Really love Bejeweled, it’s the only dashboard theme that game series got and I can’t be bothered to purchase the theme :) If anyone has a clean version of the theme with nothing in the way of the wallpaper please PM me.

First of all thanks for even's help
Now enjoy!
{Next day}
Yumeko: "wakey wakey its time for our date, come on, wake up"
Yun: "ah good morning... Date?"
Yumeko: "yes pookie, you're going with me today≈"
Yun: " I DO NOT WANT TO"
Yumeko: "why did your personality change overnight..."
Yun: "change..?"
Then he gets a flashback of what happened last night and unlocked tomato mode again
Yumeko: "ara ara you get me laughing everytime you make this expression"
Yun: "seriously stop your ara ara and NO I'm not going with you on a date..."
Yumeko: "ara ara if you say so I'm not gonna stop at all, and are you sure you don't want to go on a date with a pretty girl like me..?"
Yun: "seriously n-"
Yumeko shows him a picture of both of them sleeping and hugging each other "should I show this picture to my dad and tell him what happened≈"
Yun says while panicking "wh- what happened.. WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?!"
Yumeko: "well, nothing happened but I can just lie y'know≈"
Yun: "you won't be able to anymore"
Yumeko: "wha-" until she notices his phone recording
"You seriosly..."
Yun: "well, bye no-"
"What the fuck was that"
Yumeko: "don't overestimate yourself"
Yun: "you also did this last time, are you some kind of an assassin?"
Yumeko: "maybe? Now let's go≈"
Yun: "since I'll have to go anyway then cook breakfast for me"
Yumeko: "you're taking the chance I see, don't try taking the phone since you won't be able to and I don't wanna hurt you..."
Yun: "why should I even escape when I'm with someone as beautiful as you≈"
Yumeko: "you trynna flirt with me now? If you keep doing that I'll treat you better≈"
{After a few minutes}
Yun: "woah you're surely good at cooking, now let's ea-"
Yumeko: "you can only eat the food I cook by my own hands≈"
Yun: "... Fine, just feed me quickly..."
Yumeko: "you're really falling for me, aren't you?"
Yun: "whatever let's just eat"
Yumeko: "you really wanna eat it huh? Sure I'll keep cooking for you if you co-"
Yun: "I'm not going stop trying, I have responsibilities left here..."
The room went silence...
Yun: "damn, this is what happens when you say that, stop ruining the mood!"
Yumeko: "so its my fault, yeah its always been my fault, since I was a little child, everything I did was wrong" sob sob
Yun: "wait are you crying...? I'm sorry for saying that so stop..."
Yumeko: pfft "seriously you can't deny it anymore just accept the fact you fell for me≈"
Yun: 💢💢💢
{A while later}
Yumeko: huff "we finally got outside, I thought we won't be able to at all"
Yun: "so where do you wanna go?"
{At the same time in gangseo}
Adrienne: "if you don't come with me on a date I'll tell Adrian you acknowledged he was much stronger than you"
Chin: "huh let's just go to the gy-"
Adrienne: "NO! I want a normal date for once!"
Chin: "fine, where do you wanna go?"
Adrienne: "Yang-Cheong!"
Chin: "why can't we just go on a date here in gangseo?"
Adrienne: "shut up and follow me!"
{Back to Yun and Yumeko}
"that looks good too..." Yun says in an exhausted state
Yumeko: "hmm are you sure?"
Yun: "I don't know, if you buy more I'm gonna die" (he's lifting a ton of clothes)
???: "I don't think that dress suit you"
Yumeko: "do you think so? Wait, who are you?"
???: "oh forgot to introduce myself, my name is Adrienne!"
Yun: "Adrienne? Are you Adrian's sister or something?"
Adrienne: "do you know my brother?"
Yun: "wait, you really are siblings?!"
Adrienne: "ye-"
Chin: "huh did you finish your shopping yet? I'm tired of waiting"
Adrienne: "stop ruining the introduction bitch"
Chin: "what intr-"
"Wait, Yun...? And..."
Yumeko: "the name is Yumeko"
Chin: "I didn't know you changed your simping target"
Yumeko: "changed what? You gotta E X P L A I N T H I S T O M E"
Yun: "Chin you motherfucker!"
Chin: "didn't mean to do that"
Adrienne: "I think this one will suit you more, and its like the one I bought so we'll look like besties, Yumeko"
Yumeko: "you really got a good taste in clothes"
Yun and Chin: (thanks Adrienne!)
Adrienne: "do you wanna go on a double date?"
Chin: N-
Adrienne: "I wasn't asking you"
Yumeko: "never tried one before, I'd like to do that!"
Adrienne: "me too"
Chin: "you girls seriously see us as pets"
Adrienne: "I don't know about him but you definitely are"
Yumeko: "both are our pets"
Yun thinks: (why am I even here?)
Adrienne: "should we try bowling?"
Yumeko: "2v2 couples bowling battle"
{In conclusion, Yun gets the win by throwing the ball with his six fingers}
Yumeko: "your fingers are really amazing and helpful, let me bite them≈"
Yun trynna get her away but she keeps following him while Chin and Adrienne were watching
Chin "I like her, she seems like one of my people"
Adrienne after punching Chin in the nose: "shut the fuck up you cheater!"
Chin: "you are the only person that made me cheat
Adrienne: "that's exactly the reason why you can't be trusted, once a cheater, always a cheater"
After the long and funny day these four had together, there bond became stronger.
Yun: "hey Yumeko where are you going now?"
Yumeko: "of course I'm going home"
Yun: "can I go with you today too..."
Yumeko: "my≈ my≈ it looks like I fell for you first but you fell for me harder≈"
Yun: "yes... I wanna enjoy every moment with you before you return to Japan... I wish I could come with you but as I said I have responsibilities left here..."
Yumeko: "wait, did you just confess to me right now?"
Yun: "yeah I did" then he hugs her
???: "Y U M E K O how dare you do something like this with a random korean boy" then he blitz them and knocks Yun out
???
Strength: ??
Speed: ??
Potential: ??
Intelligence: ??
Endurance: ??

