(16F) I have been dating my boyfriend (16M) for 8 months. we started strong besides for when he went away some weekends and would text me for hours while he hung out with girls alone. then after December, we started to fight more. I suffer from a few different mental and physical issues., which made it very hard to go to school. after the first week of school (we met on the first day) rumors were going around that he had assaulted a girl. (they were in a group almost late for class when she fell behind and he grabbed her sweater to pull her to catch up and she never spread the rumors) so he got bullied pretty badly with that and people wanted to get a reaction out of him. about two months ago he had his last two hockey games and his mom invited an old friend of his. She started to push me away from him when I sat next to him in between his games or when we went into the bathroom and she would dream about him in front of me. he says he never would do anything with her but he ignored me when we went to get food with her and let go of my hand to make sure she didn't walk on the road.
he hides his phone a lot and lies to me about who he talks to. we are always arguing and fighting now and I always overreact. I'm questioning whether I truly love him or if this relationship is worth fixing. any help/advice would be great (almost all of his friends are female and when I asked his closest guy friend if I needed to worry his friend just laughed and hung up on me) he has full access to my phone and grabs it whenever he pleases. I've met his parents (who are split) and he met mine.

Our game has recently lost a player due to scheduling issues, so we are looking for another one to join us. We are 3 players and me, all in our early 20s.
What's the campaign about? We are a special forces unit working for the Empire of Valrun, a theocracy headed by the Council ever since our Godqueen disappeared. Some say she ascended, some say she abandoned her people, though those voices are discreetly silenced.
The Council’s mandate is to help prepare the world for her return, to achieve world domination for her. Your purpose is to be one of the iron hands that do the necessary work, your missions are secret and dangerous.
The game is structured, so you are assigned missions from your commander.
As a guideline, your character should be along the lines of lawful neutral, lawful evil or neutral evil, but teamwork and communication are required. So far we have a cleric, a fighter and a monk.
The foundation of the game will be fighting, looting and levelling, a lot of dungeon crawling. Optimising is encouraged! The game is probably 90% combat, 10% RP and pretty much no exploration. The vibes are not too serious.

• Some Homerules
• We are at level 7.
• Modified point buy
• Free feat at level 1
• Free feat with every ASI
• Downtime
• Plenty of magic Items

I’m open to Homebrew and reworking bad abilities, for example removing exhaustion from berserker rage or assassin rogue’s assassinate working on creatures that haven’t taken a turn yet instead of only on surprised creatures.
When? Weekly, Thursdays at 8pm GMT+1, sessions last ~3 hours.
Where? Discord for communication, character sheets on DND Beyond or Roll20, maps on Roll20.
Who am I? I'm 23 and go by they/them, I've run and played a couple games over the last 3 years.
What do I want from you? I want engaged players who know the game, are willing to give feedback and really enjoy combat.
If you’re interested, send me a private message with a couple words about yourself, your thoughts, your dnd experience or any questions you might have. :) Thank you for reading this!

In this megathread you can ask any question about Punishing: Gray Raven as well as seek help for past or future content. More than likely, a kind frequenter of this subreddit will be able to give you an answer! Remember to be patient while waiting for answers and kind when writing them.
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GRAY RAVENS

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• Beginner's Guide
• ⚠ Future Character Roadmap ⚠
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The greatest player in WSL history is leaving the club. On a free. At the age of 27. The GOAT. Vivianne Miedema.
Over the next few months we will hear and see the stats over and over. 172 appearances, 125 goals, 50 assists. Over a goal or assist a game. Incredible. But the true pleasure was just watching her play, something we’ve all been robbed of over the last few years. That may have been nobodies fault, but I could certainly name whose fault it is that we will be robbed of watching the rest of her career.
For such pioneers of women’s football, Arsenal have handled Vivianne Miedema’s departure horrifically. Women’s football is not the same as Men’s and should not be run in the same way. In women’s football relationships are built between fans and players as quickly as lesbians fall in love. The accessibility is there and encouraged. Rightly or wrongly, winning isn’t always everything, the priority is growing the game and inspiring the next generations.
Make no mistake, not offering Viv a contract at 27 years of age is the same as Barcelona turning around to Alexia Putellas and not offering her a contract. It is the same as letting Thierry Henry leave on a free. In no world is it a sensible decision. In no world does it make sense for team aiming to win trophy’s. And in no world is any true Arsenal fan going to allow this to be swept under the rug. Could there really not have been a conversation about a contract even if the club felt it was a risk? Could that conversation not have been had? This is Vivienne Miedema, with all due respect, there is nobody better.
This is a huge disrespect and something that the club, specifically Jonas and Edu need to address publicly. Especially if the plan is for Jonas to continue. Not only that it brings into question the ambition of the club, within minutes Man City are sniffing and being vocal about it.
But as difficult as it is for us fans, and as baffling, the real victim is Viv.
To Viv, thank you, thank you, thank you. Not just for what you have done for the club on the pitch, for who you are off it. For being unapologetically yourself, and showing us the most important thing is you and your wellbeing regardless of what directions you are being pulled in. We will always be holding out hope that there will be a U-turn and you end up staying, but the reality is even if the club were too they don’t deserve your forgiveness for this. I hope wherever you end up you don’t just confirm what everyone except the club knows, but make Arsenal have to re-evaluate every persons position who helped come to this conclusion. Because it’s the wrong one, and I’ll die on that sword. But who knows, maybe one day you’ll be winning the WSL with us as manager. I’ll be wishing it in every shooting star I see.
I know we will have to let it go, just as you will have had too, but we aren’t ready yet.
So whilst we may not be ready to say So Long Viv just yet, we will never be able to listen to that song without thinking of you.

There's a new movement on social media called "Blackout 2024" sparked by celebrities' views (or lack thereof) on Palestine.
Context:
Last week's Met Gala highlighted the disparity between celebrity opulence and global suffering. Influencer Haley Baylee (real name Haley Kalil) posed in an extravagant floral gown, saying, "Let them eat cake" along with a TikTok sound. This phrase, attributed to Marie Antoinette, symbolizes an out-of-touch attitude toward the suffering of the masses. Although historians doubt she actually said it, the phrase remains a powerful symbol of severe wealth inequality.
Photos of the Met Gala flooded social media alongside images of Israel's attack on Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. The stark contrast between celebrities displaying wealth and Palestinians mourning their dead shocked the world. People compared it to The Hunger Games, where the wealthy Capitol residents dressed opulently while children died in the games. The book series' author, Suzanne Collins, drew inspiration from flipping between Iraq War coverage and reality TV shows.
The Blackout 2024 Movement:
TikTok user @ladyfromtheoutside started the Blackout 2024 movement, frustrated with celebrities' silence on Palestine. "It’s time to block all the celebrities, influencers, and wealthy socialites who are not using their resources to help those in dire need," she said in a video with 2.5 million views. "We gave them their platforms. It’s time to take it back, take our views away, our likes, our comments, our money."
People have differing views on who deserves to be blocked. For example, some believe Billie Eilish should be boycotted for not posting about Palestine, while others argue her Ceasefire pin at the Oscars showed her stance.
Celebrities Respond:
Some celebrities have spoken out. Haley Baylee posted a nearly 9-minute apology video, explaining she wasn't an official Met Gala guest but a host interviewing celebs. She claimed ignorance on the Palestine issue, which drew backlash. Critics argued that in the seven months since the attacks began, there has been ample time to educate oneself.
Three days ago, Lizzo posted a TikTok sharing GoFundMe pages and organizations helping people in Palestine, Sudan, and Congo, stating she had donated to all three. Commenters pointed out the timing and questioned why a millionaire asked regular people to donate.
Impact:
The campaign seems to be making an impact. Haley Baylee's follower count dropped from 10 million to 9.9 million. Social media users claim Kim Kardashian also lost followers after her ambiguous "Free everybody" comment to a "Free Palestine" protestor.
Operation Blockout:
Online critics argue that events like the annual Met Gala, where elite figures from the fashion world showcase their extravagant styles, highlight the disconnect between such opulence and pressing social issues. As attendees dazzled in dramatic attire, protests in support of Palestine were underway just blocks away in New York City. This juxtaposition sparked the inception of "Operation Blockout."
TikTok users such as @blockout2024, who is credited with founding the celebrity blocking campaign, have called out several of the world's biggest names. Users, from Kim Kardashian to Taylor Swift to Justin Bieber, did not hold back. In one video, @blockout2024 said followers have "full control of celebrities' money and lives." "When we hate on them, they make money. When we praise them, they make money. But when we block their social media accounts and completely forget their names, they lose it all," he said. "The amount of attention we give them and the amount of engagement we give them is their direct currency. Take it from them."
Reducing celebrities' followers aims to pressure them to highlight issues in Palestine and Sudan. Jenny, a TikTok user from Vietnam, told The New Arab that "the genocide going on in Palestine" prompted her to join the campaign. "The algorithm of TikTok allows anyone, regardless of age, sex, or societal status, to go viral if their content aligns with the interests of other users. That's why the portrayal of any social issue on TikTok is non-biased and very authentic since it's the voice of mundane people like you and me," she said.
"I've never been able to comprehend the power of social media until I saw a whole movement to support Palestine, Congo, and Sudan start from TikTok. Especially among Gen-Zs, who are perceived to be the generation that's much more sensitive to social matters."
The 22-year-old TikToker reiterated that with power comes responsibility, adding that celebrities' silence has contributed to the miseducation of humanitarian crises worldwide. "I personally feel so much rage at why people can put so much effort into participating in a lavish event, which costs thousands of dollars while being completely ignorant of the fact that people are being bombed to pieces on the other side of the world," she told The New Arab. "The Met Gala 2024 depicted the imbalance of power and resource distribution in our society."

