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"I think I've lived long enough to see competitive Counter-Strike as we know it, kill itself." Summary of Richard Lewis' stream (Long)
I want to preface that the contents of this post is for informational purposes. I do not condone or approve of any harassments or witch-hunting or the attacking of anybody.
Richard Lewis recently did a stream talking about the terrible state of CS esports and I thought it was an important stream anyone who cares about the CS community should listen to. Vod Link here: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/830415547 I realize it is 3 hours long so I took it upon myself to create a list of interesting points from the stream so you don't have to listen to the whole thing, although I still encourage you to do so if you can. I know this post is still long but probably easier to digest, especially in parts. Here is a link to my raw notes if you for some reason want to read through this which includes some omitted stuff. It's in chronological order of things said in the stream and has some time stamps. https://pastebin.com/6QWTLr8T
Intro
"The last month has convinced me, that we are going to be heading into a dark place for Counter-Strike esports in 2021."
"I think I've seen the scene essentially kill itself."
"For the past 5 to 6 years, we've basically been in a holding pattern of people coming into our game wanting to run it, wanting to run all of the esports and wanting to profiteer and its been sort of a concerted effort to drive them off and push them away."
"We're spread way too thin."
"If Riot don't get involved and stop the scumbags that have moved over to Valorant from getting their feet under the table, Valorant is going to have real problems."
RL thinks too much has happened all at once for us to do anything except watch it play out, like:
Recent CSPPA strike against BLAST
ESIC failures and them not being supported enough
Teams cheating i.e. coaches/bugs
Widespread match fixing
The Pandemic
"People who try to hold bubble events are so incompetent and fuck up and people get the 'rona and its their fault."
"People who say Flashpoint is a bubble is full of shit and is a lie and people are now suffering for that lie."
"To save money they let people go home and break the bubble for a week."
"Not just Flashpoint peoples decision, they have a partner that handles the production." (hinting FACEIT)
"People are trapped in hotels essentially under house arrest because of COVID restrictions and has fucked peoples lives up."
"It's all too much, all of this incompetence, all of this greed, maybe we ride it out."
RL says he has talked to the Riot devs (the ones working on Valorant) and says, "They are so cognizant of all the fuck ups and all the problems we have in Counter-Strike."
He continues to say that this is factored into their business plan and that we never had a competitor, but just so happens to have one coincide, when we are at our worst.
CSPPA - Counter-Strike Professional Players' Association
"Who does this union really fucking serve?"
RL believes that the CSPPA is a mockery.
He points out the hypocrisy that they wouldn't strike for the pros who were kicked out of ESL Pro League, or for Jamppi or dream3r.
He also says ESL paid CSPPA and are racketeering and many other TOs have to pay them to get their "seal of approval"
He says they would strong-arm TOs saying "well if you don't give us the money, these guys are so we'll just have to commit to playing their event."
Also points out that they will strike against a competitor they are not in agreement with (Flashpoint)
RL: "It's what it says about every other time you haven't done it and it's about every time you don't do it now moving forward." "The issues they've chosen to ignore this year alone are embarrassing."
Then he points out that there was no strike for Valve qualifiers even if we have no major but Jamppi and dream3r can't play in them.
"and Valve have said 'Oh yeah we know actually their stories are accurate, Jamppi didn't cheat, now in a legally binding document. Yep dream3r did have his account hacked in a LAN café', but they still can't play. Where is the fucking solidarity? Gone. Doesn't exist. It's not important [because] it doesn't affect you." "That's what the union does right now, it looks after all the tier 1 people."
He says the CSPPA doesn't represent all players all the time and has driven a divide where you have the haves and have-nots
"We have a tier of players that operate with impunity and do not help their tier 2 or tier 3 players out at all." "If you are not a tier 1 player you do not matter, they don't event ask your opinion."
He tells chrisJ to admit and own the fact that the reason he didn't speak up during the ESL Pro League debacle is because it didn't affect him
"They are looking after some players at the expense of other players. How the fuck is that a union?"
He says the BLAST situation is a reasonable dispute and supports the players but is not the right time for a strike and have not even identified the correct enemy
He thinks players are lashing out now due to previous incidents and are upset that BLAST are working with ESIC
He stated that CSPPA shouldn't beefing with ESIC and they should be working in harmony
He says what they need to do is talk with the teams/organizations that have sold that right to BLAST
RL: "Your employers, the people who pay you that massive exorbitant salaries, when you don't stream and you don't do interviews and you offer no value beyond your ability to click heads and you get 25k dollars a month." "Why don't you talk to them about it? Oh right. You're happy to take away BLAST's paper, but you don't want to risk your own."
"I am seeing such unbelievable cowardice from the players here with the battles you choose."
"Where was the strike action when in the qualifiers for the world championship, there were teams and players engaged in huge conflicts of interest?" "Where was the strike action when your image rights were taken and sold to every league you've ever been in every union type organization you've ever been associated with like, WESA, to your org every time you sign a contract, to the leagues you play in."
"Your image rights are essentially worthless now, there's about 10 fucking separate parties that have them, and how many of them are giving you anything for it? Not much pretty much your org by the way."
"That's a big issue. Your image is you, your image is your brand. What are you doing about that? Nothing."
He is also angry at SirScoots who is "popping off" at people on Twitter who all want the same thing, which is 'A unified Counter-Strike scene for everybody, that works for everybody, that has a sustained ecosystem that nourishes everybody.' "We don't have that now."
He also says their rankings are a joke
"Just so happened, oh look TACO, that very important prominent member of the board, we pushed his team artificially up when they weren't even in the fucking top 20, not by a long shot."
He also says the ineptitude of the CSPPA cost Flashpoint a monitor sponsor
"Is it really a player association or is it like a fucking agency at this point"
ESIC - Esports Integrity Commission
"They have been put in an impossible position."
RL says that Ian Smith, the founder of ESIC and who was done work in mainstream sports, is a good and honorable man who has dedicated his life to integrity and sports. He takes on both sides, ensuring match fixers are punished, but also doing appeals and ensuring those punishments were fair.
"ESIC is a tiny organization" and are in need of money, "They didn't run a grift like the CSPPA did."
"Saying 'you want our support and you want the players to turn up you better pay us.' They don't do that."
"Had startup seed money from MTG and since then they've been pecking shit with the hens."
Ian Smith made sure that the money given by MTG (Modern Times Group, parent company of ESL, ESEA, DreamHack) was nothing more than startup money and wouldn't be in debt to them
Ian Smith sat down with other TO's not part of MTG and wanted to partner with them. They declined and called ESIC "ESL spies and we will never align ourselves with you"
"They only were just able to afford, hiring a PR guy on a full time salary to deal with the press and send out those releases you've seen, this year."
"They have a tiny group of staff investigating these things and they have taken on the biggest problems in our scene: the cheating, the match fixing."
ESIC have had "unprecedented levels of cheating to deal with, because there's something wrong with our scene ever since we went online. There's something wrong with it, everyone's lost their fucking pride and self-respect and they got no passion for it anymore, so they think fuck it, what's in it for me?"
He calls out coaches who are talking about players rights when they would rob and steal from them.
Also says more coaches being banned are coming
He also points out flaws in community's reaction to the punishments to coaches bans: "Half of the cunts still have jobs and some of the cunts got new jobs. We didn't even shun the cheating coaches."
ESIC have "found I think another 2 or 3 exploits like that one and they are investigating them all right now, it's going on right now."
"I know that there are going to be more names getting banned, again."
"So they're doing that on a skeleton crew while, investigating 3 continents worth of match fixing in MDL and semi-pro level CS." "They're doing this with half a dozen people." "They don't have any money or any help. People barely even fucking cooperate with them, they are treated like pariahs. It's ridiculous."
"Why are the CSPPA popping off at ESIC on my Twitter timeline, when you should be working together." "because its all about what's in it in for me." "2020, the online era of CS: 'What is in it for me?' How can I cheat, how can I get my paper, how can I bleed this scene one last time before I fuck off and play shooty shooty bang bang Riot Games babys first fps."
RL says that in the CIS region, teams have gone to tournaments and have been eliminated multiple times by the same team. We found out they were cheating and those players who lost, have been cut from their roster, careers ended because of cheaters.
Stream Sniping
"They're all at it in the online era, they're all at it, they're all cheating, they're all using exploits, probably that see through smoke bug got used a bunch of times"
RL talks about how there is no integrity from dead (the player), always denying when caught doing something
On the topic of 'BLAST never said we couldn't stream snipe': "Lies, BLAST never said you could do that, they had to sort of retcon it." "because what happened after that they fucking started snitching and squealing"
"Suddenly you had like, 10 of the top 15 teams in the world, staring into the abyss of being banned for 6-12 months in line with ESIC recommendations."
He says that ESIC was put in a tough situation and couldn't enforce the bans because it would have resulted in killing CS. What resulted was, BLAST, ESIC, and teams came together and gave them a warning and told them, in RL's words "don't do this again or you're gonna get got."
He then says the top teams brushed this off and didn't give a fuck
The new MiBR team playing Flashpoint, that wasn't involved in the previous incidents are doing it again (stream sniping). He gave credit to Flashpoint for the quick resolution and punishment and respect for cogu's response to the situation.
"ESIC came out and said, once more, 'Guys, zero tolerance from now on.'" RL then got upset at community's reaction calling ESIC "pussies" for their non enforcement and said if we want competitive CS we cant ban the top 10 teams.
He points out how players have no integrity and will do anything for an edge as long as they won't get detected or banned or it's within a grey area.
"All of this shit was mad avoidable, even in the pandemic era."
He talks about why aren't we filming them. Why aren't there representatives for leagues and tournaments making sure players aren't cheating?
Match Fixing
"How many years have we let our scene be fucking pillaged by these greedy cunts?" "We just let it happen."
RL says that gambling and skins betting which existed in moderation was "accelerated and blown up by the Call of Duty greedy fucks."
"Never forget TmarTn was on the board of EnVyUs." "His website, CSGOLotto, they had a bunch of off-the-books sponsorships." "NBK promoted them. People forget."
"Those people who had access to the skins, go to the players" "Even people like s1mple, best player in the world, even he scammed knives and skins off fucking fans."
Owners of skin casino sites would approach pros and lend them skins to use in tournaments and possibly keep them after reaching a deal
Players would tip off inside info about matches and teams in exchange for skins. Info such as: roster changes, how they played in scrims
They would use this info to bet and subvert the odds on their sites. "That happened religiously, I can't even tell you how many times it happened."
"I had access to the biggest database of information, from an inside betting circle in NA, and it would take information and screenshots from other pro players, who were feeding them info in exchange for money or skins."
"Some of these players are still playing." "Incredibly, there are players still in the CSPPA today, complaining about the BLAST recordings, that were embroiled in this murky shit back then."
RL also says that there were tournaments where teams contrived with each other, who should throw, who should win.
"There's a handful of people that are trying to fucking clean it up, and you think you get something over the line and you see something like the CSPPA and it's run by corrupt fucking chuckle heads, and now you've got another corrupt body you have to fight on a fucking daily basis, it's demoralizing."
"It's too far gone. Our entire semi-professional scene is compromised."
"It's rife guys, I'm not going to lie any more. It's not just China, it's not just Russia, it's here, it's NA, it's Europe, it's Australia, so much more than you think, so much more than we can prove."
"I get sent chat logs all the time […] and they're morons, these players, short-sighted, amateur, morons and they're doing it on WhatsApp." People would get cut from the bets because they want to make more money, then they leak the logs. He says, from the chat logs, they spread "little" bets across every site they can (400 to 1k dollars) to prevent shifting odds
He says the scumbags who've fucked off to Valorant will do the same there if Riot doesn't do something and says Valorant "is an esports scene heading for a very early fall based on the sheer volume of scumbags that are already there."
"That's tier 2 CS in a nutshell these days. They know they're never going to play in a major, so what's the punishment?"
"All of these tier 2 fucks that are fixing games now they are like the fucking mafia compared to iBuyPower" "These guys are working with organized criminals to fix entire seasons worth of games. That's what's going on in your tier 2 CS."
"I'm literally being told that there are players fixing games at all levels of Chinese esports and motherfuckers with guns are turning up to team houses and stuff."
North America
"Everyone in NA has left we've lost a continents worth of support during this pandemic and Valve haven't said a fucking word."
RL says the Call of Duty "goblins" that destroyed CS for years are the same people who are now trying to leave CS. "The nerve to treat a game where the fans, and the community, and the TO's were nothing but good to you." "To just kick the players out now and go and leave and say 'It just doesn't make financial sense.' Oh you'll slither back when we have a major though for them stickers won't you."
There's a cascading effect in NA where people don't bother with CS anymore and people like Chaos suffer.
He says NA team owners are incompetent for always wanting it easy and always wanting a guarantee on their investment without skill or nuance.
RL says he would be able to market a team correctly and would have a good ROI and also points out how TSM wouldn't even be bothered to tweet that their team, which was one of the best in the world, was playing at the Major.
He also says not all NA owners are like that, compliments and respects Jason Lake who nearly lost everything to keep Complexity going.
He then calls out the incompetence in Infinite Esports when they acquired OpTic Gaming and bought an Indian CS team.
He says HECZ is not to blame here and that they couldn't tell forsaken was cheating when it was so obvious.
They measured his reaction time to the likes of dev1ce and s1mple
When an enemy showed up on his screen he won that duel something like 44% of the time
"was like the number 1 player in the world statistically"
He brought a laptop to their bootcamp and refused to use the high end PCs that hey provided
He respects Andy Miller (NRG CEO) and HECZ but says that the attitude of not being able to easily monetize their teams is "piss weak" and there needs to be a risk.
He says Chaos EC shouldn't be cutting their roster and should be competent enough to be able to figure out how to make money off their team.
He says there are still opportunities in NA and people are panicking and pulling out, and says Valorant will be the same if not worse.
He also says "bums" who couldn't even get out of groups in NA competitions, are making crazy money in Valorant and says it will continue to inflate.
He also said that he heard rumors that EG (Evil Geniuses) are done.
