Weekly Update - 3/7/21

Hello, everyone. I'm back with another weekly update. Happy Sunday and happy March. I hope you guys are warming up, because Spring is around the corner and Daylight Saving Time is exactly a week away.

Let's start with the elephant in the room, an update regarding Skullgirls followed by my long rant about the director of Lab Zero Games who sexually harassed his employees and destroyed the company by laying off his staff.

The Annie update has came out couple days ago, along with the balance changes during Early Access on Steam. The devs stated that her full release is set to happen in May, for Steam and PS4. Nintendo Switch players, however, will have to wait a while longer due to technical issues. Other platforms like PS3, PSVita and Xbox 360 won't get the update and once the PS4 version has the update which should've been had in the first place, it won't cross-play with PS3 and PSVita.

I am beyond stoked to see Annie in action, but apparently, there was no Skullgalz Showdown last week, which sucks like heck. But on the upside, the upcoming Skullgirls Slapfest is set to go live Tuesday and I will see Annie in action, and experiencing sexual themes won't be a problem when it comes to sexual harassment. Anyway, I have exciting news to make, so listen up. *ahem*

Alright, so you know how Skullgirls stayed alive depite that fiasco so that we can still get Annie and that 16th playable character, but could probably still need more characters after them to expand the roster even further? Well, that's where the Season 1 Pass comes in.

That's right. Annie won't be the only new character because not one, not two, but three more TBA characters are coming to 2nd Encore through its very first Season Pass that is intended to extend the roster to 18 playable characters and it's available now on Steam and it gets available on PS4 in May and on Switch at a later date. Accordingly, the second character will be out this year while the last two characters will come out next year in 2022. I seriously hope the next character is Umbrella because not only she and Annie are spotted in the PS4 theme art. It's also because she is getting saltier as time goes by. Forgive me if I pulled a Nevercake.

Not only that because Hidden Variable is working with Future Club on the development of Annie and the upcoming characters and content included in Skullgirls' first ever Season Pass. Future Club is basically the same Lab Zero Games without Mike Z and they can work with Hidden Variable without experiencing that crap he has pulled. This is why sexual harassment has no place in their environment, but sexual themes have a place in some video games.

Did I forgot to mention? Remember the campaign that given Skullgirls five 2nd Encore DLC characters? They did an offer that they are gonna be free for a limited time. But on the Season Pass characters, it'll be a different story because once Annie and the TBA characters are released, they will be priced regularly.

The remaining three mystery characters will also make their playable debut to the Mobile spin-off. Plus, a 5th character to expand the roster to 19 playable characters will be revealed if the Season Pass sells well, but due to Lab Zero Games' fallout and 505 Games not hiring Future Club, the 5th character in the Season Pass won't be Indivisible's Ajna. 

I wanted her to be in the Skullgirls universe, just like Es from Xblaze in the BlazBlue universe, the Joker in the Mortal Kombat 11 universe, etc., but all hope for it is now scrapped and Ajna is no longer in my wish list because of it. I even assigned her to conciliation, Es' theme. But despite that, I am still buying the Season Pass on day one the moment it gets available on PS4 if it means trying Annie and the TBA characters out.

In short, Annie will fully release on PC and PS4 in May and on Nintendo Switch in a later date due to technical issues, but the PS3, PSVita and Xbox 360 versions won't get it. I sincerely hope they release Skullgirls 2nd Encore on the Xbox One so that all four consoles have it and we can get full cross-play between all platforms as a cherry on top if Hidden Variable confirmed it because it has been stuck in limbo on the Xbox 360 version for almost eight years as you are still seeing the Xbox 360 logo on the website.

Once she does, I will do a degree that I will explain in a later blog post.

If case if some of you are out of the loop, during the Once More Once Top 8 tournament streamed by BG Calisto, Mike has made a joke about George Floyd's death at the hands of Derek Chauvin on stream and the "he can't breathe" phrase was his last words. A white cop killing a black person is not something to joke about. It is dark and sacred that if you make a joke about a white cop killing a black person on stream, I fear that it will cause people to uninstall the game.

But he immediately apologized about making an egregious joke and after overlooking the message, I understand what he meant by "much too soon." He meant that he should've waited until after the stream before making that joke. In fact, making an egregious joke about a white cop killing a black person is dark.

