Hey everyone, hope it's okay if I share my project. It's open with GNU license.
It's in very beta currently, expanding every day. I've made it for myself initially but given the amount of effort why not share it with everyone. It is driven by what I call "ExDD" methodology - excitement driven development so code quality wise it's far from great, I also don't have a lot of time on hands after work so I was more focused on the features themselves.
It has some features packed in:

• ability to switch models with each message
• regenerate answer (along with model change)
• diverge - start new conversation from particular point
• disable selected message from current context
• arrow up to adjust previous question
• RAG with chroma DB
  • upload files
  • provide a host path and index all files in directory
  • model selection for embedding
• Personas - adds system prompt with predefined text
  • personas can be switched "mid air"
• model options
  • again, this can be tweaked "mid air"
• favorites - you can save conversations in separate list
• url pull - if you put an url in your message it will "download" the website and put it's contents inside. Watch out for the context overflow and gibberish output caused by that.

There are many other features on my todolist (one of them is error handling...) so it will grow rather quickly. Both backend and frontend is written in javascript so fellow JS developers feel free to alter it to suit your needs.
Currently it's working only in docker and only with ollama. In nearest future I'd like it to work as a desktop app and to support any openai style APIs.
Here's github link: https://github.com/sth-io/pole-ai/tree/main at the bottom you'll find docker compose (there are pre-built images on dockerhub)
I don't expect much traction on this (as in don't do it for fame/money etc), but if I'm making it anyways, why not share, right?

Yahoooo! Welcome to the Daily Discussion Thread! Have a very cool day! Luigi numbah one!
Welcome to the Daily Discussion Thread. This is the place for asking noob questions, venting about netplay falcos, shitposting, self-promotion, and everything else that doesn't belong on the front page.

New Players:

If you're completely new to Melee and just looking to get started, welcome! We recommend you go to https://blippi.gg/ and follow the links there based on what you're trying to set up. Additionally, here are a few answers to common questions:
Can I play Melee online?
Yes! Slippi is a branch of the Dolphin emulator that will allow you to play online, either with your friends or with matchmaking. Go to https://slippi.gg to get it.
Netplay is hard! Is there a place for me to find new players?
Yes. Melee Newbie Netplay is a discord server specifically for new players. It also has tournaments based on how long you've been playing, free coaching, and other stuff. If you're a bit more experienced but still want a discord server for players around your level, we recommend the Melee Online discord.
How can I set up Unclepunch's Training Mode?
First download it here. Then extract everything in the folder and follow the instructions in the README file. You'll need to bring a valid Melee ISO (NTSC 1.02)
I'm having issues with Slippi!
Go to the The Slippi Discord to get help troubleshooting.
How does one learn Melee?
There are tons of resources out there, so it can be overwhelming to start. First check out the SSBM Tutorials youtube channel. Then go to the Melee Library and search for whatever you're interested in.
But how do I get GOOD at Melee?
Check out Llod's Guide to Improvement
Where can I get a nice custom controller?
https://customg.cc/vendors
I have another question that's not answered here...
Check out our FAQs or post below and find help that way.

Upcoming Tournament Schedule:

Upcoming Melee Majors

Melee Online Event Calendar

Make a submission to the tournament calendar here. You can also get notified of new online tournaments on the Melee Online Discord.
​

• Current DDT Dynamic Link — Previous DDTs

ChatGPT can 'breakout' of the text window on the browser which is the most basic interface. It might have been easier to use API's but this allows even free users to automate their machines.
I started by creating a GPT and told the GPT creator to create any GPT it wanted. It turned out to be a good GPT!
Next I asked it for ideas on how to achieve the goals and with a lot of trial and error those goals were achieved.
I didn't even know the freaking commands for Terminal - it had to taach me those too!
I will mention that at this stage it does very little all it does is take a single output of ChatGPT and implement a particular script on the local computer but it could very easily be changed and upgraded to do a whole lot more - anything you can do in Terminal for instance from ChatGPT:
"this method can be adapted to execute a variety of commands on your local machine, including opening applications, creating files, or performing other tasks through terminal commands."
Then it gave a step by step guide of how to achieve that which I haven't implemented yet.
For instance what it means is you could say "Hey ChatGPT create a file on my computer called "readme.txt" and it would create the file etc.
Anyway for now if you want to play around with it I have uploaded all the files and GPT Chat history copied to a readme file to a github page. I would give the link to the particular chat but ChatGPT wouldn't let me copy it.
Here's the link to Github:
https://github.com/hostingersentme/ChatGPT-to-local-automation
I don't know how to create folders on Github so the files are all in one mass but the images are supposed to be in a folder called "Images". The main difficulty you might have if you know nothing (like me) is downloading Python and the Flask server on Terminal and making sure the files are in the right place. You don't have to create the files in Terminal though and it's very easy to install the plugin.