After dinner, the roommates doesn’t to play a game and Jenni comes up to Mike and says” We all know who the fakest in the house is” and Mike says “Jenni” and Snooki sees that Pauly, and Vinny nodded. Now my question is was Snooki wrong for telling Jenni that people were calling her fake?

To start off with I live in a house share of 3 individuals and a dog, we are previous childhood friends. One flatmate is extremely antisocial and I am trying to figure out if I have been gaslit.
To give some context I’ve been living with my flatmates partner against my will since September 2023. Both me and my other flatmate tried to make clear we were uncomfortable about this months ago. He is extremely messy and had previously punched other men whilst drunk on more than one occasion. We gave these as reasons for us not wanting to be left alone with him in the house. Instead he was given a house key and it took months for this to be readdressed, any discussions we had were forgotten and messages we would send were ignored. In April 2024 we have been told his housing situation was “tricky” and that the flatmate in question needed him here as he was her only support system. She did not give the option of him moving out but instead told us he might be moving out in May 2024. In those 6 months we have been forced to pay his food bill for weeks (we previously had a communal food supply and had to separate and label our food because she kept feeding him without any contribution ) We have had to clean up continually for them both (both of them are very messy and often left spaces needing to be cleaned before being used.) We are told that because food is now separate bringing this up as an example of her disrespect is unacceptable. I have brought up that it is still extra labor in having to clean more often, and spend more money for cleaning products and was told that isn’t true and that they contribute fairly ( Since discussions of us feeling extremely used he has occasionally replaced coffee and toilet paper, paid bills once as of April 2024, does the dishes and occasionally does the bins) we are the ones doing most of the cleaning and always have done so this is an unfair split of labour in my opinion (the dog is also hers so we are cleaning up after 2 adults and a dog)
Neither of them have attempted to communicate over anything, my flatmates partner turned up one day with his dad and moved his things, when I told my flatmate this was not cool they laughed in my face and made a dismissive joke. Neither of them communicated to us that he had been thrown out of his previous house and would be living here. We would just find him in the house when we were under the impression we were home alone.
I realise I could have spoken to him directly, but for some reason was convinced that it would be snakey towards my flatmate to confront him and ask him why he felt so comfortable to dump his labour onto myself and my other flatmate as a 28yr old grown man, so instead everybody in the house just avoided each other with a very passive aggressive environment, in which we all participated in silent treatment. At its peak myself and the flatmate in question would be shoulder barging each other, which is very toxic and sad.
So far the reason given for him not ever cleaning up after himself was that he did not think it would be appropriate and we created a passive aggressive environment. ( We were very angry in this period, I myself even snapped on occasions where I raised my voice at my flatmate saying cruel things which I am ashamed of. This was in response to me feeling as though I was being used as a personal maid)
To give some more context to my own shitty behaviour spaces in the house were regularly left to a point of being unusable, unless we did it ourselves. This involved a months long flea infestation that was so severe you could not be in the house without being jumped on, we repeatedly tried to address this until the point we just dealt with it ourselves. I have had my TV broken when my flatmate was partying with friends which took months to even be acknowledged and not be told that it was not the right time to ask about it. Myself and my other flatmate have had to buy a separate fridge as we literally could not get our food into the houses shared fridge because we were left little space and were still having to regularly clean out others mouldy food. The dog is extremely reactive, he has anxiety and is often only given 2 or 3 short walks a week and spends the majority of his time in one bedroom, so being in the house with him means constant barking and he has been quite destructive. For months she would leave her dog whilst out partying and ignored all messages trying to bring up this forced labour.
Around this time something in me just broke, I actively tried to be petty and use a tit for tat mentality in how I treated her. This involved a lack of care for her items, refusing to do any labour for her, separating every single little thing, giving each other silent treatment. My OCD had been badly triggered after living in a flea infested house, this caused me to go into overdrive with cleaning where I would snap at any little mess. This was too much from me and it was a little controlling, but the situation was then reframed as me being “controlling” and not allowing my flatmate to ever relax in their house, rather than ever returning to the original upset of forced labour.
(I am going to give an example of a game she enjoyed playing with me here to try and explain what I feel has been done to me. She used to come over and start playfully hitting me, she would then ignore me saying no or stop, then when I blew up she would say don’t talk to me like that and frame it as me being angry and shouting at her inappropriately. I have had to address this with her and she has not played this game with me again, but I’ve seen her do it to someone else since and laugh in their face whilst visibly upsetting them, so I know they still enjoy doing it to others. Though just a silly game, this comfortability with ignoring a no and their ability to genuinely convince herself she hasn’t been given a boundary is one that bleeds into real life. )
On one occasion during an argument regarding labour I shouted at her to ‘fuck off back to neglecting your dog’ and I’m sure there were other things I probably said in an attempt to hurt her as much as I was hurting. I take zero pride in this and am deeply ashamed that I lowered myself to that behaviour. She herself belittled me in front of shared friends telling me “you never do anything for me you only do things for others you do nothing for me” over and over until I left the room. We had a huge row where she came down mid shower (as the hot water goes if multiple taps are on) whilst I was doing her dishes as the kitchen was a complete shit hole. I then told her no I’m not going to stop because i need to use my kitchen, and she told me i was disgusting for banning her from showering I told her she was disgusting for leaving the house as she did (I’m not exactly sure my exact words) she then told me “‘theres no room talking to you when ur like this”. Neither of us were right in this but I am giving it as an example of how toxic it is in the house.
A few days following this I said that if she refuses to discuss anything when she is leaving the house unusable for others and her partner is freeloading that I would report her to the landlord (I am not working on logic at this time but because I have been in fight or flight for months) she then told me it was disgusting to threaten her with homelessness and that she would never do something like that to me. I did not mean it as an intimidation tactic or maybe I did I’m not sure, it’s hard to think logically after being ignored over months.
After the threat I made to contact the landlord we discussed all of this, some of which she acknowledged, we both made an effort to apologise. However she tried to diminish the labour her and her partner purposefully used us for, would not give specifics about him moving out, and refused to apologise for belittling telling me she did not remember and it is not something she would ever say so she doesn’t know what I expect her to do. They told me I was not paying extra or doing more labour with an additional person living here. They have since cleaned the garden of bags of shit and dirty underwear that were left out for months, and made small efforts to be cleaner. However most of the house labour still falls onto us. (Some more context they very recently were injured and no longer can clean right now. This I understand completely however I would be lying if I didn’t feel burdened and obligated to now have to do that labour, or to help them with basic tasks when I can barely look at them without feeling sick, also I am still doing labour for her partner).
We have tried to meet her on every level for a very long time, previously we have had discussions about asking her when she is free rather than just dropping things on her, using a house chat, using a cleaning chart. We have tried to compromise and she has ignored all of these after agreeing to them. When I have gone to ask if she is free I have had her snap ‘what now’ I have seen her roll her eyes to others regarding a cleaning chart she agreed to because others were tired of cleaning for her, ignored all messages in the house chat.
My property has been repeatedly damaged or not taken care of as has others. I’ve had to spend over £100 easily. I am so tired of being ignored, laughed at or given no response at all to continual lack of consideration for others and their boundaries. My reactivity does need to be worked on, yes. However theres only so far people can be pushed before they snap, and I’m terrified that I’m going to break again.
When I’ve discussed this with others who have lived with her to see if they noticed this pattern of behaviour they knew exactly what I was talking about, which worries me.
To sum up I do not feel safe in this house, my back is permanently against the wall as I am just waiting for the next boundary violation at this point. This has already happened in truth as we recently received a letter saying we were overdue for council tax which threatened court if not paid off, I paid off mine and I didn’t bother to ask my flatmate to send over the remaining owed money as I am fed up of having all communication ignored and did not want to wait for her to be bothered to send me the money. If there is something that needs her attention you often need to ask for it to be done over and over which again is labour in the first place. As far as I’m aware this bill is still overdue as I have been completely ignored regarding it.
I do not think she truly realises that she has deeply traumatised myself and my flatmate through giving us no autonomy over who lives in this house or leaving us to care for her dog. My OCD is still pretty bad and being in this house or around her makes my skin crawl. So I guess I am wondering if I have been gaslit? Taking my own toxic behaviour into account I do not know whether I can criticise her or if I am being hypocritical in labelling her as toxic. My memory is too foggy to remember a lot of what has actually happened, but I have this of strong feeling of disillusionment that will not leave. I am stuck in this house until October 2024, and I am trying to just get on with it, but I can’t stop obsessing over what has happened, sometimes it’s all I can think about. I feel too guilty or snakey to contact the landlord as she is a longtime friend and I am afraid she will badmouth me to others if I do so. She is my childhood friend and everything in me is telling me that this isn’t how a friend should treat you. I am desperate to be free of this situation but we have been friends since childhood and she is currently injured and also experiencing a bereavement so I feel obligated to just leave her be. Should I still be trying to meet her needs or do I need to be selfish and remove this person from my life?