I was thinking of listening to BBTAG music while playing and spectating 2nd Encore and watching streams and after mentioning that I have assigned Ajna to conciliation, I am debating that if I should play BBTAG music, as an occasion to spice up the ongoing Skullgirls launch party or not now that the game is continuing development under the Hidden Variable and Future Club umbrellas following the disbandment from Mike Zaimont. Both for 2nd Encore and Mobile. If confirmed, I will assign the characters, stages and canon solo matches to the themes and a full chart will be provided later on. But here's a sneek peek.

Annie = Justice Sword
Umbrella = Active Angel
Minette = Crystal Forest
Yu Wan = STAND UNRIVALED
Hubrecht = The Tyrant
Roxie = Seeker of Truth
Aeon = Snow Sisters

Since Skullgirls has a different situation, it stays alive because Autumn Games is the critically acclaimed publisher that owns their critically acclaimed IP, not Lab Zero Games nor Mike Z, which is the only safe indication that we are still getting Annie and the TBA characters regardless of the dissolution of Lab Zero Games.

Personally, I am pretty darn glad that Skullgirls gets to stay alive so we can still get Annie of the Stars and other characters and it has given me the golden opportunity to debate on deejaying BBTAG music or not to spice up the launch party and support not only Umbrella, but also Minette to get her playable debut. But pretty darn sad that Indivisible couldn't and won't receive a major update ever again. All because one bad apple has destroyed the whole company. The 15 characters were actually done, waiting to be implemented after years of hard work, but Mike just... killed it? What a freaking absolute piece of crap of a scumbag.

Despite Lab Zero Games' fallout, the Skullgirls launch party never ends so we can keep getting new content for years to come. So will playing the music of Arc System Works' acclaimed and magical 2v2 all-star fighting game, BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle, if I confirmed it.

And Mike, what the heck. What the heck. Seriously, though. You should've resigned so Lab Zero would go back to normal. You have earned an indefinite ban from all commentary positions and a two year ban from competeing in future Skullgirls tournaments. Are you kidding me? You have been banned from commentary indefinetely for sexual harassment? I don't believe this. A two year ban from competing is reasonable, but a permanent ban from commentary? That's just too extreme.

Not to mention that you implemented much improved netplay and lobbies to PC, and that's something we console players should've gotten when you resigned. I mean come on, it allows us to play online with players from farther away and provided us completely clean lobbies. We console players should've gotten that when you resigned. But no, we couldn't.

You also have implemented the patch to PC that is inspired by last year's Combo Breaker, which didn't happen because of the pandemic. The Combo Breaker thing contains death noises for when they are KOed in the air, mobile spin-off intros for the rest of the characters, a new stage from the mobile spin-off, No Man's Land, new and returning palettes to make a total of 40 additional palettes, including the ones on the Switch version and the ones on the mobile spin-off and tons of balance changes. So yeah, yeah, we console players should've gotten that update too when you just resigned.

I mean, come on, you confirmed rollback netcode to be implemented to Guilty Gear XX: Accent Core Plus on Steam. You should've done that in the first place before you committed sexual harassment to your darn staff. You blatantly started this fire. Why are you implementing it after you sexually harassed your employees then? Why not just be a craphead to ArcSys, like your retarded stupid butt does? 

I mean, seriously, you should've at least implemented rollback netcode to Accent Core Plus on Steam before you committed sexual harassment. You should've at least... at least resign so we console players can get everything implemented on PC. This is bull! This is straight up bull! And... I guess the process of bringing the stuff implemented on PC to consoles is put on hold until Annie comes out in May on PS4 and in the later date on Switch because Lab Zero has gone defunct.

Seriously, Mike, what the heck. I kept looking at it and... we Skullgirls console players should've gotten a ton of stuff you implemented on PC if you just cut your losses and resigned from Lab Zero Games. In fact, if you can't say anything nice and pleasant to anyone to avoid sexual harassment, don't say anything at all, instead of frequently spouting your stupid little "oh, listen to me, I have penis and vagina memes and sales" thing. You have been indefinitely banned from commentating in future Skullgirls tournaments. There is no excuse.