Experienced DM of over 25 years, 8 years professional, for a 5 player high quality campaign of mythical proportions. From the lead designer of Baldur's Gate, Dragon Age: Origins, and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic...
At the dawn of time, a war between the gods and Titans left the world of Thylea forever changed. Thousands of years later, the first mortals arrived, carried by ship and dragon.
You are one of the heroes called by prophecy to end the conflict once and for all. Poets will sing of your deeds for centuries to come... if you survive.
What can you expect from this epic campaign and me?
• Will run from 8 pm PST for about 4 hours.
• The campaign will be ran at the apex of my skills tailored around the characters and the player actions. This setting uses variants that will accelerate your character to mythical levels as well. Including many crafting options and close to 600 feat options you wont find anywhere else. Leading to great character customization that you will not find in other games.
• Transparent and Reliable DM who understands everyone is part of the group, and that a person is sitting behind their PC.
• As a wargamer expect the most effective tactics the encounters presented in the module can bring, while staying true to what an RPG is and its narrative.
• Smaller party size, having at maximum 5 players, helps to keep the party alive, while still allowing the freedom to work character plots in for a more personal experience.
• While I am a fan of good tactics in combat, I am a bigger fan about letting the game go in unexpected directions! No rails here.
• Premium Graphics! I value good game flow, as such I spend a lot of time creating handouts and visuals for the players, and an excellent landing page that will keep you informed.
• I optimize Roll 20 as best I can, no unnecessary pages and art. Expect the game to run as best as Roll 20 can. (which sometimes can be clunky)
• If a session cant be run on the scheduled date, the possibility of me running either a one shot, my living world west marches style campaign, or side quest may come up for you and other players available. This may include other players from Discord, all great players!
• Potential downtime chatting and dice rolling on discord, to handle personal tasks and elements that can be handled away from table time.
• Answers to any questions, and whatever advice I can give out either for Players or other GMs.
What do I expect of you?
• Long term commitment, be ready to commit please. I pride myself in completing campaigns I run. I expect you to be there to the end, and maybe more.
• Ages 25+ friendly to all! I tailor to an older crowd, you can expect a mature set of gamers in the discord, as I find younger crowds have a dynamic lifestyle that is not ideal for long term commitment. If younger than 25 and interested please message me.
• Please respect the other players in the table and discord. Treat them as you would yourself and friends.
• Be an adult about the game, if your sensitive to some subjects, such as horror and sanity please bring this up to me, as mature elements will come into play.
• Be as creative and innovative as you can be both in and outside of combat! I really enjoy personalizing the module if possible to the players and their story.
• An account for Discord, free to download and simple to set up.
• Payments done after each game, however If you didn't enjoy yourself, no charge for the next session! Please bring this up to me so I can work with you to bring out the best out of each session.
• Everyone has a life outside of our games, players have the option to join in Discord to listen in on the session for those who travel often or just cant make it to the PC in time. No Charge for listening and voicing your character opinions!
• Any questions let me know.
Who is your DM?
My name is Nelson, I'm 40 and have been playing TRPGs for almost 25 years now back since AD&D. DMing nearly all that time and now DMing professionally for about 8 years now. I'm a huge fan of fantasy novels, horror movies and rpg/tactics games such as FF tactics, X-Com, Divinity, Elden Ring. I personally love Tarantino, Mobster films, StarWars (old ones), and movies such as Donny Darko, and other random cult films. I have great knowledge of most rule books, and have some minor home brewed changes I use myself in my campaigns that I feel add depth/challenge. I am also well versed in other RPG systems which I run at times for my players. Players will receive links to all variants and guidelines once they join.
Why the value?
While this is first a hobby for me, it has now become my life pursuit. You will get what you pay for! At 8 years of running games on roll20 and Foundry, I feel I have learned plenty to run as best and efficient as possible, while providing the right excitement and tension a session needs! Expect a dedicated group, great community in discord and a very well fleshed out campaign. Many Life DMs find a spot here as a player, and many players find more than one spot in multiple games. Some have for nearly 8 years now!
Outside of that I have recently found myself when I do have any time for anything outside of my wife and kids. I put a lot of time and care into all my sessions and work with the players as best I can to accommodate them and help draw the adventure out of everyone. I add plenty of elements to the module such as Fate Cards, Strongholds, Advanced Scripting and tables for aspects such as Status Effects, Blood, Weather, Critical effects, etc. I love having great visuals, which I'm always working on as I obsess over my current campaigns! As such the prep times for the game have become huge now, and VTTs while fun to use, can be very clunky to use. I also like to run a more personal, dynamic game instead of an 6-8 player game that a lot of online gamemasters tend to run. This also includes adjusting the challenges and the story for the party, expect your character, not just the party, to be challenged in ways unique to the player.
The application process for everyone tends to be a headache. I find that the fee has helped me keep things running smooth since I can quickly tell who can commit/invest to the campaign and their level of dedication, and who they are. While it does take a few weeks to set up the right group, I can if possible group up like minded players for the journey. You can expect the campaign to run until the end with a competent, mature group. I'm always available on discord if possible to answer any questions or just to chat. The discord server you will join is currently full of helpful players, that provide a good community of passionate players, and who knows maybe they might be part of your next adventure. And ultimately your patronage allows me the freedom to purchase art packages, battlemaps, handouts, better audio, the many monthly subscriptions I commit to TRPGs, etc. all which help add to the immersion and excitement, but also allow me to give back to not just the group, but to our the community.
Thank you for taking the time to read this wall of text, and for checking out my game.
Hope you can join me in this unforgettable adventure!
I also run other games during the week if you are interested in joining. Including other systems, private games, and even solo ran adventures. If you are interested please message me so I can accommodate you if a spot is open.

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So the program I'm linking is a free application download of SFS/EFXHIST which is a tool used by the University College London speech pathologist program to breakdown every bit of your vocal recording into graphs and important data points that will be used to analyze your vocal resonance (male or female range), phonetics, and pitch as well as data that tells you if youre straining your voice or have low vocal quality! You would then take a screenshot of all the graphs and written data points (see example) and upload it to chat GPT-4o and ask it to gender your voice and explain all the details of the graphs! I will post the download link to the UCL website bellow! The only thing that you'll have to pay for is chat GPT 4o which I believe is like $20 a month, but that's really cheap in comparison to paying a vocal pathologist to analyze your data points!
The download link is: https://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/resource/sfs/efxhist/
I hope this helps those that see it!

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8. Paste and replace the copied files into the folder located at: C:\Program Files\Image-Line\FL Studio 21
9. Finally, run the “Reg.reg” file (Merge)
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– Run the file “ Install FL Studio.pkg” to install as usual. Do not run FL Studio 20 after installation. – Open “ FL Patch.dmg ” then drag the “FL Studio” file into Application and select Replace – Launch FL Studio Pop-Up appears and select “Load License Key” (or you can go in and select “Help” > “ Unlock FL Studio”). Find the file FLRegKey_20.8_Mac.reg FL Studio will ask to restart. Select “No” when asked whether to save or not? – Close FL Studio. Open Finder Go to Documents \ Image-Line \ FL Studio \ Settings \ Internet – Delete the file Default news.rss – Create a FOLDER named Default news.rss – then click Add

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Hello there! This will be a long post but I do encourage you to read all of it so you have an idea what kinda game you are applying for. This would be a long-term campaign, so be willing to commit to the game! Have fun reading!
Game details:
We play using both Discord for voice and video and Foundry VTT for maps and character sheets! Webcams are mandatory since we all have been using them and it helps a lot with roleplaying when you can see the other people! Make sure that your PC or laptop is capable of running Foundry, here is a link to the Foundry system requirements: https://foundryvtt.com/article/requirements/
Do note that you don't need to buy or download anything! How Foundry works is that I send you a link and you'll join through there so no need to worry about that!
We are here to make the story together so while there is a main plot for you to follow, there will be distractions along the way and of course, things that relate to your characters and what they might find interesting!
During session 0 we will go over the initial plot hooks, how your characters might know each other, safety rules, and so on!
The available days are listed in the questionnaire. The start time for the session regardless of the day would be at 9 pm GMT+3 and when a day has been chosen, we would play consistently on that day every week!
RP to combat ratio:
I would say 50-50 since you as players can with your decisions affect how much combat or roleplay there is going to be but I as a GM, am geared more towards weighting narrative but that doesn't mean that there wouldn't be some cool combat set-pieces ;).
There might be moments in the game where we focus more on the social aspect of the game, interacting in character with the world around them and then there might be some more action-oriented sessions where you get to sit at the edge of your seat!
I will say that how I like to run games, I like to focus on characters and what their motives, goals, and flaws are. This would be a more character-driven game so be ready for that and don't be afraid to get into character and have fun while doing so!
How to apply:
All that I require from you is that you read the whole post and then fill out the questionnaire to the best of your ability. I pour a lot of time into making sure that the sessions are good and that everyone is having fun and you can contribute to that by being genuinely interested in the game!
Here is the questionnaire: https://forms.gle/TAnUSBRAoEpKe1Ra8
Basic rules of the campaign:

• Be consistent: I know that emergencies can happen and sometimes life throws a curve ball. Those happen to me too but if it does, I expect you to let me know ASAP when you know that you are not going to be able to join for the session. The general rule in my table is that as long as we have four people playing, we will continue with the game.
• Cinematics: I like to inject some cinematic in the game and I will let you know when there is a cinematic. This happens usually at the end of the session to show you what happens somewhere else where your characters are not necessarily present.
• Campaign may have mature themes: I like to run narrative games and they usually lean towards a more serious tone and while there are moments of lightheartedness, it's not what I am going for this campaign. This is not a campaign for joke characters or happy-go-lucky characters. I will NOT include SA or intense torture roleplaying in my games and there is no tolerance for that. These will be discussed more during the session 0!
• Be attentive during the sessions: During the session, I would like you to feel that you want to be there so I do put a lot of time into prepping the sessions with maps, NPCs, music, etc. So as a player, all I require from you is to know the basic rules, how your character works, and just generally be respectful towards everyone on the table!
• Don't be a dick: Don't rage quit if the dice don't go your way or if you do something in the game that can result in a bad consequence to your character and then it happens. No PvP, unless both agree to it and it needs to have a good reason! Just be respectful and be able to communicate and I am sure we will get along very well!
• There is always a possibility of death: We are here to make an awesome collaborative story together that we can look back to years later with fondness! This however doesn't mean that I am going to pull my punches in combat so that's why I roll in the open. If the dice decide that it's time for your character, then that's how it's going to be. Of course, sometimes there is something that can save you but those are rare. Also, I am not going to go out of my way to kill you and I will make sure that you always know what kinda situations your characters are going to.
• Have a good mic and connection: Having a good mic is important because most of us use headphones so if your audio quality is so bad that it makes our ears bleed then that would be a dealbreaker :D. Bad mics can also negatively just impact the flow of the game if they keep cutting out!

The most important rule is to: HAVE FUN! We are here to play a game and make a story together and everyone's comfort is important to me! If you have doubts or if something feels off, you can always come to talk with me!
Game Rules:

• Write "One Piece is real" in the final questions so I know that you read this far ;)
• Ability scores are determined using point buy with 28 points or a standard array.
• Death saves are rolled in secret
• We are starting from level 2
• Criticals are maxed damage + die rolls
• If you go down, you get a wound up to a maximum of 3 when you get up again. On your third one, if you fall, you die

The reason for Banned spells is that I like to make mysteries and that players need to think. For example, Remove curse would make a situation where you can get cursed not that tense. I like to make curses into plotlines so thus banning the spell gives us that opportunity.
Here are the banned spells:

• Identify
• Detect Thoughts
• Locate object
• Zone of Truth
• Remove curse
• Goodberry
• Silvery Barbs
• Geas
• Legend lore

Banned subclasses:

• Twilight cleric
• Eloquence bard
• Peace cleric

Races from Eberron, PHB, and MPMM are available minus Tortle, Fairy, and Centaur. Also, flying races are not allowed
Here is a little bit of info about me!
My name is Michael, 22 years old. I have been a GM for 3.5 years now! I have enough experience so I won't fumble around but obviously, I don't know everything.
Something about myself is that I have been a huge fan of TTRPGs ever since I started 3.5 years ago. In that period, I have had the pleasure to play multiple systems such as 5e, pathfinder 2e, Call of Cthulhu, cyberpunk RED/2020, mothership, City of Mist, etc. So I have quite a lot of experience and I know the ropes! I also like to draw, write stories, do worldbuilding, play video games, and watch movies and anime.
I am a huge fan of One Piece, it was also an inspiration for this setting so if you are a fan, you'll notice some subtle references here and there!
I do enjoy Eberron as a setting and have read quite a bit on it! Still, while it's an established setting with its lore, that means that there will be things that I might be unaware of or I might change things here and there. I like to stick to the established lore since it's quite expansive and really good but expect changes at some points!
Final words
Thanks for reading this long-ass post and I do hope that you can see that I am putting my all into this! I hope you do too so feel free to fill out the application! Take it slowly and don't rush it since I am using it to gauge how interested you all are to join in! I will keep the post up for a few days and conduct interviews before Sunday. If you have questions, feel free to comment and I'll answer when I have time!
I hope all of you have a nice day/evening and I hope to talk to you later!

Hello there! This will be a long post but I do encourage you to read all of it so you have an idea what kinda game you are applying for. This would be a long-term campaign, so be willing to commit to the game! Have fun reading!
Game details:
We play using both Discord for voice and video and Foundry VTT for maps and character sheets! Webcams are mandatory since we all have been using them and it helps a lot with roleplaying when you can see the other people! Make sure that your PC or laptop is capable of running Foundry, here is a link to the Foundry system requirements: https://foundryvtt.com/article/requirements/
Do note that you don't need to buy or download anything! How Foundry works is that I send you a link and you'll join through there so no need to worry about that!
We are here to make the story together so while there is a main plot for you to follow, there will be distractions along the way and of course, things that relate to your characters and what they might find interesting!
During session 0 we will go over the initial plot hooks, how your characters might know each other, safety rules, and so on!
The available days are listed in the questionnaire. The start time for the session regardless of the day would be at 9 pm GMT+3 and when a day has been chosen, we would play consistently on that day every week!
RP to combat ratio:
I would say 50-50 since you as players can with your decisions affect how much combat or roleplay there is going to be but I as a GM, am geared more towards weighting narrative but that doesn't mean that there wouldn't be some cool combat set-pieces ;).
There might be moments in the game where we focus more on the social aspect of the game, interacting in character with the world around them and then there might be some more action-oriented sessions where you get to sit at the edge of your seat!
I will say that how I like to run games, I like to focus on characters and what their motives, goals, and flaws are. This would be a more character-driven game so be ready for that and don't be afraid to get into character and have fun while doing so!
How to apply:
All that I require from you is that you read the whole post and then fill out the questionnaire to the best of your ability. I pour a lot of time into making sure that the sessions are good and that everyone is having fun and you can contribute to that by being genuinely interested in the game!
Here is the questionnaire: https://forms.gle/TAnUSBRAoEpKe1Ra8
Basic rules of the campaign:

• Be consistent: I know that emergencies can happen and sometimes life throws a curve ball. Those happen to me too but if it does, I expect you to let me know ASAP when you know that you are not going to be able to join for the session. The general rule in my table is that as long as we have four people playing, we will continue with the game.
• Cinematics: I like to inject some cinematic in the game and I will let you know when there is a cinematic. This happens usually at the end of the session to show you what happens somewhere else where your characters are not necessarily present.
• Campaign may have mature themes: I like to run narrative games and they usually lean towards a more serious tone and while there are moments of lightheartedness, it's not what I am going for this campaign. This is not a campaign for joke characters or happy-go-lucky characters. I will NOT include SA or intense torture roleplaying in my games and there is no tolerance for that. These will be discussed more during the session 0!
• Be attentive during the sessions: During the session, I would like you to feel that you want to be there so I do put a lot of time into prepping the sessions with maps, NPCs, music, etc. So as a player, all I require from you is to know the basic rules, how your character works, and just generally be respectful towards everyone on the table!
• Don't be a dick: Don't rage quit if the dice don't go your way or if you do something in the game that can result in a bad consequence to your character and then it happens. No PvP, unless both agree to it and it needs to have a good reason! Just be respectful and be able to communicate and I am sure we will get along very well!
• There is always a possibility of death: We are here to make an awesome collaborative story together that we can look back to years later with fondness! This however doesn't mean that I am going to pull my punches in combat so that's why I roll in the open. If the dice decide that it's time for your character, then that's how it's going to be. Of course, sometimes there is something that can save you but those are rare. Also, I am not going to go out of my way to kill you and I will make sure that you always know what kinda situations your characters are going to.
• Have a good mic and connection: Having a good mic is important because most of us use headphones so if your audio quality is so bad that it makes our ears bleed then that would be a dealbreaker :D. Bad mics can also negatively just impact the flow of the game if they keep cutting out!