Let me preface this by saying that I do not think this theory precludes this song being about her muse(s). But I think this song is also about Taylor's fame and her relationships with her fans.
It's no secret that a number of her previous albums offer a glimpse into her complicated relationship with her celebrity and how it has affected her romantic relationships. Her personal life was arguably part of the reason for her rise to fame; few pop artists have such a personal discography. In songs like "The Prophecy," her anxiety around this is clear ("I'm so afraid I sealed my fate/No sign of soulmates"). She seems to understand that her relationships, while being the source of so many of her most impressive work ("it's the worst men I write best"), are also imperiled because of her fame ("The Lucky One," "peace," ". At the same time, she is not willing to let it go; also present in her discography are themes of being forgotten, fading away, losing her fame ("Long Live," "Nothing New," and now "Clara Bow").
This brings us to Fortnight, a song about her most stable and contentious relationship to date: her relationship with fame and her fans.
"I was supposed to be sent away/But they forgot to come and get me/I was a functioning alcoholic/'Til nobody noticed my new aesthetic" Note the repeated reference to being forgotten, unnoticed. Taylor was quiet during two periods of her career: post-Snakegate, and then again during 2020-2021 (Joe? or the Pandemic? or both). We see her anger at being ignored.
"All of this to say I hope you're okay/But you're the reason/And no one here's to blame/But what about your quiet treason?" The juxtaposition here of guilt: "you're the reason" and then "no one here's to blame," settling on "your quiet treason," suggesting not outright malice but neglect or passive aggression. To what degree do her fans hold responsibility for her unhappiness? She doesn't seem sure.
"And for a fortnight there, we were foreveRun into you sometimes, ask about the weathe Now you're in my backyard, turned into good neighbors/Your wife waters flowers, I wanna kill her" This part struck me because it's such a contrast to "Long Live," where the speaker reflects fondly on their time in the spotlight. Here, she imagines her fans have moved on; they hear from her sometimes, but she no longer has their full attention. Think of how former It Girls (Stevie Nicks!) are still around and making music, still have fans, but they aren't the name on everyone's lips anymore. This causes not nostalgia but anger.
"All my mornings are Mondays stuck in an endless February/I took the miracle move-on drug, the effects were temporary/And I love you, it's ruining my life/I love you, it's ruining my life I touched you for only a fortnight/I touched you, but I touched you" Like "Long Live," this references fame as fleeting and temporary, and she can't forget it. Having ascended to this level of fame and accomplishment is also a curse, because she cannot let it go. "The miracle-move on drug" in this interpretation might be a quiet or more domestic life, which she may have had with Joe for a time ("The Lakes"). But it couldn't sustain her, she needed to be back in the spotlight ("Bejeweled").
"And for a fortnight there, we were foreveRun into you sometimes, ask about the weatheNow you're in my backyard, turned into good neighbors/Your wife waters flowers, I wanna kill heAnd for a fortnight there, we were togetheRun into you sometimes, comment on my sweateNow you're at the mailbox, turned into good neighbors/My husband is cheating, I wanna kill him" Here, Taylor imagines moving on like her fans will; she has married also, she crosses paths with those who have once been her fans, who haven't forgotten her completely or ignored her, but also don't have the passion for her they once did ("good neighbors" are pleasant and cordial but generally unobtrusive). We still see her anger and resentment, not just at the change in relationship, but also in her new relationship. Her husband (a reference to a quiet, domestic life) is not only unsatisfying, he's actively betraying her.
"I love you, it's ruining my life/I love you, it's ruining my life/I touched you for only a fortnight/I touched you, I touched you/I love you, it's ruining my life/I love you, it's ruining my life/I touched you for only a fortnight/I touched you, I touched you" This section feels manic, as the speaker repeats over and over her desire and how that desire has also ruined her life — the touch of fame was enough to curse her for all time.
"Thought of callin' ya, but you won't pick up/'Nother fortnight lost in America/Move to Florida, buy the car you want/But it won't start up 'til you touch, touch, touch me/Thought of calling ya, but you won't pick up/'Nother fortnight lost in America/Move to Florida, buy the car you want/But it won't start up 'til I touch, touch, touch you" In the outro, the object of the speaker's affection references their own nostalgia, but it's almost taunting — "I'd reach out but you won't pick up anyway, go ahead and move on, but nothing will ever give you what we had." This is the saddest part of the song for me; fame will move on to another object (another fortnight lost in America), but the best she can manage after this is a domestic distraction (Florida/cars) that will ultimately be unsatisfying. The inclusion of Post Malone is also an interesting choice with this theme; no offense to Posty, but he has a very of-the-moment look and career choices that will forever read 2010-2020s.
In the end, this song is such a tragic companion to the joyful post-fame future we saw in "Long Live." Taylor has achieved her greatest professional dreams, but they have made her outsize (the monster on the hill, if you will). How can she maintain the level of career success she has conceived and also settle down with the love of her life? How will she ever find that love in the first place? And even if she did, how can she ever have the normal life we hear that she longs for (rings, cradles, strollers)? In "Cassandra," she ruminates on a gift that was also a curse. But she also acknowledges her part in this in the Prophecy: " I got cursed like Eve got bitten/Oh, was it punishment?" — her actions have caused this reaction. Clara Bow once said, "I'm almost never satisfied with myself or my work or anything ... by the time I'm ready to be a great star I'll have been on the screen such a long time that everybody will be tired of seeing me." She fears she's trapped, but by whom? Herself, or us? In TTPD, we see a star who once again must reconcile the price of fame.
​

Starting in 2012 mother started dating no one else but exclusively British white men. And all of them just hurted her, made her lose her youth, and made her waste her time. Hell one of them even made her write London Boy… which is unforgivable!!! If it wasn’t for father Travis breaking this awful awful curse then who knew what the British would’ve of done with her. (Probably convince her that she doesn’t need dental care let’s be honest)
This is why we need to start a war. To show British people that they need to pay for what they did to Dr. Taylor Alison Becky Nils Sjöberg Kelce-Swift. No more British men can date her, but we need to capture the men who inflicted this decade long pain on her.
Who are these men and what did they do? Well if you’re a Swiftie (as you should be) you probably know. But for those of us who aren’t smart enough to discover little indie artists Taylor Alison Kelce (neé Swift) (previously Alwyn) here are the perpetrators and why we need to capture them
Harry Styles: He put mother in danger when he and mother committed vetical manslaughter and killed someone in Justin Bieber’s party. Also he cheated on mother (despite mother saying that she also cheated on him and her other partners)
Calvin Harris: Made mother that awful awful cake
Tom Hiddleston: He made mother feel like she was hurting him when she was using him to get back at Calvin!!! ARE YOU PROUD OF YOURSELF LOKI? MAKING A LITTLE GIRL (who was in her 20s) FEEL BAD???
Zayn Malik: Never dated mother but he ruined I Don’t Wanna Live Forever with his awful falsetto so we should capture him anyway.
Joe Alwyn: WHAJDFSJGDJSGSHSBDGSHE YOOOOOGURRRRTTT BOYYY!!! 👹👹👹👹
THIS MONSTER! THIS UTTER DEMONIC MONSTER!!!! HE WASTED MOTHER’S YOUTH WASTED MOTHER’S TIME MADE HER SPEAK ABOUT POLITICS AND MADE HER PRETEND THAT HE HELPED WRITE MOTHER’S BEST SONGS!!! HE NEVER LET MOTHER BEJEWELED!!! SHE SHOULD OF BEEN IN THE CLUB BUT NO!!! HE WAS TO SHY TO GO OUT!!! UNLIKE FATHER TRAVIS WHO WOULD BUY MOTHER ANYTHING HE COULDN’T EVEN BUY HER A PAPER RING
ALSO HE MADE HER WRITE LONDON BOY!!!
So Long London, we are coming for you in particular! You will pay for your crimes against humanity hahahagahaahahaha
Matty Healy: he is ugly and i don’t like him >:(
So as you can see my fellow Swifties and allies (thank you so much for supporting an oppressed minority like us) we need to destroy the British for what these 6 men did to mother. Are you with me? Are you with mother?
Uj/ I could of spent my time writing this writing my English essay… oops

I'm lazy and like to just mindlessly play something while I talk to friends.
Games like this I currently play:
Bloons TD 6
Bejeweled Blitz
Teamfight Tactics
Sid Meier's Civilization V
A short hike
Geometry Dash
Poly Bridge

General reminder that many changes cannot be easily datamined, such as functionality changes or bugfixes, and are not always final.
 

