away.

--- ROC vs GMB ---
The battle for all the first places.  A very good one, Deman was shrieking at them for nearly a solid half hour at the end.  Great plays, too.  I think, in the end, though, that Gambit shouldn't have tried to fight after they grabbed that last baron.  Just back off, let it heal you up, come back stronger.

--- SK vs MIL ---
Relatively even game, but not all that exciting - low kills.  Boo Lulu/Annie!  Not a big fan of Zigs/Evelyn, either.

--- SHC vs ALL ---
Wow, that was a boring game.  Usually when the team you're rooting for wins, at least it's a 'good' game.  But no, despite this, it was amazingly boring, like SHC was slowly giving ground and giving ground, and then realized too late there was no comeback left to mount.

--- ROC vs MIL ---
This first place vs last place, and ROC is running that mid-Mord again.  Two huge pauses early in the game, fast forward to the 45 min mark.  There's a fight at the 17:30 mark in-game, which is pretty cool, and makes you grateful that EU and NA just like to YOLO it and stay in the fight until they win or die.  Have you ever watched the OGN?  Their 5v5 engages become a whole lot of disengage and run away, really quick.  Maybe it's smarter to live and fight another day, but 5v5 fights are just more entertaining when champs throw their lives away.  Also, you gotta love an upset of that caliber!

--- GMB vs SK ---
Alex on LeBlanc, yup, this one went how you would expect.

--- CW vs ALL ---
I'm rooting for ALL, of course, but nowadays I'm also rooting against Annie support and for Nid mid.  It's selfish, and I hope you do it too: what works in LCS affects what we, the rest of LoL players, see in soloQ.  Good game for me in that case, Shook is always effective on Elise, and Froggen's mid Nid makes the rest of us Nidalees look smart.

--- FNC vs SHC ---
xPeke on LeBlanc and Soaz on Malphite, whee.  SHC didn't really show up, so I actually wonder what took so long for FNC to close it out.

--- GMB vs CW ----
Alex gets Kassadin.  You'll have to watch the separate video they have of picks and bans to find out how that one happened.  But regardless of how or why, you know what it means.  Also, I've mentioned at least twice now that I don't like Annie support, and Edward is obviously the only exception to that rule, because Edward doesn't really play as a support.  That's part of the reason why Gambit either snowballs furiously to a win, or to a horrible loss.

--- ALL vs ROC ---
ALL won of course (Kassadin to Froggen, wtf), but the vid seems to be missing from the youtube playlist...  Doesn't everyone love how Wickd is the only one who plays Irelia ever?

--- MIL vs FNC ---
Much more exciting with no Lulu or Annie on the map.  LeBlanc  and Zed are all about go in and get someone, or die trying.

NA LCS W7D1-D2 (Spoilers)

Watch out for that preshow.  I know you probably skip it to get straight to the games, but they interview Doublelift and Aphromoo, that's always full of 'oh, snap!' moments.  Do you not love Doublelift?  Come on!  He's either a more awesome version of you, or a more uncensored version of any sports star.  Like, for once getting an unfiltered, honest answer out of Peyton Manning: "What do you think of the Manning bowl?" "Well, we would always throw Eli up against walls by his underwear, so no, I'm not worried."  Also, since a player named Sheep has joined the league, this is Phreak's first opportunity to go nuts with the puns.  Even if you hate puns (like me), you will definitely be impressed by Kobe, who does not smack anyone, even though he's within arms reach of Phreak most of the time.

--- C9 vs XDG ---
If you haven't been paying attention, XDG made another switch, taking Zuna full circle back to his original role.  I'm kinda glad it worked out for them; he's better as an ADC than anything else he's tried.  The new support, Sheep, is good.  They hinted at something unpleasant with their last support's departure, and that's always sad to hear.  In other news, Lemonnation was caught fruit-handed on stage, where no food is allowed.  An orange and a banana were confiscated, and am I the only crazy one that wants some hard-hitting investigative journalism on this issue?  Where did this fruit come from?  Why did C9 lose after it was confiscated?  Why did he have an orange, if his name is LEMONnation?  Questions.

--- CLG vs CRS ---
Do you ever watch these games, maybe live, and think during picks and bans: "This is over, please skip me to the end."?  Maybe even in ban phase, you could call this - Crs let LeBlanc through to Link, who was MVP last week.

--- Dig vs TSM ---
Reggie is temporarily back mid, subbing for Bjergsen, and it's basically old times: a roll against Dig.

--- CST vs EG ---
Another game where you couldn't say what exactly went wrong for EG, or what CST was doing so much better, but they were clearly ahead, start to finish.  Me, I don't believe in support Annie.