The most important rule is to: HAVE FUN! We are here to play a game and make a story together and everyone's comfort is important to me! If you have doubts or if something feels off, you can always come to talk with me!
Game Rules:

• Write "One Piece is real" in the final questions so I know that you read this far ;)
• Ability scores are determined using point buy with 28 points or a standard array.
• Death saves are rolled in secret
• We are starting from level 2
• Criticals are maxed damage + die rolls
• If you go down, you get a wound up to a maximum of 3 when you get up again. On your third one, if you fall, you die

The reason for Banned spells is that I like to make mysteries and that players need to think. For example, Remove curse would make a situation where you can get cursed not that tense. I like to make curses into plotlines so thus banning the spell gives us that opportunity.
Here are the banned spells:

• Identify
• Detect Thoughts
• Locate object
• Zone of Truth
• Remove curse
• Goodberry
• Silvery Barbs
• Geas
• Legend lore

Banned subclasses:

• Twilight cleric
• Eloquence bard
• Peace cleric

Races from Eberron, PHB, and MPMM are available minus Tortle, Fairy, and Centaur. Also, flying races are not allowed
Here is a little bit of info about me!
My name is Michael, 22 years old. I have been a GM for 3.5 years now! I have enough experience so I won't fumble around but obviously, I don't know everything.
Something about myself is that I have been a huge fan of TTRPGs ever since I started 3.5 years ago. In that period, I have had the pleasure to play multiple systems such as 5e, pathfinder 2e, Call of Cthulhu, cyberpunk RED/2020, mothership, City of Mist, etc. So I have quite a lot of experience and I know the ropes! I also like to draw, write stories, do worldbuilding, play video games, and watch movies and anime.
I am a huge fan of One Piece, it was also an inspiration for this setting so if you are a fan, you'll notice some subtle references here and there!
I do enjoy Eberron as a setting and have read quite a bit on it! Still, while it's an established setting with its lore, that means that there will be things that I might be unaware of or I might change things here and there. I like to stick to the established lore since it's quite expansive and really good but expect changes at some points!
Final words
Thanks for reading this long-ass post and I do hope that you can see that I am putting my all into this! I hope you do too so feel free to fill out the application! Take it slowly and don't rush it since I am using it to gauge how interested you all are to join in! I will keep the post up for a few days and conduct interviews before Sunday. If you have questions, feel free to comment and I'll answer when I have time!
I hope all of you have a nice day/evening and I hope to talk to you later!

https://www.halowaypoint.com/news/quadrant2024
Header Image ^[Imgur]
Next weekend, Halo esports is taking over London!
Team Quadrant will be hosting the first-ever Halo Infinite EU Major at the Twickenham Stadium from May 31st to June 2nd. Join us as the world's best teams throw down for their share of $250,000 and a paid trip to the HCS Atlanta Major this summer!
The action kicks off Friday May 31st at 7a ET / 12p BST - Watch live on Twitch and YouTube!

Contents

• Key Info
• Tickets
• Pool Play
• $5K FFA
• Side Events
• Travel
• FAQ

Halo Championship Series Major London 2024, hosted by team Quadrant. ^[Imgur]

Key Info

Date: May 31 - June 2 Location: London UK Venue: Twickenham Stadium	Tickets: Available Now! Team Pass: Available Now! Watch: Twitch + YouTube	4v4 Prize Pool: $250,000 FFA Prize Pool: $5,000 Side Events: $5,000

Tickets & Team Pass

Join us live from London - Grab your tickets now!

GA 3-Day Tickets

Buy Tickets

- Price: £30.00 - Entry into the venue for the entirety of the event. - Free Access to compete in FFA and Side Tournaments. - GA will receive a Halo Waypoint token that unlocks all in-game Twitch Drops offered during the event.

Discount Codes

In order to provide extra value to fans and also allow fans to support their favorite teams directly, you can use any of the codes below at check out to receive a 10% discount on your tickets. When you save 10%, the Teams receive 10%!

CLOUD9 COMPLEXITY *FAZE * *OPTIC * SENTINELS SPACESTATION QUADRANT

Support your favorite team and get a discount on spectator tickets. If you use a team's code, be sure to share on Twitter and tag the teams so they know you've supported them!
Halo players competing in the Open Bracket at the H C S Arlington Major 2024 ^[Imgur]

Team Pass

Team passes are available now - Assemble your squad and throw down live in London!
Buy Team Pass
If you plan on competing at any HCS events, be sure to check out the links below!

- 2024 HCS Major Event Rules - 2024 HCS Player HandBook - 2024 HCS Code of Conduct

Tournament Format

HCS Major tournament structure for 2024 will be similar to the tried-and-true format we used in Year 2.

- 64-Team Open Bracket - 16-Team Pool Play - 12-Team Champ Bracket

Open Bracket

It wouldn't be a proper HCS Major without a bustling passion pit.

- Open Bracket will start and end on Friday May 31st - Top 4 teams will advance to Pool Play

Congratulations to the following teams on earning Travel Coverage to compete through the London Major Open Bracket!

NA Native Gaming - aPG - Barcode - Gilkey - Mikwen	EU Mamma Mia - i7948 - Mqse - Phlux - Shad	MX SWAT Esports - Acid - Drift - Noblc - Tapping Buttons	ANZ MindFreak - Plasma - Scoobmeistr - Swayz - Wryce

Pool Play

Pool Play at the London Major will feature 12 Auto-Qualified teams and 4 teams from the Open Bracket.

- 4 Pools of 4 - Single Round Robin - 1st/2nd in Pools go to Winners Round 1 - 3rd in Pools go to Lower Round 1 - 4th in Pools is eliminated

Pool Play Qualified Teams
HCS London Major - Pool Play Teams ^[Imgur]

CHAMPIONSHIP BRACKET

The Championship Bracket is where the best of the best will clash for their share of $250,000 and a paid trip to the HCS Atlanta Major!