He also thinks that the rumors of a Valve franchised league from before was sparked up from "these lazy fabled weak NA fucking team owners basically trying to see if Valve would bite at the hook if it was dangled and they didn't"
Slasher says NA team owners are really in favor of franchised leagues because they want to make more money. "Most of the powerful team owners right now are on board with ditching this third party organization structure, or they are trying to play this power politics with all the TOs, and that is contributing to a lot of the problems there"
RL says that Riot has proved they can run a franchised league (LCS) and will be profitable in 2021 which is what a lot of team owners care about and says the competition will only serve to snatch people away from CS.
RL continues to say, "I am so sick and tired of what we have done to this scene, I am just exhausted with it." "I think we have legitimately fucked it, I really think we have. I think we're staring into almost like a CGS (Championship Gaming Series) wasteland in NA." "Counter-Strike esports is a fucking joke."
Talent
"TO's have treated CS talent like absolute human garbage for years now."
RL says that people like Sean Gares and ddk switching over to Valorant isn't for financial reasons because they are making less over there.
He points out that TO's can't even give talent a 3 month in advance calendar.
Because of the pandemic TO's won't hire certain people and some people are working more hours for the same money.
He says we as a community don't respect journalists enough which is why we don't have good journalists.
He also says DeKay is leaving the scene soon and that Thorin is close to leaving also
He says he had to talk a caster down from quitting and was struggling to find reasons.
He says that DreamHack told Vince they would hire him but not if he wants to stick with dusT and says that this is the norm in esports. "Constant leveraging of people against each other." and says this is why we don't have a talent union.
New gen casters are getting put into shit situations and the community's reaction to them is adding fuel to the fire
He says the reason Moses left was because of the terrible conditions
He says that Anders had to constantly leave his family and kid because someone fucked up or broke promises and had to constantly tell his kid to their face that "daddy can't be home this weekend."
He says that esports has always been a lie to sell you this dream, "Meanwhile there's about 2% of the cunts getting all the checks."
Valve
"Anything that Riot does, is better than Valve's inaction"
Slasher says that the larger aspect of esports as a whole compared to other entertainment mediums and Valve's lack of inattention are the bigger problems. He continues saying that the fact that Valve let their game be ran as an esport, they need to take on the responsibilities of it.
Both Slasher and RL wants Valve to take control but not on the level of Riot Games, there needs to be a balance.
In case it was ever a question: Gabe Newell has been to 0 CSGO Majors.
RL calls Valve out saying they could have done something during the gambling era.
He says Valve used to come to the majors, but doesn't think they do anymore.
RL had met with Valve at the Cluj-Napoca Major and had tried to appeal iBP's indefinite punishment and had also gave Brax's life story:
A recent family member passed away, they had lost a lot of income, they had to live in trailer, iBuyPower did not pay any salaries, and was pressured by family to make money who didn't support his career.
RL said that Valve told him, "How dare you try and make us feel guilty." "We shouldn't feel bad about enforcing the only thing that matters that we need to make players afraid of: cheating and match fixing"
RL also tried to share other info about match fixing and nothing came of it
RL points out that Source 2 or a new engine is not something you will want based on the experience of transitioning from CS 1.6 to CS:S. "Valve's track record with brand new engines being launched, not fucking great from what I remember."
Slasher says "If there is anything the community should do, is pressure Valve to hire a community manager."
They say that we need a commissioner, a community manager (not the person who runs the Twitter who posts memes all day), then we need to have a circuit
RL reiterates that Valve doesn't care about CS esports and says they need to change the culture at Valve to make them care about CS esports
Slasher says a systemic problem is making it so working on CSGO would be a bad decision for you as an employee for Valve
He also hasn't talked to Valve in ages and have sent over bugs and cheats and doesn't get emails back anymore
Slasher says we should be directing attention at the developer leads, pointing out Ido Magal, if he even is still the project lead
RL thinks that Ido and Brian are the only people that "vaguely even give a fuck about CS" and were the only people that RL recalled that actually read Reddit and paid attention from time to time
"It is really fucking precarious. Somebody has got to step the fuck up and start giving a shit"
Slasher suggests org owners, with CSPPA, with ESIC, with TOs have a concerted effort against Valve
"Riot Games are doing better things than Valve in the esports space" which is something RL didn't think he'd say.
"People who used to be talent, working with unions, arguing with other talent, when the unions fucked them over, can't understand their perspective, TOs fucking over broadcast talent, broadcast talent wanting to leave and go and work for orgs, orgs having no money, Valve might take coaches away because all the coaches are cheating, ESIC has about 4 people in a fucking call doing the investigations, everyone thinks they're spies for ESL, ESL are just the evil fucking overlords wanting to rule the scene and will just somehow, like cockroaches outliving a nuclear bomb, and Valve are in a fucking holiday in Hawaii thinking about the next Dota character because they don't give a fuck about us."
Closing Statements
"We've peaked. If we want to sustain and exist, now is the time to figure it out. No esports lasts as long as this, we've already done 8 years. We've already broke the records. We have got to figure out a way to coexist and drive the negative forces out and we need to do it as a collective and we're not doing that."
RL compared the Counter-Strike scene to the people on the Titanic who ran around with guns robbing people while the boat was sinking.
"We have given up on being a respectable esports scene." "We are now a conduit to make money for those who want to just milk it, just have one last ride, one last roll of the dice. It's done." "What a fucking mess. What have we done to our fucking scene?"
"There's just too much self-interest driving all of this." "I don't see a way we stop the dominoes." "When it's that bad, when there's that many dishonest people that ESIC have to come out and say that if we punish them all there's no one left. What does that tell you?"
"How many opportunities have we had to clean house? How many times have we said, 'this must never happen again', and another scandal." "The entire skins betting operations was the biggest criminal conspiracy in esports ever executed and no one has been punished for it." "The people who could be driving that don't want to."
"Right now people are fans of those organizations because the scene has value. It is worth being a fan of Astralis because they are excellent at Counter-Strike. It is worth being a fan of s1mple because he is the best player in Counter-Strike, maybe the exception of ZywOo. If the scene is devalued, if the scene loses its meaning, those things lose its meaning too, and people will leave, people will stop tuning into the games. I have seen it happen in multiple esports, this is not my first time at the rodeo. I am getting big Brood War vibes right now and I don't like it."
"The role you play in all of this as fans, as viewers, as listeners, as consumers of esports content, it's absolutely imperative that you know who the good guys are. It's absolutely imperative that you use your voice. It's absolutely imperative that when things are bad, you know who, at least, is trying to make them good, and you have to apply your criticism to the right targets."
He continues saying it's no good in continuing to attack ESIC and saying how they are bad, ESIC have it hard
He says CSPPA are on the right side of the argument on BLAST but have been on the wrong side of many arguments many times.
"If you are not willing to stand along side the weakest member of the union, with the least amount of influence, and the least amount of power, then it is not a union at all and you shouldn't pose as one." "You wanna serve a bunch of special interest do it, everyone else in esports fucking does, but do not pose as something you are not." "We love the players. I've been fighting for players rights for as long as I've been able to, but the CSPPA is not what we needed."
"They are not applying the pressure to the right people, they are not fighting the right battles, they are not helping their weaker members."
He says what orgs have done by keeping or hiring coaches is bad. "When you give up on holding an appreciable standard, you've lost the scene" "Competition matters, rules matter, punishments matter, achievements matter, excellence matters" "If you start stripping that away, you have nothing" "You guys need to take that knowledge and apply it sensibly."
"Valve has sold you all down the river, they sold everyone in the esports scene down the river, tournament organizers are selling their talent down the river. Don't hate on them for sounding tired after a 16 hour day. Don't hate on them because the hype for a matchup they've seen for the 20th time in the past 3 months, they can't be as excited or it sounds contrived. Support your guys, they're there for you, these are your people."
"This community has got to start acting like one for the first fucking time. Just put the petty shit away, let's try and fix this fucking scene while we still have one to save."
"You can't rely on Valve, you can't rely on ESL, you can't rely on the CSPPA, you can't rely on anyone." "Once again, it's gonna be the likes of us, the amateurs, the people who give a fuck, rolling up our sleeves and grafting." "I'm old and tired and I don't want to have to do it again. People need to pick up the torch and do it."
"Like Michal did, like Dudenhoeffer did. You see something wrong, fix it. You see somebody doing something wrong, call it out. If you think something could be better, let people know."
"Vote with your wallets if you're not happy with the direction Valve goes in. If when we do get to the Major, they serve up another subpar, same old bullshit stickers and signatures package again, do not buy it."
"You're a powerful block and if you use it correctly we can fucking avert this disaster."
"I'm not doing another year in this broken, bust-up fucking scene, where everyone is miserable, everyone is broke, everyone is tired, and everyone is trying to fucking rob everyone else, blind, while the fucking people who are meant to be protecting you, are just fucking enhancing it and lining their own pockets."
"I'm not doing it anymore and you shouldn't want to do it either."
"I stand by every fucking thing I said. I mean it, because this game fucking matters to me, this scene fucking matters to me. I put my life into this, my adult life, and to see it in this state is fucking sad."
Listen up fellow 🦍. Now is the time to buy and here’s why. Since Jan 26th this hasn’t been about investing. It’s been about trading. It’s a simple supply and demand. We took the supply and they have a demand. Some questionably legal practices have left us wondering about the reality of the situation. But today’s $GME news changed some things. Our favorite business is changing focus to e-commerce and new senior management appointees spell a new direction. Since several of the big name appointees come from Chewy, it’s reasonable to draw comparison between businesses. It also makes sense based on probable business model. $CHEWY closed today at $103.71 and is considered a solid buy with room to grow. It’s mostly online and delivers pet food to your front door. The average cost of dog food is $500 per year per dog. There are 63.4 million dog owners in the US. 63.4 million ppl x 1.5 avg dogs x $500 = $47.5B $GME closed today at $92.41 and is starting transition to mostly online and delivering games to your front door or straight to your PC. The average gamer spends $217.64 per year. There are 200 million gamers in America (including mobile games - so granny playing candy crush counts). 200 million ppl x $217.64 = $43.5B Plus, GME just got global attention. They already have stores in Europe, Australia, and NZ. Shipping an 8oz video game case or a delivering a digital license around the world is a easier than shipping physical bags of dog food from the US. At the current price, anything below $100 of GME is now a viable long term investment over several years. If GME achieves Chewy levels of success in e-commerce those sub $100 shares are right back on par with average investments. Plus there’s still the upside of forming a squeeze. This should be right about the bottom. The 🧻🤲🏽 losers who hoped on the hype-train late have fled. The wise money should be buying back in. Calls are dirt cheap too. 💎💎🤲🏽🤲🏽 forever. 10 GME @ avg $180 $800c 2/19 🚀🚀🚀🚀 This is not financial advice. Just random headaches with pictures turned into words.
Flatten the Curve. Part 87. NSA documents call us Zombies. GHCQ documents pretty much threaten us. This is the System running simulations that manipulate us. Do you trust them? I don't. Get ahead of the curve.
Part 85 here Alright. Alright. Alright. Let's keep digging further into the rabbit hole of a weaponized simulation being used to manipulate societal behavior by the Technocrat Surveillance State. First of all. PClick on the link. Take a look. This is what they call us. ZOMBIESSource Here
According to internal NSA documents seen by SPIEGEL, the NSA has focused on accessing smartphone data. In a secret presentation, the agency ironically uses an image from the iconic Apple Macintosh ad aired during 1984 Superbowl, which referenced the George Orwell book "1984." The presentation went on to show Steve Jobs as "Big Brother." The NSA documents indicate that the agency can access a wide variety of iPhone geolocation features and other data.The implication of the presentation is that iPhone users are somehow complicit in their own surveillance by buying iPhones in the first place.
And do you know what you can do with zombies? Click and drop them wherever you want and lead them to where you need them to be. Because zombies really aren't dangerous, despite all the entertainment showing otherwise. They're only dangerous of you don't control the environment around you. If you fall asleep at the wheel. Which is why they're running simulations with Sentient World Simulation and manipulating our behaviour. So how deep does the data gathering go? Really deep.
We're All In This Together
NSA whistleblower Drake says the problem is that both CSEC and the NSA lack proper oversight, and without it, they have morphed into runaway surveillance. "There is a clear and compelling danger to democracy in Canada by virtue of how far these secret surveillance operations have gone." Much of the document contains hyper-sensitive operational details which CBC News has chosen not to make public.Wesley Wark, a Canadian security and intelligence expert at the University of Ottawa, says the document makes it clear Canada can take advantage of its relatively benign image internationally to covertly amass a vast amount of information abroad. Source Here
So we're all part of the same team. The Five Eyes. So think about it. USA. Canada. Britain. Australia. New Zealand. Our Governments collect all our data and then pump it into a simulation like SEAS, before letting an algorithm do it's thing and shape our incoming data to mold our behaviors. Proof? Sort of. Those massive data centers in Utah aren't there as decoration. We have proof of behavioural manipulating studies done by Facebook. And we also have proof of an extremely advanced simulation. This isn't a leap to say that they use this apparatus against us. Is it?
The NSA and GCHQ have traded recipes for various purposes such as grabbing location data and journey plans that are made when a target uses Google Maps, and vacuuming up address books, buddy lists, phone logs and geographic data embedded in photos posted on the mobile versions of numerous social networks such as Facebook, Flickr, LinkedIn, Twitter and other services. In a separate 20-page report dated 2012, GCHQ cited the popular smartphone game "Angry Birds" as an example of how an application could be used to extract user data. Taken together, such forms of data collection would allow the agencies to collect vital information about a user's life, including his or her home country, current location (through geolocation), age, gender, ZIP code, marital status, income, ethnicity, sexual orientation, education level, number of children, etc. A GCHQ document dated August 2012 provided details of the Squeaky Dolphin surveillance program, which enables GCHQ to conduct broad, real-time monitoring of various social media features and social media traffic such as YouTube video views, the Like button on Facebook, and Blogspot/Blogger visits without the knowledge or consent of the companies providing those social media features. The agency's "Squeaky Dolphin" program can collect, analyze and utilize YouTube, Facebook and Blogger data in specific situations in real time for analysis purposes. The program also collects the addresses from the billions of videos watched daily as well as some user information for analysis purposes.