--- C9 vs TSM ---
Reggie is on LeBlanc, but you don't get to see him do anything good with her.  C9 is legendary for their team fight phase, but they were already ahead by lane phase, so nobody looked good on TSM, of course.

--- EG vs Dig ---
EG brings out Top Yasuo, in case you haven't seen that before.  It seems to be going well with the jungle Panth early on, but the game becomes a very back and forth affair, and EG lives up to what we thought about them: high level individual play, but no end-game plan or clear direction in team fights.  Hope that is either untrue, or changes, for EG's sake.

--- XDG vs CLG ---
Wow, this one was quick.  CLG is massive ahead before 20 minutes and just toys with XDG for the remainder.  Lulu mid was a bad idea against Link, Mancloud.  Sheep was good on Morgana support, though.

--- Crs vs CST ---
Nice try, banning Jax, Nid, and Leblanc, Crs.  Shiphtur just takes Ahri and dodges around Voyboy's Gragas.  There's a long game pause early on, so speed ahead to nearly the hour-mark of the vid, where you will see a terribly sad flash by Wizfuzin, attempting to block the Cait ult, but he totally overshoots the mark, and Ace in the Hole whizzes behind him to kill Daydreamin. Nice game again from CST, they always look so dominant when they start winning.

EU LCS W7D1-D2 (Spoilers)

--- ALL vs FNC ---
ALL does a thing where they lock in Lulu first, and then wait to see what xPeke will pick mid into Lulu, then pick something else mid and let Nyph support Lulu.  Also, Wickd goes back to Irelia, and tries to lvl 1 jump on someone with her.  When that doesn't work, he just teleports back to top lane before he loses any cs.  There's a kind of amazing Karthus ult that takes down Rekkles, even though it doesn't look like it's going to.  Rekkles didn't even barrier.  ALL wrap this one up pretty neatly.

--- SK vs SHC ---
It seems that SK's lineup is brutal: Renekton, Panth, Nid, Vayne, Annie.  Once they use their combo, or Nid starts massively damaging with spears, you wonder why all these picks got through.  Beer goggles for champions, I guess.  Win-goggles.  Panth will channel his ult, and just as it becomes visible to the enemy team, Annie slams Tibbers down in the center, so the target takes max damage from the Grand Skyfall.  They blow up SHC's bot lane multiple times with this move.

--- MIL vs GMB ---
It was closer early on than I expected, after MIL chose Swain mid and Elise top.  Did you just hear the slightly muffled derisive laughter of five Russians?  Yup.  At the end, Deficio deadpans: "And Diamond has Manamune.  On Aatrox.  Really, Darian?  Really?"

--- ROC vs CW ---
Leblanc top, Zigs mid, Morgana support?  Really, ROC?  Has that been working for you in scrims?  Because I'm not sure how that's sensible.

--- FNC vs GMB ---
I just criticized the triple-AP lineup, but Fnatic makes it work with Lulu top and Nidalee mid.  Maybe because they've been playing it longer, maybe because they just got ahead really early and never let up the advantage.  They started their losing streak with Gambit, and they ended it with Gambit.  After losing to every other team in league, wow!

--- CW vs MIL ---
A high level show of Lee Sin skills by CW's Amazing, but otherwise a pretty standard game.

--- ALL vs SK ---
ALL gets down at about the 10-15 min mark, and never gets their act together to get back in it, though it keeps looking like they will.  Just another case of that inevitable snowball.

--- SHC vs ROC ---
Mostly dull.

The Voice: The Drinking Game

Disclaimer: Probably you don't want to actually play this game.  You will get so drunk, it is not even funny.  Maybe just play it as a bingo-style game.

CATEGORY 1: Job
The job has to be something utterly crap.  The kind of job that if someone on the street told you that's what they did, the first thing you might say is: "But you're waiting for something else, right?"  No, really.  If you don't believe me, well, you've probably not been paying attention, and you will see when I start listing some examples.
- Utterly crap (e.g. work for family business, waiter, bartender, store attendant)
- Floating from music gig to music gig
- Supported by parents / In school
- Says the words: "But my real dream is to pursue music full-time"
- Indicates how money is tight and The Voice is a "really big opportunity that I need right now"