Indivisible's production has been kaput? Are you kidding me? This is just freaking ridiculous. Seriously, Mike, what the heck. I keep thinking about it more. You should've at least put a big middle finger on your employees and resigned from Lab Zero Games so Indivisible would continue getting future content. Guest characters, backer-created characters and so on. Where is your freaking respect? I mean, seriously, the devs confirmed that 15 characters that ware waiting to be implemented were finished, but because of your actions, all of their hard work that took blood, sweat and tears has been kaput. All because you refused to leave the game industry.

That also includes the TV show adaptation exclusively on Peacock, and that's something that should've stayed in production if you resigned. I mean, come on, it's only based on the game. It should've stayed in production when you resigned. But no, it's no longer in production because your staff cut ties with you and formed Future Club, a new development studio, which 505 Games have no interest in hiring them. 

In fact, Lab Zero was not the first company that is in partnership with Autumn Games to go defunct because Reverge Labs have went defunct and Konami doesn't have any intentions of being involved in their IP. You are one of the alleged people who have caused sexual harassment and it's not an excusable behavior. There are others that have been alleged for sexual behavior if you look up examples of those cases.

A former EVO president, Joey "Mr. Wiz" Cuellar has been arrested for sexual exploitations on little boys, being a pedophile from messing with little boys' ineffable body parts. Now he is no longer welcome at EVO in any capacity while he has been replaced with Tony Cannon to act as CEO for this year and beyond after he put a huge hamartia on EVO by being a pedophile that people has claimed. Now don't give me that bullcrap because it's true. I witnessed it firsthand since sexy fighting games like Dead or Alive 6 have elements that are NSFW and the stream has temporarily ended for their safety and they don't want their streams to be in an NC-17 territory.

It's great that you apologized for making an "I can't breathe" joke while saying inappropriate things to Bunny and Grey isn't that bad. I can understand that, but sexual harassment against your staff is just freaking unforgivable and too extreme, enough to put an Achilles' heel on the company. And now, they left and pledged not to work in a company where you'll have any part of because of your sexual offense. In fact, people, including myself have pledged to keep supporting Skullgirls on the behalf of your employees who left Lab Zero and formed Future Club, Hidden Variable and Autumn, not on your behalf. So don't even give me that bullcrap that I shouldn't be dissing on you because if this is something we must boycott, I have rights to diss on those who committed such extreme actions. Don't even think for a darn second that you are cool.

Dignified companies like Hi-Rez Studios and others didn't have a single person that has committed sexual harassment and abuse. Don't even stand a freaking chance because of the way they bring upcoming and continuous updates to live servers on both PC and consoles simultaneously. And that's the truth that until Annie comes out, we Skullgirls console players are behind, and that just ticks the heck out of me. 

Nothing to do with the fact that Tiamat has came out on SMITE, on both PC and consoles simultaneously and I get to put her in action after my God Wheel has landed her name for the first time. Just because all of their games are so free-to-play that a paid membership isn't required for them on consoles and they give us new characters continuously doesn't mean they can absolve you of being a jerk. Everyone has the right to work in a safe environment and sexual harassment is an unforgivable offense to make people uncomfortable.

I can understand that you are autistic, but just because you're autistic doesn't mean you are excused because autism is not an excuse for egregious actions, like sexual harassment, child pornography, bullying, plagiarism, copyright infringement and others, just like with egregious fouls on the NBA, like pushing, blocking, reach-in and charging. Heck, SonicFox is autistic and he has not sexually harassed a single person. That's proof right there that people who are sexually harassed has pledged not to work with the person that created an Achilles' heel on the environment.

So yeah, yeah, I hope you're happy with the way you wanted, Mike; sexually harassing your employees to create a hamartia, an unsafe environment that made them uncomfortable on Lab Zero, leaving us console players behind until Annie comes out in May on PS4 and in a later date on Switch, getting banned from commentating permanently and banned for two years from competing in Skullgirls tournaments and killing Indivisible, just by laying off your employees instead of resigning like you promised. Now you look like a darn loser all alone out there working in your little studio that nobody will ever work in with you.

You can just go frick yourself until you learn not to say anything at all if you can't say anything nice, instead of just frequently mentioning ineffable body parts to anyone on the country, including Bunny, Grey and your employees who left Lab Zero and started their fresh new development studio where you won't be a part of. Don't give me that bullcrap.

Now with that rant out of the way, let's talk Nintendo. I was in the middle of playing Super Mario 64 on Super Mario 3D All-Stars. It is a collection that contains three full games, 64, Sunshine and Galaxy. There are a couple of flaws to it, though. The collection lasts for a limited time and will go away in the end of March and neither one of them are fully remastered in HD like the Crash Bandicoot N-Sane and Spyro Reignited Trilogies.