Whelp. They sure are like an octopus with their tentacles in everything, aren't they? And I do mean everything, isn’t that right Bill get the jab Gates? Why on earth would they need this data unless they were using it? They wouldn't. Now the problem becomes, how are they using it? Remember, they want to launch the Internet of Things so they can watch everything. Do you know who else watched everything? Jeffery Epstein.
Giuffre adds that Epstein had hidden cameras everywhere in his homes—massage rooms, bedrooms, showers, toilets. “Every single corner of that house was monitored,” she says. “He was watching everyone all the time. This was a blackmail scheme.… When he told me, ‘People owe me favors’ and ‘I will never get caught’ and ‘I can get away with things,’ he meant it.”
Ransome claims that she was raped by Epstein her first night on the island, and continued to be abused by him throughout the trip. With no way to leave, Ransome said that she even “tried to escape”—making her way to a remote part of the island. But Epstein found her “almost immediately.” Ransome said, “I knew then that I was being watched 24/7.” Source Here
That doesn't look good for living in a omnipresent surveillance state does it. And hey, didn't Jeffery hang out with Bill Gates quite a bit?
Microsoft handed the NSA access to encrypted messages • Secret files show scale of Silicon Valley co-operation on Prism • Outlook.com encryption unlocked even before official launch • • Skype worked to enable Prism collection of video calls • Company says it is legally compelled to comply • Material collected through Prism is routinely shared with the FBI and CIA, with one NSA document describing the program as a "team sport". Source Here
Yep. Birds a feather, as they say. So the material is collected through Prism? So now when they say Prism, I'm pretty sure they mean to indicate a light source on one side and a rainbow coming out the other side, right? Makes sense, doesn't it? And a rainbow is a collection of colors. Hmmmm. I feel like I have a revolutionary thought coming on. Color revolutions! You know, like the kind that swept the middle east. Isn't that funny? Not really, but you know what I mean. Because these guys love just making it obvious, don't they? Why? Because we're all a bunch of zombies, that's why! And a funny thing happens when you start to dive into some of the revolutionary protests. You start to see a link between where China increases trade with a country, and right around the same time the protests spontaneously start up! What a coincidence! The Egyptian revolution of 2011, also known as the 25 January Revolution (Arabic: ثورة 25 يناير; Thawrat khamsa wa-ʿišrūn yanāyir),[21] started on 25 January 2011 and spread across Egypt.https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_revolution_of_2011 Recognizing that the current trade volume heavily favors China, both sides committed to work to improve Egypt’s share of the balance of trade. The volume of Sino-Egyptian trade reached $8.8 billion in 2011, a 26% increase from 2010. Source Here I'm only going to give one example, but there are more. These are color revolutions all right, but they're the color of money. Remember, the Sentient World Simulation can simulate over 60 countries at once, and that's what they're willing to tell us. How much do you want to bet the real capacity is beyond top secret? And what happened in Russia and China im 2011?
The 2011 Chinese pro-democracy protests (simplified Chinese: 中国茉莉花革命; traditional Chinese: 中國茉莉花革命) or (simplified Chinese: 伟大的中华茉莉花革命; traditional Chinese: 偉大的中華茉莉花革命) refers to a series of minor public assemblies at some cities in China starting on 20 February 2011, inspired by and named after the Jasmine Revolution in Tunisia and the wider Arab Spring.
The 2011–2013 Russian protests (which some English language media referred to as the Snow Revolution)[14] began in 2011 (as protests against the 2011 Russian legislative election results) and continued into 2012 and 2013. The protests were motivated by claims by Russian and foreign journalists, political activists and members of the public that the election process was flawed.[15] The Central Election Commission of Russia stated that only 11.5% of official reports of fraud could be confirmed as true.
Revolutions sure became popular all over the planet (and by planet I mean Africa, the Middle East, and Asia) all at once. Yep. They caught the Democracy Virus! They want FREEDOM! They want to be able to leave their countries...uhm, don't we get a lot of Chinese tourists over in North America? Strange. But isn't it a dictatorship that...you know what, never mind. FREEDOM! Now if I'm right and they're using the internet to manipulate all of us based off of running simulations, it might just put a different spin as to why Russia and China have tried to block the internet into their countries. Just a thought. They wouldn't want their populations being manipulated, would they? Nope.
Beijing has not completely blacked out reporting on the uprising in Egypt. Instead, the Chinese government is funneling coverage of the protests through state-run television and the official Xinhua News Agency. However, the coverage that reaches Chinese citizens focuses primarily on the "lawlessness and anarchy" in Egypt's streets."What they are putting in the foreground is the chaos and the upheaval," Joerg Rudolph, a political scientist at the East Asian Institute of the University of Applied Sciences in Ludwigshafen, told Deutsche Welle. "This way they are showing that it's bad when these kinds of protests happen. We have to preserve stability. It's always the same. Stability has to be preserved and that's always the stability of the ruling elite in the country." Source Here
Oh. China has to preserve the stability of the ruling elite? Gotcha. Sure is a good thing that doesn't happen in North America! Could you imagine having controversial elections, rioting or protests, and then armed soldiers on the street! Thank goodness we have fact checks to save us from fake news! Here's another strange thing about revolutions. They're all in the eye of the beholder. One man's Revolution is another man's Terrorism. Take Xinjiang and the Uighurs. I'm not saying they don't have re-education camps. They do. China admits it. I will say that I don't know how bad the situation is. But I will also say, middle eastern drones sure do have a lot of collateral damage, don't they? And North America is suddenly starting to get very concerned about domestic terrorism, aren't they? Wait. Isn’t that what China claims to be concerned about in Xinjiang as well? Hmmm. They must be worried about corporations like Apple and Nike being targeted. Ok. Back on point. Simulations. The internet. Data. Shaping our perception. Molding our behaviors based on a computer program. They input data and then they output information for us to consume. Revolutions? Racial tensions? Apathy. The alarming mimicry online? Yeah. Simulations at work. And guess what? It's going to get worse. Because the more we become connected through the internet of things, the more data they receive, and the more data they receive, the better the simulations become, and the better the simulations become, the more they can exert their influence through programming us with content. It really is becoming very clear why they want 5G rolled out so quickly and why they have such a problem with Huawei, isn't it? But at least our Surveillance Simulation State is only here for the benefit of Western Society. Right?
Snowden provided journalists at The Intercept with GCHQ documents regarding another secret program "Karma Police", calling itself "the world's biggest" data mining operation, formed to create profiles on every visible Internet user's browsing habits. By 2009 it had stored over 1.1 trillion web browsing sessions, and by 2012 was recording 50 billion sessions per day. The goal of the program, according to the documents, was "either (a) a web browsing profile for every visible user on the internet, or (b) a user profile for every visible website on the internet." *Karma Police was apparently named after the Radiohead song "Karma Police", which includes the lyric "This is what you’ll get when you mess with us". *
So just think. First the EMPLOYEES call us ZOMBIES, and then they use a song title that has the lyrics, THIS IS WHAT YOU'LL GET WHEN YOU MESS WITH US. Charming. And then Bill Gates hands the data to the state. And Bill's old pal Epstien loved to use surveillance to find runaway victims to rape. And these are the guys who are funding scientists and research? Scary thought. And what's scarier? How about all the headlines about what the models are showing in regards to the pandemic. Because a model is simply another word for a simulation. And we have evidence for a massive simulation being run. And we have evidence for the Club of Rome simulation being the basis for our current climate crisis decision policies. And we don't need a simulation to start questioning the motives of people who are funding these operations. Whistleblowers have warned us. We've listened. Now we have to start making other people listen. Because no matter what, the simulations aren't perfect and they can't account for every possible outcome. And that's what each and everyone us are, another possible outcome. Go viral. Be an outcome. More soon. Keep your head up and eyes open. Talk soon.
I am sick and fucking tired of the gamestop retailer FUD. The US is not in some magical fucking digital age. Read on for some actual retarded fundamentals.
A quick note: I am autistic, and proper references to census data are too fucking hard when most of this shit is really obvious and logical to me, so go buy some chicken nuggets to make yourself feel better about being overweight because i do I will, however, endeavour to find sources on equitable internet access. I cannot provide screenshots of facebook groups due to privacy, but there are various groups easy to access such as global educator collective etc. or use your tendies to buy switches for hospitals. Relevant. There's 330 million people in the us, maybe less now because of Covid. I'm a member of multiple teacher groups, as I was interested in how people are adapting to online learning. Here's the thing. THEY HAVE TRIED AND ITS REALLY HARD. And the reason is simple: a huge buttfuckton of the students, the people, have shitty internet access, no internet access, or live in some feudal comcast net neutrality repealed fucknut kingdom. A real quick search of one group I'm in shows that for one district in michigan, they have 50% of the student body without ANY internet access. Yeah, digital age coming along for those people. Why do you people keep raving about the digital age when so many people don't have an internet connection strong enough to download an IOS update in less than 5 hours, let alone a COD update. Those people aren't living in big cities, but rural centres. Still, their internet is almost as good as mine, in Australia. https://broadbandnow.com/report/internet-speed-analysis-april-12th-18th/ Most of the people here -have- privileged internet access. But I bet my fucking balls there's more than a few people here who have average, or poor internet. Some issue with their biller. What does't cost internet? Physical shit. And in a place like the US where I'm sure there are people in lower SES communities afraid of doing a craigslist buy for a secondhand disk because they might get robbed, fleeced or shot, there's a huge market for a middleman who at least won't disappear of craigslist after you find out the game is scratched or broken. That also doesn't include how a huge proportion of gamers are now women, and who don't have the male privilege of not viewing everything as a potential attack, especially given the virality of #metoo in the last 10 years. https://www.wisebread.com/8-vile-craigslist-scams-to-watch-out-for https://mediakix.com/blog/female-gamer-statistics-demographics/ So, just how many potential customers, or rather, nearly guaranteed customers (because poor people buy shit to make them happy to distract them from being poor, or for social capital (https://talkingpointsmemo.com/cafe/why-do-poor-people-waste-money-on-luxury-goods). More than a few people have boasted about using funds gained to buy things they need, or to donate things like a switch or ten to a hospital. Because we all know that when life really fucking sucks if you've got a video game you can play then you are able to at least escape, just for a bit. I'm gonna play super metroid after this. What does all of this spell? It spells that half the reason that people are betting against gamestop is because a bunch of old people, due to their own privilege and inability to understand the social economics of why and how people play video games, have failed to understand that regardless of gamestop's need to pivot to the lucrative metropolitan market, that until there is ubiquitous internet access for ALL americans, Gamestop has a VALUABLE place in the market as a safe place for pixel purveyors to do business. As the reply to the reply, yes amazon is a big online retailer and makes big money because people who like convenience also shop there. True. But also good luck returning what you bought from amazon, and good luck selling shit on there, it's not ebay, and inaccessible for the average punter. In sum of my short, poorly referenced sociology post, FUCKING BUY GME and HOLD IT LIKE ITS YOUR LAST WANK BEFORE NO NUT NOVEMBER This is also not financial or legal advice. This is just logic. Sources on internet access: remember, your US averages are heavily skewed by population centres like san francisco, silicon valley, new york etc. https://blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/2019/04/08/its-time-for-a-new-approach-for-mapping-broadband-data-to-better-serve-americans/ https://themarkup.org/ask-the-markup/2020/03/26/how-many-americans-lack-high-speed-internet
2020 Year in Review -- As If You Wanted to Look Back At This One
Wow, is it time for the Year in Review already? It seems like only a couple decades have passed since January 1, 2020 -- a year some experts are now saying lasted a full double dog year, 14 human years, or about three stake conferences in length. Although TSCC's shenanigans were overshadowed this year by outrageously insane behavior from every corner, TSCC nevertheless made its own valuable contributions to the insanity pile -- the icing on the cake, if you will, or perhaps more accurately, the dry heave on top of the stomach-emptying vomit. But now, as 2020 comes to a close, let us sit back, reflect on the past year, and wonder what the hell was everyone smoking? Yet somehow, despite everything getting turned upside down this year, 2020 still began with . . . January Foreshadowing the year to come, 2020 attacks right from the start and scorches Australia with massive wildfires. Also foreshadowing the year to come, TBMs offer to help by skipping a couple of meals and donating the value of those meals to the church, which then used the donated money to pay the cable bill for Brother Richards in your ward. The logic behind this series of transactions is still somehow one of the least confusing aspects of the year to come. Despite the Book of Mormon literally saying the Lamanites were cursed with dark skin, TSCC claims it was an "error" in the Come Follow Me manual that described the Lamanites' dark skin as a curse. Clarifying the clarification, Pres. Newsroom stressed that it wasn't the dark skin that was the curse, the curse was having to still defend the racist passages in the Book of Mormon in 20 freaking 20. Finally in January, controversy erupts at BYU over, of all things, ballroom dancing, when BYU announced it would prohibit same sex couples from competing in the US Nationals Amateur Dancesport Championships it was hosting, despite national organization guidelines which allowed same sex couples to compete. Several prominent dancers announced they would boycott the BYU-hosted competition, but BYU stuck to its principles despite this withering pressure from super-intimidating ballroom dancers. Ha ha! But seriously though -- BYU predictably caved and allowed same sex couples to dance in the competition. Pres. Newsroom later defended BYU's changing stance, claiming the university had not sold its values for a mess of pottage but had done so for the glory of ballroom dance, which was a different matter altogether. February Two years after Ballard emphatically declared that church