Hi! I'm not sure if this is okay to post, but thought I'd give it a shot. My girlfriend is a huge fan of GW2. Her birthday is coming up and I'd like to get her something GW2 themed. I'm not super familiar with the game and was hoping to ask some experts (you guys!) for suggestions.
I'd like to surprise her and don't want to ask her too many questions in case she gets suspicious. Thought this subreddit would be a good place to get some ideas.
Really appreciate any help. Thanks!

Sorry for any mistakes, I'm not an english native speaker.
So first I'd like to clarify. I'm not criticizing people who want to marry a chaste person. I know zina is a sin and I don't want to promote or normalize it. I'm trying to understand and I'm asking the question here because it's the only muslim safe space in Reddit imo.
I might be spending too much time on the internet, but why is the ummah here obsessed with chastity ?
It's an ongoing topic that I always come across and I genuinely don't understand why people are obsessed with it when it comes to marriage ? As a 28F who recently got married, what I was looking for was a man who is a good muslim fearing man. Of course, chastity would have been nice but it wasn't mandatory. I didn't want to miss out on a man I could have liked because of his past, if he has repented. So what I was looking for was someone who respect me, not abusive, not sexist, with empathy, able to communicate, able to apologize, open minded, give me Islamic reminders, be a good father figure etc. If I had to choose between a chaste man who's brainwashed by alpha male podcast bros and a non chaste man who's not into that, I would have chosen the non chaste man. Without a blink.
I don't see how a person's intimate past defines his or her ability to be a good muslim partner. These are 2 completely different things. A person can be chaste but not have the qualities and maturity to be married. And we all know how important marriage is in Islam. It requires a lot of maturity, it's not a game.
So I'm wondering if there's something I dont understand. Is it an obsession men have ? Or is it because there are a lot of teenagers here and they lack the maturity to know what's really important in a spouse ? Or maybe it's a topic in the US ummah and because I'm in France, I'm not used to it ?

Hi everyone. A trigger warning as I mention SA. 💕
For those that have read my previous posts, I just wanted to say a huge huge thank you for all of your kind words. This has been a battle I’m trying to fight on my own, but knowing I have the support of a genuine group of people makes that weight easier to carry. I don’t feel so alone now.
For those who are new to my story, I discovered after 7 years of being with my partner that he had a hidden PA that stemmed from early childhood neglect and peers that SA’d him. I knew vaguely about his past, but did not know about the internal trauma that he carried into his adulthood (I’m 24F, partner 22M).
I’d recommend reading my previous post on here for more context, but my partner still feels as his duty that he needs to show his face to his family every now and then. (We live with my parents at the moment). He recently confessed to his mum, the inner turmoil he’s been dealing with as a result of neglectful parenting to which he didn’t really get the whole-hearted response he was expecting, and his mum also invalidated my feelings.
A few weeks ago, he arranged for us to go over to theirs this Saturday for a games evening. But I’ve found myself breaking out in nervous sweat at the thought now. How am I supposed to be able to look at his parents knowing what I know now? Knowing his feelings were never validated and they are a massive reason his PA/SA started? How am I supposed to look at his mum and joke and laugh despite her thinking that all of this upset about my partner’s PA is stupid? That my feelings are stupid?
It’s too soon. I don’t know what to do. He doesn’t owe his parents this visit. I’ve told him this. Maybe I’ll just drop him off and come back home. But I don’t want to create drama, and my absence would raise questions. My partner fully understands why I don’t want to go, and I know how much bravery it takes for him to face them, especially with his recent realisations.
But how do I get out of this? Or do I just see it through? What would you do in my situation?
As always, thank you all in advance. 💕

Long story short: 2 months ago my ex of 2 years in long distance dumped me via text, saying he needed time for himself and wants to focus on his goals. Everything was going super well apart the last month together, bc he'd rather spend time playing video games w his friends than calling me max twice a week. I immediately went no contact with him, only for him to reach out after 2 weeks saying he misses me, he can't let go of me, would love to keep me in his life but isn't ready to be in a relationship with anyone yet.
We started texting almost everyday since then, and I told him 2 times that I couldn't give him a friendship bc obvs I still have feelings for him, and he said that he hopes this time in contact would clear his head. A little over 2 weeks ago he started following this girl on instagram. She likes EVERY SINGLE post he makes, and I think they went out last week bc I could recognise his car from her story. Bear in mind, I proposed to follow each other on instagram if he felt comfortable w it, only for him to lie and say ''he wasn't using it that much, but to send him a request and he'd confirm once he'd download it again''. Only when I told him ''hey I know you're using it, why can't you just be direct and say you feel uncomfortable with me seeing what you're up to?'', he confirmed me. I found out he still has all our pics together, and posts of myself too, but also put up again posts with his ex prior to me from 5 years ago??? this girl ''allegedly'' traumatized him bc she was stalking his family and his co-workers and committed self harm. He swears he doesn't have feelings for her at all, and was just ''deleting his archived posts''. Why would he keep my pics then?
Yesterday I couldn't deal with all of these lies anymore, and directly asked him whether he was seeing that new girl, to which he replied ''no, she's just a friend. She asked me to come w her to a concert, but I'm too lazy to go hahah i don't want to'', and then I straight up asked him whether he still likes me or not. Obviously, as his usual, he ignored the text. For me, that was the realisation that I need to completely cut this guy out of my life, for the way he treats me, the way he chooses to lie to me despite him swearing he ''loves and cares for me, thinks i'm beautiful and likes how i am as a whole''.
Last text I sent was ''very mature of you to ignore these types of questions.'', to which he replied ''I wasn't ignoring you, I ''forgot'' to reply to it. By the way, just because of this, I almost don't like you''.

