When I stumbled into hockey about 6 months ago, I had no idea that I could become so invested in hockey, especially since there is no way I am in proximity with any kind of market here (in Southeast Asia, that makes me extremely distant thunder doesn't it). So honestly after getting unceremoniously (and unfairly) eliminated from the playoffs yesterday, I am surprised that I love this team enough to be really mad about it. I didn't have an inkling what the NHL was when the cups were won, so there's nothing to bandwagon on now; the team is gonna embark on an uncertain period in franchise history and the media is busy advancing this narrative about the window being closed and whatnot. Heck, when I first started watching in November this team kept fucking losing lmao.
But in a league where the scythe of parity always comes around, it is to be expected, isn't it? The fact that this franchise is already blessed enough to have 3 cups in 20 years, and a core of unique players at every position that could potentially be future HHoFs at the same time is crazy. Kucherov is a fascinating player: polarizing character and not without his flaws (which makes him more interesting than some seemingly perfect people); I'm pretty sure that a lot of his haters from other fandoms would have a 180-degree stance reversal on him if he were on their team. Stamkos and Hedman have sacrificed everything for this team, every bit of body language and their performance in just 5 playoff games this year screams that they want to be career Bolts, so long as the terms are fair. Vasilevskiy is still crazy good, its probably not acknowledged enough about how much of a workhorse he is. If Bobrovsky can reach peak form again at age 35 (one of my favourite non-bolts, just why does he have to be on the Panthers...), and Price can carry the 2020-21 Habs to the SCF at age 33, I can see Vasy returning to full mental form as well, if he has healed well from the surgery.
This core also does a really good job of leading by example: its embarrassing to stop trying when your captain hasn't and he hasn't even signed an extension yet. It's mortifying to enjoy an extended break while your franchise's star player is back on the ice 2 weeks after playoffs. And Point, Cirelli, Sergachev, Hagel and even Cernak still have years of their prime left to prove that they haven't reached their ceiling. The prospect pool seems rough, but with how Tampa has always had more success with developing lower picks anyway, though the future isn't the brightest, it's not pitch black either. That's not even considering the legacy of players like Martin St-Louis, who has undoubtedly molded the team culture, helped BOTH Tortorella and Cooper become as successful as they are, while also inspiring so many shorter players to not give up on their dreams and influencing how teams draft today. In fact, I have an eye on the Habs as well because I think he will be able to make that team a championship team within a couple of years. Coop is a gift, and so is Vinik.
Also, I hope I'm not mistaken when I don't think this team is just going to fizzle out the way Pittsburgh or Chicago has. This franchise, though not without its mistakes, is a well run organization that values accountability and community, but also can make measured and ruthless decisions when necessary (letting cornerstone players like Killorn and Johnson walk). When I observe what other GMs like Hextall, Bowman or Holland have done, I honestly think that JBB's worst mistakes (Jeannot trade) are nowhere close to being as bad as theirs, and I doubt he will be silly enough to not learn from history. There are no risk-free moves, but sports fandom can be so negative about them even when things are actually salvageable. I do have confidence that well thought out decisions will be made; at worst I see an LA Kings sort of trajectory, not so much a Hawks/Sharks one: the scorched earth rebuild is as excruciating as it is exciting (I know cos my sister is a Hawks fan lol).
Thank you all for being one of the more level-headed fandoms as well, and I've enjoyed reading the discourses (though honestly there wasn't a need to defend Kuch against obsessed Avs fans as much as some people did when the Hart drama was going down, the same 5 arguments were being used all the time anyway lol). As a new fan I'm not disappointed at all. Looking forward to 29 June to see if they draft 3 more Palats, and the next season to watch Dylan Duke and possibly Huuhtanen. Cheers, thanks for reading my essay

Howdy everyone! Welcome to Soldier Hollow, USA for this penultimate World Cup stage. This week's first individual race was a women's sprint and it was very eventful, so keep reading!
​
THE RACE
As you may already know, the overall race is led by Ingrid Tandrevold (NOR) but 5 athletes are still very close behind. With only 5 individual races remaining, there is no room for error for any of those girls anymore. Today, those top 6 athletes started very close to each other, making it almost a confrontation race : Lou Jeanmonnot (20), Elvira Oeberg (16), Justine Braisaz-Bouchet (23), Julia Simon (25), Lisa Vittozzi (14), Ingrid Tandrevold (27).
In the first lap, JBB unsurprisingly takes an advantage on her rivals on the skis. Jeanmonnot keeps the gap under 10 seconds while Julia and Ingrid lose just over 10. Lisa and Elvira are the slowest of that pack with a 20 second deficit before the first shoot.
While JBB and Elvira miss once, the other women clear their 5 targets despite a relatively windy range. Julia takes the lead thanks to her fast precise shooting, but Jeanmonnot is just seconds behind. Ingrid keeps a 15 second deficit on the lead leaving the range, while JBB is only 17s behind Julia despite her penalty loop thanks to her incredible ski speed. It's a different scenario for Elvira who's already 40s behind Julia after just one penalty loop.
JBB carries her speed into the second lap, making up half her deficit before the second shooting. Julia's still in the lead with Lou on her heels, while Ingrid and Lisa maintain their respectively 15 and 20 second deficits. These five girls are shooting for the win. Elvira is out of the picture for a podium spot at this point due to a difficult day on the tracks, but could still place nicely with a clean standing shoot.
It goes as follows : Lisa makes biathlon look easy with a 6th 10/10 shoot out of 7 sprint races (literally what. how. but I digress), taking the provisional lead. Minutes later, Elvira misses her final bullet and says goodbye to any hopes for the flower ceremony. Then Lou takes that lead from Lisa after a very peculiar scene where she changed her usual pattern and didn't shoot in a sequence to force herself to put the bullets in. This difficult and rare tactic made her shoot slow but it worked and gave her a 10/10. Then it's JBB's turn, with a radically different approach : 23 seconds for 5 bullets, and they're all in ! She takes the lead from Lou for just a few seconds, but she has the skiing advantage to keep that gap. Julia isn't as successful as her teammates, she's also shooting for the top but misses not once, not twice but three times. Despite her penalty loops, she leaves the range just one minute behind JBB, and has to run a damage control last lap. Our last contestant is Ingrid, with a lot of pressure and question marks on her standing shoot. She answers those questions by going 5/5! Handling the yellow / red bib pressure perfectly, she squeezes herself behind JBB but merely 2 seconds ahead of Jeanmonnot before the last loop !
In the final lap, JBB's intermediate times quickly bury any hopes for an Ingrid/Lou win : she's still fast as hell. The Norwegian also secures her second spot thanks to a great final lap, while Lou loses some more time but also secures her podium position. Lisa is bittersweet 4th despite another clean sheet, and Julia still almost miraculously lands herself just outside the flower ceremony in 7th despite 3 more misses than the girls around her.
Karoline Knotten (NOR) in 5th (10/10) and Anna Gandler (AUT) in a personal best 6th (10/10) complete the flower ceremony. Aita Gasparin (SUI) is a personal best of 8th (10/10).
​
RESULTS
​

1. Justine BRAISAZ-BOUCHET (FRA) 1+0, 20:42.7
   
2. Ingrid TANDREVOLD (NOR) 0+0, +13.4
   
3. Lou JEANMONNOT (FRA) 0+0, +19.2
   

Top 10
https://preview.redd.it/pgg4mcgbq7nc1.jpg?width=696&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=86c6da2ff6c682b66bf9df381cf8f5dc7d5bb210
COMMENTS AND QUESTIONS
​

• To you American redditors : how was it watching a race in your time zone for once? Better yet, for the lucky attendees of the race, tell us about your experience ! The crowd sure sounded loud and fun on TV.
  
• Very plainly put, holy cow was that a high level sprint. Those flower ceremony spots were not cheap, and almost all the favorites delivered a perfect race. Phew !
  
• The overall will be discussed a lot in those final races, so I'll ask about it too. With 4 races remaining, is it "simply" Ingrid's to lose or do you see a top 4 athlete go beast mode to come and get her ?
  
• The altitude sure seemed to be tough on the athletes on the range and the finish line. What do you think about finishing the World Cup in such high altitudes, after 3 intense months of racing ?
  

Apologies for not being as thorough as I usually am, please do highlight any under the radar performance I've missed in the comments. In my defense, it's 2am and I need to go to bed x)
​
Thank you for reading ! <3