leaders weren't hiding anything, church leaders admit in a Wall Street Journal article that they've been hiding 100 billion dollars out of fear members would stop paying tithing if they knew about it. Following the example of shining role model, Enron, TSCC used more than a dozen shell companies to hide their investment portfolio from members. Shocked by this brazen deception, TBMs vigorously protest by continuing to pay a full tithe, keeping their mouths shut, and pretending this is all fine. In an unusual move, BYU deletes the section prohibiting homosexual behavior from its honor code, leaving the impression that comparable hetero behaviors such as dating and kissing would now be permitted for homosexual students, with BYU's own Honor Code office privately telling students homosexual couples would now be held to the same morality standards as unmarried heterosexual couples. After a photo of two female students kissing outside the honor code office goes viral, BYU spokesperson Carrie Jenkins backpedaled and claimed there had been a "miscommunication", but refuses to say what the school's policy is. After much confusion, the matter is finally cleared up when Mormon church president Nelson issues a statement demanding the media stop referring to him as "Mormon church president Nelson" and insists the media instead refer to him as "brilliantly gifted heart surgeon Nelson". A man wielding a knife is shot and killed by police after caught trespassing inside the MTC in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Afterward, police claimed the man was clearly suffering from mental illness, noting that he willingly entered a location known to be crawling with Mormon missionaries. March In March, absolutely nothing happened, so we can move on to April -- unless you consider the beginning of the apocalypse, the end of the world as we know it, and the imminent return of Jesus to be worth mentioning. But first, in March: in the midst of continued confusion over the BYU honor code change, Ballard offers hope to the LGBT community when he delivers a BYU devotional speech condemning marginalizing anyone based on sexual orientation, calling it "evil and horrifying". Gay BYU students barely have time to applaud Ballard's speech when, the very next day, BYU -- which aspires to the level of evil and horrifying -- marginalizes LGBT students by issuing a formal letter stating that no, they are still not allowed any form of romantic expression because such behaviors still violate the "principles", if not the actual language, of the honor code. Clarifying the matter further, BYU spokesperson Carrie Jenkins said LGBT students should have known all along the honor code changes were meant for the Big 12 Conference and not for them. TSCC gets pummeled from all sides in March, with God hitting Salt Lake City with a 5.7 earthquake that breaks the angel Moroni statue on top of the temple, and Covid forcing TSCC to cancel church services, close its temples, recall missionaries from overseas missions, close the MTCs, and cancel all BYU sports, just as the basketball team looked to have its best showing in the NCAA tournament in years. Summing up the disastrous month, Pres. Newsroom said TSCC hasn't taken a beating that bad since the last BYU-Utah football game. April In a historic first, TSCC cancels the live audience for general conference. The precaution was necessary, Pres. Newsroom said, to prevent panicky Mormons from stealing all the toilet paper in the Conference Center. Recalling that last October Nelson promised a conference unlike any other, TBMs feverishly share wild rumors in the run-up to April conference, ranging from Jesus Christ personally appearing at conference to the prophet solemnly ordering members to pack up and move to Missouri. Realizing the conference had been a deep disappointment compared to expectations, Nelson tried to spin the narrative by insisting the conference had achieved a historic first: for the first time ever, not a single live audience member had fallen asleep during a session. In the midst of a global pandemic, economic collapse, apocalyptic rumors, and widespread unemployment, TSCC demonstrates how keenly they are in touch with members' needs when they . . . rollout a new church logo. Dubbed "Snow Globe Jesus", the new logo design barely won out over top contenders Bobblehead Jesus and 70s Playgirl Centerfold Jesus. Having failed in their first fasting attempt to eradicate Coronavirus, Nelson announces a second, more powerful fast to be held on Good Friday, for an extra spiritual power-up. Cases in Utah -- which averaged 100 positive cases per day prior to the fast -- promptly doubled, then tripled, then increased 5x, then increased 10x, then increased 20x, then increased 30x . . . Alarmed at the exponential increase in cases, Utah lawmakers hurriedly pass legislation preventing Mormons from conducting a third fast. May TSCC -- long accused of being a money-seeking corporation masquerading as a religion --releases plans for the Tooele Utah temple, including a master planned community of high-priced homes surrounding the temple which will be developed, and profited by, TSCC. When asked about the comparison to Jesus driving the money changers at the temple, Pres. Newsroom happily cited the prepositional loophole of "at" vs. "around" to justify TSCC's money changing behavior. When informed that the same Hebrew preposition means "at, in, by, or near" in English and therefore the church is technically still in violation of Jesus's injunction, Pres. Newsroom claimed his religious freedom was under attack from linguistics. In the midst of a global pandemic, economic collapse, apocalyptic rumors, and widespread unemployment, TSCC again demonstrates how keenly they are in touch with members' needs when they . . . proudly release updated standards for the artwork permitted in church foyers. Although Caucasian Jesus predictably won the coveted approval, Pres. Newsroom let it be known there was stiff competition from top contenders Catholic Sacred Heart Jesus and Fat Buddha. In what many observers regarded as a somewhat controversial move, two BYU students, Jeff and Steve, are disciplined by the honor code office for failing to say "no homo" after engaging in a handshake that lingered a bit too long. June In the midst of a global pandemic, economic collapse, apocalyptic rumors, and widespread unemployment, TSCC again demonstrates how keenly they are in touch with members' needs when Rebrand Rusty makes a fashion update to that most recognizable symbol of Mormonism, the missionary in the white shirt. Although missionaries may now wear blue shirts, over-zealous elders quorum presidents everywhere want you to know you will still be looked down upon if you wear a blue shirt to quorum meeting. Three months after Ballard condemned persecution of the LGBT community as "evil and horrifying", TSCC files an amicus brief in a Supreme Court case, arguing in favor of the right to fire LGBT employees simply for being LGBT and not for any job violation. When asked whether the church was now "evil and horrifying" or whether Ballard had been wrong in his devotional address, Pres. Newsroom wondered aloud how difficult it would be to find another job in this weak economy. In the face (ha ha!) of rising anti-mask sentiment, a coalition of Utah religious leaders sign a joint statement urging Utahns to wear face masks. TSCC is represented in the coalition by a counselor in the Utah area presidency, who ranks on the Mormon authority meter somewhere around the assistant secretary of the Beehive class. In a fiery online speech, Bednar complains about the loss of religious freedom during the pandemic, claiming that governments had forced TSCC to shut down. When pointed out to him that other churches adapted by conducting online services, and that Alma 32:10 specifically says that meeting in a church is not required, Bednar doubled-down on his complaint, insisting that his religious freedom to sit on the stand and be adored by the congregation each week had most definitely been infringed. July In an all-out attack on exmos, the July Ensign boldly claims that truth will never be found on exmormon sites. Exmos quickly compiled a list of truths hidden by TSCC that were revealed on exmo sites, such as the $100 billion Ensign Peak investment, general authority pay, the seer stone translation method, the LGBT policy of exclusion, the multiple versions of the first vision, and church tithing money being invested in City Creek. When confronted by this list, the Ensign published a follow-up article claiming its religious freedom to lie about its religion was under attack. Looking to send a stronger signal on the mask mandate, the full Utah area presidency now issues an official statement to members, urging them to wear masks in public. This upgraded authoritative mandate now ranks on the Mormon power meter somewhere around a ward PEC meeting with half the attendees asleep. Finally in July, Utah County Mormons make national news when, in the midst of the pandemic, they crowd into a packed Utah County Commission meeting, purposefully not wearing masks, to demand that area schools reopen without requiring students to wear masks, because -- given the size of their excessively large families -- the least the school district could do is help them trim the number back a bit. August In the midst of a global pandemic, economic collapse, apocalyptic rumors, and widespread unemployment, TSCC again demonstrates how keenly they are in touch with members' needs when Rebrand Rusty renames the church magazines. The Ensign will be rebranded as The Liahona and The New Era will now be called For the Strength of Youth, because "New Era" simply wasn't weird enough. TSCC also dropped the old fashioned term "garments", now calling its special underwear For The Strength of Your Loins. Colleges across the country begin to reopen, but with modified sports schedules, leaving independent football school BYU scrambling to fill its schedule at the last minute. Announcing its modified schedule, BYU noted that the 200,000 U.S. Covid deaths, while tragic, were a small price to pay to guarantee that BYU would not lose to Utah in football again this year. And August wraps up with the First Presidency issuing a letter forbidding bishops and stake presidents from testifying in court cases, because the last people TSCC wants on the stand are leaders who have pledged to be honest in all their dealings. September Always striving to use the full name of the church and emphasize the name of Jesus Christ, Rebrand Rusty renames LDS Business College to Ensign College, after the itself recently rebranded Ensign magazine, with neither rebranding using the full name of the church or of Jesus Christ. This series of name changes is still, somehow, one of the least confusing aspects of 2020. With the Covid epidemic worsening by the day, TBMs plead with God in fervent prayer to please let them die of Covid before they have to eat the 40 year old buckets of wheat in the basement. October Feeling like 2020 hasn't kicked enough people while they are down, Christofferson attacks a vulnerable group in his general conference talk by insulting single women who choose to have their baby rather than have an abortion, calling their children "bitter fruit." When asked about his choice of words, Christofferson defended himself, saying that he couldn't very well call them "bastards" over the conference center pulpit, now could he? Two years after gaslighting church youth about polygamy at a Face 2 Face broadcast in Nauvoo, Master Gaslighter Cook uses his general conference address to gaslight the entire church over slavery and Native American relations. Boldly claiming the church was always against slavery and had great relations with the Native Americans, Cook spun a beautiful but demonstrably false narrative. It was somewhat surprising then, when independent fact checkers awarded Cook's talk the exact same credibility level as the other conference addresses. The Book of Mormon becomes the surprise publishing hit of the Fall, with copies flying off the shelves, after Mormon Senator Mike Lee compares serial adulterer, porn-star banging, own-daughter-lusting Donald Trump to Book of Mormon fictional character Captain Moroni. Publishing experts scrambled to proclaim the Book of Mormon the next big hit in the popular billionaire porn genre, adding that a powerful, shirtless military captain in the early Americas breathed new life into the somewhat tired genre. Negative reviews soon killed book sales, however, with reviewers slamming Captain Moroni as "even more vanilla than my parents", with one reviewer tartly noting that even if all the "coming to passes" were replaced with "coming with lasses", the book would still be boring beyond belief. November With a contested US election, rumors and accusations flying on all sides, and the Constitution hanging by a thread, Mormon Senator Mitt Romney fulfills the long-awaited "White Horse" prophecy by saving the Constitution and the election by acknowledging that Trump lost the election and there is no legal path to overturn it. TBMs rejoice in the prophecy's fulfillment and delight in their role at preserving the US Constitution in such a critical moment. Ha ha! No. TBMs start a petition calling for Romney's impeachment, continue to call for overthrowing the election result, and demand that God himself reissue the white horse prophecy, with the "right" side winning this time. For his part, God answered the prayers of the right-wing petitioners in exactly the same way he answered Joseph Smith's prayer in 1820. With the Covid epidemic worsening by the day, Nelson addresses the full church and kind of, sort of hints that members should maybe follow medical advice and wear masks. TBMs, who only last March were waxing poetic about God calling a doctor -- a doctor! -- to be president of the church during a pandemic, promptly ignore Nelson's counsel and turn to the real experts: some anonymous guy on Youtube and Aunt Phyllis on Facebook. In what many observers regarded as a somewhat controversial move, BYU roommates Emma and Madison are disciplined by the honor code office for sitting too close together on the couch while watching a romcom on Netflix. December December opens with the traditional First Presidency Christmas devotional, but with the unusual sight this year of the first presidency seated in a socially distant arrangement. Noting the seating change, Nelson likened the social distancing to the Savior himself, who -- as in all things -- had led by example by socially distancing himself from the church for 200 years now. In a final effort stressing the importance of masks, Elder Renlund -- himself a Covid survivor -- releases a video unambiguously instructing members to wear masks, calling it a sign of Christlike love. TBMs, many of whom opposed mask-wearing, thoughtfully ponder this clear counsel from one of God's chosen mouthpieces and reflect how to bring their lives in harmony with . . . Ha ha! No. TBMs excoriate Renlund for being too political and grumble that if everyone wears a mask, they might have to start going back to church soon, and no one wants that. Fairmormon -- already sufficiently embarrassing thanks to its own tortured apologetics -- sinks to a new level of shame by releasing clownish videos attacking the CES letter on a Youtube show called This Is The Show, or TITS for short. As if that weren't juvenile enough, show host Kwaku El, in a fit of bravado, threatens to kill John Dehlin -- which even stiff-necked exmos know violates at least one of the commandments. Fairmormon's behavior is so appalling that even Tapir Dan Peterson, former Fairmormon shill and staunch defender, distances himself from the group and resigns from its board. Fairmormon's antics -- disturbing as they are -- somehow still provide a comforting assurance that even in 2020, when everything is upside down, some things still remain the same: the best weapon against the church isn't the CES letter, it's a passionate Mormon believer with a microphone. And now, fellow exmos, as 2020 -- finally! -- comes to a close, let us gather our families together in the fallout bunkers where we are hiding, and wish each other a better and brighter 2021. It can't get any worse, can it? No, really -- can it? Happy New Year, exmos.
Abused growing up, but now I'm feeling all these emotions at once now that I've come out about my gender identity and I'm struggling to hold it together now cus of all I've been through, is this normal?