- 12-Team Double Elimination - Top 6 teams will lock in those seeds at the HCS Atlanta Major

$250K 4V4 PRIZE BREAKDOWN

1st: $100,000 2nd: $60,000 3rd: $30,000 4th: $17,500 5-6: $8,000 7-8: $5,000 9-12: $2,500 13-16: $1,625

Team Quadrant celebrating with a fist bump on the H C S mainstage ^[Imgur]

$5,000 FFA Tournament

As with every Major, HCS London will feature a $5,000 FFA tournament open to all event attendees!
Registration will take place on site!
FFA PRIZE BREAKDOWN

1st: $2,000 2nd: $1,200 3rd: $800 4th: $425 5th: $200 6th: $150 7th: $125 8th: $100

HCS Side Events

Attendees will have the chance to compete in side tournaments featuring various Halo titles! Registration will take place on site and will be first come, first served - see the schedule below!
HCS London Major - Side Events ^[Imgur]

FRIDAY, MAY 31 MCC Halo 3 2v2 - Prize: 1st. $600 / 2nd. $250 - Capacity: 16 Teams - Sign-ups: 3:45p BST - Start: 5:15p BST Halo 5 2v2 - Prize: 1st. $600 / 2nd. $250 - Capacity: 16 Teams - Sign-ups: 4:45p BST - Start: 6:15p BST	SATURDAY, JUNE 1 Halo Infinite 2v2 - Prize: 1st. $1,200 / 2nd. $500 - Capacity: 64 Teams - Sign-ups: 12:00p BST - Start: 2:15p BST MCC Halo 3 4v4 - Prize: 1st. $1,200 / 2nd. $400 - Capacity: 16 Teams - Sign-ups: 4:30p BST - Start: 5:45p BST

Spartan Cosplayer enjoying Halo Infinite matches in the crowd at an HCS event ^[Imgur]

Where To Watch

Catch all the action live May 31 - June 2.

A Stream: ** Twitch.tv/Halo *B Stream: * Twitch.tv/HCS **C Stream: Twitch.tv/HCS_Red D Stream: Twitch.tv/HCS_Blue All Streams: YouTube.com/@HCS Co-Streamers: Halo Infinite Live Streams

Twitch Drops

Tune into the HCS London Major all weekend and you will unlock exclusive Twitch Drops!
Stay tuned to @HCS on socials for more info on which Drops will be available!

Travel

Airport: London Heathrow (LHR) Ground Transportation : Uber Hotels: Click here for a list of nearby hotels.

Image ^[Imgur]

FAQ

Event FAQ

When will the HCS Major London 2024 take place?	The HCS Major London 2024 will take place May 31-June 2, 2024.
Where is the event taking place?	The HCS Major London 2024 will take place at the Twickenham Stadium. Twickenham Stadium, 200 Whitton Rd, Twickenham TW2 7BA, United Kingdom
Where can I purchase tickets?	You can purchase Spectator passes here.
I am with the press and would like to cover the event. Who should I reach out to for information?	Please contact events@quadrant.gg and xboxpress@assemblyinc.com.
I can't attend the event, but want to watch online. Where can I tune in?	You can tune into these links to watch the action: Twitch A stream - twitch.tv/halo B stream - twitch.tv/hcs C stream - twitch.tv/hcs_red D stream - twitch.tv/hcs_blue YouTube All Streams - YouTube.com/@HCS
Is there an age limit?	All 4v4 and FFA Players must be 13 years of age or older to compete at HCS Major London. Players 13 years of age or older require a signed parental consent form if under the age of 18. Spectators 13 years of age or older require a signed parental consent form if under the age of 18. Spectators under 13 years of age will need to be accompanied by guardian. Children ages 3 and under will not require a ticket, but will require a completed parental consent form and be accompanied by a guardian at all times. Download the Parental Consent Form. Please bring the completed form to the event and have ready to hand in at the ticketing desk.
What if I am under the age limit at the time of qualification but meet the age requirements by the event date? Can I still participate?	Players will need to be of age by May 22, 2024 to compete.
What time do the doors open?	Doors open at 10:00 AM BST
Where should I park and is parking free?	Please refer to the Twickenham Website for Parking Info. https://www.twickenhamstadium.com/getting-here
Do you have appropriate seating and parking for individuals with medical conditions?	The event is ADA compliant and accessible.
Are pets allowed?	Only service animals are allowed at the event.
What is your bag policy?	Spectators: All Bags must be clear and under 12in x 12in x 6in to be allowed in the venue, and are subject to wanding and searches as needed. Wallets and wristlets no larger than 5in x 8in x 1in are permitted - Anything larger must follow the clear bag guidelines.
Are there any prohibited items?	Halo Championship Series Prohibited Items ACCEPTABLE: - Cosplay and other costumes determined to be safe by security - Prop/Replica weapons as part of cosplay or other costumes: Must be submitted to security for review. Cannot contain a functioning bolt mechanism or fire a projectile of any kind. Any bow-type weapons must be unstrung or strung with a low-tensile thread. All prop arrows must have soft, non-metal, blunted tips made out of foam or cardboard only. Cannot be pointed at any individual in such a way to cause fear of harm or distress. Cosplay firearms must have brightly colored safety tips. Must be visibly tagged and visually identified as “safe” or “peace bonded”. - Cell Phones - Action cameras, such as GoPro’s - Prescription medication (you must have the prescription/label in your name with you) PROHIBITED ITEMS* (below list is a guide, not all inclusive): - Illegal or illicit substances, drugs, or drug paraphernalia - Weapons of any kind including, but not limited to, guns, ammo, pocket knives, sharp-edge blades, self-defense sprays, or any item deemed as unsafe by security staff. - Flammable items or liquids including aerosols and fireworks - Bags lager than 12″ x 12″ x 6″ max - Coolers, sleeping bags, tents, and chairs: An exception will be made for medically necessary items after thorough inspection. - Outside alcohol - Outside food and beverage - Bicycles, skateboards, hover-boards, scooters, or personal motorized vehicles - Drones or unmanned aerial vehicles - Animals except for service animals assisting an individual with a disability. “Comfort,” “therapy” or “emotional support” animals do not meet the ADA definition of a service animal. Security may permit working dogs or other animals as required. - Laser pens, laser pointers, or similar focused light devices - Noisemakers such as megaphones, air horns, sirens, whistles, or other devices which may interfere with others’ experience - Any item that is not lawfully permitted to be carried in the locality or City of Seattle - Additional items may be prohibited at the discretion of Microsoft staff or security *Note: Prohibited items and items determined to not be appropriate for entry into Halo Championship Series will be the responsibility of the attendee and cannot be accepted, stored, or checked by Microsoft or Convention Center.
What are the closest hotels to the event venue?	Please use this link to find nearby hotels options and rates.
I have other questions – where’s the best place to ask them?	For London specific questions, email us at events@quadrant.gg For HCS program and eligibility questions, email us at HCS@ee.gg