Hello everyone and welcome to a new week of biathlon! We are in sunny and snowy Ruhpolding, picking up from where we left off in Oberhof with a women's relay. Grab a cup of tea and enjoy :)
​
LINE UP
Favorites
- France [Lou Jeanmonnot / Jeanne Richard / Sophie Chauveau / Julia Simon] : have won 3 days ago and all the girls have performed well individually recently with wins, podiums or top10s. Biggest question marks for their performance will be how Jeanne and Sophie handle their first and third respective relay appearance and how JBB's absence will influence their race.
- Norway [Marit Skogan / Karoline Knotten / Juni Arnekleiv / Ingrid Tandrevold] : this lineup won twice and placed second once, making them big favorites for the win. The order has been slightly changed since last week.
- Sweden [Anna Magnusson / Linn Persson / Mona Brorsson / Elvira Oeberg] : even without Hanna, this team is heavily experienced in relay and rarely underperforms. They've been on the podium every relay this season and are expected to do the same today.
Underdogs
- Germany [Janina Hettich-Walz / Sophia Schneider / Franziska Preuss / Hanna Kebinger]
- Italy [Samuela Comola / Lisa Vittozzi / Rebecca Passler / Michela Carrara]
- Czechia [Tereza Vobornikova / Lucie Charvatova / Marketa Davidova / Jessica Jislova]
​
THE RACE
LEG 1
Aside from Lisa T. Hauser falling (harmlessly), the first lap is uneventful. USA's Deedra Irwin enters the range first.
All the top teams use none or one spare round and leave the range in a big group led by Ukraine. No big gaps are created on the track.
The first surprise of the day comes in the standing shooting: Norway's Skogan misses twice and fails to clear the spare rounds! She's on for 2 penalty loops while France, Ukraine and Sweden have shot fast and clean. They form a leading trio with a big chasing pack of Czechia, Italy, Germany, Canada and Poland 20s behind them. Norway leaves the range in 17th place, 1min21 behind.
Standings at exchange 1: 1. Sweden 2. France (+0.7) 3. Ukraine (+3.5)
​
LEG 2
Italy's Vittozzi reduces her 18s gap to the head trio and enters the range in first place, followed closely by Ukraine, France and Sweden. The rest of the chasing pack gain some time as well, they're only 15s behind before the prone.
Vittozzi is clear in 23s and flies out of the range. France's rookie Jeanne Richard takes her time but she's clear as well and only 7s behind Italy. She's joined by Ukraine's Dzhima and Sweden's Persson who's used one spare. Norway's Knotten uses one spare only but the gap to the lead keeps increasing, now to 1min45.
Vittozzi's skiing alone but the others aren't far. The initial chasing trio is joined by Switzerland, Germany and Czechia, and they enter the range only 15s behind Italy.
Several strategies are displayed in this standing shoot : Vittozzi is shooting lightning fast, needs two spares but clears them just as quick, allowing her to leave the range in first place. Meanwhile, Persson and Dzhima are fast to score 5/5 and Richard is taking her time on each shot, needing only one spare. Richard's strategy allows Switzerland and Germany to catch up to her, they're now 5 nations chasing Vittozzi 20s ahead.
The 5 nations regroup and manage to gain time on Italy. The lead is reduced to 10 seconds.
Standings at exchange 2: 1. Italy 2. Switzerland (+8.6) 3. Ukraine (+9.5)
​
LEG 3
Italy is quickly caught by the chasing group led by Germany's Preuss and France's Chauveau, and six nations enter the range together for their prone shoot.
Ukraine misses their first 2 shots of the race, which costs them their spot in the leading positions. Preuss and Sweden's Brorsson are the fastest to clear their 5 targets but Chauveau and Passler, also clear, quickly join them. Switzerland's Gasparin loses touch with the lead group with one spare.
Chauveau runs to catch Brorsson and Preuss but Passler can't keep up, a trio forms in the lead with Italy 10s behind and Switzerland 20s. Ukraine's Merkushyna is losing time on the track as well, she's down to 6th place.
Preuss gives the home crowd reasons to scream with a fast 5/5 in the standing, she's out in the lead ! Brorsson joins her instantly, while Chauveau uses a spare but shoots very fast, ans sh'es only 4 seconds behind the duo. Passler had a chance to follow but needs two spares and loses time. The other chasers need spares as well, reducing their podium chances greatly.
Standings at exchange 3: 1. Germany 2. Sweden (+0.4) 3. France (+6.1)
​
LEG 4
It's most likely a race between Germany's Kebinger, Sweden's Elvira Oeberg and France's Simon for the win now. The latter is giving it all in the first loop to try and catch the other 2, who are just seconds ahead. She manages to pass Kebinger and enters the range just behind Elvira, but the three of them are still very close.
Julia is the first to shoot and the first to miss - but Elvira misses too, twice ! It's one spare for France, two for Sweden. In the middle of that duel, Kebinger slowly but surely clears her 5 targets! It's still France leaving the range first thanks to Julia's speed on the range, but Kebinger's only 4s behind.
Elvira reduces her gap to Julia in half on the track, passing Kebinger. At the entrance for the final shoot she's only 7s behind the former world #1, Kebinger following 12s behind. Everything is still undecided for the win !
With the pressure of a team win on her shoulders, Julia does a Julia, aka lucky luke shoot! 5/5 in 18s, and she's out before Elvira's even fired her first bullet. The latter has not given up though: she's clear as well and running to chase her, only 13s behind ! Unfortunately, Kebinger can't take part in this fight as she needs two spares to clear her targets, still securing 3rd position.
On the track, Julia's impossible to catch despite Elvira giving everything she has. The gap stays the same and she secures a back to back win for France ! Elvira secures a fourth consecutive podium for Sweden this season, while Kebinger brings Germany their second podium.
​
RESULTS

1. FRANCE 0+4, 1:08:44.5
2. SWEDEN 0+3, +8.6
3. GERMANY 0+3, +46.7

Top 10:
https://preview.redd.it/iaqlkvp3wmbc1.png?width=1532&format=png&auto=webp&s=553e8ec5cabdd9d16342e594c5dbb2ba163527bb
COMMENTS AND QUESTIONS

• It was very difficult to create big gaps on the tracks today, all was decided on the shooting range. Does this change your expectations for men's relay and/or this week's individual races?
• Who was your standout athlete of the day ?
• Is this the peak of French women biathlon ?

Feel free to mention anything I might have missed ! Thanks for reading :)

Full Replay Available: https://eurovisionsport.com/mediacard/EVS_240106_F_23-13792
Pre-Race
After yesterday’s Sprint we’re setup for a great Pursuit, with our podium athletes Justine Braisaz-Bouchet, Franziska Preuss, and Sophie Chauveau starting 5 seconds apart. Magnusson, Hettich-Walz, and Knotten round out the first 30 seconds, and there are 11 more in first minute.
Going into the race, Justine has a good chance to snag the red Pursuit bib away from Elvira. She’s going for her 2nd Sprint-Pursuit double of the season. Near the front Chauveau, Hettich Walz, and Knotten are all seeking a first win.
And as someone called out yesterday, we have several athletes making their World Cup Pursuit debuts: Jeanne Richard, Oceane Michelon, Darcie Morton, and Anika Kozica.
DNS Today: Valentina Dimitrova and Lisa-Theresa Hauser
Bibs at Start

🟡	Justine Braisaz-Bouchet
🔴🔵	Elvira Oeberg

Lap 1 / Shoot 1
And we’re off, Chauveau passes Preuss but sticks with her, JBB is moving ahead of them at the front. After them is a big pack with bibs 4-11 (Magnusson through Elvira). Elvira Oeberg and Simon do a good job of making up some of the time on Braisaz-Bouchet and making their way through that pack.
JBB has 11 extra seconds on Chauveau in the range, Chauveau gets on the mat before she shoots, but it’s a clean shoot and she’s out as Chauveau starts shooting. Preuss misses her first, so she’ll fall back into that pack. Chauveau also misses her last shot. Justine should extend to 30 seconds. Knotten, Hettich-Walz and Elvira Oeberg shoot clear. Just a hair faster than Vittozzi, Richard, and Jeanmonnot who do too. Chauveau and Preuss move into 6th and 7th. Simon with a miss rounds out the top 10.
Lap 2 / Shoot 2
It’s Justine by herself, Elvira 30 seconds down and then 3rd-9th are 10 seconds back, led by Chauveau who has passed 3 athletes. At 3.1km, Elvira picks up a few seconds while the chasing pack loses a few seconds, but it’s led by Knotten now, followed by Chauveau and Richard staying near the front. Tandrevold leads the next pack with Haecki-Gross, Lena has a little skiing fumble, but finds here way. That group is still pretty close, about 1 minute back.
Justine will get to shoot alone this time. It’s a calm relaxed start and she’s out again clear before anyone else has shot. Elvira shooting: nice and rhythmic, it’s a clean shoot too. It’s a very good shoot for the women (91% as a whole on Shoot 2). Only Jeanmonnot misses in the next pack. Lena Haecki-Gross has a quick shoot but misses one also. Literally everyone else up front is clear.
Elvira Oeberg leaves 23 seconds back, Knotten leads Chauveau, Richard, Vittozzi, Hettich-Walz, Preuss and Simon out 40-50 seconds back. Magnusson and Tandrevold are about a minute down.
Lap 3 / Shoot 3
In lap 3 it looks like Chauveau is trying to break away her pack. Elvira Oeberg is dropping a few seconds, and the pack behind Chauveau has lost about 5 seconds. Tandrevold and Magnusson mostly catch-up to the pack, so after Justine and Elvira, it’s still a leading 11. In the chasing pack it’s Simon who catches up to Chauveau and Richard, so maybe some slightly better French skis? or maybe they just want the lead as Vittozzi and Knotten aren’t skiing poorly. (Later Preuss will state that German skies were not as good).
Coming in for her first stand shoot, Justine has about a penalty in hand. Elvira doesn’t not have that time in front of the pack. Justine’s first shot is a near miss, and it’s a wild group with one miss – lucky to not have 3 misses. Elvira’s group is wild too with one miss left. Simon comes in shoots super fast (17.6) and clear, she’ll move ahead of Elvira but is behind Justine. Chauveau has a miss on her 5th and then it’s Richard who shoots clear next. The French are 1, 2, 3 - JBB, Simon, and Richard who gets out just a few seconds ahead of Elvira Oeberg. There’s still some clean shooting behind in Preuss, Jeanmonnot and Tandrevold. Vittozzi, Hettich-Walz, Knotten, Magnusson gets misses.
Lap 4 / Shoot 4
Coming out of Shoot 3 we’re down to 8 athletes within a minute. Simon is just 10 seconds behind Justine. Elvira overtakes Richard, Preuss is pretty close here too; they’re about 30 seconds behind. Chauveau, Vittozzi, Knotten, Tandrevold, and Magnusson are still there too. But are looking at least two misses from the leaders.
Justine extends her lead over everyone; including 7 seconds over Simon. Further down our list Knotten and Vittozzi are falling behind and Tandrevold is attacking - up into 7th. Justine has 20 seconds into the range on Simon, so no penalty advantage this time.
Final shoot! JBB's first shoot is dead-center, but the 3rd is inches wide, she’s misses the 4th too but the other way, so she’s got 2 laps. Simon can’t take advantage and misses her 3rd (shooting in 18 seconds). They should leave close. Does anyone else have a chance? Richard misses her first shot of the day on shot 16. She’ll miss another, Elvira also misses 2, Chauveau misses 3, Preuss 1, Tandrevold 1, Preuss 1 – where did the clean shooting go? Vittozzi maybe? No! misses the last, then Hettich-Walz misses the last! Jeanmonnot is finally the first clean shoot.
Final Lap
Simon came out first with 10 seconds over Justine. Preuss came out in 3rd, but with just 2 seconds over Jeanmonnot. Tandrevold, Knotten, Elvira, Richard, Vittozzi round out the top 9 within 1 minute and a shot to challenge, and Hettich-Walz left in 10th.
Justine can see Simon ahead of her, but at 8.6km Simon has extended her lead to 15 seconds. Jeanmonnot passes Preuss, Elvira and Tandrevold pass her too. It is a real hot race for 3rd. Elvira Oeberg starts the attack on the hill and overtakes Jeanmonnot. At 9.1km Simon extends again, so 1 and 2 look locked. Elvira has gotten some space, but now it's Tandrevold attacking who passes Jeanmonnot and catches Elvira. They sneak away into 3rd/4th together leaving the others behind and hopefully setting up a sprint finish for 3rd. We cut to Simon and Justine to cross the line, during that time looks like Tandrevold stepped ahead going into the final climb, Elvira can't keep up and she shuts down our hope of sprint at the end. By the time we see them again they're many meters apart.
Final Places

Julia Simon (FRA)	1+0+0+1	31:45.2
Justine Braisaz-Bouchet (FRA)	0+0+1+2	+18.9
Ingrid Landmark Tandrevold (NOR)	0+0+1+1	+44.4

Bibs at End

• Elvira loses the red Sprint bib, but not to Justine, instead Simon's win moves her from 2nd to 1st in the standings.
• Justine Braisaz-Bouchet is 91 points ahead of Tandrevold now so she's still have yellow after the Ruhpolding Sprint.