[TW: Abuse, Some Sexual Mentions, Blood, Starvation comments, Self Harm mentions, Suicidal Thoughts] So for context: I'm nonbinary, I'm 26 years old and I'm Autistic (high functioning, was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome). My father was the abuser in my life but my mother had a tendency of lashing out against me because of the stress of dealing with his behaviour. The abuse was physical, psychological... emotional... When I was young, my father choked me in full view of my mother, due to a disagreement between two of us. I distinctly remember mom giving me ice cream after that. I also had a few instances of waking up and feeling like my tongue had gone down my throat and I was struggling to breath, and I always remember running around the house in a panic trying to get myself to breathe again, cus my nostrils didn't feel like they worked and the only thing that helped was climbing in bed with my parents. Mom was always the one to comfort me during that. Whenever I feel anxious or notice my breathing being a bit slow, I get hyperaware of it and try and overcompensate but I also keep remembering these events in the back of my mind. It always feels like I'm being choked rather than my nostrils not breathing enough. My father also frequently engaged in constant yelling at me, frequently belittling me. Expecting me to carry heavy loads despite being rather frail (I was skinny and not into sports and reclusive because autism and anxiety and the effect of the abuse), and when I inevitably fail, would frequently berate me. He also had the habit of demanding answers to questions I didn't know how to answer, screaming at me to give him a yes or a no answer to a complicated question and getting mad when I said "I DON'T KNOW!". I also had two instances where he did a 'deadleg' on me, aka grabbed my leg and smacked it hard enough that it left an imprint of pain that made it hard to walk on that leg for the rest of the day. Usually after a disagreement. He also spanked me as a child for things I did wrong but he always stormed into my room, and beat me really hard on the exposed rear and then left. I never really got comfort for it from him. Yelling also became an easy way of causing me to 'shut down' as well, and often I went along with things for the fear of yelling. During school I was always bullied, I was the one people liked to wind up. The autistic kid dealing with senses and emotions he struggled to comprehend, made worse by the experiences at home. My mom often times started to expect me to magically know when she wanted certain chores done, made worse by my quickly growing escapism via video games. I always used to break down and beg her to stop expecting me to be 'psychic' because she would always be avoidant and short-to-the-point when in these situations, which used to result in either a distressed breakdown or angry lashing out and ripping into her about it. Kids used to bully me by comparing my name to that of a local celebrity, I hated it. They used to call me by a feminine version of my name, which agitated me for a different reason, I think it triggered some form of dysphoria and I lashed out because I sort of felt happy hearing that name in retrospect but it was the context it was used in combined with my father's attitudes... I also had trouble with anger. Lots of anger. Mostly towards my father. But I got suspended 3-4 times during high school and often during primary school because of attacking other students when they pushed me until I snapped. I wanted to end my father, violently. He kept belittling me and questioning my ability for independence. And it was extremely hard to keep that under the surface, my mother was usually the one who I ended up venting too. I also used to bottle up all my emotions and stresses until I couldn't by volcanically exploding into crying when I was alone with my mother after my agitated behaviour gave her a hint I needed comfort at some point. Unfortunately I had to experience defending my mother from my father after a particularly vicious argument with each other, my father had been basically engaging in financial abuse against my mother, constantly buying stuff and expecting her to pay it back, and constantly accusing her of wasting money because she spent pretty much all the money on bills. She was also frequently forced to borrow money from him, who was on a pension due to previous military service and dad never worked. But in that incident, I threatened to use a broom on him, long enough for mom to escape. Unfortunately she didn't take me. She left me alone with him, so I hid in my room with the door locked and the light turned off since it was night time and tried to cry myself to sleep. My dad is, to be blunt, a god damn narcissist, and I suspect a drug abuser who lied for medication given stuff he's said about certain medications he's been on for pain (preferring the tablet form over the liquid form of a certain restricted substance for instance). I was diagnosed with depression by a therapist, but unfortunately dad used to belittle me. Claiming he 'knew what depression was like' and that he 'had it worse'. He used to always try and make him seem like the most suffering. He always refused to do work around the house, claiming a spinal injury, which we really doubt was actually the case, especially within the last few years, mom found out he had been cheating on her behind her back whilst she was out of town for a work contract. Grandma on his side was also the same kind, also being a drama merchant, trying to start drama to make herself feel better or make her seem like the most hurt whilst making fun of other people's issues. Despite me being extremely drama avoidant for OBVIOUS REASONS DUE TO MY EXPERIENCES, My dad frequently compared me to her and said I was just like her, when in reality he was the most like her. Whenever I asked for help for something, I was made to feel like the burden for just wanting help getting clothes on the line since I lived in South East Queensland, Australia, where the UV index is really high. Unfortunately I'm a redhead and very pale, I freckle and burn instead of tanning. I was also in a very bad place of mind during high school, constantly thinking about dying. Looking up what life after death was like. Trying to think about reincarnation as a kind of 'hope' if I offed myself. I was too scared to actually go through with it, and so I settled for reducing my food intake as much as possible, throwing away the lunches mom made for me every day for school around that time. I wanted to get sick and die 'naturally', that way I would put the least amount of people out, because in my fucked up teenage mind, thought that a slow death was better than the feeling of pain. One time my dad said that my mother was upset with me because I didn't have any friends, and I confronted my mother about it. She was confused. Later found out that conversation was that my mother was WORRIED FOR ME because I didn't have any friends and was concerned about my development. He also one time told me when we were alone that my mother didn't want any more children because I was autistic. I later learned this wasn't because I was autistic but because my mother had gone through a lot of miscarriages, one was nearly twin sisters I could have had, and didn't want to risk having any more children after I was born two weeks late after fearing she wouldn't be able to bring me to term. Also she didn't find any enjoyment in sex anymore. I also started wearing headphones and playing music often into my ears to distract myself, I became hypersensitive to the sound of footsteps because I would have to listen out for them because I was never allowed to lock my room and be alone. I always was mentally preparing for a screaming match or something. Dad really only interacted with me most of the time outside of the bad situations was to demand a coffee like every half a fucking hour. I hated it. But I was always paranoid of sounds in the house, for fear of dad coming near. Trying to hear past the headphones. Unfortunately dad picked up on me doing this and used it as an excuse that I should hear him whenever he's talking to me. Even across the house, which he used to get mad at us doing to him because he did it first. Made worse because of my hypersensitive hearing and new paranoid obsession with reading facial expressions to try and gauge people's moods to see if they were okay or a threat to me, I started being unsure about hearing whispers, which I wasn't sure were hallucinations in my head or if I was actually hearing them in real life. I was very avoidant of the other students, constantly walking around the school campus rather than settling down and eating. They used to bully me and one time I was repeatedly called a 'pedo' for agreeing to date another student to get another student to leave them alone. We were going to the same school, its just I was in grade 11 and they were in grade 8. This especially fucked me up because when I was younger and in primary school I would try and get peeks at other boys (given my father is homophobic and transphobic, you can imagine the psychological issues this built up when I realised what I was doing and why) in the changing rooms, whilst simultaneously trying to hide as much of my body as possible (I was uncomfortable with people looking at my exposed skin, in retrospect, signs of my gender identity not being binary or cis). We eventually broke it off, because she was getting uncomfortable with the rumours that were happening because of it and it was starting to distress me a lot, being a teenager going through pubery, the effects of abuse, the psychological discord of trying to process things as an autistic person and questioning my sexuality in a toxic home environment due to my father's homophobia and transphobia (he made jokes about shooting same sex marriage supporters in response to a TV news report...). But it got really bad near the end of high school, I was threatened with a hammer by one of the school's seniors because I was trying to be sociable and I liked hanging around people at that point, I was trying to be positive about things you know? I reported it to the school which was... not the best plan. The school didn't want to investigate, my mother called the school board a few times. My dad told me that 'bastardization is illegal' and that I just needed to keep my mouth shut. Being the currently highly stressed, suicidal and angry teenager I was, I was getting bullied in homeroom and I snapped and screamed I wanted to burn the entire school down with everyone trapped inside and laugh whilst it burned. I later was storming around that day, agitated and venting and one of my class' teachers, one I liked and trusted, noticed that I was upset and asked what was wrong and I... repeated the feelings I was having because of the school's fuckery. Naturally this later got me sent to the principal's office, because of course it fucking did. I got betrayed by the teacher I trusted the most (admittedly I don't blame her, I had already been suspended 3-4 times at this one school after all), and what ended up happening was the principal and vice principal proceeded to reduce me to tears by tearing away at my emotional armor, and making comments about needing to adjust my medication. Keep in mind I was already seeing a psychologist who specialised in ADHD and Autism and was trying to get me OFF medication. To say my mother was not happy was an understatement, but dad picked me up from school and was like "I told you this would happen". It was near finals. Luckily I wasn't expelled. My mother threatened to ruin the principal if she tried expelling me so close to the end of the year exams. But one time on my suspension, dad took me to the local tip to dispose of some stuff. Dad insisted on just throwing it in the same part of the tip face because he couldn't be fucked. A council worker came over and was like 'no you can't do that'. Being the logical person I trusted the person who could get us into trouble with fines if we didn't follow directions. Dad didn't give a shit, he was confrontive, combatitive and he wanted to get out of there. I was in a panic and dumped a little of the stuff, dad demanded I get in the car which I did but... on the drive out of there. Dad screamed at me about how I was listening to the council worker over him and that he paid his rates and that the council worker was subservient to him, the rate payer and that clearly I enjoy being threatened with hammers. Yeah. YEAH. Grandma also made a joke about that, and they used to make jokes about my playing of video games and being a single virgin. Later on during my suspension, the police called, having investigated the incident due to my mother and was told that 'She understands how you feel, because she has a younger brother with autism', and that it wasn't the big metal hammer used in Manual Arts for hammering metal and pulling out nails, but a small plastic one. Even though it was clearly a fucking metal hammer. So I was being gaslit by the fucking police of all people. Clearly because this student was one of the Student Captains. Either way, I was allowed to go onto school grounds to take my finals and graduated with a pretty decent score for university all things considered. Dad used to claim any time I messed up trying to do something because it was making me uncomfortable was that I was just trying to get back to my computer to play video games. I actually didn't play that many video games. Mostly chatted with online friends who were a great support line during my high school years but it was after the incident in the car that I started shutting down my emotions, I want to say? Well, eventually I had to get money somehow, and I signed up for the work seekers pension, which entailed going to a employment agency which specialised on people on the dole. I never really got a job, they never got responses back and I suspected they were sabotaging me because I heard stories of them doing that to keep getting government money. But one time dad was driving along the road to the agency which was several suburbs over (I would have had to catch the train otherwise) and dad was speeding. Dad got caught by a speed camera that was on a side road, shooting through bushes apparently. I never really saw it, but I was in the passenger seat. When dad got the ticket, he insisted on fighting it in court. Being the court system this meant it was held up for a while. Unfortunately this meant dad was constantly asking me what was happening that day, an event that was hazy at best, being made worse by all the memory issues I'd been having due to stress and anxiety of dealing with family dramas between each other. This continued for several months, with me growing more and more agitated when dad was getting annoyed at me struggling to remember and dad trying to look for any excuse to get off the ticket. In the end, dad noticed I wasn't keeping it together and didn't bother trying to call me as a witness when he represented himself. Turns out the judge got pissed off at him for constantly interrupting. Mom thinks he was trying to coach me to his advantage for the court case. A few more of those stupid incidents involving heavy lifting happened, namely tiles and me breaking them and him having to search for replacements. Or the dryer that broke a certain way from me opening the door too quickly and him ripping into me over other stuff I couldn't give a response to. Eventually I got put on the disability pension, being that I was considered sufficiently impaired, and was recommended a therapist due to various issues. But instead of properly venting about my abuse, it was always how my dad made me feel, or about how frustrations in my online friend groups were. I couldn't bring myself to talk about my abuse because I thought it was NORMAL and that this was normally how a family functioned. I was also afraid of telling him for fear of it getting back to my parents. After that I struggled feeling anything but a neutral state and any kind of emotion I'd feel was usually something really strong after so to speak 'breaking past the dullness', I think I was trying to protect myself by keeping my self numb to try and prevent any emotion-related impulses that might cause a drama. Mom started work contracts in other places and that left me and dad. Dad however was rather annoyed I was earning more on the disability pension than he was on his veteran's pension and actually frequently gaslit me on some bills, I'm pretty sure he was stealing from me and claiming mom was trying to con me on the power bills that I was putting forward to. Dad actually got a Carer's Pension for 'looking after me', but after my mom's second contract he started leaving the house for weeks at a time, expecting me to make big shopping lists to stock up the pantry and fridge. I had to learn how too cook around this time, mostly out of necessity but I insisted on complicated stuff. I also used to get frustrated that despite all the effort, dad would never give good feedback except 'it's good'. I also started feeling like a passenger in my own body, so I guess I was prone to 'dissociating' and tuning life out as well. You can see I was trying too hard for dad's affection. It was 19-20 years at that point and I had never gotten an apology from him for that behaviour and or any real affection. I mean one time, dad didn't want to make dinner when I was a little kid when mom was at work. Dad got mad whenever I asked when dinner was. I didn't know how to use the microwave. That night mom came home around 11PM and learned I hadn't been fed yet. Dad later got lapband surgery around this time for his stomach to lose weight but refused to go on the diet, complaining whenever we ate red meat which he wasn't supposed to be, frequently eating ice cream before dinner, often times when I was preparing dinner no less. And used to complain we were tempting him and that he needed mom's co-operation to go on a diet because there was no way he was going to do it himself. Fast forward later to like 3 years ago I wanna say? Christmas Eve. Mom found out from him that he had been cheating on her after she had visited a few times and he had been rather extremely hostile to her like he was trying to push her away. She called him. Whilst he was in the car with his mistress. And got the answer from him. Me and mom later hatched a plan to remove all our things from the house and move up north as we