Hello, looking to build a small gaming PC for $1500 or so but willing to be flexible on price. Cheaper would be cool as well. Willing to spend up to $2000. My wife is getting into Fortnite and I’m trying to surprise her with something that meets her style requirements. Sleek and no crazy lights are things I know she’d like and possibly a small 4L or so case. She’s big into small form factor PCs at this time. I’ve looked into both the gemcase C9 and the Velka 3 cases and would love to incorporate one of these if possible. Also, are there any ways for the PC to be built and then shipped? May seem like a dumb question but I’m new to this, but willing to learn to build myself as well! Thanks Friends!
Edit: Also a big fan of Terra Mini-ITX Jade tower by Fractal design. Incorporating this case into a Pc that can run Fortnite at 60-120 FPS and 1080p if that’s possible would be legit!

Continuing on from part 1 (vault), in the lead up to the summer team selections and the Olympics, I am previewing the anticipated event final fields! Today: uneven bars.
All data is sourced from u/bretonstripes, u/freifrausicher, and Lauren from The Gymternet - thanks for your efforts!
Event Finalist Predictions
Note that gymnasts are listed by existing top score; this is not a prediction of the podium.

• Qiu Qiyuan 🇨🇳 (15.450)
• Kaylia Nemour 🇩🇿 (15.433)
• Shilese Jones 🇺🇸 (14.833)
• 2nd Chinese gymnast 🇨🇳 (14.366 - 14.800)
• Nina Derwael 🇧🇪 (14.700)
• Alice D'Amato 🇮🇹 (14.700)
• Melanie de Jesus dos Santos 🇫🇷 (14.533)
• 2nd American 🇺🇸 (14.466)

Preview
In the spirit of the Mustafina vs. Kocian duel of 2016 and the Derwael v. Lee duel of 2020, the bars final is once again anticipated to feature a showdown between a dominant top pair in Qiu 🇨🇳 and Nemour 🇩🇿. Together, they own the top 14 international scores since January 2023, and having both improved greatly in consistency, they are favored to take gold and silver in either order.
The early bronze medal favorite is Shilese Jones 🇺🇸, medalist in the previous two World finals, having hit 11 of her past 12 routines since a mental breakthrough in consistency at 2022 Worlds. A group of experienced competitors with a history of 14.5+ scores and routines in the 6.2-6.6 D-score can be expected to challenge Jones:

• Alice D'Amato 🇮🇹
• Rebeca Andrade 🇧🇷
• Rebecca Downie 🇬🇧
• Melanie de Jesus dos Santos 🇫🇷
• Naomi Visser 🇳🇱

As this group is rather inconsistent, D'Amato 🇮🇹 may have positioned herself as the most likely medal spoiler by hitting all six of her routines to date this year, including defending her European title. Andrade 🇧🇷 has also shown decent consistency this quad hitting 11 of her last 12 and 22 of 25 this quad; however, all three misses came at Worlds 2022 or 2023.
These eight gymnasts alone would make an extremely deep bars final, but there are three "dark horses" who could shake things up, both for the bronze medal race and qualification to the final:

1. Nina Derwael 🇧🇪: The reigning Olympic champion made an extremely impressive recovery from a shoulder dislocation in late 2023. Despite falling at Euros QF on bars, Derwael is on-track to be competitive in Paris, as adding back her trusty Downie or Nabieva boosts her to a 6.3 D-score. She is also no longer attempting any Tkatchev 1/2 skill which could boost her execution score, and is typically one of the most consistent bars workers.
2. 2nd Chinese 🇨🇳 gymnast: Had China been able to keep two-time World Champion Wei Xiaoyuan healthy, she likely would be the bronze medal favorite over Jones. Nevertheless, China has shown impressive depth on this event in 2024. Yang Fanyuwei, Hu Jiafei, and Zhang Yihan have all earned high scores with hit 6.4 routines internationally, while Huang Zhuofan (6.8) and Du Siyu (6.6) hit their difficult routines at nationals. Zhang Yihan and Du Siyu are the most likely to make the team currently, and though neither are favored to medal, it wouldn't be a shock either.
3. 2nd American 🇺🇸 gymnast: Biles has teased a couple upgrades on social media which could put her back in the medal game, but the real unknowns in the American bars scene are Lee and Douglas. Without any scores for hit routines and with questions swirling about stamina, they need to show strong performances at nationals to be considered team contenders, much less potential medalists. However, both are set to attempt at least a 6.4 difficulty routine, which would put them in the mix for bronze given their typically high execution scores.

Interesting notes:

• While both the vault field and the bars field features the reigning World medalists favored to podium once again this year, the rest of the bars field is much deeper: only Visser 🇳🇱 made the 2023 final of the top challengers listed here. Charpy's 14.133 cutoff last year could rise at least four tenths of a point for the Olympic final, whereas vault is expected to rise at most two tenths.
• The difficulty at the top of the bars field has been pushed so far in the last eight years: Mustafina's routine (the most difficult in the Rio 2016 final) is valued at 6.4 today, while both Qiu 🇨🇳 and Nemour 🇩🇿 are likely to attempt routines valued at a gigantic 7.2 D-score. These two gymnasts may well be performing the most difficult routines of all time on this event!
  • Specifically, Qiu's routine has a massive 4.2 points in base value from the top 8 skills, while Nemour's routine "only" has 3.9 base value but earns a whopping 1.3 points in bonus.
• Should Zhang Yihan 🇨🇳 compete, she will be the the first WAG to compete two layout skills on bars at the Olympics - Derwael competed two at the Osijek World Cup 2021.
• Should Rebecca Downie 🇬🇧 medal, she will be the second-oldest uneven bars medalist (age 32) at the Olympics after Agnes Keleti in 1956 (age 35)!