🟡	Justine Braisaz-Bouchet
🔴	Julia Simon
🔵	Elvira Oeberg

Data
Course Time

Anamarija Lampic (SLO)	26:44.0
Ingrid Landmark Tandrevold (NOR)	+4.7
Julia Simon (FRA)	+9.0

Pursuit Time

Julia Simon (FRA)	31:04.2
Ingrid Landmark Tandrevold (NOR)	+25.4
Elvira Oeberg (SWE)	+52.8

Climbers

Hanna Oeberg (SWE)	+32 (52 to 20)
Lucie Charvatova (CZE)	+26 (49 to 23)
Marketa Davidova (CZE)	+21 (59 to 38)

​

• Lucie Charvatova shot 17/20 today, great result for her. All three Czech women moved up in the Sprint
• Juppe (+18), Tandrevold (+14), and Kapustova (+14) all moved well too.

Drops

Selina Grotian (GER)	-24 (21 to 45)
Lidiia Zhuraskiate (LTU)	-23 (31 to 54)
Tuuli Tomingas (EST)	-20 (26 to 46)

​
General Notes

• Vanessa Voigt only missed 1 shot and fell 13th to 18th - part of that was a fall near the end. Turning left, I believe into a downhill, she fell into a bit of a splits. Based on the final lap times it cost her at least 30 seconds as the last loop is shorter, but her lap time was longer than her worst normal lap.
• Justine and Julia share an awkward high-five where neither are smiling.
• Disappointing final shoot for Chauveau, she had a chance to make a French sweep, her three misses dropped her 8 spots out of the range. Similar for Richard who's two misses dropped her 5 spots.
• PB for Kapustova, she raced from 39th to 25th today, beating her previous PB of 28. She's bringing some hope to the Slovak team for me, she's shooting 95% on the year (albeit a bit slowly), and that's helped give her 2 top 30 Pursuit results.
• Also a PB for Kozica, a bit more mild going from 57th to 56th after Stremous DNF'd after her 4th shoot.
• Clean shoots today for Merkushyna, Kapustova, and Kuelm. In the top 10 Jeanmonnot shoots best with just 1 miss.
• 7 misses today for Lampic, Grotian, and Bendika, who missed 4 on the final shoot.
• Darcie Morton unfortunately gets lapped
• I believe Richard has made a good case to take Chevalier's spot in the World Cup. Chloe was struggling in the World Cup, and hasn't done that great in IBU either. (She had a very rough relay in Oestersund IIRC). Even though it's a Sprint-Pursuit, Richard was 11th in Pursuit Time too, so two good races that put her ahead of Chevalier in the World Cup standings already.
• Preuss mentioned German skis not being the best today. After review results, it might be fair assessment. She and Hettich-Walz shot about the same as the rest but both fell a bit.

Countless wars. Countless hunts. Countless trophies.

On a remote jungle island somewhere in the South China Sea, stocked with some of the most exotic animals in the world, a deadly hunt is under way. Just not the kind the participants expected. The hunters come from all walks of life: a South American arms dealer, a Romanian ex-wrestler, two former KGB agents, a wildlife T.V. host, a Thai pirate, a down-and-out rock star, and a billionaire with a mysterious past.
Each has come to the island for his own reasons, some secret, some deadly. But when the encapments owner, ex-Khmer Rouge Colonel Rath Preap, finds the fences cut, animals slaughtered, and members of his private army missing, it's clear that it's not just another day at the hunting lodge. Another creature is out for blood. And a lot of it. An adversary that has faced death on a thousand worlds, a battle-tested Predator with an unstoppable lust for conquest. Its story will play out across a landscape of old temple ruins, hidden ambitions, startling secrets and a fight for survival so intense the jungle will run red with blood...Double cross. Triple cross. Who will survive?

Strength

• In keeping with tradition, the Predator can tear out a skull with the spine attached with his bare hands.
  
• Stopping a plane dead in its tracks preventing from making it fully across the runway. The plane was a two passenger Cessna.
  
• While in the air with the Cessna plane, the Predator is able to tear out a piece of the rudder.
  
• Predator punches a military jeep carrying five people making it turn over as well as cracking the steel.
  
• While dragging two dead soldiers, the Predator is attacked by a Nile Crocodile named Pol Pot and after a brief struggle, the Predator is able to grab the beast and throw Pol Pot who would've weighed roughly 6000 pounds given the size of Pol Pot.
  
  • Size of Pol Pot.
• Predator infiltrates a temple by exploiting a secret entrance but needed to knock down a heavy stone door first.
  
• After successfully knocking down the stone door, the Predator casually picks up a guard and tosses him from a tower killing him.
  
• Towards the end of the story, Predator was severely wounded and heavily fatigued. Pol Pot ambushes him as he was trying to reach his ship. Despite this? The Predator was able to drag Pol Pot while also carrying the MC Gustat at the same time.
  

Speed

• Kills as fast as thought.
  
• Horia, a Romanian ex-wrestler, calls the Predator fast despite its size.
  
• Horia couldn't react to the Predator in time to save Peake.
  
• Moves like a leopard
  
• Moves "freakishly" fast.
  
• Prenatural speed while grabbing Colquhoun by the neck
  
• Described as having lightning reflexes
  
• Described as "Impossibly fast"
  
• Despite having his ArmaLite AR-50 trained on the Predator, Gustat didnt take a shot due to the Predators speed.
  
• As soon as Marikova fired a shot, the Predator was able to quickly figure out where the shot came from and threw a smart disc almost immediately with accuracy almost killing Marikova who ultimately got lucky.
  
• The Predator moved so fast he was past the muzzles of the big guns at the South Tower before they swung in his direction and in 5 minutes, the defenders of the South wall were either killed or fled.
  
• Despite being injured, despite being fatigued from hunting nonstop for days, and getting ambushed on top of that? The Predator almost dodges a bullet while it was in midair despite its sorry-state.
  
  • The helmet is also able to identify weapons that can or cannot penetrate its armor as well as identify projectiles midflight if they pose any serious danger.
  • Bio-mask has sensors to warn of dangers.

ArmoDurability

• Armor is resistant to plasma and laser weapons.
  
• Shrugs off 9mm pistol fire with no damage to the armor.
  
• Predator was able to tank Pol Pot's bite thanks due to the armor he was wearing which was dented but not pierced.
  
• When wounded, the armor injects drugs to numb the wound/pain.
  
• Predator no sells explosion close to him.
  
• Armor deflects small arms fire.
  
• Despite getting hit with a explosive tipped bullet fired from a sniper rifle, the Predator basically says: "I had worse".
  

Experience

• The Predator going through his memories of past hunts and experiences indicating he is at least an experienced blooded hunter.
  
• After destroying a weapons depot building, the Predator lays a musket down with the rest of the heavy weapons it saved as potentially some form of a taunt or indication of its age and experience .
  
• The Predator recalls a legendary past hunt as well as claims that he has hunted on a thousand worlds and plans to hunt on a thousand more.
  
• This paticular Predator has been hunting on earth for a very very long time.
  
• The Predator with no prior knowledge a bomb was hidden on his ship, was able to find a hidden bomb Gustat placed quickly and rather easily
  
• The Predator was wary and expected traps on his trophies he left in the open.
  
• Dutch, aka Onyx, had told Gustat about the Yautja in how versatile they are as they have taken out dedicated special forces teams before as well as skilled individuals.
  
• With the Predators final assault on the temple, he started throwing severed heads at the defenders, causing panic and disarray and acknowledged he has used this tactic before against another alien race with great success.
  

Stealth

• Towards the end of the novel. The Predator while being fatigued and heavily wounded, as well as having no biomask or cloak, was still able to sneak up on Horia and Gustat who were mudded up and covered in leaves. As well as having set up a perimeter of mines.

Weapons/Gadgets

• A white ring of death. It melts all your flesh and blood in a split second leaving only a perfect white skeleton. It worked on bears as well as humans in seconds.
  
  • Perhaps one of if not the most terrifying weapons the Predators possess.
• Has a smart disc, combistick, and one set of wrist blades.
  
• Predator knives are heavily weighted as Maxim describes it weighing like a jackhammer.
  
• The Predators personal ship has an offensive light wave device that burns everything 4 inches on the surface stretching to half a mile and burns everything in its path. Trees, vegetation, animals, etc. And Predator can ride it Hawaiian style with a type of surfboard.
  

Bio-mask feats

• The Predators bio-mask can detect hidden/potential weapons and can record a couple of days' worth of past events and replay them whenever.
  
• Includes GPS showing the way back to the Predators ship with blinking red lines also at the same time shows scenes from its homeworld.
  
• The bio-mask can track the trajectory of shots taken and its sensors lock in on the source of the attack.
  
• Predator is able to bring up an image/schematics of the temple bunker Rath and his troops are stationed in all in infrared.
  