originally planned (which would have included him but clearly he didn't want it anymore). We managed to pull it off, escaping with the cats (our older one yells at me for food, whenever he did that when we lived with my dad, my dad would always scream at him to shut up and never get out of his chair, basically yelling and yelling at the cat until me or my mother got up out of our rooms which we were hiding in to feed them just to shut DAD up. My younger cat isn't that bad. But my older cat's yell makes me think of those times and I get angry and agitated) and our belongings whilst he was off away from the house for the week. We lived with a... rather toxic landlord, we didn't know it at the time, she was just a narcissist like that. I got a text from dad basically saying that he was keeping the security deposit (which I never paid because I was family, mom never asked for a security deposit when I started paying board) and more or less didn't want to see me again. Dad later filed for divorce against my mother, mom refused to in order to force him to pay for it. Legal fuckery happened, at one point he tried to legally claim I was a 'capable and independent adult' despite... being my carer. We filed a DVO against him, and I had to get reference from my psych at the time. The letter I got given listed me as having Chronic Depression, Anhedonia, Suicidal Idealation, Anxiety, in addition to other stuff. I don't remember it all since the only copy was used as evidence for the order. A friend later explained the concept of C-PTSD to me after some venting about how my mother was acting towards me, and how I on some level hated her for my upbringing despite being the sole comforting pillar in my life. It was an autism specialist therapist, but I later had a freakout over my body when I had a shower one time, realising something about my body that caused me massive distress. I think that was my first conscious experience of my dysphoria. It mulled in my head for a while as I tried to process my gender identity, trying to understand what my ideal body was because it kept shifting all the time between male, female, inbetween, neither. I later told my psychologist and... he was dismissive. Oh. Of course he wasn't exactly really helpful. Very pushy. Always telling me to do stuff and not really offering real solutions to these issues I was having. He also tried to basically turn a lot of the issues I was having on me, despite the very clear indications that my mother was lashing out at me because of the stress of dealing with my father's legal bullshit at the time. Or the fact I had actual triggers for specific memories. Nope just 'explain concept, here look at psychology journals' never really offering proper therapy. I started uni but had to pull out. We had to move. Our landlord wanted us out after apparently me investigating a noise caused me to see her and her date in the garage, and me not listening to her got her mad cus later her date didn't want to see her again. Given how much of a manipulative narcissist she was, I wouldn't be surprised if I wasn't a convenient excuse for the guy for my mere existence despite being explained as a tenant. We got an apartment, she later showed up and served us papers over her stupid fucking couch she tried to actively screw us over on by trying to force us to pay for more repairs than were needed and also removing it from the repair place we put it into. I later came out to my mother as biromantic asexual. The thought of sex IRL actively terrifies me, but I seemed to be fine with art forms of it. Things were good until my mother got a new boyfriend. Stuff happened, he basically was trying to gaslight my mother. I threatened to call the cops, my mother being desperate for love took his side. I ran into my room and cried myself to sleep because she was going along with his abuse. Later next morning she basically told me if I had called the cops she'd have thrown me out (despite being on the lease and needing me for rent money). Stuff happened, a lot of strain was put on me and my mother's relationship, we found out he was an alcoholic narcissist prone to violent rages and lots of delusions and suffering acute liver failure. We eventually gave him the boot after spending too much money on him. I tried uni again in this timeframe but stopped it again because we were going to move down south to be with mom's family, which turns out this guy didn't even have the fucking money for because of how many lies he had told he believed them. Fast forward to a few days ago. I'd been battling with questioning my gender identity for months, fearing my mother's reaction. Fearing that it would be 'the last straw' due to the stresses of having given birth to me. The fear of wanting to feel feminine on some level only because of my dad having wanted a daughter. The fear that it was a phase. The fear that it was all in my head despite the very clear distress that looking in a mirror now. The fear that this was normal to feel for someone who was autistic. I started getting deeper into reading fan fiction and stuff of series I liked, reading fan fiction of versions of characters of 'what if they were trans', to fill myself with some kind of certainty of my identity. Eventually stumbled onto some about a game that involved trauma in its themes, and I think that 'primed' me for it because of the feelings I felt felt similar to that of a game character's. Now I had always been prone to starving myself this entire time, and picking at scabs to prevent them healing because the feeling of the injury becoming anew felt good. But after exposing myself to that series, I started to feel more... emotional. That's when I got scratched by my cat at one point, and I found myself staring at the scratch and thinking about razors. I went looking for one in my bathroom. Thankfully we only had electric razors, well me at least. And electric razors didn't cut skin well, even when I pushed it into my hand. But the fact that I had gone that far sent me into a panic and I mulled over what I was doing, the distress over my gender identity and fearing mom's reaction got worse until I went out and... broke down and told her. Mom accepted me though. I told her I felt like a girl. She accepted me. I felt... extremely happy. Like way too happy. Like dangerously, no inhibitions happy. I was talking to her and having discussions with her on the balcony, and I kept looking off the edge, constantly thinking about 'what if I jump?', and thinking it in a way too happy mindset. A friend called that being manic, but I'm not bipolar. I had a shower to try and calm myself down, which I did and came out to my mother that I was nonbinary, that my gender identity was more complicated than what I had initially told her, and that I had days I drifted on my gender. She still accepted me. I got emotional again despite my normal levels. But the last few days, I've constantly been very emotional. And its hard to process. It's like I'm feeling all the emotions at once. Mom's not here anymore, since she was only here for a few days because she was on a work contract and she was visiting me because I had been alone with my thoughts for too long for 2 weeks and two weeks before that I had been alone for 6-7 weeks by myself. But now it feels like whatever was blocking my other emotions is gone, and I'm feeling all the emotions all the time. I'm constantly feeling anxious, I'm constantly thinking back about all the stuff my dad did to me. Made worse by a heart to heart I had with my mother before she left about how I never got an apology from dad or that he never told me he loved me. I can't stop thinking about it and I get upset and distressed. And despite the numbness, thinking about my dad has always made me feel distressed but never have I felt this much distress. I can't look at myself in a mirror anymore and I keep finding myself walking towards the balcony of my mother's room without thinking on impulse and its terrifying me. I've also recently switched to decaf, since I used to drink like several 750mL double strength iced coffees a day or like 6-7 cups of instant espresso. I cared more about the taste than the caffeine, and I wonder if caffeine withdrawl is making it even worse. Is it normal to just become a complete and utter wreck and relive traumatic stuff you want to escape after an extremely happy moment like coming out about gender identity and being accepted? Like you are numb for a long time and suddenly your emotional feelings are back and you are struggling to function because you can't stop thinking about all the stuff you've been through. I'm 26 and I'm distressed now that my mother's gone too and I'm worried if this is normal? It's not helped that this helpless feeling of like I am a child still, like a small child stuck in a body too old for what its used to and the realization that I am this old and desperately wanting to escape back to my childhood and do things differently to try and get a better outcome. I'm going to start uni again soon and I was thinking of getting a referral to another therapist that's actually LGBT friendly?
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Team has been involved in a substantial number of the digital media, sports, entertainment, leisure and gaming industries’ most significant merger and acquisition transactions, holding key positions at, and transacting with Scientific Games Corp, Inspired Gaming Group, FOX Bets, Ocean Casino Resort, Resorts International Holdings, PokerStars, DraftKings, Mohegan Sun, Caesars Entertainment Corporation, Harrah’s Entertainment,Tropicana Entertainment, Inc., TSG/Sky Betting & Gaming, Facebook, Inc, Wynn Resorts, Dubai World/MGM Resorts Here's all the Bios. These guys are stellar! TEKK closed at $10.30 today. Still cheap! If you don't like to read... you don't like to make money!!!! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Matthew Davey — Chief Executive Officer and Director Mr. Davey has over 25 years of experience within the digital media, sports, entertainment, leisure and gaming ecosystems, as well as experience in the public sector. He is an experienced public company executive officer and board member. He has served in executive management positions across the gaming technology arena. Over the course of Mr. Davey’s career, he oversaw more than ten mergers and acquisitions and over $1.2 billion in debt and equity capital raised to support the companies he has led. Most recently, Mr. Davey was Chief Executive Officer of SG Digital, the Digital Division of Scientific Games Corp. (“Scientific Games”) (Nasdaq: SGMS). SG Digital was established following the purchase by Scientific Games of NYX Gaming Group Limited (“NYX”) (formerly TSXV: NYX), where Mr. Davey served as Chief Executive Officer and Director. The NYX acquisition provided Scientific Games with a vehicle to significantly accelerate the scale and breadth of its existing digital gaming business, including the strategic expansion into sports betting. In his capacity as Chief Executive Officer of NYX, Mr. Davey developed and implemented a corporate strategy that generated strong revenue growth. Mr. Davey shaped company strategy to focus on digital gaming supplier platforms and content that provided various gaming operators with the underlying gaming and sports betting systems for their online gaming business. In 2014, Mr. Davey oversaw the initial public offering of NYX, and his experience in the digital media, sports, entertainment, leisure and gaming industries helped NYX recognize momentum as a public company. After the public offering, from 2014 to 2018, Mr. Davey oversaw seven acquisitions which helped establish NYX as one of the fastest growing global B2B real-money digital gaming and sports betting platforms. These acquisitions included: • OpenBet: In 2016, NYX completed the $385 million acquisition of OpenBet. This was one of the more complex and transformative acquisitions that Mr. Davey oversaw at NYX. Through securing co-investments from William Hill (LSE: WMH), Sky Betting & Gaming and The Stars Group (formerly Nasdaq: TSG, TSX: TSGI), Mr. Davey was able to get the acquisition from Vitruvian Partners completed successfully, winning the deal against much larger and well capitalized competitors. By combining two established and proven B2B betting and gaming suppliers, NYX was well positioned to provide customers with exciting player-driven solutions across all major product verticals and distribution channels. This allowed NYX to become the leading B2B omni-channel sportsbook platform in the market and the supplier to over 300 gaming operators globally with an extensive library of desktop and mobile game titles, including more than 700 on NYX platforms and more than 2,000 on the OpenBet platform. • Cryptologic/Chartwell: In 2015, NYX completed the $119 million acquisition of Cryptologic and Chartwell. The acquisition provided NYX with more than 400 titles of additional leading gaming content, a broader customer base, and direct exposure to PokerStars and Intercasino, part of the Gamesys Group (LSE: GYS) — two of the world’s largest online casino offerings. • OnGame: In 2014, NYX completed the distressed acquisition of OnGame, a premier poker content, platform and service provider. This acquisition provided NYX with one of the best poker products in the industry, access to several regulated jurisdictions, and a valuable talent pool that was instrumental in the growth of NYX. The addition of OnGame further established a path for NYX to continue its growth in both European and U.S. markets. These acquisitions, together with meaningful organic growth, increased NYX’s revenue from $24 million in 2014 to $184 million annualized in 2017. During that time, Mr. Davey helped build NYX to have over 200 customers in the global gaming industry and a team of 1,000 employees. Mr. Davey’s success at NYX ultimately led to its sale to Scientific Games for $631 million in 2018. Mr. Davey joined Next Gen Gaming, the predecessor to NYX, in 2000 as the Vice President of Technology, was appointed as Executive Director in 2003 and named Chief Executive Officer in 2005. Prior to that, he was the Senior Consultant for Access Systems, a company that specializes in the provision of back-end software for licensed online casinos. Prior to joining Access, Mr. Davey worked for the Northern Territory Government specializing in matters pertaining to the internet and e-commerce along with roles in the Department of Racing and Gaming. Mr. Davey received a Bachelor of Electrical & Electronic Engineering from Northern Territory University, Australia (also known as Charles Darwin University). Robin Chhabra — President Mr. Chhabra has been at the forefront of corporate acquisition activity within the digital gaming landscape for over a decade. His prior experience includes leading corporate strategy, M&A, and business development at two of the global leaders in the digital gaming industry, The Stars Group (“TSG”) and William Hill, and a leading supplier, Inspired Gaming Group (Nasdaq: INSE). Mr. Chhabra served on the Group Executive Committees of each of these companies. From 2017 to May 2020, Mr. Chhabra served as Chief Corporate Development Officer at TSG and, from 2019 to August 2020, he also served as the Chief Executive Officer of Fox Bet, a leading U.S. online gaming business which is the product of a landmark partnership between TSG and FOX Sports, a transaction which he led. During that period, Mr. Chhabra led several transactions which transformed TSG into the largest publicly listed online gambling operator in the world by both revenue and market capitalization and one of the most diversified from a product and geographic perspective with revenues of over $2.5 billion. Mr. Chhabra’s M&A experience is extensive and covers multiple global geographies across the digital gaming value chain and includes the following: • TSG/Flutter Entertainment Merger: In 2019, Mr. Chhabra led the TSG M&A team that was responsible for TSG’s $12.2 billion merger with Flutter Entertainment (LSE: FLTR). The merger between TSG and Flutter Entertainment is the largest transaction in the digital gaming industry to date. The combination created the largest publicly listed online gaming company with approximately 13 million active customers and leading product offerings, which include sports betting, online casino, fantasy sports and poker. The combined entity includes some of the world’s most iconic digital gaming brands such as Fanduel, Fox Bet, Sky Bet, PaddyPower, Betfair, PokerStars and SportsBet. TSG/Flutter Entertainment is one of the most geographically diverse digital gaming and media companies with leading positions in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Germany and Georgia. • TSG/Sky Betting and Gaming (“SBG”): In 2018, Mr. Chhabra led the acquisition of SBG from CVC Capital Partners and Sky plc, Europe’s largest media company, in a transaction valued at $4.7 billion. At the time of the acquisition SBG was the largest mobile gambling operator in the United Kingdom and one of the fastest growing of the major operators having doubled its online market share in three years. The acquisition of SBG provided TSG with (a) greater revenue diversification, significantly enhanced expertise and exposure to sports betting just ahead of the judicial overturn of The Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 (PASPA) by the U.S. Supreme Court, (b) a leading position within the United Kingdom, the world’s largest regulated online gaming market, (c) improved products and technology as a result of the addition of SBG’s innovative casino and sports book offerings and a portfolio of popular mobile apps, and (d) expertise in deeply integrating sports betting with leading sports media companies, positioning TSG to create more engaging content, deliver faster growth and decrease customer acquisition costs. • William Hill (LSE: WMH): At William Hill, from 2010 to 2017, Mr. Chhabra served as Group Director of Strategy and Corporate Development where he led several transactions which contributed to William Hill’s transformation from a land-based gambling operator in the United Kingdom to a leading online-led international business. Mr. Chhabra led William Hill’s entry into the U.S. sports betting and online lottery markets with the acquisition of four businesses, including the simultaneous acquisitions of three U.S. sportsbooks, Cal Neva, American Wagering and Brandywine Bookmaking, in 2011 for an