CATEGORY 2: History
Bonus points if they start with the words: "Music has always been a part of my life." Because that is a cliche too enormous to be ignored.  Music has been a part of everyone's life.  It's really hard to not have music in your life, dudes.
- Mentions being really into sports.  Maybe you don't know Meyers-Briggs typology like I do, but SP's make up nearly 100% of musicians and sports stars.  Don't think your 'almost MLB-career' makes you special, dude.  Every one of these musicians has the same history.
- Drugs or alcohol abuse candidly confessed to
- Unexpected pregnancy and subsequent "life-changing" parenthood experience.  See above note on SP's.
- Has been dropped by a music label already once
- Mentions a recent death in the family, and how they have to win The Voice, "for them"

CATEGORY 3: Appearance
We're looking for significant alterations and unique stylings here.
- Tattoos
- Excess piercings
- Hair coloring / Long hair for guys
- Silly headgear / hairstyle
- Wacky outfit

CATEGORY 4: Support Network
For some reason, everyone mentions support network.  And this usually falls into the broad categories of "My family totally supports me in my dream," and "my family doesn't get it and The Voice is the last chance before they make me go to graduate school"
- My family totally supports me in my dream
- My family doesn't support me at all
- The Voice is my last chance.  If I don't get on a team, I'll have to go to (something else)
- Family member a professional musician
- Carson calls someone using the very obvious Sprint Samsung tablet OR starts crying during confessional when talking about support network

How I met your mother: spoilers

I didn't get to post before the other stuff I predicted, so I'll post this time.  Looks to me that the mother dies. That's why he tells stories later in life, she's been gone since the kids were small.

NA LCS: W6D2 (Spoilers)

--- C9 vs EG ---
Boo hoo, boring C9 roll-face.  Most impressive move from EG: Snoopeh's interview 30 seconds post-game.  That is one classy dude that we may all aspire to be like.  Don't believe me?  What, exactly, would any of us say into a microphone after getting beat up in the face in LoL?  Yeah that's what I thought.  Even in the pre-game interview with Dyrus, when Phreak asked him how the loss from the previous day was being digested, Dyrus was still bitter about it, and couldn't say much more than how much things sucked, in his ever-present Dyrus way. Snoopeh, on the other hand, is clear, articulate, and even educational.  We all learned something from that loss.

--- TSM vs Crs ---
Zac is back, but TSM proves plain better at team fight.  I'm not sure who is calling the shots now - Xspecial?  Bjergsen?  But their focus in team fights is obviously better than Crs's.  It looks a lot like Crs is running around in the fight going "what are we doing?" while TSM is just mowing people down steadily.

--- CST vs CLG ---
Quick aside: Leblanc was shown early by CST, and I was talking to my friend who has mained Leblanc for a long time now.  Of all champs, the most frustrating for him to lane against is Galio, so I was rooting for that.   Do you remember Galio?  He had a lot of MR and poke, and an awesome engage.  I don't know about his ratios anymore, but his kit was solid.  But I suppose Vayne, Alistar, and Orianna, are all comfort champs for CLG.
The game went exactly as I expected after watching picks and bans.  Too much comfort for CLG - Dexter was even on Elise.  Steady mow-down.  Is it worth watching the whole game to hear Phreak yell: "BALL DELIVERY COW"?

--- Dig vs XDG ---
Usually I like these teams, but they banned out the most entertaining champs right off the bat: LeBlanc, Pantheon, Lee Sin, Kassadin, Elise, Annie.  And as soon as the Lulu pick comes out for XDG, I have serious misgivings.  They are proven right.  XDG gets run over.  Important thing to note: Zuna's tendency to get too far out was bad as an ADC, and is still bad as a support.

--- SGD vs BCM ---
Three more great games, full of crazy fights at every turn.  They've finally hit a sweet spot of teams being closely equal in skill, but not so professional as to avoid team fights.  You know what I'm talking about?  Pro teams know that chaotic team fights come down to more luck than skill, and they avoid them.  Even in big mash ups, they disengage quickly and cleanly.  Non-pro level teams will just stick in a fight until they win or go out in a blaze of glory, much like the rest of us in soloQ.  It's just like football - at pros, there's a lot of subtle maneuvering and planning and defense.  In college, it's much more a crazy pile of chaos and scoring and superb-looking individual plays.
More new picks out of the collegiate scene, thank goodness.  I can't even recall the last time I saw Kassadin v Zed in the mid lane.  
Game two features a Blitzcrank on BCM, so it's even more of a don't-look-away kind of game.  And, Kobe makes the Kha'Zix noise at the end.
Game three has support Blitz v support Veigar, when was the last time you saw that.

NA LCS W6D1 (Spoilers)

--- Dignitas vs Evil Geniuses ---
I recommend this game ... if you enjoy enormous beatdowns.  It was good live, because the audience didn't know it was coming until it was too late.  Neither did Dignitas, I guess!  During picks and bans (which, if you're like me, you skip a lot of the time in the vod's) EG showed Thresh and Gragas picks early.  Dig responded with Zigs and Trundle, but then EG moved Gragas to top lane and took Zed.  Zed vs Zigs midlane just snowballed really fast in EG's favor, and everything collapsed from there.