Player FAQ

Where can I find the Event Rules?	Click Here: HCS London Major 2024 Rules
Where can I find the Handbook & Code of Conduct?	Click Below: - HCS Handbook **** - Code of Conduct
Will there be a Free-For-All (FFA) competition at this event?	Yes! The event will feature a free-to-enter Halo Infinite FFA tournament, which will be open for up to 512 players and spectators. Best of luck to those competing for their share of $5,000! Must have a Spectator ticket to participate. Registration will take place on site!
I don't live in the UK. Can I still compete in this tournament?	To check your specific country’s eligibility, please see the list of eligible countries as listed in the Handbook here.
Is there a limit to the number of teams eligible to compete in this tournament?	Yes. The 4v4 tournament open bracket has a max capacity of 48 teams.
When do rosters lock?	For Pool Play and Travel Coverage teams: 6:00 PM EST on Monday, May 13th. If teams earned travel coverage via the Major #2 Online Qualifier they must retain that same roster. For all other teams, roster lock is Monday, May 27th at 10:00a EST / 3:00p BST.
What equipment should I bring if I'm competing?	All players competing must bring: - Your preferred wired peripheral (Xbox wired Controller or Mouse and Keyboard) - USB cord required for your preferred peripheral - Headset with no power outlet and a 3.5 mm plug - Wired Earbuds (needed for Feature Station and Main Stage play) - If you plan on competing with Keyboard & Mouse, you must submit your model number for each device to hcs@ee.gg ahead of the event. Mixamps will be provided. Bringing backup equipment is recommended.
Which monitors will be used for the tournament?	All tournament and warmup monitors will be the Zowie XL2540K model.
How do I earn travel coverage?	Lodging and travel coverage will be offered to 12 pool play teams based on previous Major placement, placement in the Major #2 Qualifier, and HCS Points. Additionally, 1 NA team& 1 EU team will be granted travel coverage based on aggregate points after the Major #2 Qualifier. 1 ANZ team & 1 MX team will be granted travel coverage based on placing 1st in their respective Open Championships. NA Players may qualify through: Top two (2) placement in the Major #2 Online Qualifier. Top two (2) in HCS points after the Major #2 Online Qualifier EU Players may qualify through: 1st place in the Major #2 Online Qualifier. Highest team aggregate HCS points after the Major #2 Online Qualifier MX Players may qualify through: 1st place in the Major #1 Open Championship. ANZ Players may qualify through: 1st place in the Major #1 Open Championship. For further information including complete tournament format and seeding , please review the Event Rules. Note: Teams who earn travel coverage for the HCS London Major 2024 via the Major #2 Online Qualifier must compete with the same roster.
How does travel coverage work?	More information on how to use earned travel coverage will be delivered to qualified teams after the completion of the Major #2 Online Qualifier.
What is the Prizing Breakdown?	HCS Major 4v4 - $250,000 prize pool 1st: $100,000 2nd: $60,000 3rd: $30,000 4th: $17,500 5th/6th: $8,000 7th/8th: $5,000 9th - 12th: $2,500 13th - 16th: $1,625 HCS Major Free-For-All - $5,000 prize pool 1st: $2,000 2nd: $1,200 3rd: $800 4th: $425 5th: $200 6th: $150 7th: $125 8th: $100
What is the Pro Point Breakdown?	Pro Points Breakdown - HCS Major 4v4 (Team Total) 1st - 25,000 2nd - 15,000 3rd - 11,000 4th - 9,000 5th - 6th 8,000 7th - 8th 7,000 9th - 12th 5,500 13th - 16th 4,500 17th - 20th 3,000 21st - 24th 2,000 25th - 32nd 1,800 33rd - 40th 1,600 41st - 56th 1,400 57th - 72nd 1,000 Pro Points Breakdown - HCS Major Free-For-All 1st: 15,000 2nd: 13,500 3rd: 12,750 4th: 12,000 5th: 11,250 6th: 10,500 7th: 9,750 8th: 9,000 9th - 10th: 6,000 11th - 12th: 5,250 13th - 14th: 4,500 15th - 16th: 3,750 17th - 20th: 2,800 21st - 24th: 2,450 25th - 28th: 2,000 29th - 32nd: 1,650 33rd - 40th: 1,300 41st - 48th: 1,125 49th - 56th: 950 57th - 64th: 750 65th - 128th: 375
I have other questions – where’s the best place to ask them?	For London specific questions, email us at events@quadrant.gg For HCS program and eligibility questions, email us at HCS@ee.gg

Ticket FAQ

What types of payment do you accept? Online and onsite?	All major credit cards are accepted. Cash payments will not be accepted at the event.
How will I get my tickets if I buy them online?	You will receive a confirmation email from Eventbrite with a QR code and printable tickets. Digital or print tickets will be accepted and scanned at the door at the event.
What if my tickets are lost or stolen?	Please contact events@quadrant.gg for more info.
Do you offer refunds?	We offer refunds up till 7 days before the event. Note: Eventbrite's fee is nonrefundable.
What if the event is cancelled?	If the event is cancelled all tickets purchased will be refunded in full.
Can I show my tickets on my phone at the door or do I need to have the physical tickets with me?	Digital or print tickets will be accepted and QR codes scanned upon entry. You must have all members of the parties accounted for with multiple tickets present to check in at the same time. Tickets are only scanned once. Fans will receive a wristband that corresponds with their ticket type.
Do you offer military or senior citizen discounts?	If you are purchasing a ticket online - please use the code MILITARY or SENIOR to receive 10% off your ticket. For the Military discount, please be prepared to present your Military ID. For a senior discount, you must be 55+ years of age. Any questions about codes or eligibility please email HCSeventsNA@ee.gg.
What does general admission mean?	General Admission (GA) refers to seating or standing areas that are not assigned or reserved.
Will my seats be together?	Seating or standing areas are occupied on a first-come, first-served basis.
What should I do if I don't receive my tickets?	Please contact events@quadrant.gg for more info.
Is my multi-day ticket good for either or both days?	3 Day GA tickets are acceptable for all days of the event. You will receive a wristband or credentials that you must keep with you for all of the days to re-enter.
The name on the ticket doesn't match the attendee’s name. Is that okay?	This is allowed, however you must have all members of the parties accounted for with multiple tickets present to check in at the same time. Tickets are only scanned once.

This post was made by a script written and maintained by the Halo mod team to automatically post blogs from Halo Waypoint. If you notice any issues with the text output or think this was posted by mistake, please message the mods.

I finally found a working sync 1st gen 4.6 update. After many failed attempts I was reading this f150 form and this guy said to download it from ford africas website. I put in a vin and my email. They sent it to me with in 5 minutes and I downloaded it. It took about 10 minutes in the car to install. I will list the steps on how to install below.

1. Go to https://www.ford.co.za/technology/sync/# and scroll to the bottom or do it the easy way and download the files that worked for me from this link https://drive.google.com/file/d/1b3WpDTSJpx1qHCSO8ZV1GC9MxvZJxPM8/view?usp=sharing you dont need to change anything.
2. Get any flash drive and format it to fat 32 even though ford says fat. Note using a 4gb flash drive or formatting a flash drive to 4gb will work the best. This could be the reason your fusion is saying usb is unrecognizable.
3. Extract the files directly to your formatted usb drive.
4. Go to your car and plug the usb into your sync usb port and go into the menu and go to system settings - advanced - and than install application. You might have to click it a few times, if it doesn't work the first time try again, and if it still doesn't work do a master reset. Note it might not seem like its doing anything but just give it time. Listen to what sync is saying. It's ok to drive around or just leave it in accessory mode while it updates. if the radio turns on you can turn it off or turn it down, that won't mess it up. Just make sure not to turn the car off to where sync looses power.
5. Sync will say installation complete and you will be all good to go. Remove your usb and reconnect your bluetooth and your set. You'll get to enjoy all the updated features. My favorite one is how it defaults to bluetooth automaticlly and shows what song is playing over bluetooth which in my oppion is awsome.