Top Eight International Scorers of 2024 Italicized gymnasts are ineligible for the Tokyo Final (didn't qualify or 2PC)

Rank	Gymnast	Score	Difficulty
1	Qiu Qiyuan 🇨🇳	15.450	6.8
2	Kaylia Nemour 🇩🇿	15.433	7.0
3	Kate McDonald 🇦🇺	14.850	6.1
4	Yang Fanyuwei 🇨🇳	14.800	6.4
5	Rebeca Andrade 🇧🇷	14.700	6.2
6	Alice D'Amato 🇮🇹	14.700	6.4
7	Rebecca Downie 🇬🇧	14.633	6.6
	Hu Jiafei 🇨🇳	14.600	6.4
8	Melanie de Jesus dos Santos 🇫🇷	14.533	6.2
	Zhang Yihan 🇨🇳	14.500	6.4
R1	Elisa Iorio 🇮🇹	14.466	6.3
R2	Elsabeth Black 🇨🇦	14.400	6.0
R3	Jayla Hang 🇺🇸	14.350	5.9

Relevant 2023 Scores

Gymnast	Score	Difficulty	Event
Shilese Jones 🇺🇸	14.833	6.4	Worlds
Huang Zhuofan 🇨🇳	14.766	6.5	Worlds
Naomi Visser 🇳🇱	14.566	6.2	Osijek
Simone Biles 🇺🇸	14.466	6.0	Worlds
Elisabeth Seitz 🇩🇪	14.400	6.1	Euros
Du Siyu 🇨🇳	14.366	6.2	Universaide
Lorette Charpy 🇫🇷	14.133	6.0	Worlds

Other Relevant Scores

Gymnast	Score	Difficulty	Event
Rebeca Andrade 🇧🇷	14.967	6.1	2022 Pan Ams
Nina Derwael 🇧🇪	14.700	6.3	2022 Worlds
Sanna Veerman 🇳🇱	14.533	6.3	2022 Worlds

​

My sister is pregnant and I don’t know what to do. I’m shocked that she is even pregnant at all but I do want to voice my opinion in the matter. So, I really believe that an abortion is ultimately one of the best options for her. She is genuinely immature and irresponsible at the moment. She ran away for a few days and didn’t tell anyone where she was going, my family honestly thought she got kidnapped or killed. But no, it was all of her own accord. Then brings a random guy she met down in Alabama- not the actual place, back to my grandmas house. (She lives with my grandma because my grandma will bend over backwards to help my sister, someone has a favorite grandchild). They date till my sister decided he was just too immature for her and became friends. They get a dog but neglected tremendously. My sister and her ex boyfriend would sleep till 1pm and have the dog in a cage till they woke up. The dog got sick and died because it had worms and neither of them took the dog to the vet. Fast forward to this weekend, she revels that she is a couple weeks pregnant. Where is her ex boyfriend? Playing a game in my cousins room while she is delivering life changing news and when she got two plates to eat, he said she was eating the whole house when he knew she was pregnant. He isn’t going to commit to the baby and not having a father figure in your life just makes you feel unloved- speaking from experience. Neither of them are ready for a baby. Her ex doesn’t have a job, house, or even drivers license, and my sister still lives with my grandma but has a job. The only thing is, during the reveal, everyone was trying to be supportive but they were lying through their teeth, I know none of them with help with the baby or anything to do with it so my question is, is it even worth it to have a child that she wouldn’t be supported with or with a guy who treats her like that. She can do better and mature a lot more than trying to have a child right now. My sister is 20 almost 21 and her ex is 18 almost 19 I know it’s her choice but I want her to know that she has an out just like her ex does. It’s obvious he is trying to step back but if that is how he feels, she shouldn’t have the baby and should have one with someone who loves her. This is mainly a vent but if anyone can tell me what I’m feeling, why I’m feeling it, if I should tell her how I’m feeling or anything, that would be great. I also didn’t include a lot of information or timeline because this is a throwaway. If you want some, just ask.

My sister is pregnant and I don’t know what to do. I’m shocked that she is even pregnant at all but I do want to voice my opinion in the matter. So, I really believe that an abortion is ultimately one of the best options for her. She is genuinely immature and irresponsible. She ran away for a few days and didn’t tell anyone where she was going, my family honestly thought she got kidnapped or killed. But no, it was all of her own accord. Then brings a random guy she met down in Alabama- not the actual place, back to my grandmas house. (She lives with my grandma because my grandma will bend over backwards to help my sister, someone has a favorite grandchild). They date till my sister decided he was just too immature for her and became friends. They get a dog but neglected tremendously. My sister and her ex boyfriend would sleep till 1pm and have the dog in a cage till they woke up. The dog got sick and died because it had worms and neither of them took the dog to the vet. Fast forward to this weekend, she revels that she is a couple weeks pregnant. Where is her ex boyfriend? Playing a game in my cousins room while she is delivering life changing news and when she got two plates to eat, he said she was eating the whole house when he knew she was pregnant. He isn’t going to commit to the baby and not having a father figure in your life just makes you feel unloved- speaking from experience. Neither of them are ready for a baby. Her ex doesn’t have a job, house, or even drivers license, and my sister still lives with my grandma but has a job. The only thing is, during the reveal, everyone was trying to be supportive but they were lying through their teeth, I know none of them with help with the baby or anything to do with it so my question is, is it even worth it to have a child that she wouldn’t be supported with or with a guy who treats her like that. She can do better and mature a lot more than trying to have a child right now. My sister is 20 almost 21 and her ex is 18 almost 19 I know it’s her choice but I want her to know that she has an out just like her ex does. It’s obvious he is trying to step back but if that is how he feels, she shouldn’t have the baby and should have one with someone who loves her. This is mainly a vent but if anyone can tell me what I’m feeling, why I’m feeling it, if I should tell her how I’m feeling or anything, that would be great. I also didn’t include a lot of information or timeline because this is a throwaway. If you want some, just ask.

My sister is pregnant and I don’t know what to do. I’m shocked that she is even pregnant at all but I do want to voice my opinion in the matter. So, I really believe that an abortion is ultimately one of the best options for her. She is genuinely immature and irresponsible. She ran away for a few days and didn’t tell anyone where she was going, my family honestly thought she got kidnapped or killed. But no, it was all of her own accord. Then brings a random guy she met down in Alabama- not the actual place, back to my grandmas house. (She lives with my grandma because my grandma will bend over backwards to help my sister, someone has a favorite grandchild). They date till my sister decided he was just too immature for her and became friends. They get a dog but neglected tremendously. My sister and her ex boyfriend would sleep till 1pm and have the dog in a cage till they woke up. The dog got sick and died because it had worms and neither of them took the dog to the vet. Fast forward to this weekend, she revels that she is a couple weeks pregnant. Where is her ex boyfriend? Playing a game in my cousins room while she is delivering life changing news and when she got two plates to eat, he said she was eating the whole house when he knew she was pregnant. He isn’t going to commit to the baby and not having a father figure in your life just makes you feel unloved- speaking from experience. Neither of them are ready for a baby. Her ex doesn’t have a job, house, or even drivers license, and my sister still lives with my grandma but has a job. The only thing is, during the reveal, everyone was trying to be supportive but they were lying through their teeth, I know none of them with help with the baby or anything to do with it so my question is, is it even worth it to have a child that she wouldn’t be supported with or with a guy who treats her like that. She can do better and mature a lot more than trying to have a child right now. My sister is 20 almost 21 and her ex is 18 almost 19 I know it’s her choice but I want her to know that she has an out just like her ex does. It’s obvious he is trying to step back but if that is how he feels, she shouldn’t have the baby and should have one with someone who loves her. This is mainly a vent but if anyone can tell me what I’m feeling, why I’m feeling it, if I should tell her how I’m feeling or anything, that would be great. I also didn’t include a lot of information or timeline because this is a throwaway. If you want some, just ask.