aggregate purchase price of $55 million. These businesses ultimately led William Hill to achieve a leading position in the U.S. sports betting market with a market share of 24% in 2019. Additionally, Mr. Chhabra played a key role in structuring William Hill’s successful joint venture with PlayTech Plc (LSE: PTEC) in 2008. The combined entity created one of the largest online gambling businesses in Europe at the time of its formation and led to William Hill’s buyout of Playtech’s interest for $637 million in 2013. Prior to the transaction, William Hill had struggled in its attempt to establish a strong online gaming platform and a meaningful presence outside the United Kingdom. Mr. Chhabra has also successfully completed four transactions worth over $1.2 billion in Australia, the world’s second largest regulated online gambling market, and various partnerships in Asia. Additionally, he completed several technology and media related transactions, including William Hill’s investment in NYX, where he worked with Mr. Davey on NYX’s transformational acquisition of OpenBet. Prior to working in the gaming sector, Mr. Chhabra was an equities analyst and a management consultant. Mr. Chhabra received a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science. Eric Matejevich — Chief Financial Officer Mr. Matejevich is a seasoned gaming executive with extensive experience in both the online gaming and traditional casino industries. From February to August 2019, he served as Trustee and Interim-Chief Executive Officer of Ocean Casino Resort (“Ocean”) (formerly Revel Casino, which had a construction cost of $2.4 billion) in Atlantic City, where he successfully led the management team through an ownership change and operational turnaround effort. Over the course of seven months, Mr. Matejevich managed to reduce the property’s weekly cash burn of $1.5 million to an annualized cash flow run rate in excess of $20 million. Prior to Ocean, from 2016 to 2018, Mr. Matejevich served as the Chief Financial Officer of NYX. At NYX, he focused his efforts on integrating the company’s many acquisitions and multiple debt refinancings to simplify its capital structure and provided liquidity for growth initiatives. Additionally, Mr. Matejevich was instrumental to the executive team that sold NYX to Scientific Games for $631 million. Prior to NYX, from 2004 to 2014, Mr. Matejevich was the Chief Financial Officer of Resorts International Holdings and later, from 2011, also the Chief Operating Officer of the Atlantic Club Casino, a property under the Resorts International Holdings umbrella — a Colony Capital (NYSE: CLNY) entity. As Chief Financial Officer, he provided managerial oversight for all finance functions for a six-property casino company with annual gaming revenue exceeding $1.3 billion, 10,000 gaming positions, 7,000 hotel rooms and over 11,000 staff members during his tenure. Mr. Matejevich led the transition effort to integrate a four-casino, $1.3 billion acquisition from Harrah’s Entertainment and Caesars Entertainment (Nasdaq: CZR). As Chief Operating Officer of Atlantic Club, he lobbied for and was successful in obtaining the first internet gaming legislation passed in the United States. The Atlantic Club was the sole New Jersey casino proponent of the legislation. Prior to serving in various gaming positions, Mr. Matejevich was a Vice President of High Yield Research for Merrill Lynch, where he managed the corporate bond research effort for the gaming and leisure sectors and marketed high yield and other debt transactions totaling $4.8 billion. Mr. Matejevich received a Bachelor of Science in Economics from The Wharton School and a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations from The College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania. Our Board of Directors Morris Bailey — Chairman Over the past 10 years, Mr. Bailey has been a leader in turning around Atlantic City, as well as being among the first gaming executives to embrace online gaming and sports betting in the United States. In his efforts, Mr. Bailey partnered with two of the largest digital gaming companies in the world, PokerStars, part of the Stars Group, and DraftKings (Nasdaq: DKNG). In 2010, Mr. Bailey bought Resorts Atlantic City (“Resorts”) and initiated a comprehensive renovation which allowed for the property to be rebranded and repositioned. In 2012, Mr. Bailey signed an agreement with Mohegan Sun to manage the day-to-day operations of the casino. In addition to Mohegan Sun’s operational expertise and ability to reduce costs via economies of scale, Resorts gained access to their robust customer database. Soon thereafter, Mr. Bailey and his team focused on bringing online gaming to the property. In 2015, Resorts established a platform to engage in online gaming by partnering with PokerStars, now part of the $24 billion Flutter Entertainment, PLC (LSE: FLTR), to operate an online poker room in Atlantic City. In 2018, Resorts announced deals with DraftKings and SBTech to open a sportsbook on-property and online. For 2020 year-to-date, Resorts has performed in the top quartile in internet gross gaming revenue in New Jersey. Mr. Bailey’s efforts in New Jersey helped set the framework for expansion of online sports and gaming throughout the United States. In addition to his gaming interests, Mr. Bailey has over 50 years of experience in all facets of real estate development, asset M&A, capital markets and operations and is the founder, Chief Executive Officer and Principal of JEMB Realty, a leading real estate development, investment and management organization. Mr. Bailey has notable investment experience within the energy, finance and telecommunications sectors through investments in the Astoria Energy Plant, Basis Investment Group and Xentris Wireless. Tony Rodio — Director Nominee Mr. Rodio has nearly four decades of experience in the gaming industry. Most recently, Mr. Rodio served as the Chief Executive Officer and director of Caesars Entertainment Corporation (“Caesars”) (Nasdaq: CZR), one of the world’s most diversified casino-entertainment providers and the most geographically diverse U.S. casino-entertainment company, from April 2019 until its acquisition by Eldorado Resorts, Inc. in July 2020. Mr. Rodio led Caesars through its $17.3 billion merger with Eldorado Resorts, one of the largest transactions in the gaming industry to date. Additionally, Mr. Rodio was instrumental to Caesars’ expansion into the digital gaming industry and oversaw the implementation of new digital segments such as its Scientific Games powered retail sportsbook solution that now operates in various states throughout the U.S. From October 2018 to May 2019, Mr. Rodio served as Chief Executive Officer of Affinity Gaming. Prior to Affinity Gaming, he served as President, Chief Executive Officer and a director of Tropicana Entertainment, Inc. (“Tropicana”) for over seven years, where he was responsible for the operation of eight casino properties in seven different jurisdictions. During his time at Tropicana, Mr. Rodio oversaw a period of unprecedented growth at the company, improving overall financial results with net revenue that increased more than 50% driven by both operational improvements and expansion across regional markets. Mr. Rodio led major capital projects, including the complete renovation of Tropicana Atlantic City and Tropicana’s move to land-based operations in Evansville, Indiana. Each of these initiatives, among others, generated substantial value for Tropicana. Ultimately, Mr. Rodio’s efforts at Tropicana led to its sale to Eldorado Resorts in 2018 for $1.85 billion. Prior to Tropicana, Mr. Rodio held a succession of executive positions in Atlantic City for casino brands, including Trump Marina Hotel Casino, Harrah’s Entertainment (predecessor to Caesars), the Atlantic City Hilton Casino Resort and Penn National Gaming. He has also served as a director of several professional and charitable organizations, including Atlantic City Alliance, United Way of Atlantic County, the Casino Associations of New Jersey and Indiana, AtlantiCare Charitable Foundation and the Lloyd D. Levenson Institute of Gaming Hospitality & Tourism. Mr. Rodio brings extensive knowledge of and experience in the gaming industry, operational expertise, and a demonstrated ability to effectively design and implement company strategy. Mr. Rodio received a Bachelor of Science from Rider University and a Master of Business Administration from Monmouth University. Marlon Goldstein — Director Nominee Mr. Goldstein is a licensed attorney with nearly 20 years of experience in the gaming space. He joined The Stars Group (Nasdaq: TSG)(TSX: TSGI) in January 2014 as its Executive Vice-President, Chief Legal Officer and Secretary until his retirement from the company in July 2020 following the merger of TSG with Flutter Entertainment, PLC (LSE: FLTR). Mr. Goldstein also previously served as the Executive Vice-President, Corporate Development and General Counsel of TSG. Mr. Goldstein was also the senior TSG executive based in the United States and was one of the primary architects of TSG’s strategic vision for its U.S.-facing business. During his tenure, TSG grew from an approximately $500 million market-cap company to an approximately $7 billion market-cap company through a combination of organic growth and strategic mergers and acquisitions. Mr. Goldstein participated in numerous M&A transactions and capital markets offerings at TSG, including several transformational transactions in the digital gaming industry. Notable transactions in which Mr. Goldstein was involved include: • TSG/Flutter Merger: In 2019, TSG merged with Flutter for a $12.2 billion transaction value, the largest transaction in the digital gaming industry to date. • TSG/Fox Bet Partnership: In 2019, TSG entered into a partnership with FOX Sports to create FOX Bet in the U.S., a leading U.S. online gaming business. Wall Street Research estimates an approximate $1.1 billion valuation for Fox Bet post-partnership with The Stars Group. • TSG/Sky Betting & Gaming: In 2018, TSG acquired Sky Betting & Gaming, the largest mobile gambling operator in the United Kingdom at the time, for $4.7 billion. • TSG/CrownBet and William Hill: In 2018, TSG simultaneously acquired CrownBet and William Hill, two Australian operators, for a total of $621 million in a multi-part transaction. • TSG/PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker: In 2014, TSG acquired The Rational Group, which operated PokerStars and Full Tilt and was the world’s largest poker business, for $4.9 billion. Through his ability to legally structure large and complex transactions, Mr. Goldstein was integral to TSG’s vision of becoming a full-service online gaming company. Additionally, he assisted in structuring TSG’s capital markets activity, which generated liquidity for acquisitions and strengthened its balance sheet. Prior to joining TSG, Mr. Goldstein was a principal shareholder in the corporate and securities practice at the international law firm of Greenberg Traurig P.A., where he practiced for almost 13 years. Mr. Goldstein’s practice focused on corporate and securities matters, including mergers and acquisitions, securities offerings, and financing transactions. Additionally, Mr. Goldstein was the founder and co-chair of the firm’s Gaming Practice, a multi-disciplinary team of attorneys representing owners, operators and developers of gaming facilities, manufacturers and suppliers of gaming devices, investment banks and lenders in financing transactions, and Indian tribes in the development and financing of gaming facilities. Mr. Goldstein brings experience and insight that we believe will be valuable to a potential initial business combination target business. Mr. Goldstein received a Bachelor of Business Administration with a concentration in accounting from Emory University and a Juris Doctorate with highest honors from the University of Florida, College of Law. Sean Ryan — Director Nominee Mr. Ryan is a digital media and technology operator with extensive global experience in online payments, e-commerce, marketplaces, mobile ad networks, digital games, enterprise collaboration platforms, blockchain, real money gaming and online music. Since 2014, Mr. Ryan has been serving as Vice President of Business Platform Partnerships at Facebook, Inc. (“Facebook”) (Nasdaq: FB), where he leads a more than 500 person global organization that manages the Payments, Commerce, Novi/Blockhain, Workplace and Audience Network businesses. Prior to his current role, Mr. Ryan was hired in 2011 as the Director of Games Partnerships to lead and grow the global Games business at Facebook. While the Director of Games Partnerships, Mr. Ryan focused on re-shaping Facebook’s games and monetization strategies to derive more value for Facebook, its users and its partners, including the addition of a Real Money Gaming offering in regulated markets. Mr. Ryan’s team helped accelerate a major trend in engagement through cross-platform games and therefore the opportunity to increase users through establishing games on multiple platforms. Prior to joining Facebook, Mr. Ryan created the new social and mobile games division at News Corp, an American multinational mass media corporation controlled by Rupert Murdoch. While at News Corp, Mr. Ryan led the acquisition of Making Fun, a San Francisco social-game start-up, that created News Corp’s games publishing division. Before joining News Corp., Mr. Ryan founded multiple digital businesses such as Twofish, Meez, Open Wager and SingShot Media. Mr. Ryan co-founded Twofish in 2009, a virtual goods and services platform that provided developers with data analytics and insights for individual application’s digital economies. Twofish was later sold to online payments provider Live Gamer, where Mr. Ryan served on the board of directors. From 2005 to 2008, Mr. Ryan founded and led Meez.com, a social entertainment service combining avatars, web games and virtual worlds. The white label social casino gaming company Open Wager was spun out of Meez and was later sold to VGW Holdings, Mr. Ryan also co-founded SingShot Media, an online karaoke community, which was sold to Electronic Arts (Nasdaq: EA) and merged into its Sims division. We believe Mr. Ryan’s experience will be valuable to a potential initial business combination target and would provide an expanded perspective on the digital gaming landscape. Mr. Ryan received a Bachelor of Arts from Columbia University and a Master of Business Administration from the University of California, Los Angeles. Tom Roche — Director Nominee Mr. Roche has more than 40 years of experience in the gaming industry as a regulator, advisor and independent auditor. Mr. Roche joined Ernst & Young (“EY”) as a partner in 2003 and opened its Las Vegas office. He was subsequently appointed as the Office Managing Partner and Global Gaming Industry Market Leader. In 2016, Mr. Roche relocated to the EY Hong Kong office to supervise the expansion of the EY Global Gaming Industry practice in the Asia Pacific region. Mr. Roche has been integral to numerous transactions that have shaped the current gaming landscape, including: • Wynn Resorts (Nasdaq: WYNN) initial public offering: Mr. Roche was the lead partner on Wynn Resort’s initial public offering, which raised $450 million in 2002. • Harrah’s Entertainment/Apollo Management Group & Texas Pacific Group: Mr. Roche headed the regulatory advisory services on the buyout of Harrah’s Entertainment, the world’s largest casino company at the time, for $17.1 billion. • Dubai World/MGM Resorts: Mr. Roche headed the regulatory and due diligence advisory services to Dubai World in its approximately $5.1 billion investment in MGM. Dubai World bought 28.4 million MGM shares, or 9.5 percent of the casino operator, for $2.4 billion. It then invested $2.7 billion to acquire a 50% stake in MGM’s CityCenter Project, a $7.4 billion 76-acre Las Vegas development of hotels, condos and retail outlets. • MGM Growth Properties (NYSE: MGP) initial public offering: Mr. Roche provided tax and structural transaction services to MGM Resorts in the creation of MGM Growth Properties, a publicly traded REIT engaged in the acquisition, ownership and leasing of large-scale destination entertainment and leisure resorts. MGM Growth Properties raised $1.05 billion in its 2016 initial public offering. Mr. Roche also directed EY advisory services to boards and management teams for profit improvement and technology related initiatives. In addition, Mr. Roche provided advisory support to the American Gaming Association on several research projects, including those specifically related to sports betting, the revocation of The Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 (PASPA) and anti-money laundering best practices in the gaming industry. Equally, he has assisted government agencies in numerous international locations with enhancing their regulatory approach to governing the industry especially in the online gambling sector. Prior to joining Ernst & Young, Mr. Roche served as Deloitte’s National Gaming Industry Leader and as the co-head of Andersen’s Gaming Industry Practice in Las Vegas. In 1989, Mr. Roche was appointed by then Governor of the State of Nevada, Robert Miller, to serve as one of three members of the Nevada State Gaming Control Board for a four-year term, where he was directly responsible for the Audit and New Games Lab Divisions. As a board member, he spent a substantial amount of time assisting global jurisdiction regulators enact gaming legislation in the design of their regulatory structure. During his career, Roche has been involved in numerous public and private offerings of equity and debt securities. His background includes providing casino regulatory consulting services to casino licensees and to federal and state agencies including the National Indian Gaming Commission and the Nevada State Gaming Control Board, and industry associations such as the Nevada Resort Association and the American Gaming Association. We believe Mr. Roche’s highly regarded reputation as a gaming auditor and advisor in the gaming industry will be valuable for us and a potential business combination target. Mr. Roche is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and is licensed by the Nevada State Board of Accountancy and Mississippi State Board of Public Accountancy. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from the University of Southern California.