  • Predator also mentions how forts and shelters arent effective strategies against the Predator.
• Can use recording devices in the bio-helmet to draw in prey.
  
• Possibly with the bio-mask, the recording device plays back cries and death screams of past kills as a form of scare tactic.
  

Plasma Caster feats

• Kills a full grown rhino with two shots.
  
• Blasted a hole in a mans chest Blaine style.
  
• After firing a shot and missing, the stray plasma shot evaporates seagulls overhead.
  
• After successfully ambushing Serap and Tout's experienced jungle hunting team, the Predator was able to brutally dispatch the 10 man squad to oblivion with his plasma caster. Able to kill two to three men at once with a single blast.
  
• Able to casually obliterate stone structures and vaporize everything including the snipers in each tower.
  
• Destroys rubble that blocked an entrance to a temple and the force was so great the stones hit the southern tower knocking it down along with the defenders in the tower.
  

Miscellaneous

A scratch from the Predators claws can lead to infection causing hallucinations, pain, nightmares, etc. *After some time has passed, the scratch wound changes the individual for the worst as you transcend beyond what is normal and become essentially a ghost and no I'm not joking.

• Even without his helmet, the Predator can mimic its Prey's voices perfectly.
  
• A rare example of mercy from the Predator if you can call it that.
  
• A detail I appreciated. Nikolai while transcending into a wraith-like-being, challenged the Predator to a one-on-one. The Predator hesitantly accepts.
  
• This Predator so far to my knowledge, has the highest body count by far with no nukes used. I've estimated 200+ kills for this Predator. Before the story even really begins the Predator had 40 confirmed kills.
  
  • Not to mention the countless animals the Predator killed including but not limited to: lions, bears, hyenas, ostriches, deer, wild boar, elk, etc.

Quality Of The Prey

• Horia Ursu, former professional wrestler, and current Romanian gangster.
  
  • Along with his experience in the gangster life, Horia recalls the brutal training of being a wrestler.
• Rath Preap ex-military Khmer Rouge colonel who runs an expensive hunting lodge built for wealthy businessmen and criminals. He has 180 military men either ex-Khmer, mercenaries, or men who fought the KR, but all are Cambodian a requirement by Rath.
  
• "Shadow" a former assassin. Shadow was an experienced killer. Trained himself since he was a kid and was tasked with killing the Predator by Rath. He gambled and lost as the Predator stabbed him a split second after getting stabbed in the foot.
  
• Nikolai an experienced ex-KGB now FSB Russian agent. Has experience in the field as well as Marikova who went undercover in Chechnya.
  
  • While mid transformation to becoming a wraith-like-being, his senses heightned, speed unnatural, and was able to see the Predator past his cloak easily.
  • Nikolai with his newfound powers and high on drugs challenges the Predator to fight.
  • Nikolai keeps up with the Predator.
  • Rest of the fight with altered Nikolai and Predator.
• Marikova an experienced ex-KGB now FSB Russian agent/assassin assigned under Nikolai's command except she wears the pants in the relationship. She is a trained sniper and is noted to be very quiet with her footsteps.
  
  • Despite two Khmer having their AK-47s trained on the group Marikova would've been able to kill the both of them.
  • Was able to pin down Raths heavy gunners and make accurate shots forcing them to keep their heads down.
  • With one arm and a damaged rifle, she is able to land a shot in the exact place made by a previous bullet wound just before.
  • Surrounded by pirates armed with AK-47s, she warns she can kill most of them before they can fire a shot despite her condition and they wisely backed off.
• John Gustat ex-special forces. Has been in so many war zones that Rath's men having some sick sadistic fun with a rhino doesn't faze him. Also mentored by "Onyx" aka, Dutch Schafer.
  
  • Has four important items with him 3 of which are listed as a body suit that can hide him from infrared as well as other Predator vision modes, a device to open the Predators ship, and a homing beacon to draw the Predator to him.
  • Has a lot of hunting experience. Has hunted in 6 continents.
  • From a bullet wound Gustat was able to determine where the shooter Marikova was.
  • Gustat was able to bait out Marikova firing two shots at her position triggering her to return fire giving her position away to the Predator.
• Serap and Tout twin brothers and ex-Khmer Rouge. Serap and Tout have 2 decades of experience in jungle warfare and have killed American Special Forces Operatives.
  
  • Their senses are very keen. They are so used to night fighting night goggles are unnecessary. Serap can hear a mouse chewing on a leaf from 100 feet and Tout boasted that Serap as a child was so stealthy he could sneak up on his mother to steal her milk without her noticing.

I've seen a post here and there about the random player on contract year, but I wanted to create a more full post and see what people are thinking.
Before I begin, I want to say that I'm really disappointed in the overall season. All year our defense was...questionable. Vasi was not himself, offense was not what we expect. So we have some gaps that will need to be filled. I expect defense will be JBB's focus. Our season ended the same way, I fell, it went all year. JT circling the zone, us losing battles for the puck, then a shit bounce ends up in the net that we'd normally expect Vasi to save. I'm not going to go into the farm system, I don't know much about those players, so if you have opinions, please feel free to chime in on who can step up and replace those we might/will lose.
https://www.capfriendly.com/teams/lightning
Available cap (from my layman's understanding): 9.275 Cap hit: 81.1 Max Cap: 90.375
I'm going to start off with the two RFAs
RFA List
Colton (22/23 AAV 1.125m, arbitration) Jeannot (22/23 AAV 800k)
I don't think I'm alone when I say both of these are must signs. Colton QO minimum is 1.25 (from what I understand on the rules of this stuff), I'd expect we offer him a bridge of two years at 2AAV. Tanner, we only got a small glimpse of who he is and what he can do, but I feel like we need him. The size and threat of someone who will beat the fuck out of someone if needed is coming back. You're starting to see enforcers making an appearance again. His QO looks to be 850k, but no way is he accepting that, I'd expect a one or two year bridge at a lower value (1.25 or so).
Total: 3.25
Remaining Cap: 6.025
UFA List
Now this is the beast that has me really worried.
Killorn (22/23 AAV 4.45m) PEB (22/23 AAV 1m) Perry (22/23 AAV 1m Eyssimont (22/23 AAV 750k [UFA group 6])
Cole (22/23 AAV 3m)
Elliott (22/23 AAV 900k)
Killer has expressed his desire to stay here. He's made quite a bit of money and I think would be willing to take a MASSIVE cut to stay here. I'd like to see him be willing to drop all the way down to 1.5 in order to keep him, because I think he would be amazing for us at that level. That being said, he's been having career years and is a constant playoff performer (not many goals lately, but his shut down ability has been so good), so if we want to keep him it's going to probably require AT LEAST 2.5.
PEB is likely done. I love his heart, his faceoff ability, and his defensive play, but I think he's done here and I don't know if he gets picked up anywhere at 38 years old. Based on what I saw from his reaction after the loss, he was the last one in the locker room, still in gear, head in his hands. It was a tough season for him and I think he expects it to be his last.
Perry is probably done in our system as well. I have never liked him, but he played his role well on our team. I wish him the best, but I think he might be on the road to retirement as well. He's been chasing cups with his last three moves (Dallas, Mtl, then with us) and I think he's tired of it.
Eyssimont should be re-signed. I'm not sure exactly what the group 6 effect on his future contract would be, but I think he's definitely shown he's worth bringing back into the fold and giving more time. Three years at 1?
Cole can go. He filled a gap where we lost, but he was not worth 3m AAV. Watching Schenn vs Cole in this last series, I wish we'd had Schenn. He's more consistent, reliable, and just seemed more effective. Cole also has a history of being toxic in the locker room. Who knows if he grew up this season and stopped his shit, but I feel like we can get a middle pair Dman for the same or less that is better.
Moose is on his way to retirement. Who we replace him with, I don't know. Maxime Legace isn't an NHL goalie, and I don't know if Alnefelt is ready for NHL level yet.
Total: 3.5
Remaining Cap: 2.525
Available UFAs
So if we lose 2/3 of our bottom line, middle D, and backup goalie, who do we pick up?
Before I dive into the available UFAs, let's look at the farm. Myers was brought in and everyone though he'd be turned around. But JBB hinted that we might be willing to develop and use him. Could he be a replacement for Cole? I think so.
Diving into capfriendly UFA list. I filtered by Forwards at 2m AAV or lower looking for bottom line guys.
The first name I see that catches my eye is Luke Glendenning. He had a pretty meh season on the score sheet, but he's flexible and is known to be solid in the faceoff circle and his stats seem to indicate he's playing fairly well in the shutdown role of a fourth line. I think he could be a solid replacement for PEB. He is coming off a 2x1.5AAV with kind of weak stats, so I think we could offer close to the 1m that we had on PEB
Another name that kind of stands out is Ryan Donato. He had a pretty solid season, but I don't know what his worth is and whether the Kraken want him back. He's been talked about for years, but nothing has really come from him.
At this point, I expanded to players with a 3m AAV. (If I'm being honest, I realized we had a lot more cap space than I thought). With 2.525 remaining, we need at least 1D and a goalie.
As far as a backup goalie is concerned, all we need is someone who we can rely on a few times here and there because we still have arguably the best goalie in the league, who will likely be better next year.
For the Dman, I really don't know. Like I said above, I think JBB plans on trying to bring Myers up and getting him into the rotation and we'd have to see what happens with the farm.
Kind of rambling, and I'm most certainly not an expert on this stuff, but I'm interested to hear your thoughts.