Champions

Ornn

• a bit ago it was brought up that Ornn's passive was unsustainable due to the demand to create copypasted versions of his item upgrades and also have to make sure to keep them updated with any changes from the base items
• the passive upgrades have now been overhauled
• however this is clearly unfinished and buggy so it's not entirely clear what the final vision is supposed to be (the tooltip is currently unchanged from live)
• regardless, this is how it can now currently be observed to function:
  • Ornn can now upgrade every completed item except for unstacked Tear items and Support Quest items
    • this includes a couple oddities like Mejai's and Vigilant Wardstone
  • Ornn's upgrades now grant a mostly-fixed 1000 gold value to the following stats that the item possesses (split mostly-evenly):
    • AD:  +1/35g  (same as Long Sword)
    • AP:  +1/20g  (same as Amplifying Tome)
    • HP:  +1/2.66g  (same as Ruby Crystal)
    • Armor:  +1/20g  (same as Cloth Armor)
    • MR:  +1/18g  (same as Null-Magic Mantle)
    • AH:  +1/31.25g  (not sure what this is coming from, but we know that Riot does not actually value Ability Haste based on Glowing Mote like the wiki implies, possible that they took an average across multiple epic items?)
    • AS:  +1/30g  (same as Dagger post-14.10)
    • all other stats do not count (i.e. no Lethality, which would have been cool to see an official stance on its gold value)
  • for example:
    • Kraken Slayer post-14.10 grants 50 AD, 40% AS, and 7% MS on the base item
    • of these, Ornn only upgrades AD and AS, so the 1000 gold value will be split between those, leaving the MS untouched
    • 500g of AD and AS comes out to +14.3 AD and +16.7% AS
    • as a result, the Masterwork Kraken Slayer now grants +64 AD, +56% AS, and +7% MS (it's not entirely clear if it's actually rounding or if it's tooltip only)
  • Health seems to have a unique property to it that diminishes its value when joined by other upgradeable stats (this behavior doesn't exist in the data so I'm not entirely sure about it, it might also just be a math bug)
    • 1 stat (such as Warmog's or Heartsteel):  +375 health (valued at 1000g, which is full value)
    • 2 stats:  +175 health (valued at 465g, instead of 500g, which would grant +188 health)
    • 3 stats:  +125 health (valued at 333g, which is full value)
    • 4 stats:  +75 health (valued at 200g instead of 250g, which would grant +94 health, and suspiciously matches a would-be 5 stat value)
    • 5 stats:  pretty sure there is no such item unless Nexus Blitz Spatula comes back
  • upgrades still apply to only your first slotted item
    • there does not seem to have been anything added yet to better disambiguate where you want your upgrade to go beyond having to coordinate your slots with your Ornn (or in Ornn's case, making sure to have a specific item slotted first before you hit level 13)
    • this could potentially be solved by having the upgrade instead give you the Ornn crafting UI and picking which item to upgrade from there
    • also once you have an item upgraded, that is the only item that will be upgraded for the rest of the game (for example, if you upgraded Randuin's Omen, you cannot sell it to try to upgrade your Jak'Sho, for the rest of the game you will only be able to get upgraded Randuin's Omen)
    • for current testing purposes, the Reset Game cheat does let you pick a new item to upgrade, however it's pretty annoying to have to do that every time
  • upgrades no longer have unique names
    • for example, Black Cleaver now just becomes "Black Cleaver (Masterwork)" instead of Obsidian Cleaver
    • fortunately, the way they have this set up seems like it would be somewhat easy to keep the unique names in the future if they were willing to do so
    • the name gets changed by using an Item Modifier, and currently there is only one Item Modifier for all Ornn items, so the modifier has been told to simply append the masterwork label
    • however, Item Modifiers also support replacing names entirely, so if they wanted to they could create unique modifiers for each item's Ornn name
    • while this would still result in some future maintenance required whenever new items are added, and would now require every completed item to be given an upgrade name instead of just a handful, it's something you'd only have to do once and never come back to, instead of needing constant upkeep like the live Ornn upgrade system
• overall this is a very promising solution and its current shortcomings have some pretty good opportunities for improvement

 

ARAM

• Homestart speed duration:  10s 20s
  • this is the speed boost you get on game start as well as whenever you respawn before 5:00
  • this doesn't really matter much for game start since it takes 15s for spawn gates to drop + 3s for portal travel time
  • also it currently only grants ~1 speed? there's a data value that implies it should be 50% speed but maybe they divided by 100?