Currently, I'm on 64, getting every Power Star. The left analog stick of my Joy Con has a little problem. It keeps drifting on me, meaning that the cursor and the characters move on its own without me inputting a direction. I think it's a technical issue for some Switch owners on Nintendo's end. I used rubbing alcohol on a q-tip and did exactly what the instructions told me to do. Apparently, this method has made the drifting issues worse. I'm down to only one option; ordering a replacement kit I need to replace my drifting analog stick. So until I get the drifting issue resolved, I won't be playing on the Switch. In fact, I won't get to try out the Bravely Default II Final Demo before playing the full game.

That's all I have to say for this update to let you guys know what's going on this week with my angry rant about how angry I am about Mike Zaimont's sexual harassment behavior that spiraled out of madness and caused Lab Zero to go defunct. Except that I don't use bad words like they do. As always, the moral of the story is, never sexually harass your friends and family, by frequently mentioning ineffable private parts or making jokes about them to anyone. That's the definition of sexual harassment and that egregious behavior could get you boycotted.

As I said before, if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all to avoid making inappropriate sexual comments. In fact, future Skullgirls tournaments are starting to boycott Mike Zaimont of his commentary position because of sequences of sexual harassment and disrespectful and abusive actions, but next year, his suspension from competing will be rescinded.

Basically, I will start assigning BBTAG songs to Skullgirls characters, stages and certain solo matches to spice things up and it could circle around the Earth, even though we console players behind until Annie comes out in May on PS4 and in the later date on Switch. All because the employees of Lab Zero cut ties with Mike after they claimed him as a sexual harasser and left the company to form Future Club. Not to mention he scrapped my hope of Ajna from Indivisible to be in the Skullgirls story. It just ticks me off. So freaking retarded.

Random Wheels Update 2

Alright, everyone. I have another update regarding my random wheels. Before we get to the nitty gritty, if you read our previous update, all of my wheels have one ??? placeholder and the hint for it is this year's new characters. Take a look.

That's right. This year's new characters, Tiamat, Octavia and Seeker have been determined as the final starter characters to complete the initial random wheels. They are initially settled and ready for PvP. As stated, I can't add any more characters until the PvP phase is done.

Did I forgot to mention that I have added more characters to my wheels that restrict to the characters whose High-Ends I owned? There are 21 Gods and 20 Champions, with the difference of one character. If there is at least one skin I owned for one of my characters, I add their name. I'll use them for part A in phases during my degree. Here's how the degree works.

SMITE:

Phase 0A: Play any number of bot matches while using the wheel restricted to Gods whose High-Ends that are owned. Landed Gods can only be play once.

Phase 0B: Play any number of bot matches while using the wheel open to all starter Gods. Landed Gods can only be played once.

Phase 1: Play different Gods the wheel lands in the Jungle Practice

Phase 2: Play bot matches with five different Gods, one on each class.

Phase 3A: Play five bot matches while using the wheel restricted to Gods whose High-Ends that are owned. Landed Gods can only be played once.

Phase 3B: Play five bot matches while using the wheel open to all starter Gods. Landed Gods can only be played once.

Phase 4A: Play PvP matches while using the wheel restricted to Gods whose High-Ends that are owned.

Phase 4B: Play PvP matches while using the wheel open to all starter Gods.

Paladins:

Phase 0A: Play any number of bot matches while using the wheel restricted to Champions whose High-Ends that are owned. Landed Champions can only be played once.

Phase 0B: Play any number of bot matches while using the wheel open to all starter Champions. Landed Champions can only be played once.

Phase 1: Play different Champions the wheel lands in the Shooting Range.

Phase 2: Play bot matches with four different Champions, one on each class.

Phase 3A: Play five bot matches while using the wheel restricted to Champions whose High-Ends that are owned. Landed Champions can only be played once.

Phase 3B: Play five bot matches while using the wheel open to all starter Champions. Landed Champions can only be played once.

Phase 4A: Play PvP matches while using the wheel restricted to Champions whose High-Ends that are owned.

Phase 4B: Play PvP matches while using the wheel open to all Champions.