Hey everyone, got three up for today. Not looking for trades on any of them, thanks!
Timestamp
JBB Large Arrester - Pics/Video
This is a rare one for a couple of reasons. It's got JBB's newer style clip, with his classic chamfering, and no jimping, for a super clean look. Action is impeccable, lock-up, centering all perfect as you would expect. Carried some, but never cut, sharpened, or disassembled. There are some faint snail trails on the clip. Handle is titanium. Blade is 3.25" and CTS-XHP. I'm the original owner.JBB doesn't do COAs, but I'll ship it with a soft pouch.
SV: $1600
Pena X-Series Apache, Knifecenter Exclusive - Pics/Video
Up for sale is my Pena X-Series Apache with burnt orange micarta scales. Great action, centered, early lockup. I've carried it a couple times, but have never cut, sharpened, disassembled. There are no snail trails on the clip or bolsters, so it's very much like new. Comes with all the original packaging. I'm the original owner. Not looking for trades at all.
SV: $240
Neutron 2 CF Scales - Pics
I also have a set of Neutron 2 CF scales with an extra hardware set. There is very faint wear on the clip side, where the clip met the scales, but once assembled, you would not be able to see it at all. No trades on the scales either.
SV: $55 SOLD
General terms:

• Shipping via USPS to the lower 48 only. Shipping cost is included in price. I ship USPS Priority with Signature Confirmation (so someone needs to sign for it in person). The Neutron 2 CF scales will ship First Class with tracking.
• Payment via Paypal G&S only. Do not put any notes in the transaction.
• If for any reason I don't feel comfortable with the transaction, I reserve the right to refuse the sale.

At first, during last year November, I was writing down the article for new FGO Trivia about "Retrospective of Fate Series' Masters" in two parts, the first one for all masters from different series, and the last one for Kinoko's protagonists, a meme or a trend that TYPE-MOON fans have familiar with it since Fate/Zero anime adaptation, Kara no Kyoukai movie adaptation and Carnival Phantasm. The article hasn't finished yet because I was very busy at that time, so I had to postponed it.
Turns out, someone or a group from TYPE-MOON 2ch community beats me to it. I was told by friends, there was a completed visual guide of all masters from different series. (If I recall correctly, they had posted it after first week release of Fate/Requiem). Although that doesn't stop me there, I still working on the current article, if I have free time. It might takes forever to research of all Masters' profile then read source material, not to mention I haven't read Lord El-Melloi II Case File especially there's going to be anime adaptation of Volume 4 and 5.
While it is a nice visual guide but needs to elaborate the context and provide some information because after I skimming everything, visual guide doesn't tell you everything but characters, authors' name and servants' class icon. For example: "Why Waver Velvet / Lord El-Melloi II is considered as Nasu's character", "Difference between Rin Tohsaka from FSN and Rin Tohsaka from FE" and etc. Unless they don't write down due some characters are walking spoiler, in that's the case, then I can see where they coming from.
I kinda like some easter egg they add there, like Badzilot's servant has (Fate/EXTRA CCC Collab spoiler) Emiya Alter's Lost Man class icon. It took me an hour to figure it out when I recalling Fate/strange Fake's plot points, then I was like, "Oh, now I understand why Badzilot's servant has that icon".
Unfortunately, the source of these two visual guides have been deleted (It's JBBS TYPE-MOON they say). Normally they always add their name on visual guide (Like kon@FGO for example, who's very known for create FGO visual guide map). I appreciate if anyone can find the source and username, I already asked many JPN artists to find the source but they don't know where it is anymore.
Credits to Rosemargatroid for the translation (If there's any error translation, just post the comment there).
From top to bottom

Top blue bar = 1st column: Author . Scenario Writer 2nd column: Character Creation
1st image, red text on character's forehead (FGO Crypter Masters and Fate/Requiem Masters) = "UNOFFICIAL" (Hasn't confirmed who create them).
8th row of 1st image, an image icon of Kohaku from KOHA-ACE = Original Work: TYPE MOON (Top) & Comic: Keikenchi (Bottom)
1st row of 2nd image: Ryohgo Narita's Doris Lusendra = "UNIDENTIFIED" (Lacks official art of the character).
3rd row of 2nd image: Nasu Kinoko X Ryohgo Narita = Collaboration
Last 10th row of 2nd image: Nasu Kinoko (Former) Hikaru Sakurai (Latter)

1st image

Nasu Kinoko:

• Kinoko's Protagonist (主人公のきのこ): From Emiya Shirou to Utsumi Erice (Unofficial). The most common and popular, an unspoken rule for protagonist of Fate series, Tsukihime, Mahoutsukai no Yoru, Melty Blood, Tsuki no Sango and Kara no Kyoukai in JPN community. As its name would suggest, Nasu always create the protagonist and has strange connection with Zelretch from Tsukihime, especially his unnamed book from Fate/strange Fake when he selects Ayaka as Observer. (To Be Announced: [FGO/Trivia] Retrospective of Fate Series' Masters PART 2 - ■■■■■■■■■ and Nasu Kinoko's Protagonists).
  
• 4th and 5th Fuyuki Holy Grail War: Fate/stay Night, Fate Hollow Ataraxia, Fate/Unlimited Codes (Luviagelita Edelfelt's Command Spell can be found from the game's data) and Fate Zero (Irisviel von Einzbern becomes official master in FGO timeline).
  
• Fate/EXTRA and Fate/EXTRA CCC
  
• Fate/KOHA-ACE: Written by Keikenchi. He had to borrow Nasu's characters including Lancer Li Shuwen with permission.
  
• Melty Blood: Named as "Sion Eltnam" without last family name.
  
• Fate/Grand Order: Lacks confirmation of who create seven Crypter Masters. Although several interviews have confirmed that Cosmos of the Lostbelt is composed by Nasu as main scenario writer, made from scratch.
  

Hoshizora Meteo (TYPE-MOON): Fate/Requiem (Lacks confirmation such as interview or official statement about his character creation, especially Utsumi Erice).

2nd image

• Ryohgo Narita: Fate/strange Fake (Made collaboration with Nasu Kinoko. Flat Escardos, Sigma and Francessca Prelati are created by them together).
  
• Takeneko Seijin: Fate/EXTRA CCC Foxtail
  
• Makoto Sanda: Lord El-Melloi II Case File
  
• Urobuchi Gen (NITROPLUS): Fate/Zero
  
• Yuuichirou Higashide: Fate/Apocrypha
  
• Hikaru Sakurai: Fate/Prototype: Fragments of Sky Silver and Fate/EXTRA: Last Encore.
  
• Nasu Kinoko (Former) Hikaru Sakurai (Latter): Fate/Prototype (The series hasn't green-lit yet. All Fate/Prototype masters were originally created by Nasu according from Fate/Prototype Tribute Phantasm. Later, Sakurai takes in charge to write their character and role instead).
  

I was reminded reading this subreddit how completely odd one of my childhood friend's birthday was. I used to live in a fairly wealthy part of California until I was ten years old. My parents themselves weren't rich, but we got by pretty well. This meant I was friends with a wide variety of children, including this child who I will call JBB. JBB has a mom and dad, who both make a pretty penny as psychotherapists. I would would have thought this would make them a little more aware about raising children. It did not. To be quite frank poor JBB got the worst of both worlds in terms of building a stable personality. Her parents were not affectionate, allowed her to display very little emotion unless is was positive, and spoiled her rotten with whatever she wanted. Her eight year old birthday party being a prime example. JBB had injured her ankle. I don't quite remember the details as to how it was injured, but I believe she sprained it. Her parents hosted a birthday party at their beautiful house with a large backyard to play in and a big trampoline. Being one of JBB's friends at the time, I went despite always being anxious about loud noises and crowds. My mother dropped me off and I went inside the house with my present for JBB. All the children were outside playing in the backyard, so I went out back to tell JBB a happy birthday and play on the trampoline with friends. This is when I learned the rules these entitled parents had made. I was told that under no circumstances was I to play on the trampoline, because JBB had injured her ankle. So because she could not play on the trampoline, no kids could either. I remember finding this being odd, but being 9 years old, figured the adults were just being nice to not hurt my friend's feelings. I started skipping around and being silly with my other friends, then was informed of another rule. No skipping or running. JBB can't skip and run because of her ankle, and it's her birthday, so no children can either. Feeling a bit deflated by this, I went over to the swing they had under a tree. To keep to myself. I remember feeling like this was so unfair. As a child, I was quite fixated on the idea of fair vs. unfair. This seems to be normal for most children though. Then there was a treasure seeking game the parents had set up, where they left clues around the garden to find the treasure. I did not participate in this because I was sure there was a catch at this point and just watched the other kids play. I was right. No children could walk faster than JBB, since she was unable to walk quickly. No children could walk in front of JBB. I actually witnessed a child get yelled at for doing so. Also, JBB had to be the first one to find the treasure. The kids were only there to help her solve the clues. I was fairly fed up at this point and just kept to myself for the rest of the party, apart from being nice to the girl who had been yelled at for daring to walk in front of JBB. My mother came to pick me up and I left as quickly as I could. Feeling utterly perplexed by the experience.

From the latest chapter of FGO's Learning with Manga! A new Lancer is recruited by Assassin, to order to kill an impossible-to-kill monster (Which fans always joke about Gudako is a Beast servant) by using "giant wooden stake" to pierce her heart.
A female Lancer servant's outfit gives a clue of where she come from, she looks like the Dutch from Netherlands and looks like your typical "Gothic Horror" and "Monster-killer" archetype. From what I read so far according from TYPE MOON JBBS and Twitter, they mention that Lancer's identity is "ヴァン・ヘルシング" (Van Helsing), who is the most known for a fictional character had invented the wooden stake to kill a monster's heart. Gudako is impossible to be killed but Assassin summons Lancer to kill her, is fitting for someone who knows how to kill a monster by simple method.
Merem is also guess about her identity too.
EDIT: They are convinced and believe she is Van Helsing too.
OH NO.....