Im seeing a lot of people posting that Chronos is too op. People suggesting methods of nerfing him or adjusting. But as someone who is beating him over and over fairly easily on high fear i have this to say, learn his moves in god mode. His moves are punishing, dealing large amounts of damage in a single hit as a titan should. To really master him you need to learn him enough to do large sections hitless, learning where his blind spots are and the tells for his moves. If you keep failing at that he doesn't need to be weaker, you just need to learn.
Its situations like this that god mode was made for. A flat damage reduction is not cheating. The mode is there for a reason. It will give you the leeway to lean his moves to the point you don't need it and can then beat him without it. Mel and Zag after all are gods, there is no reason they cant use that birth right.
https://preview.redd.it/7wdldbu9s50d1.png?width=1014&format=png&auto=webp&s=b405015546991404f661961d828eafe12ccbc8f8
For my first few runs of underworld and Olympus i used god mode. Turning it off when i stopped loosing or struggling. It's a great tool for learning movesets and mechanics and if you are ignoring it out of pride i implore you to give it a try. The point of games after all is to have fun and if you are having such a bad time you are begging the devs to make the game easier in reddit, make it easier yourself first with the tools they already gave you.
That to the side, strategies i use to get easy wins. These fall under two categories, add management and burst damage.
Add Management
You need a quick mana efficient way to kill the satyrs, hourglasses and other adds he brings to the fight. This is also the reason i always choose the hades boon that kills half of them for you. (though the darkness boon he offers is also amazing, 10 seconds of invulnerability after hitting one of Chronos's orbs is really OP)
The only henchman you need to divert your attention to are the banners, use your main attack to kill them as soon as you see them in phase one, or they will create barriers over the adds that makes them tougher to ignore, but there is a large gap between the banners appearing and them casting their first barrier.
For all other mobs i like to ignore them and focus on Chronos, while i passively kill them.
To do this you want your passive damage to do around 300 hp of damage. This is your aoe cast or your dash.
There are multiple casts that can do it but i recommend Hestia and Demeter.
https://preview.redd.it/kfqerlfcr50d1.png?width=1204&format=png&auto=webp&s=7b09ef75b00b87b60362eaeb2c75db53fd416a6e
https://preview.redd.it/yhe9isefr50d1.png?width=1195&format=png&auto=webp&s=66ec3e8cdd10011f7f167f840764537808e30427
https://preview.redd.it/pngxfu93s50d1.png?width=1002&format=png&auto=webp&s=c8a5380ad2eabaaed9653d35376a87a712fcbd96
As their basic cast deals the damage over time not their omega cast. Combined with Zeus or Hestia's casting boon, which either fires a fireball or lightning bolt and lets you target your cast. Aiming at the adds without needing to move near them.
https://preview.redd.it/midkkvsjr50d1.png?width=1196&format=png&auto=webp&s=f6028a6ecbb5fb6e8218f518ae1a151727db5ff8
https://preview.redd.it/a9epj6tmr50d1.png?width=1209&format=png&auto=webp&s=08bb13adaf7bee52b768585e6592c5a3c56f61b5
For this you get a burst (fireball or bolt) of damage and sustained dps by just tapping cast allowing you to focus your attention on chronos. Both dont waste your time charging your attack which is deadly in this encounter as the titan of time is immune to the omega attack charge time slowing.
The second method of dealing with adds passively is a high dps dash attack. The best for this is posidon. Getting his dash to heroic makes it deal 200 plus damage and has knockback cc. Allowing you to dodge chronos and move in to attack him while killing his adds in the process without thinking about it.
https://preview.redd.it/un3obwirr50d1.png?width=1201&format=png&auto=webp&s=900c8f4b2ae1cc838f208565b143541b42e5b418
Heroic Breaker Sprint does 200+ damage with no poms, but this one i got as a trade for another sprint has enough damage to kill all the adds in two hits for just 10 mana This sprint was doing 360 damage per hit.
Chronos himself, burst damage and placement
Every weapon has a way to deal reliable burst damage, to beat Chronos you want one of your attacks, special or main, to be able to deal a combo of around 1k damage in a few second, the gap you have to punish him when he uses his boomerang or scythe slice attack - but if you are struggling the highest single attack damage belong to the Argent Skull and the Moonstone Axe. Both can very easily get over 300 damage per attack,
The best axe strategy i learnt from a chaos trial in the pitch black stone. The hammer ability Hell Chop which turns your basic attack into a 300+ damage chop is amazing vs bosses with the Mel aspect Axe, as it allows you to dive, do a large burst attack and then dash right out, hopefully dealing some damage in the same time. The basic strategy is to have a good damage skill, like Nova Attack on the axe, lay your cast on top of Chronos for the bonus damage and attack with the axe, using this method ive gotten the axe to 1300 damage per attack with a very wide AOE range. allowing you to take your chance, attack once for a big burst and then bug out of his range.
If you arent lucky enough to get this specific hammer, the axe is a slow but reliable way to deal 5% of Chronos's health in a single attack. Just hit him with its full combo while he uses the two punishable moves, use Mels aspect as it allows the axe to attack fast enough. The spin omega attack is great for dps and picking off adds and is how i got my first win.
The Skull is good in that it deals its damage from a range, doing 80-100 damage with a decent attack boon you can blast chronos with 300 damage per reload, much more if he is in your cast or you have extra damage boons like Hestia, Zeus or Hephestus, then move into one of his safe zones. There are two must have hammers that boost this to the next level. The one which adds two skulls, giving you 500 base damage per wave, and the one which creates the omega attack effect when you collect the skull creating a combo where you hit him for 300, dash into him, then blast him for 300 damage per skull, so another 900 burst, this is a simple 1300 damage combo that keeps you at range and mobile most of the time and will burn the titans health in no time.
https://preview.redd.it/c2naaiwx760d1.png?width=1235&format=png&auto=webp&s=5a5498752237320c01f508e52882f0d994c64b8b
Any weapon can have reliable burst added by using Hephaestus's explosion boon, which is a long cool down 300-400 burst, around 5% of his HP, that can be boosted with furnace blast to double the damage- if you are lucky with Poms you can get the cooldown of volcanic strike as low as 2 seconds, which makes this very reliable.
https://preview.redd.it/xn88yrsm360d1.png?width=1192&format=png&auto=webp&s=3ee0e7a5e5b945cc67d8e4a684e97c534934a7eb
Through the Poseidon and Hestia duo boon which creates high damage DPS on slipped and burned enemies (Which you may have from the two quick attack methods above)
As well as through Zeus blitz effect, on fast weapons like the sister blades, for example Blitz on the special could be triggered by Hephaestus's attack causing the combo to trigger for 100 damage blitz+200-300 volcanic strike and 300 furnace strike, creating a 600 damage combo by pressing 2 buttons using 3 common boons. The Zeus/Aphrodite duo boon also allows you to instant trigger blitz turning these into very reliable burst damage boons.
There are too many of these combos to mention and part of the fun will be finding ones that work for you
Placement
For phase one Chronos is pretty simple to avoid.
His scythe whirlwind attack is slower than your dash, if you are using the dash method to passively kills adds this is a good time to run into them and kill them. Dropping your cast on the big guy as you are behind him
Boomerang scythe move is easy to avoid, its blind spot is right in front of Chronos allowing you to hit with your slowest highest dps moves easily.
His wide swing and dash attack both leave a black scar in the ground, these are the only places that are hit by the attack, you can continue attacking him close up through the swing, as the blind spot is again right in front of him, for the dash, he curls his back and shakes, your signal to dodge to the side
Golden Balls/ Bullet hell attacks, at some point Chronos will start teleporting, and generating a round shield of balls, as well as leaving a time stop barrier where he was, this is clearly signposted by a gold magic circle at his feet so easy to dodge the time freeze and these balls are low DPS for him (dealing just 13 damage for me), and can be soaked if you want, but the best way to deal with them is stand near a wall, when he next teleports the balls will hit the wall and burst. However if you have revenge attacks like Zeus's bolt, maybe 13 damage is worth taking those hits for the revenge effects. a 100 damage bolt in return for a 13 damage ball seems fair to me, though ive not done this strategy it occurred to me while recording the damage it took for this post. He also creates a vortex of balls around him. These, just ignore, they have a low range, dash out of it near the styx, take a moment to recover your mana if you have a wait to regen skill or kill some of his adds.
Thats phase one, dodge around ball and vortex attack, punish his boomerang and scythe swing attack by standing in front of him in the blind spot damaging him. Looking for the arched back and shake that indicates is is about to dash.
Phase 2 - Instant death effects and you
The first attack is an instant death or damn near it, whole field wipe. One of the clock numbers will glow, that is your safe zone, you have enough time to get from the other side of the arena if you dash but the second you see a glowing number go for it.
Ticking Clock: A clock hand appears that moves around in order, if hit by the golden hand it will stun you for a second as well as damage you, but this is easy enough to dodge.
Closing circle: If the middle of the clock glows, a circle of damage is about to come, you need to dash outside of the magic circle as it closes in. Sometimes there are two circles.
Time grasp: He will reach at you and slow your time, this is pretty ok, you cant do anything about it but he doesnt do anything to hurt you while slow, just avoid hitting one of the AOE effects already on field. When testing he only ever did this once to me each battle so feels more like a flex than a real attack.
His second instant death attack is creating a black circle on the outside and middle with a range of no colour
Notes provided by Microsoft snipping tool
Time bubbles, he creates many gold circles on the ground, getting caught in one when it goes off punishes you by freezing you. For me this catches me when im escaping the closing circle and he goes right in for the freeze, but otherwise easy to dodge
https://preview.redd.it/6b323wjsz50d1.png?width=1209&format=png&auto=webp&s=50c9f00c2e504881cd301dbfa3db1c724c77a72c
Bullet hell rings, he creates three rings of low damage golden balls, easy to dodge and position so they dont hurt you. I find my little froggy buddy usually negates an entire ring just sitting there. The warning for this is red circles on the ground. The 3rd ring is too far out to ever damage you, the inner ring is a shield and will probably need to be soaked, the middle ring is far enough away you can wait in the gap and hit him with ranged attacks and still be close enough to dodge boomerang and slice.
https://preview.redd.it/2fyvphlw160d1.png?width=1582&format=png&auto=webp&s=9b88cb489e7e10e5708f266ad8c2c243b854bdfd
At half health he summons hourglasses and puts a shield around himself, you dont need to kill the glasses, but since hes shielded and bullet covered himself may as well until he moves back to a normal pattern.
The whole time he is using his three core attacks, the dash, the slice and the boomerang, All three have wider arcs meaning a bigger safe zone for the boomerang and the slice.
After 50% health there is less of a delay between all his attacks, but it stays much the same with golden balls added to the rotation more,
Just keep dodging the AOEs, stay in front of him when hes not casting those and hit hard and often.
https://preview.redd.it/8hekgdn8260d1.png?width=1615&format=png&auto=webp&s=52e6462a71ba9df580cd3ff3276b7dcb8093085a
Finally General run advice
Boon rarity, heroic boons are an amazing investment, an increase from 80 to 200 damage on posidons dash attack? insane, there are 3 methods i use.
Rare crop from Demeter, considering that this is the most reliable way taking Demeter's keepsake at the start of a run is a good call. Will take 1-3 of your boons and make them heroic over the next 12 encounters, so if you are going to take it take it early, it also helps to do that so it chooses the core boons you want to boost. Getting this as my 4th boon in order to make my main attack cast and dash heroic is something i will happily waste my hammers onThis can be supplemented by switching to Narcissus's keepsake after first boss to turn one more of your early boons heroic, just make sure to change keepsake before drinking from the fountain.
https://preview.redd.it/d2ztqte4660d1.png?width=1087&format=png&auto=webp&s=e5af945426eb7027b70e37da2b7276c79f14ead9
The opposite of this is Heras skill Bridal Glow, which makes all your boons heroic but slowly downgrades them. Only safe to take right before the final boss, but i did once get it in the final Charon shop and had fun. If not willing to take the risk on this Hera has one of the most powerful skills in the game IMO, Proper Upbringing infusion which makes all your boons rare
https://preview.redd.it/aeqkwoai660d1.png?width=1256&format=png&auto=webp&s=9e95b879774cb458b7136c71baaa8bcd1176c81c
And then combos of another of her boons for a flat damage increase to everything
https://preview.redd.it/ceexx3wl660d1.png?width=1186&format=png&auto=webp&s=2a99e6cad714c2e47cd64e19f6683eb2f60f98e0
Hera and Hestia both offer means to trade offerings for higher versions also, so running either of these goddesses will leave you with more rare and heroic than not.
Hope this has helped if anyone has a 1k plus combo not mentioned here let me know :) And before you complain the game is too hard, use god mode.
Update: For fun after this i went back to 34 fear and tried using my least favourite weapon, the torches, i wound up getting 3 hammers this run which boosted my special, an echo double and 2 normal, so my blitz special became my burst damage and my passive damage, as the circling yellow orbs took out the adds, and as i surmised above, having two vengeance effects and soaking the golden balls was an effective way to damage Chronos. I wasnt quite doing enough damage to hurt chronos, but my hex ability came in clutch for bursts of DPSFor more fun the vows i used :)
https://preview.redd.it/flganyf4w70d1.png?width=1333&format=png&auto=webp&s=f69e5ee492134889e967c2a1d5a3eee21f3be196
https://preview.redd.it/uuxeqbz8w70d1.png?width=408&format=png&auto=webp&s=cf4461ef438ce9891ae46790d846a1f437aa2924
https://preview.redd.it/ltsqsg0ts70d1.png?width=696&format=png&auto=webp&s=0649f1024d0803a6b71e2de78de72950e33101ef
Vow of blood and dominance - Opponents having more health and damage is standard of increased difficulty
Vow of fury - Honestly a buff, enemies being faster means they move into my attacks faster
Vow of commotion - More mobs isnt a problem as you can see i build up AOE damage for the end battle adds, rather than single target damage
Vow of wandering - never really feel the impact of this one, its three vow points for nothing, am i the only one who finds the zone 1 mobs harder than the zone 2 and 3?
Vow of scars, no healing, this hurts, honestly a run ender - not one to choose lightly
Vow of destitution, this seems bad, but not really, the vow of commotion adds enough mobs that you get enough gold to counter it.
Vow of panic - i leave this on for my low heat runs, it changes the way you play a little 0 mana at start of a round makes you think about and use your gain boons more effectively.
Vow of bitterness - I hate it i hate it i hate it. I lost a Hera boon when i chose her keepsake to get it! I lost a boss Zeus boon! Ah i hate this one. But in the end 3 less boons isnt that bad of a cost.
Vow of arrogance - this costs you primed mana for rare boons, but since i used rare crop and narcissus's keepsake to boost my boons to heroic it didnt have much impact at all on this run.
Vows i hate and will never use -
Rebuke - Just annoying having to chip all enemies before hurting them, it forces fast weapon styles and just annoys me enough to avoid
Haunting - maybe i suck, but battles just go forever and ever with this one
Forsaking - The FOMO of loosing a boon you wanted upsets me a lot so dont pick this one
Desperation - look i think i made good time sub 20 min here, but ive never won a game with this (or the hades equivalent on)
Abandon - 5 fear is a lot, but loosing my arcana cards is way too big a cost.
I think i could have activated vow of suffering and gone for 38 fear here, might try that one some time.