Rogue Company:

Phase 0: Play any number of bot matches. Landed Rogues can only be played once.

Phase 1: Play different Rogues the wheel lands in the Practice Range.

Phase 2: Play five bot matches. Landed Rogues can only be played once.

Phase 3: Play PvP matches.

Also, I have learned about this. Remember the landed characters on the wheel method I was telling you about? That method I've been using consists of switching from general to landed and vice versa, which is a bit of a pain, so I decided to do away with that method and stick with the simple spinning method. This decision is in preparation of general Character Pools for SMITE and Paladins.

Now, before I sign out, I wanna tell you this. If you watched the Update Show last week, Paladins is getting a new Damage Champion, Octavia. After five years, we are finally getting a new (and presumably the first) Champion that starts with an "O". The update also comes with the very first Event Pass and the new Trials of the Realm to replace the Battle Pass challenges system. They have confirmed that they are gonna give us a blog post explaining the Event Pass and Trials of the Realm this week. Once the update comes out, I will get started with the degree in putting my starter wheels to the test.

Random Wheels Update

 This is gonna be a small update to let you guys know about this. Now, this small update is about my random wheels.

Where it stands now, Bastet and Zeus have been added to the wheel and there is one more initial God left to replace the ???.

There isn't much to talk about the Wheel of Champions because no more Champions have been added yet until the PvP phase is done. I know this is off-topic, but there is a small announcement that later this week, we are gonna get teasers for their next Season 4 Champion set to be a 5th black Champion to be a female and the possibility of the first Event Pass. We didn't get much about them, but we know that they allow us to earn content more frequently than before. Hope we get more information about them as we get to the point. But one question remains unanswered. Will we still buy the premium track or will they be completely free?

The Wheel of Rogues' initial setup has been increased to 12. I was gonna extend it to 14, but having 12 starter Rogues is legit.

I'll give you a hint to the characters to replace the last ??? placeholders. They are this year's new characters; a Season 8 God, a Season 4 Champion and a Year 1 Rogue to be a male. Once the final starting characters have been determined, a follow up update will be posted.

With that being said, 73 characters in total is estabilished in the initial phase.

Weekly Update - 2/14/21

Hello, everyone. Welcome to another weekly update and happy Valentine's Day to each and everyone of you. Hope you find your loved ones. In the previous update, we talked about the past, present and future, so for this update, this will be different because there won't be past, present and future topics for this one.

It has been two weeks since the Annie gameplay reveal on 2nd Encore and a week since Super Bowl LV went live and I am very disappointed because the Kansas City Chiefs have lost to the Tampa Bay Bucaneers. It appears that it's hard to oust Tom Brady from the team ever since his partner sworn that oath to come out of retirement. That's how the Buccaneers gained the upper hand. It really mortified me and it came out of nowhere ever since. And... I guess you know what's the gist of it. Screw Tom Brady and his partner. Screw them.

In case you didn't know, I bought BBCF on the Switch. The Switch version comes with everything and the load times are a bit longer than the PS4 and PC versions. It was on sale, along with BBTAG, which I also bought digitally for $5. I need to buy the DLC first. All I need is a new pair of speakers and a balance patch that adds Annie and I'll be good to go. In fact, once I bought my new pair of speakers, I can play it, though Annie isn't out yet.

Once she comes out on PS4, I'll do a special day one gameplay of Skullgirls 2nd Encore. It's gonna be a special one because I must have at least Annie on my team. We Skullgirls console players were supposed to get the patch with features, like the death noise when KOed in the air, new palettes and more, but apparently, because of that fiasco that Mike Z created and the controversy of Lab Zero Games, we won't get it until Annie comes out. That's how the future of Indivisible has been easily brought down and things have gone downhill ever since. Plus, after Annie comes a 16th character in the works.

It's got to be Umbrella because not only she was a candidate for the base roster and couldn't be added in the base roster. She is included in the 2nd Encore art and in the PS4 theme art along with Annie. I know we faced tough challenges and crap like that, but it is what it is.

As an occasion to spice up the Skullgirls launch party, I'm thinking about listening to BBTAG music while playing Skullgirls. I'm gonna debate that I should or shouldn't confirm to do so. Stay tuned for that.