Note: Take grain of salt, I collect these info from JBBS TYPE-MOON for the most part and Twitter.
A boy a.k.a Voyager: The final servant was summoned without master until makes contract with Utsumi Erice. From Fate/Requiem's description of the story, the shinigami (God of Death) refers to Voyager and Erice as "Servant of The Killer"
Caren Fujimura: An adoptive daughter of Fujimura family, a mythology gag of Fate/Hollow Ataraxia's mini game "Capsule Servant" where Taiga and Shirou adopt her at the end of the game. She builds Caren Series with four artificial intelligence to supervise Akihabara and takes responsible as Erice's Teacher.
Galahad Alter: I got few information about this guy unfortunately (Perhaps this character is a walking spoiler to begin with). A Saber servant was summoned by Koharu F. Leiden Frosts (コハル・F・ライデンフロース), a homunculus and possesses Demi-Servant ability that is similar to Rin Tohsaka and Rani VIII from Fate/Extra Last Encore. The relationship of Galahad Alter and Koharu is just like Rin and Emiya from Fate/stay Night. Galahad's personality is just like his father being womanizer but more with Emiya's snarky attitude. There's an illustration of Koharu got teased then embarrassed because of him. There's a scene of where Galahad bride carries Koharu, similar to iconic scene of Emiya bride carries Rin. They are MVP of Akihabara in Holy Grail Tournament, they have fought many times and unbeatable before the prologue chapter.
Longinus: A Lancer servant was summoned by Manazuru Chitose (真鶴チトセ), who is Utsumi Erice's grandmother due non-aging magic<. From illustration page, you notice there's a >!pirate from behind them, they're fight against pirate servants and Zombie Hannibal
Kijyo Koyo: A Berserker servant was summoned by Karin. Apparently Kijyo has connection with Tohno clan from Tsukihime due they have the blood of oni, which Makihisa Tohno, Shiki Tohno or that SHIKI Tohno and Akiha Tohno possess of this curse. Karin's full name isn't revealed yet.
Kundry: A female Rider servant comes from Parsifal. Responsible for the outbreak due she finds her love ones when sees Flying Dutchman. Interesting enough that she can summon demons and uses projection, which contradicts to her servant class while she looks like your typical crazy Caster servant. From the colour illustration page, Erice got pierced by Kundry's projectile
Hendrik van der Decken: A Rider servant possesses Noble Phantasm Flying Dutchman. Responsible for taking a job as navigator from Akihabara.
Hannibal Barca: His class is unknown, but implies he was summoned as Rider servant, as he can summon giant war elephant. He is supposedly a member of Koharu's camp. He was killed then resurrected as a traditional of "Voodoo Zombie" by Nzambi. He is one of antagonist servants of the first volume
EDIT - El Cid: His class is unknown, but implies he was summoned as Saber servant. He possesses flaming sword (They say it's Tizona, but they didn't mentioned about Colanda).
Nzambi: Class is unknown. Nzambi is a main antagonist as a serial killer who cuts anyone who has Command Spell then collect their hands as decoration. He is the main responsible for the outbreak in Holy Grail Tournament. Possesses a black magic of resurrect a dead person by using voodoo and spread "Death". The reason Nzambi possesses this ability due "zombie" word comes from the origin of Nzambi's name Sounds like Vlad III Apocrypha has new best friend...
Cesare Borgia & Lucrezia Borgia: According to JPN readers, one of them is a servant and implies they're just like Sakamoto Ryouma & Oryou. Ambiguous confirmation about their appearance, they are very "youthful".
Lucius Tiberius from Fate/Prototype - Fragments of Sky Silver makes cameo appearance.
Francis Drake, (Neil) Armstrong, Leif Erikson, Erik The Red, Vasco da Gama, Ferdinand Magellan & Christopher Columbus got mentioned and have been summoned in Fate/Requiem's world. Drake and Columbus are same counterpart of Fate/Extra and FGO respectively. No confirmation for these new servants' class, it seems they are share group of Rider class alongside with Drake and Columbus.
Jacques de Molay, Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, Hayreddin Barbarossa & unnamed heir of Matsuratou are mentioned. They are fighters participate in Holy Grail Tournament.
Minamoto Nokurou Yoshitsune. An adult incarnation of Ushiwakamaru, participates in Holy Grail Tournament. There is no confirmation of Yoshitsune's class and gender. Oh, Yoshitsune wearing full armor.
Euclid, he was summoned as Foreigner servant. He is a a commentator of Holy Grail Tournament alongside with Teach and Circe
Edward Teach, when he enters the tournament as a commentator, everyone yells BOO at him immediately. According from JPN readers, this Edward Teach's personality is different than his FGO counterpart.
Louis XVII, summoned as Avenger servant. His appearance can be described as "innocent child" just like his mother but as his class implies, expect this Louis is a bad news
Circe is same as her FGO counterpart, becomes a commentator of Holy Grail Tournament.
Two unnamed characters at the end of the volume, an elegant girl tags along with a black jackal (Implies Anubis).
Credits to watchedgantz for the scans.
Silver Moon (One of Humanity6's partnership of gathering information) comments about Fate/Requiem's setting and other Fate series:

かつてサーヴァントとは聖杯戦争でのみ輝いていた希望の星であった。故に人々はサーヴァントとそのマスターが織りなす物語に神秘性を見出した。だが、万物は流転するモノ。かつてのFateとは「聖杯戦争」を描いたモノだったが、エクステラ然り、FGO然り現在のFateはそこから脱却しつつある
これによって「聖杯戦争」でのみ輝きを示したサーヴァントたちは「聖杯戦争」という舞台装置からある程度の自由性を獲得した。「聖杯戦争」や「マスター」という要素に縛られずとも彼らは物語の主体になり得る自由を得たとも言いかえる事が出来る
それを受けて新たな息吹を込めて作られた作品が「Fate/Requiem」なのだろう。まさに作品内での「聖杯トーナメント」に対するエリセとカリンが持つ印象の違いがかつての「Fate」観と現在の「Fate」観の違いを表している
過去の偉大な英雄たちを見世物として扱う「トーナメント」を低俗と嫌悪するエリセ。当の英霊たち自身が本気で取り組むことならそれを外野がどうこう言うべきものではないと「トーナメント」を肯定するカリン
前者は「聖杯戦争」という枠組みをベースとした旧き「Fate」観であり、後者を「聖杯戦争」という枠組みから脱却した新しき「Fate」観に相当するモノと言えるだろう
両者の優劣と善悪については置いておくとして(本音として興味の範疇の外なだけだが)、この「Fate」観の変化を作品に落とし込んだ「聖杯戦争『後』の物語」として「Requiem」が位置し、機能すると勝手ながら自分は感じ取った
「Requiem」という物語そのものへの興味とは別に、この「Requiem」という物語を受けて新たに生まれてくる「Fate」に心が踊らないといえば嘘になるだろう。終わりを迎えた物語の価値は不変(それを受け取る読者の心象が移り変わるだけで)だが、それを受けて次に続く作品の可能性もそうである必要はない
この旧き「Fate」から新しき「Fate」が続々と生まれていく創造の連鎖こそ、「Fate」シリーズ全体が持つ熱量(価値)であるのだと改めて認識するのであった

Got confirmation for Fate/Requiem's setting year: It's 2025.
Fate/Requiem got positive reception by fans:

• https://twitter.com/oDlc2bpRMqIQYE7/status/1084433491071102977
  
• https://twitter.com/DEFsato/status/1084386172262961152
  
• https://twitter.com/amo_12932/status/1082428399023312896
  
• https://twitter.com/Kuro_Neko_0420/status/1082480975307624449
  
• https://twitter.com/yuuhibi0523/status/1085053593542000640
  
• https://twitter.com/10113tsk/status/1084833771226951680
  
• https://twitter.com/6LhjrnLmbxw29r3/status/1084830109578608641
  
• https://twitter.com/Aoi_okra43/status/1084795637743288325
  
• https://twitter.com/buzzdoll/status/1084447562243817472
  
• https://twitter.com/hurtl_th/status/1084438084568023040
  
• https://twitter.com/nyun_nyun_300/status/1084371780834287616
  
• https://twitter.com/yukkurisuramu/status/1084355186674429952
  
• https://twitter.com/hurtl_th/status/1084438084568023040
  
• https://twitter.com/yua_hosimiya/status/1084110108030685184
  

Rie Takahashi bought the book too. Can't stop her Shota-sense tingling.
They find there is one flaw about the series: Some of them find it hard to read Meteo's syllabus kanji (Like this one for example) until they get used to it with his writing style, especially for those who never read his old works before such as "Forest" and "Kusarihime".
According from various sources I've seen so far, some of them saying Fate/Requiem's world can be described as it's like Megaman X but as Fate series, while servants who cause outbreak are now more like labeled as "Maverick". I suppose servant co-exist with them is a huge risk after all.

Just a quick note, it would be helpful if players that have been picked up through free agency, or have been traded were moved to their proper team on tagproleague.
Also, I'm only including wins and losses, not ties. Ties are dumb, so I'm pretending they don't exist.
 
Funketown (7-4) vs. Clocks n Blocks (7-4)
 
It's week 3 and I'm a little unsure about these 2 teams. Both of them have talent, and Clocks n Blocks just acquired Snowball who may replace bluejays on B team, or maybe he plays A team defense with Bomberguy if I'm a Horse is MIA.
 
They both have weaknesses too. Losing 4 out of 6 games against TC Jukes last week (tying one) Clocks n Blocks will look to recover against another strong team in Funketown.
 
Funketown has some glaring weaknesses. Tagprof has been playing pretty poorly, and I'm not sold on D8 playing A team defense but hey, they were able to play pretty well against the Pandas last week.
 
Nevertheless, I expect to see Crossover and no defense hardcore expose the Funketown defense. TheIndian and Selfy may end up doing the same to bomberguy and snowball. It'll be interesting to see how this plays out.
 
Bomberguy has 10 D GASP, 1st in prevent, 3rd in returns. Crossover, with a good showing this week should easily have the 10 O GASP.
 
This should be a matchup that tests both teams and can give insight to how these teams will look when it's closer to playoff time.
 
Prediction - 4-2 Clocks
 
Rekt Angles (3-6) vs. Pi-Curious (9-2)
 
Pi-Curious was predicted to do well in preseason power rankings, and they've lived up to those expectations so far. They'll continue to show their strength this week against a team that has struggled quite a bit so far, but also managing to get 3 ties.
 
Pi-Curious has a tough offense, and BallAnka has the perfect partner to show how good he is as well. Acapuck with the 96 O NISH, 4th in caps, 6th in hold, has been able to give Anka a bit of freedom without a ton of pressure, 93 O NISH / 3rd in caps / 13th in hold.
 
They're backed up by a defense of HeinousAnus and boogie. Heinous, statistically looks like he's still recovering from being on Boston Pops last season, but I expect that to turn around in the next few weeks. Boogie, is 4th in returns and prevent, and so far has really anchored the defense.
 