I'm trying to blitz out getting through Spanish on Duolingo. My trial for Duolingo Max is coming to an end, but it seems best to leave it in place with a subscription. My goal is to get through the 230 units in Spanish and see where that takes me in learning Spanish.
I've seen earlier posts about people trying to set a pace of a unit a day. I was using the free Duolingo when I started, but I quickly discovered that the ads just slow things down too much. Plus fighting for hearts was annoying. Somewhere with either Super or Max, I picked up the ability to drill with the little barbell icon. This is very valuable to me.
I've seen posts from people talking about people cheating in leagues. Some of the posts talked about how fast someone was making XP. To give away my secret, here we go. This last week, I hit over 20,000 XP during the week. In the week, I knocked out my unit-a-day goal. I'm on day 18 and on Unit 10 in Section 2. Moving through the lessons rapidly causes the opportunities for the x2 XP period of time, which is 15 minutes. Once I get in the x2 XP period, I move directly to drilling. The "biggest bang for the buck" in drilling is "Speak." It's actually wonderful that this is the best pick, because there are many that believe that the weakness of an online app is not getting to speak.
When drilling when not in the x2 XP period, I listen to what is said, and try again and again to get my speech correct using my own ear for feedback. I try to imitate even the tone of the character (e.g., I drone on like Lilly, I try to be a little kid, I talk really fast, I try to sound pompous, etc.). But during the x2 XP period, I take off immediately and read the sentence. If I'm moving, I can get through the 10 sentences in as low as 32 seconds, but mostly a bit higher (e.g., into the 40s and 50s). There is some turnaround overhead in getting going to the next round of speaking (perhaps 15 seconds), so if I am moving, in a 15 minute period, I can crank out over 1,000 XP, probably approaching 1,500 XP. If there was a real battle to win the league, I can spend 100 gems to get the 15 minute period extended. I have accidentally pressed this button to extend, only because the software on my iPad has this at right about the same spot as the Continue button. So, getting to 20,000 XP for the week is a pretty doable thing--no cheating required.
The voice recognition software is a little weak at times, so when drilling, I know I missed the pronunciation, but the system gives me credit anyway.
The little three-star games off to the side of the lesson trail helps me work on fast-matching my vocabulary. The software is set up just perfect for me to fail at the very end. The company wants be to spend 450 gems or buy a package of 1-minute extensions, but I'm not going that far. My gems would be all gone too quickly, causing a need to actually thrown down real money beyond the subscription to get that extra time boost.
So that's my league strategy. This website is about gamification, and gamification is going to be something I hope causes me to actively engage in a big way in order to compete at a high level. But the unit-a-day thing is just a whole other thing. People talk about immersion as the fastest way to learn a language, but I'm not leaving home anytime soon, so immersion is going to be more of a trick than a travel plan.
So, here is my immersion plan. No, I changed my mind. That will be some other post. I'll just keep this as the post about setting the challenge for doing a unit a day for my Spanish learning. It's likely I could fall off the path rather quickly. After all, Section 1 gives the student a false sense that progress won't be that difficult. Like doing something like the Pacific Crest Trail, there are many that sign their names up at the start, but a lot fewer that make it to the end.
So, if you want in on this challenge with me, send me a friend request in Duolingo. My handle is the same. Start from wherever you are, meaning if you are on 43 units in, and think you can take the challenge from there, you are committing to being at unit 50 a week later. Maybe we will all fail to reach this goal, but maybe just shooting for the stars will get us to the moon!