--- TSM vs CST ---
Early entertainment by both teams - nothing to lose or gain for them, I guess, being so far apart in the standings.  The voting public gave CST only 6% chance to win, so they're basically playing with house money and so there was silly-bordering-on-ludicrous early engagement and jungle invade.  Do not try that at home, kids.
Anyhow, great game of early fights, they're everywhere.  These days, you see a lot of disengaging and poke-comps from EU and OGN.  Not the good old US-of-A.  All in, all the time.  Just fight until you die.  It's more entertaining, at least.  As CST pulls ahead in a few of these fights, the chants of "TSM!  TSM!  TSM!" fade away into awkward silence, punctuated by the two or three staunch CST supporters shouting encouragement.
A interesting game full of greater-than-usual excitement, all the way to the end.  Highly recommended.

--- C9 vs CRS ---
This one went more as you would expect.  A roll-face in favor of C9.

--- CLG vs XDG ---
This one was also a roll.  CLG looked really solid, or maybe it was the last-minute switchup in XDG, moving Zuna to the support role.  These two teams are moving in opposite directions, luckily for CLG fans.

--- BCM vs QM ---
Actually, these were pretty good games.  And it went to a third match in best of three.

--- SD vs UB ---
SD kind of dominated both games, but the second game ran Teemo top, so that is always worth a watch.  Global taunt is apparently still a thing!  I repeat if you're not paying attention: There was a SuperTeemo top lane in the second game of this matchup, and he DOMINATED.  There was this amazing double kill at one point that you will not want to miss.

Random Observation: How I Met Your Mother

Season 7, episode entitled "Tailgate".  Sandy Rivers is hosting a new years eve show and Robin is trying to produce.  As he gets drunker and more incoherent, the ticker at the bottom of the screen scrolls along, and starts to get funny:
"Cold front is headed towards New York City; storm watch in effect"
"New Year's Eve traffic at an all time high"
"Wow, he's totally wasted! Can we really keep airing this?"
"This is bad... Feel free to switch over to Seacrest, everybody."

TNG Musings: Hyrule Emblem

I don't rewatch the episode "Final Mission" very often.  It's not one of those super rewatchable ones.  But I was cycling through episodes on Netflix and managed to get all the way through it for once in a long time.
Near the end of the episode, when Picard is down for the count, Wesley is talking to him about... something.  My attention strayed to a canister in the background.  The golden Hyrule symbol is clearly printed on it.  I wonder...

Random Observation: How I Met Your Mother

In the episode "P.S. I Love You," at the very end during the music video, Goth-Robin is reading a pamphlet which I thought said "RIOT GRRRL," but I just now noticed that it actually says "RIOT CRRRL" and there's a picture of a curling stone.

TNG Musings: Alexander

One of the biggest regrets of TNG, I hope, is the tragically brief appearance of Keh'Lar (spelling shot in the dark), Alexander's mother.  Okay, probably their biggest regret is the loss of Denise Crosby, as evidenced by her return later in the series.  But I digress.  Alexander had a few okay moments, where he forced some growth out of Worf and shone light on new aspects of Klingon fatherhood, that's all very nice.  But he was mostly uninteresting himself, while Keh'Lar had a great backstory and a lot of internal conflict, just in her two episodes.  Also, she was a sassy, independent, powerful ass-kicker.
Now that I think about it, why did they get rid of their two female ass-kickers?  They had a great thing going for a brief moment there.  Instead that Traveler guy showed up in like, 3 episodes?  That guy was super grey, he even wore a bland grey suit.  Keh'Lar wore some fabulous outfits.

TNG Musings: Engineering

It occurs to me that Chief Engineer isn't such a sweet gig after all.  I mean, he gets a lot of cool toys, and I'm pretty sure the rest of the bridge crew know they're up a creek without a paddle if they ever lose him.  But I just saw an episode (and I'm pretty sure it's not the only time) where Geordi says he can "maybe get the shields up in ... 30 minutes?" and Picards authoritative voice floats down from the overhead speakers: "You have ten."
Seems like a lousy work environment.

Review: Castaways (board game) pt 3

Played again with just me and Nan.  It worked out better, since he was forced to be 50% of the decision-making and island-escaping crew.  That's real life for you, I guess.

I think we also finally sorted out the rules properly, so we legitimately won this time.  Much better all around.