Six years together. 2024 has been quite a year so far. My boyfriend has been out of work for almost 5 months, which is yearly occurrence since his main source of income is from doing gig work with a local transportation company. He has been applying to jobs with an out of date resume, he hasn't had that much luck in finding work. When I suggested taking on a temporary job at a grocery store or cafe to stay afloat until his main job starts up again, he became extremely upset and said that those jobs were beneath him.
In these past 5 months he has been playing video games, smoking weed in my bathroom, randomly leaving at all hours to hang out with his friends. He doesn't help with any chores, out of fear for my safety I purchased him a new phone when he broke his, paid for two months worth of phone bills, purchase work boots, and allowed him to shake me down for cash to buy weed.
Even though he tries to gaslight me but saying that this is first year that he hasn't been without work, it hasn't been. Every year since he quit his job during covid(2020)and moved into my apt. he has had periods of no work and very little to no money. He just games and smokes those months away. He berates me for not cooking or cleaning when I was working two jobs and he was working none. When he finally did get a new job thanks to his dad helping him, he refused to contribute financially even though he saw how physically and mentally exhausted I was from working 6 days a week. He said I didn't deserve help. He treats me terribly whenever I help him out. He has forced me to pay his taxes, give him one of my stimulus bills, buy him food. He becomes irate if things aren't exactly how he wants it. He loves to make plans only to cancel at the last minute and then gaslight me about it. He would refuse to go out with me to events but then drop everything to go hang out with his friends.
I always told him that if he can't contribute financially due to not having enough or having work, it's fine but he should contribute by doinf household chores. He refuses.
I think what is going on is that my mind is trying to protect me by compartmentalizing and lessen the gravity of the situation and of what occurred this past weekend. I see the signs of being in an abusive relationship but I don't fully believe that I am in one because it doesn't fit what we all have been told are the signs of an abusive relationship.
In February he pushed some storage bins into me, one of which broke and cut me in my back because I told his parents that he hadn't been working for the past two months.
This past weekend which we were walking through a soon to be closed mall, I had been recording the beautiful 80's/90's architecture when he said wait, I instinctively turned around and he was scratching himself. I laughed a little bit and turned back and continued walking. Since I had my phone in my hand he thought I had recorded him, he rushed down the hallway angrily asking me if I recorded him and to give him my phone. I said I didn't and kept walking,I was wearing a hoodie and he grabbed my hood and pulled, angrily telling me to give him my phone, I told him to let go that he was hurting me. I tried to keep on walking but he was still holding onto and pulling my hood. He then proceeds to try to grab the phone out of my hands. You know when someone tries to grab something out of your hands and both of you start grappling over the item, that's what happened. My phone is brand new and did not have a case yet and I was worried he would smash it into the ground. I know my personal safety is more important than a phone but I couldn't let go even if I wanted to, he had grabbed onto me and was in the process of pushing me into the wall when a guy rounded the corner.
He didn't step in nor call the police as far as I know. I took the opportunity to get away from my boyfriend as quickly as I could.
I ran to the train station, he kept on yelling at me "Are you really going to act like this", I didn't answer. My neck and throat burned from where his was pulling back on my hoodie. I started to cry. There was a lady who seemed to notice that something was going on and nodded her head in approval when she saw me rushing past to get into the station.
When he finally did catch up to me and when he texted and called me afterwards, he kept on blaming me for what happened. He said that I shouldn't have walked away from him when he grabbed onto my hood and that I should have told him that I was playing around and pretending to record him( which is what I said to placate him). When I said that he shouldn't have grabbed my hoodie and pulled he retorted with the so now it's my fault, as if I made him pull my hoodie and react like that.
I wanted to go home but I didn't have my keys on me, so I went down to a nearby marina and watched the boats for awhile.
I ultimately ended up at his parents house. I did not tell them what happened. In the past he would become enraged when he found out that I had told his sisters or mom about what was really going on, and would forbade me to either go to a family function or to say anything. His dad then proceeded to have a conversation about selling his house and giving us the proceeds to buy a house but we should have two kids. His parents have been pressuring me have a child with him even though we aren't married. I want to get married and have a small church wedding but according to my boyfriend I don't deserve a wedding. He also shared with us the importance that both people in a relationship need to contribute financially and pay bills, I told him he should tell that to his son, not me. It would be insanity to have a child with a man like him. I know that he will not change who he is if a child came along.
My friends are aware of the general situation (not of this latest incident), some of my family is aware of the general situation( I don't want them to worry and I don't want to bring unnecessary drama into their lives). His family is aware, one of his older sister's told me to call her for help when I wanted to end things with him and she would come over but when I actually did reach out to her, she said that I was an adult and would need to handle things on my own. I think she feigned concerned in order to get information to gossip with the rest of their family.
I am scared of him. Scared of how he would react if I stand firm in him needing to leave. Scared that he will harm my friends, family, himself and me. He has threaten suicide before. He has threaten to harm my pet. He has threaten to steal my mom's ashes. I have asked him to leave before and either he refuses or he simply ignores me.Him leaving is not that simple. He has nothing to lose yet at the same time everything to lose. He doesn't want to go back to his parents house because they will make him find a full time job and then won't let him do what he wants, he would have less freedom( couldn't smoke weed)...and those are his words not mine. He has never agreed to a break or even a temporary visit because he would "come back madder". He knows if he does leave, I will try to end things with him.
He comes across as a calm, chill guy when he is around my friends and family because he is high all or most of the time. That calm, chill guy is not who he really is. He is angry, volatile, and cruel. Yes, he has his moments of kindness(or niceness) and sweetness. Is it "nice" to have someone around to talk with, yes. Who seemingly care about when you will be back home, yes. but do those niceties outweigh everything else that has happened.
There is so much more that I could add to this post, but I am exhausted and I have blocked several incidents out. He constantly tries to gaslights me. He lied about his background and education. He has gotten physical several other times as well as verbally/emotionally. He has engaged in several sexting relationships, most notably with his ex Christy and his "friend" Lore. When I expressed how hurtful his cheating was he stated that is who he is, that he's the kind guy but since he didn't sleep with them, it's fine, it's not cheating. These girls also do not see anything wrong with what they have done.
I do not have any immediate family ie siblings or parents. Therefore, I cannot go and stay with family until he leaves or have a family member accompany me while he moves out. I do have extended family in the area but life has taught me that there is no guarantee that they will help you even if you desperately need it. It's the American way to find your own way out of problems and pull yourself up by your bootstraps ( I say this sarcastically).
The apt. is in my name and I'm pretty sure there is a clause in it that states that if there are domestic disturbances I would have to move out. As stated above I don't have anywhere else to go, so he must leave.
Sometimes I think that this is my lot in life and that I should just accept it. I find myself questioning if what happened on Saturday really is abuse or if it was just a misunderstanding that got a little bit out of hand. Sometimes I just don't know anymore.

My sister is pregnant and I don’t know what to do. I’m shocked that she is even pregnant at all but I do want to voice my opinion in the matter. So, I really believe that an abortion is ultimately one of the best options for her. She is genuinely immature and irresponsible. She ran away for a few days and didn’t tell anyone where she was going, my family honestly thought she got kidnapped or killed. But no, it was all of her own accord. Then brings a random guy she met down in Alabama- not the actual place, back to my grandmas house. (She lives with my grandma because my grandma will bend over backwards to help my sister, someone has a favorite grandchild). They date till my sister decided he was just too immature for her and became friends. They get a dog but neglected tremendously. My sister and her ex boyfriend would sleep till 1pm and have the dog in a cage till they woke up. The dog got sick and died because it had worms and neither of them took the dog to the vet. Fast forward to this weekend, she revels that she is a couple weeks pregnant. Where is her ex boyfriend? Playing a game in my cousins room while she is delivering life changing news and when she got two plates to eat, he said she was eating the whole house when he knew she was pregnant. He isn’t going to commit to the baby and not having a father figure in your life just makes you feel unloved- speaking from experience. Neither of them are ready for a baby. Her ex doesn’t have a job, house, or even drivers license, and my sister still lives with my grandma but has a job. The only thing is, during the reveal, everyone was trying to be supportive but they were lying through their teeth, I know none of them with help with the baby or anything to do with it so my question is, is it even worth it to have a child that she wouldn’t be supported with or with a guy who treats her like that. She can do better and mature a lot more than trying to have a child right now. My sister is 20 almost 21 and her ex is 18 almost 19 I know it’s her choice but I want her to know that she has an out just like her ex does. It’s obvious he is trying to step back but if that is how he feels, she shouldn’t have the baby and should have one with someone who loves her. This is mainly a vent but if anyone can tell me what I’m feeling, why I’m feeling it, if I should tell her how I’m feeling or anything, that would be great. I also didn’t include a lot of information or timeline because this is a throwaway. If you want some, just ask.