Y'all I've been cheated!
I had 200 rat shillings, went to Crow-Crease Cryptics and tried to buy 200 maniac's prayers for my 200 rat shillings. My rat shillings are gone and I never got my maniac's prayers! Has this happened to anyone else? Maybe this is a bug in the new rat market system?
I am trying to get correspondence plaques for bejeweled lenses (who else is on the Zub train?). I'm a new PoSI just trying to make it in this dark city.
- Fela Kismet

Rating manipulation has been at the heart of a lot of controversies in chess lately, often resulting in cheating accusations. What if we could better control how rating is gained so as to dis-incentivize activities that lead to controversy? I propose an adaptive k-factor scaling in Elo computation so that the seriousness of a chess game directly affects how much rating can be gained or lost.
Here's a few recent examples of rating manipulation that led to controversy:

• young Hans boosting his rating with engines while trying to get paired against strong players for the experience of it (let's not side-track into what everyone thinks really happened or not)
• Alireza farming his way to the Candidates
• Hikaru's "interesting" win streaks while farming 2700s-2900s
• Brandon Jacobson fooling around with his mates during Covid and boosting each other's ratings (again, I'm going to just take him at his word regarding his temporary suspension from chess.com)

So what's my solution? Let's scale the k-factor of each game proportional to the number of participants in the event. Casual online blitz? There's only the two players involved, so very small k-factor. If they play enough games together you can still gain some decent rating after a while, but you can't just boost your friend willy nilly. Titled Tuesday? Quite a high k-factor since there's a lot of people playing, which indicates that it's a serious event. Viewer arena organized by a streamer? Moderately sized k-factors in most cases with a few dozen participants; large streamers would probably be able to organize large events with large k-factors. Random Open tournament in Spain that happens to occur just before FIDE calculates ratings for the last Candidates spot? Moderately high k-factor because it's a serious established tournament, but just not a very big one. Grand Swiss? Hella big k-factor because that's very serious business with lots of players. A 4-player "tournament" where it's mostly 1 guy playing the rest in succession? Yeah, that gets the same tiny k-factor used for casual 1v1 games. Not a viable way to boost your Elo very much.
In short, the k-factor should be scaled by something like (# participants in the event / 100). There should be a cap on how big the scaling factor can be, probably around 2.0. I'm also flexible on what exactly that divisor should be. Maybe more like 20, maybe more like 200, I'm not sure.
What are the ramifications of all this?
All the weird things that I've mentioned above would be disincentivized and less likely to occur.

• By making it very hard to gain rating in casual games, there would be less incentive to cheat in "meaningless" games. "Meaningless" in quotes because currently any casual game on chess.com has the same meaning as a Titled Tuesday game in terms of rating.
• By making small- and medium-sized tournaments have smaller k-factors, they wouldn't be as viable a path for farming Elo
• Hikaru using "dark arts" in matches outside of tournaments wouldn't be so lucrative for farming Elo, so he probably wouldn't do it as much, and it would give the likes of Kramnik less to complain about.

The most interesting ramification is what happens to open tournaments vs invitationals. Invitationals are generally very small, and would end up with moderate k-factors at best. That means top players who participate in them won't be able to change their ratings very much by just playing each other. But in the meantime, every big open tournament is going to have a big k-factor, and its winner will probably gaing a lot of rating. As such, I think this might give more people outside the top-20 more chances to break into the top-20 at least for a short time just because their rating would be more volatile. I think this would be great for chess.
So, yeah. Let's scale the k-factor by some measure of seriousness of each game. We can get sensible scaling ratios by just looking at the number of participants in the event. This would disincentivize a lot of rating manipulation behaviors that have led to controversy, and it would simultaneously incentivize a bit playing opens vs small invitationals. Adaptive k-factor scaling could improve chess quite a bit both online and in person.
What do you think?

For context, this is all relating to playing on chess.com. Background will be at the beginning, the meaty part will be at the end if you want to skip straight to it.
TL:DR I’ve been losing a lot of games to lower level players lately and I’m suspicious that cheating is becoming more prevalent.
Background: I joke around with my friends and tell them I have only three hobbies: drinking beer, reading books, and playing chess. But I’ve started having an issue with that last one.
According to chess.com, I was at the peak of my game at the beginning of 2022. I was rated 1898 in rapid (January 2022) and 1388 in blitz (February 2022). As of today, I’m 1572 in rapid (I rarely play rapid on chess.com these days) and 997 (?!) in blitz. I’m going to explain how I perceive this, and hopefully you guys can tell me why I’m wrong.
For starters, this is my daily schedule. Wake up, go for a run, get ready, play chess, go to work, come home, play chess, cook dinner, study chess while eating, read, go to bed. Chess obviously takes up a big part of my life. I play both online and over the board. For reference, my OTB ratings are 1534 for clasival, 1499 for quick, and 1419 for blitz. All of these are USCF ratings. Not the best, but it’s the top 1/3 of USCF players.
Today, I fell below 1000 on blitz. This came after 6 blitz games, of which I only won one. My opponent in my last game had a 90.5 accuracy and I had 77.3 (this is average for me on chess.com). I plugged the PGN into Stockfish 12.1 (I’m too lazy to upgrade) and frankly, I couldn’t find any faults in my opponent’s play. They weren’t choosing the best moves 100% of the time, but they were about 60% of the time, and the worst move they made all game was the fifth best, according to my engine.
The meaty part: I don’t normally evaluate chess.com games as in depth as this last one, but I’ve lost to sub-1000s on a fairly regular basis recently. Losing to people who are 400+ points lower than my OTB rating seems absurd. At first, I thought I only made foolish mistakes or blunders online, maybe because I never put the same thought and effort into it as I did OTB. But after diligently reviewing every OTB game lately, both rated and casual alike, I find that the mistakes are the same OTB as they are on chess.com, albeit equally foolish.
When I joined chess.com 8 years ago, my chess rating online was significantly higher than it was OTB. Has this changed? Is chess.com now lowballing the hell out of us?
The questions I’d rather get the answer to are these: is cheating running rampant on online chess right now? Or did I just turn idiot in the last two years? Should I give up? Is this happening because I don’t pay for the $100 version of chess.com? Should I move over to lichess? Should I just give up playing online altogether and just stick to my Sunday games in the park? Should I hang up the pieces and move to checkers or backgammon?
So many questions, such little answers. Honestly, I haven’t decided if I’d rather just be a poor sport about losing or if I’d rather chess.com be inundated with cheating. Let me know what you think and please tell me I’m wrong.