Jorge and the Rekt Angles have some work to do. They're a very aggressive team and defensively, the aggression isn't leading to a boost in stats for returns. Elegant and jorge have a pretty high hold against per minute. Jorge with a 64 D NISH, and Elegant with a 79 D NISH, aren't really giving a lot of opportunities for their offense.
 
Their offense is good with Some Man 7 and Aunt Jemima but they can only do so much. I would assume we'll see HYPETRAIN get an A team call up soon, or some moves to be made with trades or free agency. If not, this team will have a tough time making it to the playoffs.
 
Prediction - Pi-Curious sweeps 6-0
 
Boaty McBoatface (5-7) vs. Needful Pings (4-6)
 
This matchup features teams that are 11th, and 12th overall in the standings. Have mad's team has +14 cap differential while Needful Pings have been fortunate to point up with 2 ties, and have a -11 cap diff.
 
For Boaty, Have mad played defense last week with Papa John and they were pretty lights out. I think we'll see him continue to play defense since BigRedApples hasn't really worked out so far. Bubblez and Puggins or Poet are capable of capping enough to win games.
 
And for those of you that thought bubblez was some random pubber scrub that wouldn't do well in competitive, he's capping twice per 10 minute game on average. 20 caps in 97 minutes, and he's only going to get better.
 
For Needful Pings, Wheelin Timmy and Yiss have been doing well with getting returns. Prevent is a different story, and if they want to provide Corbeh (4th in hold) and Kate with more capping opportunities they need to keep the flag in base, and focus more on prevent.
 
Despite boaty's record, I think they should have a somewhat easy week. Have mad playing offense though, probably would give Needful Pings a break, since Have mad on regrab effectively takes him out of the game when he doesn't have the flag. Having him on defense, makes the team scarier since there isn't that 2nd defender to step up with Papa John.
 
Prediction 4-2 Boaty Mcboatface
 
Newark Red Balls (9-2) vs. Ball or Nothing (2-8)
 
JBB's team has really surprised me. After Bumballbee struggling last season, he really turned it around, and is currently rockin' the 10 O GASP / 100 O NISH and #1 in caps.
 
I wasn't sure about Cheetos and 420sk8erDude on defense but it's been working out so far. They aren't the best defense, but they haven't really been exposed much yet, even going up against Have mad in week 1.
 
BoN is struggling a lot. They have Phreak, who can be a dominant offender but he lacks an experienced support player. They have Nilus playing offense, who was playing B team defense last season and not an expected player to get a call up. To add to the problem, Keekly and Buttsnake aren't a very good pairing, and the flag is out of base too often. I think Keekly may need someone that isn't as aggressive.
 
Picking up RAMMSTEIN as an FA is probably a good move. He's a B team player imo but has the ability to play A and may give phreak more opportunities. Probably won't be able to tell what the impact is this week though.
 
Prediction - Red balls sweep 6-0
 
Whitecaps (2-10) vs. Over The Pants Handoffs (7-4)
 
OTPHO has surprised me in 2 straight weeks (even though I didn't do a post last week). First week, I was unsure of how the defense of stdz and Some Ballz would pan out. I also wasn't sure how well Dubstep would do after taking a season off.
 
Dub still has it, and mudkip plays pretty solid support. They swept reCAPTCHA in week 1 then didn't do so well last week against Newark Red Balls when they were missing Dubstep.
 
They picked up Boethius in free agency, who played minors about a year and a half ago but didn't put up very good stats. Tbh, I'm not sure I see him winning many minutes on A and maybe not even B team either. They also picked up Suchit in a trade, but hasn't played yet this season. He could plugin for Mudkip on offense.
 
Whitecaps have been very disappointing. Ess and Spiking should be doing a lot better together but last week Spiking wasn't there and we saw Ess play offense, which shouldn't be happening.
 
Assuming no availability issues this week, we may see line up changes. Maybe Playmaker plays A team in place of Sweater or Romulus this week, or maybe SpiKing goes back to offense. Either way, the Whitecaps are in troubling territory with a -51 cap diff and no sign of being able to dig their way out of the bottom of the standings.
 
I see easy wins for OTPHO. If Ess is back on defense, with his regular roster then they could make this close and possibly take a few games. Some Ballz and Stdz should recover from a bad week 2, and if Dubstep is there then I think they look pretty good.
 
Prediction - 4-2 OTPHO
 
Pequenos Pandas (9-3) vs. reCAPTCHA (2-8)
 
The Pandas have been one of the favorites this season with quite the starting line up for A team. However, this week we'll see someone in place of anti-re while he's serving a 2 week suspension.
 
In his place, I'd assume we say IfYouSeekAmy who has apparently switched to offense this season, and is doing pretty well with a 9.86 O GASP. He'll be partnered with CoolCat which is still a formidable offense especially when you consider the defense they'll have behind them.
 
Eldenn and Homie have been holding things down, and Homie has the 10 T GASP, with Eldenn at 9.91 T GASP.
 
They'll be up against a struggling reCAPTCHA team that features the NDpop leader IrishBlizzard with 66 NDpops, and a pretty wicked 3.13 pup percentage. It isn't just him that struggles with getting power ups, both Fractal and Taurus are also very low.
 
Taurus is someone I expected to have a much better showing so far. He's got moves that make it seem like he can hold for days, but the decision making needs work.
 
Heisy is doing what he can to carry, but it just isn't enough.
 
Will reCAPTCHA be able to turn things around? Probably not this week.
 
Prediction - Pandas sweep 6-0
 
C.R.E.A.M. (4-8) vs. TC Jukes (7-4)
 
This is an entirely different C.R.E.A.M. team than we've seen in the first 2 weeks. They picked up Dew1234 who was playing B team offense for OTPHO, and played quite well despite being a centra player. He may be taking the spot left open by OG Diddles when CREAM traded him to the Capaliers.
 
So we should see Carp + Dew on offense which is a pretty formidable offense. The defense, which has been struggling will see a huge improvement over Snack, with Bergieberg.
 
Will this be enough to compete with TC Jukes?
 
Since TC Jukes has had availability issues, I think CREAM has potential to pull an upset, especially on sphere. They've been missing their NPC pick, FURY aka THEY SLEEP, and without him getting full minutes their offense looks a bit exposed, relying on B team defender Pyro Force to play offense with Kutrebar.
 
A FURY and Kutrebar offense is pretty scary but the defense looks like it needs work. I don't like Tonto or Pyro possibly playing defense with Misaki. Ron traded for Bunny Colvin so it is very reasonable to expect the opportunity for Bunny to play A team defense with Misaki.
 
TC Jukes needs to solidify their roster. I guess this week we'll see what Ron is thinking, and depending on the results, we may see some major shake ups next week.
 
Prediction - 3-3 split
 
The Eggpire Snipes Back (6-5) vs. Handoff Gods (4-7)
 
Quite an interesting matchup here since these teams are so different and we'll also see a B teamer get a call up for the Handoff Gods. While Tinderfella has the best O GASP on B team, I think we see Cook play for the recently suspended moobear since he's probably their more polished player on B team.
 
Handoff Gods recently picked up Maurice in free agency, so if he is actually showing up to play then that's a huge move for Dick Bob. That would end up moving Laserpig to offense with Tim Hortons, which does make this team stronger.
 
Pretty poor timing on the Suchit trade. He's about to return, and they traded him away thinking moobear was the 2nd O on A team.
 
The Eggpire Snipes Back have been playing well. In week 1 they had an easy time against CREAM and last week played very well against the Land Before Timers.
 
How will they do against some radius talent? I think pretty well. Pnaoxt is a monster who can hold forever. He's #1 in hold, 6th in caps, and we have Fender playing support. Who would have thought Fender would be not only decent at offense, but doing pretty well on A team offense.
 
They have a pretty solid defense behind them as well with Squeeb and Cognito. Both good defenders that make it difficult for opposing teams to get good grabs and get out of base. I really like this defense.
 
I think the Handoff Gods are better than their record suggests, but they need to sort out a few issues. Losing Moobear for 2 weeks is a huge blow. Maybe Maurice picks up the slack.
 
Prediction - Eggpire 4-2
 
The Land Before Timers (8-3) vs. The Capaliers (6-4)
 
The Capaliers have been busy! Making a trade for OG Diddles was interesting to me, considering he's been a centra player. It does seem much easier for higher ping players on offense than it is on defense though, so maybe it wasn't a bad move.
 
A more notable move was getting rid of Razgriz, who is considered toxic by some but had a very good week last week on B team for TPW, getting 11 caps in 40 minutes.
 
We should be seeing a No Name + Diddles offense, which gives No Name a good support O and should lead to a lot more success for the Capaliers.
 
Defense will be Atomic and qQ most likely, since they've given up Bunny Colvin in a trade to TC Jukes. Unfortunately, I think that leaves their defense exposed, and it's only a matter of time until we see Ceausescu get the call up to A team with the 10 D and T GASP.
 
The Land Before Timers have been playing very well. Where I expected code to beat out Lemon Pledge for the 2nd A team spot along side gh0st, I've been proven wrong with Lemon actually getting a 99 D NISH in 90 minutes so far.
 
AK47 (congrats on the new axe) and might dino are having no problem on offense. Both are top 25 in caps, AK being top 10 in both caps and hold.
 
This will be a good matchup. Both offenses have the ability to beat up on the opposing defense. It'll come down to who has the better defense. I think Transilio can go either way, but reflex2 which is a holdy map would definitely favor the capaliers.
 
Prediction - 3-3 split
 
The Pointless Warriors (5-7) vs. Circlejukers (3-7)
 
I'm a little confused on whats going on with the Circlejukers. Is Max Hype BAllstar? Gargantua is #1 in the league in returns but the super aggressive playstyle isn't really helping his team. Partnered with Businessbird, they aren't getting a lot of prevent or resets.
 
This certainly isn't helping what is a pretty weak offense in Wassa and BAllstar (assuming that's who Max Hype is). Since Sir Cle has been on the move to gather up waiver points, we should expect a move pretty soon either a trade with another team or they're holding out for a free agent.
 