My sister is pregnant and I don’t know what to do. I’m shocked that she is even pregnant at all but I do want to voice my opinion in the matter. So, I really believe that an abortion is ultimately one of the best options for her. She is genuinely immature and irresponsible. She ran away for a few days and didn’t tell anyone where she was going, my family honestly thought she got kidnapped or killed. But no, it was all of her own accord. Then brings a random guy she met down in Alabama- not the actual place, back to my grandmas house. (She lives with my grandma because my grandma will bend over backwards to help my sister, someone has a favorite grandchild). They date till my sister decided he was just too immature for her and became friends. They get a dog but neglected tremendously. My sister and her ex boyfriend would sleep till 1pm and have the dog in a cage till they woke up. The dog got sick and died because it had worms and neither of them took the dog to the vet. Fast forward to this weekend, she revels that she is a couple weeks pregnant. Where is her ex boyfriend? Playing a game in my cousins room while she is delivering life changing news and when she got two plates to eat, he said she was eating the whole house when he knew she was pregnant. He isn’t going to commit to the baby and not having a father figure in your life just makes you feel unloved- speaking from experience. Neither of them are ready for a baby. Her ex doesn’t have a job, house, or even drivers license, and my sister still lives with my grandma but has a job. The only thing is, during the reveal, everyone was trying to be supportive but they were lying through their teeth, I know none of them with help with the baby or anything to do with it so my question is, is it even worth it to have a child that she wouldn’t be supported with or with a guy who treats her like that. She can do better and mature a lot more than trying to have a child right now. My sister is 20 almost 21 and her ex is 18 almost 19 I know it’s her choice but I want her to know that she has an out just like her ex does. It’s obvious he is trying to step back but if that is how he feels, she shouldn’t have the baby and should have one with someone who loves her. This is mainly a vent but if anyone can tell me what I’m feeling, why I’m feeling it, if I should tell her how I’m feeling or anything, that would be great. I also didn’t include a lot of information or timeline because this is a throwaway. If you want some, just ask.

Yes, I had a lot of time. I originally played this game when it launched during the pandemic and stopped at 1k trophies, and picked it up again ~3 years later. I want to share my thoughts about the last ~15 days while it's still fresh and answer any questions people might have.
I have a 43% win rate in 3600 BR games, and 300+ games with each of the following heroes: Angel, Bastion, Blizzard, Blot, Cyclops, Ghost, Levi, Lynx, Ramsay, Raven, Sparkle, Vi. I have the most fun with Angel, Raven, Ramsay, and Lynx.
I've unlocked every hero except Alice, paid for Blizzard and Vi.

Trophy Tiers

Broadly speaking, the percentage of poor players decreases as you gain higher trophies. Being completely honest, I saw a bunch of mistakes made by enemies, teammates, and myself at 9k trophies. At 10k+ trophies, most of the mistakes I see are my own.

Low Tier: <3k

I have a second account on an old phone at this tier that I use to play under powered / rarely used heroes in casual games. It's mostly bots and occasional humans with rudimentary gameplay.

Mid Tier: 3-7k

People are still misplaying all the time, but in general are improving and trying to coordinate as a team. Pickup teams are pretty easy to create and people are generally friendly. Honestly, I probably had the most fun at this tier since I enjoy playing the game casually with a variety of heroes and different team compositions (vs trying to win all the time).
There's still plenty of bots in offpeak hours.

High Tier: >7k

This is the first tier where it starts to get competitive. Relatedly, this is also the first tier I started seeing bad manners and griefing.
Early on when I was around 2k, I teamed up with some high trophy players and played in 10k games. That's when I learned first hand how much faster and aggressive the game was. On certain maps (Bank, Village, Hotel), fights will often initiate after picking up ~2 items.
As for bad manners, I'm used to it from playing plenty of other online games but enjoyed the fact that Bullet Echo largely doesn't have it. However at 7k+, now you get a lot of people bm'ing when they kill you, if two people fight over an item, etc. It most commonly manifests as sprays/stickers, but also a lot of head shaking and the occasional teamkill grenade for taking "their" item.
Pickup teams are a lot more mercenary. People join up, and if the team loses most will leave; there's little to no chat banter anymore. If someone misplays a few times, they often get kicked from the team, the team is disbanded, and/or they get defriended. This, uhh, has totally never happened to me.

10k

The "end game." Heroes' power typically ranges 1650 - 2200 (Ultimate level 70 to Immortal), with the occasional Divine player. There's relatively few bots during peak times.
The games are fast and brutal, and any small mistake is quickly exploited. My winrate has dropped significantly even when playing my better characters, but I'm learning. Pre-10k, I'd typically open 3x battle and skull chests under 30 minutes. Now, opening battle and skull chests has become significantly harder.

Bravery Road

I don't have any experience with this tier since I lack Divine heroes. Others have shared that it's mostly full of bots.

Heroes

Tier List

This is based on 9k+ trophy BR in the hands of a good player:

• S: Vi, Lynx, Mirage
• A: Blizzard, Ramsay, Raven, Dragoon, Angel, Freddie, Arnie
• B: Firefly, Shenji, Ghost, Alice, Leviathan, Hurricane, Satoshi, Sparkle, Tess, Levi
• C: Blot, Bertha, Doc, Cyclops, Slayer
• D: Bastion, Stalker, Smog

Bastion

Bastion is great for bot farming and low / mid tier gameplay, but is easily outplayed in 7k+ games. I had a bunch of mid tier Bastion friends that I invited to 7k+ games and they've always left after a few games due to being outplayed.
Outplaying Bastion is usually done through kiting or baiting and flanking with teammates since their range is too short and movement speed is too slow. Bastion (and Blot to an extent) is outclassed by more mobile shield heroes: Angel, Hurricane, Satoshi.
Leviathan gets a special call out since his turret is great for zoning and has extended spray that can be abused to hit behind walls.

Grenade Users (Firefly/Shenji/Sparkles/Freddie)

Pre-10k, most of these are terrible nade spammers hoping to get an easy kill. I've seen so many Firefly users use more nades than bullets in a round, adding little value chucking nades into thin air. Shenji users, please use your nades to zone the enemies and less about trying to kill them. Also stop burning the grass because you can, especially when you're up against snipers.

Vi

My win rate with Vi is significantly higher than the rest of the field, which shows how broken she is. I think she needs to be nerfed, and she's my most played and highest leveled character (Stellar).
I also have some bad experiences after teaming up with a bunch of Vi-only tryhards (about 6-8 different teammates for 5+ games each). They're generally incredibly aggressive and good at racking up a high kill count, but often lack map awareness or team dynamics besides spamming, "Let's go!".

Tips

League

Climb as fast as you can, as high as you can since you get more loot per chest depending on your league level, and streaking gets harder the higher you climb in trophies. Bot farming (read below) is the easiest way to streak games and hit the next league level.
I think there is an argument to be made about staying in purple 1. I found it significantly easier to win most of the contracts at purple 1, but I was grouped with all the other grinders once I hit purple 2. This may or may not be a red herring.

Spending Money

Contracts

• 7 day contract hacks (and assuming you have enough time to grind) is the most effective use of money.
• Consistently winning the 21 hr contract for 300 jokers is critical.
• 3 hr contract (particularly in off hours) can be pretty easy to win for 20 jokers.
• Read the contracts carefully. Often you can use a hero to progress against 2 or more contracts simultaneously.
• Bot farming and SvS is usually the easiest way to quickly get contract points.
• Ghost in koth is a great way to grind "The Collector" contract.