I'm writing this here because Samay Raina is the reason I got into chess.
I started playing chess in June 2023. But in January 2024, I watched one of Samay's old streams, which piqued my interest in chess. I understood that this game has so much depth and is fun. I started playing it with some seriousness and reached a 1500 rating in Blitz. (before that I have played 1000+ bullets games on mobile without pre-move)
However, my rating wasn't rising after 1500 because I struggled with the mid-game and end-game. To address this, I started playing 10-minute Rapid Games, where I experimented with mid-games and end-games against lower-rated players(my rating was 800 then). I only played Rapid for two months until my account on Chess()com was banned for "CHEATING" i.e. Fair Play on May 2nd.
During this period, I also played on Lichess()org, where I have a rating of 1700 in Rapid, with my highest rating on Chess()com being 1500.
The question arises: Why would I cheat against players rated 1300?
I appealed the ban, but they denied it, accusing me of cheating without presenting any evidence. (Maybe I cheated in my sleep, who knows?) I decided to let bygones be bygones when they offered me a chance to retain my old username and email to create a "2nd account," which I made on May 8th.
Additionally, I created another account during the appeal process, where I reached almost a 1500 rating in four days. Butttt that account also got banned for "ABUSE." Let me explain what kind of abuse they accused me of: I wrote 'bye' to my opponent when they were losing or had lost, just to tease them, which I did most of the time. Apparently, this is considered abuse. I know full well that I haven't written a single bad word in any chat.
In the past on Lichess, I did engage in actual abuse towards an opponent who stalled the whole game after reaching a losing position for the entire 8 minutes. For this, I received a warning not an account closure. Since then, I haven't said a single bad word to anyone in the game chat.
To be honest, I feel like chess is a closed gated society where if they don't like you, they'll kick you out for no apparent reason. CHESS IS NOT A SPORT, and people wonder why such a fun game like chess is not popular. Just go to the Gotham Chess channel; he made a video of a GM who got banned because he defeated Danny with some bullshit opening. If Chess()com, the biggest and most well-known platform, does these things, maybe people will just stop playing chess.
(I AM ADDING MY ACCOUNT's IN THE REPLY)

Hello, I'd like to preface this post by saying no I do not cheat and I have never cheated in league. YES I use Porofessor and Blitz but I believe both are acceptable under riots terms and service. I am very desperate for a solution and from my experience I don't believe the support team will be able to help me. I have spend a couple hundred dollars on this account and it's the first account I have ever played on.
To start a few months ago I created a new account. I got that account up to level 19 only playing against bots I played two aram games and on the second game it got banned. I fought with support for about three messages of back and forth and every single one said the suspension was place correctly and I needed to deal with it. I told the support I could accept the bans but to please tell me what got my account flagged and what third party tool got me banned. Support refused and ended the ticket.
Now I play on multiple different accounts I have been playing on two recently and switched to play on that account to play arena with my friends. I haven't played on this account for probably 6 months and I return with a ban message for third party tools. I don't want to lose this account can anyone help me recover and get my account unbanned. I've just received a response from support saying that my account was correctly banned and that their was no unauthorized access to my account
I don't want to lose anymore accounts If it's possible could anyone tell me what's getting me flagged and banned. I'm really at a loss for what to do I want to keep playing the game but it's really frustrating to lose everything for no reason.
Edit I will also include the op.gg of the account that has been banned
https://www.op.gg/summoners/na/ColormeinKindnes-5407

Hey guys, Brandon here again, just wanted to give a bit of an update since my original post: (https://www.reddit.com/chess/s/X4k3LC8cHq)
Firstly, I’d like to thank everyone for the incredible support. I certainly did not expect such positive feedback, and it absolutely means the world to me.
As the situation has blown up in the last few days among all platforms, I’ve been eagerly awaiting some sort of statement from chess.com. Privately, publicly, anything. Refreshing my email every few minutes. Complete dead silence.
While I’m still banned with my reputation on the line, they have time to joke around and make tweets about Magnus playing the opening in Titled Tuesday, yet somehow mysteriously doesn’t have time to give me a response? Not even a statement claiming that they were justified in their ban. Nothing.
What could take 5 days? Some new investigation of my games? One that was NOT done prior to my ban? Desperately trying to find any “evidence” against me they can? Clearly this is trying to be swept under the rug until the drama dies down, hoping people move on, forgetting about what they have done, but I refuse to stay silent, and I will never back down. I am owed an explanation, which they can’t seem to give as my ban was entirely unjustified, and it doesn’t seem that I’m ever going to get one.
Additionally, these last few days I’ve been working with some colleagues of mine and gathering countless examples of chess.com’s clear lack of competency when it comes to their cheat detection team, which I will be happy to share in due time.
Finally, please follow my new X account where I will be posting updates and more as they appear: https://www.x.com/gmbrandonj
Thanks again for all your support, and I certainly hope we get some answers soon.
EDIT: Okay so a lot of you guys are asking about my previous account history, I had planned to post about it on my personal X account which I will do as well, but to explain ASAP:
No, I have never cheated or been banned for cheating on any account.
https://www.chess.com/membeiamastraw is my account many people have referred to, and indeed it is shadow banned. If you scroll back a few pages of my games, you will see plenty of games against some troll accounts made by some of my friends in which we were messing around during COVID. The result of that led to a lot of boosting/sandbagging of my blitz rating, which was pointless and immature, but of course not remotely the same as using an engine. Attached in the screenshots are emails showing that it was indeed a closure for “rating manipulation” and nothing else- As you can see, the date in which the emails were sent was September 2020, and my last login to iamastraw was in May.
In between this time, I had created a similar troll account chess.com/membeimastraw. Not understanding the process which was necessary to create another title verified account, I had messaged the staff member involved with titled verifications privately on Facebook, in hopes of a quick verification for the upcoming titled Tuesday at the time, and attached is a screenshot of this as well. I was immediately banned, as I had drawn attention to the account, one which I was not supposed to have in view of the previous ban, which had gone under their radar previously. I then understood the necessary procedure of apologizing for rating manipulation before opening my new account, BrandonJacobson.
Screenshots: https://imgur.com/a/TuIbIV6
A bit of a mess caused by stupidly messing around as a teenager, which of course was unnecessary, but again, I have never cheated nor have I been banned for cheating.
Finally, I see a lot of you guys don’t use twitteX, so I’ll be happy to post major updates on Reddit as well if need be.
Hope this helps clarify things!

TLDR: Is Osa considered a shield op like fuse Monty and blitz?
My friends and I were running some custom matches and we agreed on a rule that we weren’t allowed to use shield ops, which was fine cause in my head that only removes blitz and Monty, and fuze as well however that was just because we agreed to ban fuse altogether. I played Osa one round, and my friend told me I cheated because I played a shield op. I argued that she’s not a shield op because her shield only covers her torso and head, and it can be shot around unlike the other ballistic shields. He still won’t agree with me, however I wanted some outside opinions on what makes a shield op and shield op.