This week doesn't give them a break either. Going up against TPW, who doesn't look the best statistically, will certainly give them problems on Sphere. They have Tofuman and STRFKR on offense, and while they aren't capping a lot yet, this could be a break out week.
 
Their defense is solid with Ranger and Xenocide, but considering this is a sphere game we may see some moves. g1nseng could be partnered with Tofuman, and moving STR to defense with Ranger.
 
I think the CircleJukers struggles will continue. Depending on how they do this week, will create a sense of urgency to make some moves.
 
Prediction - TPW 4-2

This is my biggest interview and the one that I was the most hyped about. I don't think I've kept it a secret that I love the Thundercaps and support them. They have the hilarious Garg, the dank Tantrew, the chill BruceWayne, and the greatest O player in Crossover. Their B-Team is also filled with cool guys. Did you know that the Kitty Caps swept the eventual Buperball champs? Well, they could very well BE the Buperball and Nuperball champs this season. Watch out for them, these cats can bite.
1: Why did you guys pick Gargantua as your NPC Pick?
Tiger: Garg has been my TagPro bff4life ever since I joined competitive. He drafted me personally in Season 5, I drafted him in Season 6, so it only made sense to bring him back to the ThunderCaps for the comeback season. Tant and I also knew we needed to secure the best defender possible for our NPC pick, and getting Garg at a 30 TC value is just insane. We got the best defender in the league for dirt cheap.
Tantrew: Gargantua is the best defender in NLTP. Look at his prevent stats. We figured out what he was capable of before the season started. Also tiger and him have some sort of weird AF relationship that may or may not be sexual.
2: Explain to me what each member of your A-Team does. How does each player contribute?
Tiger: Crossover caps, Gargantua and BruceWayne keep the flag in base and get returns and stuff, and tantrew talks about stuff I guess. Gets some pups or something.
Tantrew: Crossover contributes by making the defenders look like paralyzed turtles that try to tag him but simply can't compete on the same level as himself. It's no surprise he's the league leader in caps considering how weak defenders are comparatively to crossover. Mr.T contributes by not getting in garg's way. Garg contributes by drinking enough alcohol for the 4 of us every night and feasting on grabby fc's. Tantrew is still the UberMensch, though I still haven't read Nietzche so I have no idea what that means. We are literally the ThunderCrossovers at this point. Under Megatron's tutelage, I have been able to craft a mini-megatron to play O with me. Don't be surprised if it comes out that crossover is actually an Asian attending Harvard.
Gargantua: For offense, Crossover is our flashy/highly aggressive offender. He does what he can to wear down opposing defenses and demoralize them completely given the opportunity. The man doesn't have to juke you for days, just one quick move to the right/left/up/down and hes gone baby! Mans got a tan so dark you'd think he sees nuthin but daylight.
All of what Crossover does allows Tantrew to play smart, slow and concise offense. He's always trying to play intelligently and do what's best for everyone, not just offense themselves. That's not to say that Crossover isn't a smart player, he just comes into base so damn fast that he doesn't even have a chance to comm it. In reality, Tantrew is our in-game leader. He doesn't even have to be good, as long as he tells us what to do and when to do it, we'll be aight.
And that leaves Brucey. My one and only. He's just such a darn good partner for me. We trust each other to get solos, blocks, etc. It's not always perfect and it doesn't always work out but we never get angry with one another. We know that there will always be a next time to get things right, which we normally do. People may see Bruce as getting carried but if you look at his stats, he's right up there with me, just less minutes. I'm not making Bruce great. Bruce is in equal parts making our defense the best in this league.
3: Explain to me what each member of your B-Team does. How does each player contribute?
Tiger: Juke Dough, FURY., and Djinni are all capable of very long holds and can pull off dank caps. Jerry. and Koogon were moreso my supportive types who can support their partner and teammates and do whatever it takes to win. They were all wildly valuable to the team. On defense, everyone just kind of gets the job done. Kitten Panda is a good field commander, Kornbeef also fills that role well while adding in D caps. Dick Bob and bad hombre are late round picks who have provided high prevent halves all season.
Tantrew: Kornbeef is the back bone of our B team. I don't know why; he just wanted me to say that. Juke dough's back probably hurts the most considering how many caps he needed to score to get us to where we are. Bad Hombre is probably a smurf considering his ridiculously high PPM but I'm not gonna question it. His PPM fell a bit when he went back to school, so I hope he drops out or goes back home when playoffs start. Picked up dick bob because of his voice. Also he puts up high prevent sometimes. Kitten panda is nice but he doesn't share pics of his wife so idk how valuable he actually is to the team. Picked up Jerry so I could have a CRC buddy in ELTP. Koogon is ok but I mostly like him for his yoyo videos. If any of you guys are YoYo hypemen, take a look at my boy koogon. Djinni has nice jukes but really we picked him up for his voice too. Very silky and reminds me of Jbb's butt (firm but gentle). Also Shardik was cool even though hockey was his favorite sport. Hopefully I converted him into a Rockets fan. tpk was a great player and definitely deserves credit for our nuperball run. We melted away fury's bad habits that he learned from S5 and molded him into an all star in just 2 weeks. He goes for montage plays which creates hype for the rest of our team. And if anyone finds nilus, please return him to our team. We miss him dearly and just want to make sure he's safe :(
As for skill, I guess they all bring something to the table.
Gargantua: Unfortunately I haven't watched our b-team much until this later half of the season (last 3-4 games). Without going into crazy detail (we have so many players) each player does both positions well. Almost anyone on our b-team can cap with ease and pretty much everyone can be trusted to get key-returns and play a little Defense if they need to.
I think that's why our b-team is sitting at #1. B-team games can be rife with chaos, players constantly out of position and such, and everyone of our guys can play effective in any situation. So we're essentially never caught off guard.
4: Which team had the easiest schedule? Which team had the hardest schedule?
Tiger: Whoever played in the Central Division, probably. ICP S7 had the hardest schedule.
Tantrew: I don't know cause we're 1st seed. I think ICP is a pretender though. TC/ABO/TTAN with Anze are the only real contenders.
Gargantua: Unfortunately I don't pay much attention to anyone but us. I once did hear Sir Cle say he wish he was in our division but that didn't make much sense considering there's us and Tyle Boyz in it. But SirCles dumb so idk. (Editor's Note: SAVAGE)
5: Who was the most surprising player on your roster? In the league?
Tiger: I wouldn't say anyone on my roster surprised me, they mostly just confused me in many ways.
Tantrew: Most surprising player on our team was kornbeef. He looks like neil patrick harris and I didn't expect that.
Most surprising player in the league was probably phreak. Lots of salty comments about other team/player's success but at least he was able to be the best offender who belongs in NLTP.
Gargantua: On our team, it's undoubtedly Djinni. Dude ain't even a pub star. To paint the picture, it was late in the draft, Tiger and I were kind of scrambling around looking into players stats before our pick and we noticed this rando Djinni who had 59-60% win percentage. Not great by any means but hey, pretty good for a nobody (sorry for saying that). The season moves along, Djinni clearly doesn't know many strats but his moves man. Some of the things this man can pull out of his ass is ass-tonishing. Djinni with the jukes, I sing sometimes to the tune of Bennie and the Jets... He's also a no-mic. Djinni still has a lot left to learn and his game-sense still needs improving but all of that will come with time. With a mic and a little more dedication, I could foresee Djinni sweeping into a-team halfway through next season.
As for the rest of the league... I have no clue.
6: Your A-Team plays The Aristocaps, how are you preparing for that matchup?
Tiger: Watching the Super Bowl. Learning how to be an evil empire isn't easy, but this is the first step. Me and the boys gotta learn from the best of the best when it comes to crushing the soul of the nation. (Editor's Note: I hate the Super Bowl go away)
Tantrew: Not really gonna prepare. I've won 7 straight playoff series on aggregate. Probably gonna do the same here.
Gargantua: Just doing what we always do. Practicing like a mofo. Ain't no rest for the wicked. I know a few of us watch game-tape in our free time as well.
7: Your B-Team plays The Cosmic Lattes (PCC) , how are you helping your B-team prepare for that matchup?
Tiger: Just telling them to get returns, get pups, stay ahead, stuff like that. Play a bit of anti, ya know. You can't see the Book of Secret Strats tho.
Tantrew: Lots of finger pushups and obstacle courses to keep their fingers nimble and non-beefy.
Gargantua: See above answer.
8: Who do you want to win the Nuperball, if you guys don't win it?
Tiger: I don't understand the question.
Tantrew: This is a pretty stupid question considering I don't see a world where we lose the Nuperball with this lineup.
Gargantua: Whoever our opponent is in the Nuperball. If they beat us then they're obviously the better, more deserving team.
9: Who do you want to win the Buperball, if you guys don't win it?
Tiger: Which team has the minors player?
Tantrew: SVB. Chelsea has been a victim of cancerous comments for too long and it's nice to see a success story :)
Gargantua: Whoever our opponent is in the Buperball. If they beat us then they're obviously the better, more deserving team.
10: What was your most memorable moment from the season as a whole?
Tiger: Probably the moment at the end when we realized we had clinched both #1 Seeds. We had accepted being the #2 Seed on B-Team until jbaay came waddling along with his accurate standings. We had a party where all NLTP Season 8 #1 Seeds were invited, but it was just a regular practice meeting for us.
Tantrew: Nothing really stood out. just another nuperball run, like my old ones.
Gargantua: I suffer from recency bias but when jerry was trying to say something a few nights ago and... I think it was jukedough.. kept interrupting with "scrim" or something like that everytime jerry started a sentence. It was so darn funny. Kittenpanda... I think it was... had just gotten back from being afk so he was dumbfounded, laughin... idk. Had to be there. (Editor's Note: I was :D)
There's been loads of good moments. I've laughed a lot this season and that's how I usually gauge a good season. Good times with good people and all that. Even the groupme has been a blast.
11: Do you consider Adarssh to be a part of the Thundercaps family?
Tiger: Who?
Tantrew: ya u in.
Gargantua: Sure.
Juke Dough: Ok.
The Thundercaps GroupMe: Why are you in this chat?
Well that's it for now! I'll probably post the other two throughout the week when I get the time, but for now that's the end of the series! Thanks for reading these guys!
Adarssh