Star Pass

• I don't mind spending $15 to get the new hero via the base pass, but I don't think the premium pass is worth it.
• I didn't get tiers 2 and 3 for Vi but still got her to Stellar with a lot of grinding via contract hacks and jokers.

Technology

It's $10/mo. You get a random hero motivated and 8 drone plugins (2 of each color) per week, and 10 tech tokens/day. 70 tech tokens/week is enough to get drone blueprints, 2xpersonal gears boxes, some squad gear, 500 nuts, and 5 costume tokens. Also your name is highlighted in gold.
I think it's great for the first month or two for the personal gear and drone parts, but not sure if it's worth keeping afterwards.

Bots

Recognizing bots means you can adapt your strategy when playing with and against them.

Identification

Pre-game

• in the same bot syndicates: CCCP, Botsavethequeen, Botdamnit, 486DX, etc
• are listed after human players
• don't have drones
• never play as the newer characters: Blizzard, Vi, Shenji, Ramsay, Lynx, Tess

You start recognizing the bot names after a few hundred games.

In game

• immediately opens chests
• goes in a straight line while swinging their flashlight, humans tend to run with their flashlight facing forward except when checking corners
• doesn't use any abilities

Farming (BR, SvS, sabo, koth)

Bot farming is a great way to hit the streak for a league jump or grind for festival tokens.
I find sabo, SvS, and sometimes arcade in offpeak hours (or other region's servers) the easiest modes for bot farming.
Generally bots will collect a few items and start roaming looking for enemies. If a firefight ensues, the bots will start swarming towards noise like zombies.
The best characters to farm bots are those that can do a lot of damage without taking any themselves. Since bots will run in a straight line towards you, assault rifles and snipers excel at bot farming.

• Recommended heroes: Bastion, Satoshi, Blot, Hurricane, Levi, Firefly, Blizzard, Cyclops
• Not recommended: Ghost/Stalker (bots are not affected by cloak), Slayer (fire rate is too slow), SMG users (can't reload fast enough when swarmed)

As teammates

It sucks to get bots as teammates, but if you understand their behavior you can take advantage of it to try and win the round.

• don't get sucked into unnecessary fights, let them die and don't bother reviving
• use them as dumb scouts to flank the enemy
• treat the round as a training exercise on how to win one-vs-many fights. It'll happen more and more often as you climb trophies

Drones

• medpro is great for tanks, assault rifles, and attacking SMGs (Angel, Alice, Freddie, Ghost)
• zenith is great for snipers, Raven/Ghost, 10k+ games
• guard is useless except for the occasional ability to zone enemies

Zenith gets increasingly valuable in 7k+ games as you never have time to revive and/or enemies will camp dead bodies. Zenith's ability to revive through walls can also be exploited.

In game tactics

This is already a long post, so I'll brain dump common improvements / mistakes that I come across. Feel free to ask questions in the comments.

• Don't be greedy and go after risky upgrades. More often than not you're going to get sucked into an early fight. Even if you win that one, you'll quickly get swarmed by bots and/or other teams. It's not worth losing a round because you might get a purple upgrade.
• Don't be greedy for early ammo and upgrades. In 7k+ games, fights can/will happen by the time you've picked up 1-2 items. Taking multiple ammo means losing an effective teammate that can shoot a weapon. If you're a low ammo user (e.g. Vi, Slayer, Bastion), opt for a 2x or 3x ammo pack and leave the 4x ammo pack for high ammo users (e.g. SMGs, assault rifles). Leave and ping optimal upgrades for teammates. This means reserving scopes for snipers, armor for machine gunners, extended magazine for SMG/shotgunners, explosive ammo for DPS.
• Shotgun users should heal at spawn and save the armor pickup for others.
• Generally stick together as a team.
• Don't follow suiciders (bots/humans) and get sucked into unnecessary fights, preferring to fight 2v3v3v3. Yes this conflicts with the above bullet point.
• Learn the map. This means knowing where are the spawns, purple chests, hot zones, and choke points. This means you can anticipate where you'll need to slow down and prepare for a fight (e.g. early game near purple chests). In low/mid tiers, human teammates often run straight for a neighboring spawn while completely ignoring the safe purple chest right behind them because they run straight ahead in the direction they were facing when spawned. I find it easiest to familiarize myself with maps by using heroes with high vision like snipers (particularly Lynx) and Raven.
• Develop map awareness. You can tell who is left based on the gun sounds and the weapon in kill notifications. Generally avoid fights with many teams remaining, and go after the last two teams as they're fighting. If machine gunners are remaining, try to find open spaces. If snipers are remaining, try to initiate fights near corners and obstacles. In low/mid tiers, human teammates will often emulate bots and run straight towards the fight with a complete lack of map awareness.
• Good Shenji users use grenades to zone enemies rather than outright damage. Bad Shenji users kill their teammates / prevent them from being useful. If you're playing with a Shenji teammate, expect that they're going to nade everything and act accordingly.
• Tess users should try to use the lightning ball judiciously against enemy shields or to zone, and not disable their teammates' shields and abilities.
• Cyclops/Raven users should not spam their skill early game, and used selectively late game. It gives away your position and in high tier games only invites unwanted attention. Learn to use scan offensively and defensively when appropriate. At higher trophies, it can be used as a feint for an invasion or to lure enemies into a trap.
• SMG users should use stimpacks offensively rather than only to heal.
• There is a time to initiate and time to fall back. In early/mid tiers, people need to learn to retreat more often (and communicate it to their teammates). I wish I had more actionable advice, but I can tell when a fight was initiated well or poorly. Don't attack that unsuspecting enemy just because you can, but attack if it's the right time to do so.

tldr

I thoroughly enjoyed playing Bullet Echo, bots and all.

I looked through the sub rules, and I'm really hoping this doesn't break any of them. (I originally tried posting with a throwaway so my gf didn't see this post, but it got blocked by spam filters, so now I'm just praying she doesn't see this...)
I am a queer non-binary human living in Canada who knows nothing about gamedev, but who absolutely loves their girlfriend who does nothing but play video games all day every day. (For the record, I also play video games, but less religiously.) I've been with my girlfriend for about five years, and have been wanting to propose for four of those years. That being said, I've been dreaming of proposing to a girl since I was a little queer kid, and always knew I wanted it to be a really thoughtful and intentional gesture, so this leads me here.
Since 2019, I've had the idea that I want to propose with a custom video game (for PC) that she could play (picture me walking into her room and saying: "babe! i found this really cute video game that i think you'd like!", showing it to her and then telling her she should play it on her computer while i watch), that wouldn't last more than 20-30 minutes, that ends with her character in the game getting proposed to.
I have a few cute concepts for stories that I think could work pretty well, which I could share more info about at some point with y'all if there's interest. I'd like the vibe to be inspired by games we both like: I really love games like Unpacking, Dicey Dungeons, and Stardew Valley, while she's a fan of a huge range of games but some of her recent faves include a text-based cyberpunk roleplaying game that she won't tell me the name of, and Cult of Lamb.
Anyways, I have spent some time researching to figure out if I could do this myself, but I don't think that's likely... I'm willing to spend some money on hiring someone to help do the gamedev part, but I have folks who would be able to help with the illustration and writing for the game. Ideally, if I'm going to pay for it, I'd rather work with a queer or trans game developer, but I'd be good to work with anybody who might just have a big heart for two gays in love.
With that in mind, I have a few questions for reddit:

1. How much money should I expect to pay someone to make a 15-20 minute video game?
2. What kind of timeline is realistic for someone who might be working on a gamedev project like this on a very part-time capacity?
3. Are there any helpful storyboarding (or other??) tools that might help me flesh out the story a bit more?
4. Where could be some good places for me to seek out someone who might be willing to help me?