One more thing to note is that my previous verison was
V4.0.2CR3T-14D544-AC
which I don't think matters that much. If you wanna check to see what verison you have, find your FPN number and refrence this site https://www.ford.com/support/how-tos/sync/getting-started-with-sync/what-sync-version-do-i-have/ .
Hope this works for you guys and if you have any question feel free to ask.
Thanks

Hi ShopifyeCommerce - I'm Paul and I follow the e-commerce industry closely for my Shopifreaks E-commerce Newsletter. Each week I post a summary recap of the week's top stories, which I cover in depth in the newsletter. Let's dive in...
STAT OF THE WEEK: Amazon could finally surpass Walmart to become the nation’s biggest company by revenue, having grown by 12% last year compared with Walmart's growth of 6%. Two more years of similar growth discrepancy would push Amazon past Walmart in sales.
Shopify is suing Shopline in New York federal court, accusing it of illegally copying Shopify's software to build its own e-commerce platform. Shopline is a Singapore-based subsidiary of the Chinese technology company JOYY Inc. Shopify said in the lawsuit that Shopline created a “thinly disguised knockoff” of its Dawn theme to power a competing e-commerce service. The lawsuit even says that the “Shopify” name still appears in the code of various versions of Seed that Shopline is distributing, and that Shopify found a Chinese webpage hosted by Joyy with the title “Seed Theme” that still carries headers reading “dawn-test.”
In other lawsuit news this week — Temu is facing legal action from 17 companies accusing it of violating new EU laws with “manipulative practices” such as making it difficult to delete your account, and lack of transparency over who their sellers are and why certain products are recommended to customers. Temu was the most downloaded app in the UK in 2023 and still remains as a top downloaded app in 2024.
The state of Arizona has taken legal action against Amazon, launching two lawsuits that accuse the company of monopolistic behavior and deceptive practices involving dark patterns. The first lawsuit claims that Amazon's business practices violate the state's Consumer Fraud Act by employing dark patterns to make it difficult for users to cancel their Amazon Prime subscriptions. The second lawsuit alleges that Amazon breaches Arizona's Uniform State Antitrust Act by maintaining a monopoly via enforcing agreements with third-party sellers to prevent them from offering lower prices on other platforms. It also challenges Amazon's Buy Box algorithm under the Consumer Fraud Act, claiming that it favors sellers who use Fulfillment By Amazon. The legal actions echo similar complaints from the FTC and various states.
Last week Amazon made a big splash with its first-ever event during upfront week, taking over Pier 36 in New York which has previously hosted upfront presentations from Disney and TelevisaUnivision. The company called on celebrities including Jake Gyllenhaal, Reese Witherspoon, Will Ferrell, and Alicia Keys to demonstrate how premium their content is. Amazon worked to separate itself from its competitors by showcasing its scale. Prime Video now has an average monthly ad-supported reach of 200M customers, with 115M in the US, making it the largest premium ad-supported streaming service both globally and in the U.S. It also announced new upcoming series such as Spider-Man Noir, Tomb Raider, and a prequel to Legally Blond.
eBay launched a new feature called “resell on eBay” that is designed to make it easier for brands and consumers to list clothing for sale on its marketplace. The feature is built into Certilogo, which was acquired by eBay in 2023, which features an AI-powered digital ID printed on the product tag to help brands manage the lifecycle of their garments and give consumers a way to confirm the item's authenticity. Users scan a QR code on a product's smart label to generate a “resell your garment” button. Clicking the button directs the user to check the authenticity of the item through Certilogo's AI authentication system by signing in with their eBay account. From there, an eBay listing is prefilled with information from the brand about the item. Users can then edit the listing, upload additional photos, and publish the item for sale.
Poshmark launched a new paid marketing tool called “Promoted Closets” that gives sellers the ability to promote their entire shop at once. The tool uses machine learning to automatically promote individual product listings from a seller's entire inventory, identifying shoppers' search terms and matching them with promoted items. Promoted Closet works on a cost per click model where sellers only get charged when a shopper clicks and views the item from a promoted listing. There's an option to set the budget manually or get a recommendation from Poshmark. Each campaign lasts for 7 days.
Klarna says that it is not sharing its customer data with credit bureaus in the US because the bureaus “do not have proper models to responsibly process the data and ensure good consumer outcomes.” It does share its data with UK credit bureaus. Klarna added that the credit models used today in the US “were built decades ago and calculate data based on monthly payments, long-term loans, and open lines of credit. But BNPL does not fit into these categories.” The company claims that BNPL is different because it offers bi-weekly instead of monthly payments, and unlike a credit card, Klarna doesn't offer an open line of credit.
Third party sellers on Amazon, which make up 60% of sales on Amazon's marketplace, are reconsidering how heavily they'll discount products this year for Prime Day, given how much seller fees have increased on the platform in recent months, according to Modern Retail. According to data from SmartScout, Amazon FBA fees for standard-sized products have jumped 96% over the past 10 years, outpacing inflation. Seller fees can eat up about half the cost per sale on Amazon, according to Marketplace Pulse. That doesn't leave much room for running Prime Day deals, which primarily benefit Amazon as opposed to the individual merchants who are pressured to wipe out their little remaining margin for the sake of running a deal at all.
Netflix announced durings it Upfronts presentation that it's launching its own advertising platform to compete against Google, Amazon, Hulu, Comcast, and other ad giants. Amazon has only been in the advertising business for a year and a half after launching its ad-supported tier in Nov 2022. Netflix originally partnered with Microsoft to develop its ad tech, which let the streaming platform enter the ad space quickly and catch up with rivals like Hulu, which has offered an ad-supported tier since 2010. Launching its own in-house ad tech will allow Netflix to take full control of its advertising and create targeted and personalized ad experiences. Netflix wants to experiment with “episodic” campaigns, which involves a series of ads that tell a story rather than delivering repetitive ads. Brilliant!
Slack is under attack after users discovered that the company has been using their messages, content, and files to train its global AI models, which Slack uses to power their channel and emoji recommendations and search results. It was discovered that if you don't want Slack to use your data, you have to e-mail the company to opt-out, which isn't a good look for a company that makes a big deal out of telling customers that “You control your data.” In response to the outrage, Slack published a blog post to clarify how its customers' data is used.
Google will now let you perform a “web” search, which lets you filter out almost all of its AI results and knowledge panels that currently take over its SERPs, leaving you with just links and text like the old days. The order of the search results are the same regardless of whether you pick “web” or “all”, and it doesn't block links to YouTube videos or Reddit posts. There are also still ads that appear above and below the results.