Gaming is fun, but it is also a sign of procrastination, which I never done because I've been exercising for years. So yeah, exercising prevents procrastination, as well as doing your duty. Regardless, I had a lot of fun playing Paladins and holy frick, that match was pretty darn outrageous because I get to play Yagorath for the first time because the wheel lands on her name for the first time. When I first played Yagorath, it's being in-line with playing Jormungandr from SMITE. It's a huge deal between those two large characters. If my God and Champion wheels land on their names, it'll blow my mind.

Speaking of wheels, I have another update on my random God, Champion and Rogue wheels. I have started back doing the landed character strategy, but it's gonna be different because I have created the wheels that are for the landed characters through the Wheel of Names website and they will no longer have the same number of characters, so I'll put in six landed Gods, five landed Champions and four landed Rogues.

But that's not all because originally, I wasn't supposed to add any more Gods to my God wheel until I did PvP matches, but apparently, there is a change of plans. Instead of having 25 starter Gods on my wheel, I'm gonna have 36 starter Gods. But on the Paladins side, my Champion wheel will still have 25 starter Champions. In short, a 37th God and beyond will be added once the PvP phase is finished.

So you're wondering why I should have 36 instead of 25 starter Gods? Well, not only because with so many Gods on reserve until the PvP phase is finished, it's a bit maddening. It's also because having 36 starter Gods and 25 starter Champions is legit in common factor. Math geniuses say that 25 is divisible to 36.

Where it stands in the SMITE God wheel, the returning Gods, Cthulhu, Camazotz and Athena, along with new additions, Amaterasu, Ah Muzen Cab, Yemoja, Danzaburou and Heimdallr have been added. There are three ??? placeholders left and I'll give you a hint for them. One is an Assassin, the other is a Mage and the third one is one of the Season 8 Gods. As I said before, once I have all three of my random wheels settled, I'll do a degree.

Well, that's all I have to say for now. Signing out.

Weekly Update - 2/3/21

Hello, everyone, and this is our very first Weekly Update post where I give you what's happening in the past, present and future. Now first things first, we start with the past.

The Past:

Last week became exciting because I get to watch some events, including the elephant in the room, Frosty Faustings XIII Online. The event was relegated into an online format because of the pandemic. An interesting part is, that I get to watch the Skullgirls online tourney. It has ended with the reveal of Annie's gameplay in 2nd Encore. In case you're wondering if I'm excited for her, heck yes, I'm very hyped for her and hyped to assign her to Justice Sword.

At the end of the Annie gameplay reveal, they have comfirmed that a 16th character after Annie is in the works. But it is a mystery. If the 16th character is revealed to be Ajna from Indivisible, it'll be a huge miracle because not only it'll remember that fact that Indivisible's development has ended because of Lab Zero Games' dissolution caused by MikeZ's behavior. It's also because Conciliation is perfect for her. Also, if you look at the blank slot next to the one with question mark, it suggests that a 17th character might also be in the works.

I really thought that Skullgirls is dead because of the fiasco MikeZ has created, but I'm glad the development of Skullgirls continued despite that incident. It's because Autumn owns the IP, not Lab Zero. I'll be looking forward to playing Annie in 2nd Encore. She is out now on the mobile spin-off. They also said that Annie will come out early on PC as an Early Access phase and they are gonna tune her up some more, based on player feedback before getting her to consoles. My feedback is giving her a Lv. 5 super.

The sad part in the past is hearing that the Paladins esports scene has come to a discontinuation this year. It has been a while since the Paladins World Championship was wrapped up and done and we've been wondering what are their plans for Paladins esports this year.

Unfortunately, it's official that the esports scene will be discontinued this year. According to their blog post, their goal for 2021 is to give Paladins meaningful development as a game. It's not COVID-19's fault that the esports scene has been discontinued, it's the fact that with the shift from 3-week Battle Pass cycles to 2-week Event Cycles, map reworks, several champions and a ton of other updates in store, they are focusing on polishing Paladins as a whole. I'm a bit disappointed to see that, but it's for the better since they have a main focus on improving and fixing bugs, which turned out well because of the removal of the 3rd person view, Play of the Game and the killcam.

For those who wanted to be in the competitive spirit of Paladins, the community tournaments are still being supported, though they aren't as big as the esports scene since it has been discontinued this year. Also, the SMITE esports scene will continue this year. I'll be looking forward to seeing them again.