Blitz rating around 1250s though rapid much higher because I mostly play rapid and I SUCK at blitz because of time management issue (both in chess and in life). So after hearing about the whole Vii_Shou scandal/banned, it got me interested in exploring what happened and of course their games and the post. And then a a few minutes ago I thought, actually why not try the opening and see if it actually works? It's not like I care about my blitz rating, I only care about rapid. Also I have some studying to do so I just want to do this for fun (basically too lazy to study so tricking my brain that playing chess is productive)
I don't even remember what's the exact opening sequence, all I remember is only a4 and Ra3 (are you supposed to take with knight or pawn? Have no idea). But now after I tried it for about 5 games and I somehow win all of them??
I know 5 games are not a big sample size so I will probably try to play more and update later but it just felt weird and insane to me that this really really bad opening could even allow me to win, let alone 5 games. I don't think I play that good too.
No opinion on the whether he cheated but I might actually have this as my opening for all my future blitz games. Until of course if people start noticing.
Also Chess.com if you see this please don't ban me 🙏

I finally went in on these, including the TOS figures that I was missing. I know Flynn said the TNG stuff across the board hasn't performed the way they'd like and I thought I'd give feedback as someone who has both the TNG set and the TOS set from the Funko days.
First, while I appreciate the economical body reuse, the TNG torsos look puffy and the arms look noodle like with that rounded elbow bend. The Borg and Guinan are winners, relatively, and the women and Q are okay but it hurts to have a soft torso get reused 5 times. The more a sculpt gets reused, the more it will be scrutinized.
I don't want to harp on that because I know things will go a different direction going forward. So I'll focus on constructive ideas.

1. I think the TOS buyers are still sore over the lack of a Chekov so I think a Chekov is an excellent place to start in terms of planning anything going forward, especially as Walter Koenig is getting a bit more love with his little media blitz for his final acting role and his minor Picard S3 cameo.
   
2. Trek fandom is so splintered that it's pretty difficult to put all your eggs in any one basket. But I can see a way forward centering on TOS branding and sculpts that has a bit of fun and spreads the love around more.
   

With that in mind, I'd like to suggest the following figures:
Captain Kirk (Green wraparound)
Dr. Leonard McCoy (Short Sleeve)
Chekov (TOS)
Dr. M'Benga (TOS, Short Sleeve)
Nurse Chapel (TOS)
Yeoman Rand (TOS)
Lt. Marla McGivers (TOS)
Bashir (TOS Uniform, Trials and Tribble-ations)
O'Brien (TOS Uniform, Trials and Tribble-ations)
Dax (TOS Uniform, Trials and Tribble-ations)
Sisko (TOS Uniform, Trials and Tribble-ations)
Mirror Universe Archer (Green wraparound, In A Mirror Darkly)
Mirror Universe T'Pol (TOS Uniform variant, In A Mirror Darkly)
Captain Pike (Green wraparound, Strange New Worlds)
Those can all be done with largely the same three bodies. I'd propose the following as companions:
Khan Noonien Singh (TOS)
Worf (Trials and Tribble-ations)
Odo (Trials and Tribble-ations)
Cyrano Jones (TOS, he and Worf and Odo have identical jacket construction)
Mirror Hoshi Sato (In a Mirror Darkly, Midriff Jumpsuit)
Mirror T'Pol (Might as well get a second use of the Mirror Midriff Jumpsuit)
Spock (Strange New Worlds)
Una Chin-Riley (Strange New Worlds)
Pike, Hemmer, Sam Kirk, M'Benga, Scotty, Lt. Kirk (Strange New Worlds, Might as well reuse Spock's body)
Uhura (Strange New Worlds, literally the only female main character who also wears Una's skirt/pants combo in S2 aside from Carol Kane's Pelis, although Pelia and Uhura might warrant shorter legs)
Beckett Mariner (Strange New Worlds, Those Old Scientists)
Bradward Boimler (Strange New Worlds, Those Old Scientists)
Pike in Chair (The Cage)
Arex
M'Ress
Taking a cue from G.I. Joe ReAction, they could have "Army Builders" of varying ranks and ethnicities.
Now, taking all of this into account and looking to maximize goodwill, excitement, and fan enthusiasm while diversifying colors and looks, I'd suggest the following as a first 1-2 waves, again mostly in TOS uniforms:
Chekov
Bashir
O'Brien
Odo
Hemmer
Mirror T'Pol
Arex
Khan
Just laying out my strategy:
You're getting 2 of each division color (red/yellow/blue), a staple of the iconography.
You're getting two characters (Odo and Khan) out of uniform, essential to showing people there can be worldbuilding.
You're representing 5 different shows. (TOS, DS9, SNW, ENT, TAS)
You're getting 2 non-human skintones, establishing a sci-fi look. (Hemmer and Arex)
You're getting 6 different bodies in 8 figures, frontloading tooling that can be reused later. Essential to sparking imagination with a line.
These all inspire strong and DIFFERENT emotions. Chekov - Completion of the old line, reverence for Koenig. Bashir and O'Brien - Comedy, friendship. Odo - Comedy and nostalgia for Auberjonois. Hemmer - Sadness, nostalgia. T'Pol - Ambition, defiance, the well documented love of Jolene Blalock in a skirt. Arex - Wonder, whimsy, absurdity. Khan - Nostalgia, menace, a sense the line can have great villains.
Centering the line roughly on TOS with the ability to cheat back to Discovery and forward through Wrath of Khan era gives you the most crossover potential between shows, spreading the love. It's visually TOS based but not TOS centric AT ALL. TOS era, not actually that many TOS characters and those I have chosen have very deep ties elsewhere. There's 60s Trek as a play environment (which can have playsets) but not a sole focus on 60s nostalgia (because that's an older demo than the prime collecting demo). It's essentially TOS because everyone visits TOS and it's adjacent to SNW, not because there are lots of 70 year old toy collectors. Instead of thinking about crews, think of emotional sub-units like O'Brien/Bashir, Uhura/Hemmer, La'an/Kirk, Dax/Sisko. They don't need to share waves but the overall vibe is that there are all these great scene partners in the line but also characters who have never met.
I'd also suggest if S7 does go back to the TOS well that actual TOS versions of actual TOS characters be specific to performances.
Do Kirk with that demented Enemy Within scream, McCoy with that City on the Edge of Forever drugged paranoia or a look of post-surgery relief. Resist doing more definitive versions of the TOS main 7. First because these are characters you can keep revisiting and selling because everyone knows them (whereas Mariner or Arex get one shot). But also because the Funko/S7 line did them AND the main TOS guys are overexposed characters that we can be numb to and so giving them "performance choices" (even just skepticism from Spock or amusement from Kirk) humanizes them.
That's my $.02 and change, anyway!!!

A recent 3/0 blitz opponent of mine with a rating around 2250 played three rather poor games (chess.com accuracy around 70%) and then proceeded to play three absouletly flawless games (chess.com accuracy around 95%).
I'm fairly certain that something was off in the last three games. However I also sometimes play individual games with a +90% accuracy (mostly if I know the theory and convert). So apart from my feeling is there any way to somehow differentiate variance from cheating without any added information (windows opened in browser etc)?
I feel like with the amount of online games played variance is always a reasonable explanation. But this is so incredibly dissatisfying. So since we're in the court of public opionion: Short of 100% proof what would make you believe that someone cheated?