Real Luck Group - $LUCK Welcomes Availability of Google Play Store Gambling Apps in 15 New Countries
Luckbox CEO Says Move is "Significant Boost" for the Betting Sector Real Luck Group Ltd. (TSXV: LUCK) (the "Company") and its subsidiary companies doing business as "Luckbox" (the "Group"), a provider of legal, real money esports betting, has welcomed the news that gambling apps will be available for download in the Google Play Store in 15 countries. Google's updated policy, which can be found at https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developeanswe10318510, states that starting March 1, 2021, gambling apps will be available for download on Android devices in the U.S., Australia, Belgium, Canada, Colombia, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Romania, Spain, and Sweden. This expands the geographical reach of Google Play Store gambling apps beyond Brazil, France, Ireland, and the United Kingdom, countries where in-app gambling is already available through the Google Play Store. Quentin Martin, Real Luck Group Ltd. CEO, said: "Google's addition of 15 nations (for a total of 19) that can now download gambling apps is a significant boost for the igaming sector. As an operator offering wagering on esports and sports via our Luckbox platform, this is a positive catalyst for the mobile betting sector, as it facilitates further player uptake in a responsible manner and signals the widening global acceptance of gaming." According to the European Gaming & Betting Association, mobile betting was expected to account for 45.6% of online gambling revenue in 2020 and to reach 50.8% by 2022, surpassing the use of desktop for the first time. This trend is expected to continue, with mobile betting projected to reach a 58.2% share in 2025. Luckbox is a bespoke platform built to be mobile friendly with about 50% of our traffic coming via mobile users. The addition of a mobile app allows operators an improved connection with customers, such as real-time notifications, deeper integration with devices and additional security features. Disclaimer: this is not investment advice, please do your own research!
If you've ever been tempted to try Project M, whether you're curious on how your character functions in an older game or how your low tier secondary got revamped, now's a great time! Here's a quick overview of what PM & P+ are, how to set them up on a Wii or computer, and a quick FAQ about some of the more unique things about PM's situation. First things first, what is Project M? PM is a mod of Brawl from 2011 to make the gameplay more closely match Melee which quickly grew into its own beast. Most of the Brawl characters are significantly changed and the Melee low tiers have been buffed and given some extra TLC to stay competitive. Project M is a great mix of Melee's speed and core gameplay with a lot of Brawl's more unique tech like RAR & DACUS That being said, what is Project+? P+ is a community-led balance patch released in 2019. Project+ adds Knuckles, several new moves across the cast, and implements tons of quality of life improvements from a separate mod, Legacy TE. Project+ is still ongoing as of November 2020 on version 2.15, but is mostly on bugfix duty at this point and the team expects to change little from here on. Now, as for how to set up the game: Note: Every version of Project M or Project+ will require an NTSC (North American or Japan) Brawl game disc, or NTSC Brawl ISO. The Brawl ISO can be legally obtained with a physical copy of the game. If you want to run PM or P+ on a Homebrew Wii, the guide to install the Homebrew Channel and get that set up is here. For Project M 3.6 on Windows, you'll need: -NTSC Brawl ISO And that's it! The specific build of Dolphin is available in this step-by-step guide from Anther's Ladder that also covers how to set up online play: For Project M 3.6 on Wii, you have two options: -Hackless Method (will need the NTSC Brawl game disc and a 2GB SD card - a larger card, SDHC card, or SDXC card will not work) -Homebrew Method (will need the NTSC Brawl game disc and an SD card at least 2GB (SDXC cards still will not work but larger SD cards and SDHC cards will work) The appropriate files (not including game disc or ISO) can be found at this archive site. It also details how to install either version. If additional troubleshooting is required the best resources would be the support channel in the Project M General Discord server. I've linked Smashcords here and at the bottom of the post and that has invites to pretty much all of the Project M/Project+ servers The Project+ files you'll need for installation are all on this page here. The other requirements are the same as Project M, either an NTSC Brawl ISO or NTSC Brawl game disc. And if playing on Wii, a 2GB SD Card (can be larger with homebrew). There are very efficient guides for Project+ installation on both Dolphin and Wii that are linked below. Both also contain significant troubleshooting tools and links to the appropriate troubleshooting and support channels in Discord servers. Text guide and video guide Anther's Ladder has another guide for Project+ online play specifically, linked here, complete with common troubleshooting! ________________________________________________________ Q: I don't have a copy of Brawl, where can I get the ISO? I can't help you get an ISO, you're on your own for that. Q: I live in a PAL region (Europe, Australia, pretty much anything aside from NA & Japan), can I still play? Yes! You'll need to Homebrew your Wii or obtain an NTSC ISO for Dolphin, but it is still playable on a PAL Wii. Q: What happened to Project M? The original team developed the mod until the end of 2015, where they split apart, fearing possible legal action from Nintendo. No legal action, or threat of legal action, was levied against the team. Version 3.6 is the last version of Project M. Q: Which one should I get? Most tournaments in North America pre-COVID were running P+, so if you're interested in competitive play probably check that out. Even if you're not, P+ is built off of another mod, Legacy TE, as a base and has a ton more skins and stage alts compared to Project M. Additionally, here are several useful links: Discord servers (for all Smash games) - https://smashcords.com/ List of PM Techniques - https://www.reddit.com/SSBPM/comments/3m9sf6/project_m_advanced_techniques/ PM/P+ Subreddit - https://www.reddit.com/SSBPM/ If you have any questions I'll do my best to answer them below, thanks for reading to the end!
Everything you've ever wanted to know about Blockbuster in 2021 but were afraid to ask.
Blockbuster, in 2021?? What gives? I know, right?? As best we know, there exists ONE store in the world. It’s in Bend, Oregon. This is the one you keep hearing about as “The Last Blockbuster.”
They have their own website, bendblockbuster.com, and you can buy merchandise from them online!
The only other official Blockbuster service offering movies is an on-demand service in Denmark. They also have a YouTube Channel. But didn’t Blockbuster close all of its stores years ago? Kind of. The short version is that Dish Networks (the US satellite TV provider) bought Blockbuster in 2011 and there were just over 3,000 stores at the time. At the end of 2013, they announced they were shutting down all of their corporate owned stores. The last ever rental was “This is the End” in a Hawaii store on November 9, 2013 before the stores went into liquidation. The liquidation lasted until January 2014, and the stores closed their doors. But that wasn’t the end of Blockbuster? Nope! This left 50 or so franchised (ie, independently owned) stores still operating. As long as they could pay Dish for the name, they could stay a Blockbuster. Many of these were in Alaska, Texas, and other parts of the US that less-than-ideal internet connections where streaming wasn’t a great option. One by one, these stores closed.
There were the last Blockbusters in Alaska, which were also made famous by John Oliver’s stunt to gift them Russel Crowe’s jock strap. The last two Alaska stores closed in July 2018. And today, all we have is Blockbuster store in Bend, Oregon mentioned above.
What about outside the US? The Wikipedia page for international Blockbuster operations is a little spotty in terms of complete updates on each territory. The short version is that the name “Blockbuster” was licensed, sub-licensed, and co-owned in different territories around on the world. Most ceased operations in the late 1990’s up until the early 2010’s, and by the end of 2020, all of the stores are gone. Some notable examples:
Australia had one store in Morely (a suburb of Perth), They announced their closure at the end of March 2019. They stopped renting videos as of March 7th and held a liquidation sale on March 31st, 2019. This store was often thought of as the “sister” store to the one in Bend, Oregon.
There were a number of stores operating in New Zealand. Many started to close around 2007, but up until their closure in January 2020, an independent video store proudly displayed the Blockbuster signage (most likely not legally).
Then there’s the Italy stores. There were two stores in Florence. They were operating as of January 2020 and closed sometime between that and August 2020. Their presence was pretty much a mystery. They weren’t paying Dish for the name, but they may have legitimately had the right to use the name from other ownership deals in the territory. The truth is, we’ll probably never know. I did a deep dive here, and discovered the stores were closed this past December.
Haven’t some Blockbusters re-opened temporarily? There have been some pop-up shops in recent years, offering a taste of nostalgia for promotional purposes, but they weren’t full Blockbuster stores:
At the end of April, 2020 in Melbourne, Australia, a burger place called Royal Stacks set up a "Blockbuster" section in their restaurant. This section offers DVD's for purchase only along with candy for sale. This was done to help their employees who are struggling during the COVID crisis. Whether or not this is still around as of this writing is unclear, as is how "official" it was.
I’m seeing Blockbuster products on store shelves lately. What’s up with that? Dish is trying to make some money on nostalgia because, hey, why not?
There was a digital tie-in announced in January 2020. Sling TV announced "Flashback Friday" movies you can watch for free and they were using the Blockbuster branding. I’m not sure how long this lasted for.
So what killed Blockbuster? It was Netflix, right? I bet it was Netflix! Netflix had a big part, but there were a ton of other reasons:
On-Demand was becoming a big thing in the late 2000’s. People who had analog cable were being forced by cable companies to switch to digital boxes where they could order a movie at home pretty easily. Also around this time, the pay-per-view windows were shrinking dramatically. At this point, why go to Blockbuster to maybe get the movie you want, go back to return it, when on-demand offered it for the same price?
Redbox also helped kill Blockbuster by A LOT. By strategically placing themselves in everyday locations like Walmart, 7-Elevens, grocery stores, etc, they offered essentially the same service with much less overhead. They also purchased Blockbuster’s own DVD kiosks in 2012, which had been operated by 3rd party.
Blockbuster didn’t exactly lie down when Netflix started to rise, either. They formed their own mail-in service in the mid-2000’s, offering the added value of being able to return the discs to a retail location. Franchise owners at the time were NOT happy about this. There was also an on-demand app that lasted from 2013 to 2015. It had spotty support on devices and was too little, too late.
There’s the famous story of how Blockbuster turned down the chance to buy Netflix for $50 million in 2000, but keep in mind that at the time Netflix was a struggling venture that failed to make any money, and there was big dot-com bust at the time.
There were also plans to make Blockbuster locations much more “retail” in terms of selling products, including electronics, that never got executed. Someone here linked the concept art of these stores at one point, but for the life of me I can’t find them. If you can find it, let me know!
There are some deep dives on Youtube that go into all of the various factors. This is one is pretty good.
I’ve seen some Blockbuster social media accounts. What’s the story with those?
Likely you’ve seen @LoneBlockbuster. That’s a parody account and it’s pretty funny. Some people think this is the Bend store’s account, but it’s not.
There was a troll account, @BlockbusterHQ that confused a few people into think the company was re-launching.
The official Blockbuster Twitter account is still a thing, presumably being controlled by Dish. They popped up in August 2020 for two tweets, basically as a promotion for the Bend store's AirBnB deal. Prior to that, they hadn't tweeted since 2014 promoting their liquidation.
There’s also various troll accounts for Blockbuster Uganda. I won’t link to any of them since they’re mostly just racist and/or not funny posts.
Now I want to rent a video at a physical store. Where do I go? You might be screwed. In the US, Hollywood Video closed in 2010, and Family Video announced their closure in January 2021 with 549 stores remaining. There are a handful a mom-and-pop stores still in operation across the country, feel free to do you own search. If you’re in Italy, there’s Blockbuster Village, a knock-off store. (https://blockbustervillage.it/). These are unrelated to the aforementioned Blockbusters found in Florence, Italy. There were a couple more around the world, but the list has shrunk every year. These are the only two I’m aware of. You seem to know more about Blockbuster than any sane person should. What gives? I was a former employee who started this sub in 2016 as kind of a joke. I’ve since used it to kill time and have gone down a rabbit hole of no return. Please send help.
Thankfully, Australians have an array of choices to choose from when it comes to online casinos. As online gambling is legal in Australia, there are various online casinos. But the best and the most popular names include Rich Casino, 7Reels Casino, Spin Palace, 7Spins Casino, Casino Moons and 21Dukes. Up to date, there are a number of licensed land-based casino venues on the territory of Australia. In addition, some kinds of gaming machines like video poker (pokies) and slots machines are also available for players in bars, clubs and pubs. Online gaming and gambling operations are also legalized. There are also those countries where online gambling is neither regulated nor prohibited. Online gambling availability in the World 2021. Depending on different approaches to gambling regulation in the world, all countries are divided into 4 groups. Countries where foreign online casinos are not blocked: However, overall, there’s an easy formula associated with gambling and online gambling laws in Australia. Casino gaming is legal in any of the land-based gambling venues across the country, and there’s at least one casino in every state and territory. Online casinos aren’t licensed and regulated in the Land Down Under. But operating online poker sites in Australia is illegal. It is illegal to provide an online casino to Australian players or provide gambling games for real money. Examples of these games are roulette, baccarat, video poker, blackjack and craps. Basically, any game that can be described as a mix of chance and skill. Online casino gaming is prohibited in Australia under the Interactive Gambling Act 2001 (Cth) (Interactive Gambling Act). However, a person may still apply for an ‘internet gaming licence’ in the Northern Territory and offer their gaming products outside of Australia in certain circumstances. (See detailed response below table.) Poker. ACMA. We bring you a detailed guide to Australian online gambling. Learn whether online casino gambling is legal in Australia, as well as whether taxes apply. It's illegal to provide some interactive gambling activities, such as 'online casinos', to someone in Australia. Examples include roulette, poker, craps, online 'pokies' and blackjack. Any game of chance, including games of mixed chance and skill played over the internet, is prohibited under the Interactive Gambling Act 2001 (IGA) if it's provided to someone who is physically in Australia.