And speaking of SMITE, Season 8 came out with a huge player spike, causing the servers to act erroneous. The devs of Titan Forge have resolved that issue and we can play just fine and I keep grinding my Battle Pass, targeting towards Bunny Bomber Aphrodite before the next one comes out in March and stealing someone's thunder won't be a tolerant.

As I said before, the esports scene of SMITE lives on this year for Season 8, which can either be run online or safely on LAN due to COVID-19 concerns.

The Present:

Now we go to what's happening now. This morning, Paladins and Rogue Company have their updates out. They come with new characters, Yagorath and Kestrel. I tried both of them out and they are fun, as well as their passes. There isn't much to do currently at this point. On the Paladins side of things, the new patch came out and the servers aren't acting erroneous, like the Season 8 release in SMITE. I also get to try Yagorath and she is basically a large Champion, like SMITE's Jormungandr.

There is a few caveats on Yagorath. Similar to Jormungandr from SMITE, she can't be knocked back or carried by enemies. Instead, she will be stunned. Because Yago is a large Champion, she can't ride a horse, buy Nimble nor Master Riding and uses a stance that transforms her into a giant wheel. Originally, she was supposed to be our final Season 3 Champion, but apparently, she is our very first Season 4 Champion.

In terms of lore, to defeat Yagorath, not only the Paladins and the Magistrate must team up and fight together as one to fight the giant female worm, new Champions this year will also join in the fight and the next one is coming in Q1 of this year. The datamining indicates that the next one is a 5th black Champion in the works and it's a female.

On the SMITE side of things, the Update Show is coming up shortly and they are gonna showcase the newest and the first Babylonian God, Tiamat, to come this month as our first Season 8 God, as well as a bonus update. She is supposed to be a flexible Mage and is proven to be out of this world.

The Future:

Alright, this is the time to talk about the future. There is a ton of future topics, but I'll just outline the interesting things. First up is the elephant in the room, the COVID-19 vaccines. They are an important tool to end this pandemic once and for all. The effort to vaccinate Americans against COVID-19 turned out well and has done in record time. It's because of Joe Biden's executive order in vaccinating 100M Americans in his first 100 days in office. It hasn't been 100 days yet. However, the vaccination work is still a ways off because it's currently in phase 1. So remember, if you get vaccinated, keep wearing a mask and avoiding crowds. It's the only way to end this pandemic.

2020 became a devilish year because that's the time when the dreaded COVID-19 pandemic has first started and it killed 350,000+ Americans and they had to be relegated. Luckily, 2021 is the year when we experience a glimmer of hope.

I was told that this pandemic will be over in the summer time. And once it is, everybody can get back to their workplace, get back together with their loved ones, start back hosting in-person tournaments and lift the restrictions. In fact, once this pandemic is over, I plan to take my parents to eat at my local buffet as a celebration to celebrate the end of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Plus, there is a third vaccine in the works, awaiting approval by the FDA. According to their research, the Johnson & Johnson vaccines have outstanding results. They are effective at preventing deaths and hospitalizations, require one shot and they don't need to be stored in a special fridge. In fact, they are so potent that they will trigger herd immunity faster.

Next up is regarding gaming. I'll have a topic about the game that has an update two days ago, Genshin Impact. Genshin Impact is a free to play gacha game that uses elemental-based combat, taken place at Teyvat. I never played it, but from the looks of it, it is basically a free-to-play MMO-style Trials of Mana, but it doesn't have light, darkness, moon and wood elementals or something like that, though it would be great if it does in the future. I plan to get Genshin Impact, but I'm gonna get the PS5 version as soon as I get one. The update came out two days ago. and it brings a new character, Xiao.

Now we touch up on the last interesting topic regarding the future. Remember what I told you about using the wheel to help me decide? I'm gonna give you an update on my wheels.

An update on the Wheel of Champions is simple. Yagorath, Paladins' newest Front Line Champion has been added, to better be in line with Jormungandr on my wheel of Gods. There is one more Champion left in the initial phase to replace the ??? placeholder. I'll give you a hint. It's another Season 4 Champion. I already have the initial God wheel settled, but I can't add any more Gods until I get that degree done.

The wheel of Rogues now have 11 Rogues. I can add more Rogues before doing the degree, but there is one more Rogue left to be added, making it to 12, before the test. I'll give you a hint. It is a male Rogue.

This concludes this week's update. As always, stay healthy and stay safe.