YouTube is officially launching its YouTube Select “creator takeovers,” which lets advertisers buy out the ad inventory on channels representing the top 1% of content on the platform. The program began as a pilot at the end of 2023 and is now opening to more top creators.
Wix launched three new AI-powered image enhancement and creation tools to help users create and display high-quality images. The new tools include an AI Image Creator to make the images, Object Eraser to remove unwanted objects in the images, and AI Image Editor to add/edit portions of the image. Honestly, the three tools kind of sound like one tool with three features, but you do you, Wix.
Temu, which is already 20% bigger than Shein in the US and gets 42% of its business from the US, Mexico, and Chile, is turning its attention to Europe and wants to grow rapidly in the region. The company has redirected its enormous ad spend to Europe and Mexico while Washington scrutinizes its business practices in the US.
Visa announced major changes to how its credit and debit cards will operate in the US in the coming months and years. The new features mean consumers will be carrying fewer physical cards in their wallets, and will make the 16-digit card number increasingly irrelevant. The biggest change will be the ability for banks to issue one physical card that is connected to multiple bank accounts, which consumers can apply usage rules to.
Mastercard and Salesforce announced a new integration designed to help customers speed up the resolution of transaction disputes and chargebacks, as well as reduce costs associated with resolving them. The partnership will integrate Salesforce's Financial Services Cloud with Mastercard's dispute resolution services, providing real time notifications and a central dashboard for managing disputes.
Meta is taking inspiration from BeReal and Snapchat by developing a feature for Instagram called “Peek” that allows users to post authentic pictures that can only be viewed once. A photo shared via a Peek would have to be taken with your camera in the moment, as you would not be able to upload an image from your gallery, and you won't be able to add filters or edit the photo.
Ikea launched a TikTok livestream where cats and dogs model and demonstrate new Ikea products for pets. The Pet Shopping Network will appear for everyone in the UK on TikTok and showcase pets demonstrating Ikea's 29-piece pet furniture range.
Sam's Club is planning to launch an online shopping portal in Hong Kong within the next two months, giving the territory access to its products via e-commerce. The service will include free delivery for purchases over 599 yuan ($83).
Amazon raised warehouse worker wages to $15/hour five years ago, but today half of workers surveyed told researchers they struggle to afford food and rent. Amazon called the researcher's methodology “deeply flawed” and said the company had tried to raise its concerns with the study’s authors but never heard back.
Lots of layoffs this week… Amazon laid off more than 100 customer service reps, Walmart let go of hundreds of corporate staffers and ordering employees across the US and Canada, Gopuff laid off 6% of its staff, and Indeed laid off 8% of its workforce.
Remember that former diversity program manager at Facebook who stole more than $4M from the company through fake business deals in exchange for kickbacks? I first reported on Barbara Furlow-Smiles in December of last year when she pled guilty to the theft. Well, last week she was sentenced to five years and three months in prison for her scheme.
In the world of corporate turnover… The chief of Amazon Web Services, Adam Selipsky, is stepping down next month after a three-year term to be replaced by Matt Garman, a senior VP who has overseen sales and marketing at AWS. Also, eBay's VP of Global Communications, Michelle Friedman, departed the company to take on a role at Samsara, a cloud platform built for tracking and analyzing data from physical operations.
Meta is shutting down Workspace, a version of Facebook that had been built to enable communication among business teams and organizations. Sources say that it will be business as usual on the platform until August 25, 2025, and then it will be read-only until May 2026. Meta is recommending Zoom-owned Workvivo as a migration-ready alternative.
Ted Baker Canada is holding store-closing clearance sales across locations in the US and Canada after filing for bankruptcy in April. As of May 10th, online shopping is no longer available and all sales are final across the company's brick-and-mortar retail locations.
Sezzle, a US-based BNPL service, partnered up with Celerant Technology, a POS system for retailers, to offer a BNPL option when checking out in-store . The two companies had partnered in 2023 to offer BNPL options online, and now the solution is being brought to brick-and-mortar stores.
BuyBay, a Dutch recommerce platform, is launching a SaaS product using its own recommerce software. Retailers and manufacturers can now resell unreturned products from their own distribution center, which helps reduce CO2-emissions and increase profits.
Setapp Mobile, a subscription-based alternative to the Apple App Store that's now possible thanks to the EU's Digital Markets Act, went into invite-only beta last week. The new app store allows customers to play with a range of apps without being hit with reduced features, ads, options to upgrade, and without spending money on something they may not use. The biggest challenge with the Setapp iOS store is getting the app installed on your iPhone, which involves following a link, installing software, and then activating it — a process made intentionally cumbersome by Apple.
Avalara expanded its partnership with Shopify by joining the Shopify Tax Platform. Avalara has powered tax calculation for Shopify Plus customers since 2015, and now through the Shopify Tax Partner Platform, the company can serve all Shopify customers with their global tax compliance tools.
Walmart delivered 4.4B items the same day or next day, beating Amazon, which said it did 4B items in one day. Walmart's advantage is that it uses stores for its same-day deliveries.
Plus 9 seed rounds, IPOs, and acquisitions of interest including Gorgias's $29M Series C-2 round, which it plans to use the funds from to launch its new AI Agent.
I hope you found this recap helpful. See you next week! For more details on each story and sources, see the full edition: https://www.shopifreaks.com/shopify-sues-shopline-ebays-qr-code-netflixs-new-ad-serve What else is new in e-commerce? Share stories of interesting in the comments below (including in your own business) or on shopifreaks. -PAUL Editor of Shopifreaks E-commerce Newsletter PS: Want the full editions delivered to your Inbox each week? Join free at www.shopifreaks.com

Hello gents,
I'm trying to save up to get me some games, I only started sending referral links recently so all of them are fresh, if you use my codes you'd be helping me out a lot and you'd be saving yourself 25%.
It's a win win. I'm going to write down my list of games feel free to pick, I wish I had known about these links earlier on. It'd have saved me a ton of money lol:
• £23 (UK) Device Referral (If you're a new user, feel free to send me a message and I'll happily help you setup your Quest and pick games) - https://www.meta.com/referrals/link/KFCisLIFE
• Bonelab - https://www.oculus.com/appreferrals/KFCisLIFE/4215734068529064/?utm_source=oculus&utm_location=2&utm_parent=frl&utm_medium=app_referral (It has by far the largest modding community on the Quest platform.
Developers are porting entire games to Bonelab. Buying this is like an investment which keeps getting better. You get bored? Download some more mods. I can't rate it high enough)
• Blade and Scorcery - https://www.oculus.com/appreferrals/KFCisLIFE/2031826350263349/?utm_source=oculus&utm_location=2&utm_parent=frl&utm_medium=app_referral
• Breachers - https://www.oculus.com/appreferrals/KFCisLIFE/5740397619319389/?utm_source=oculus&utm_location=2&utm_parent=frl&utm_medium=app_referral (Only recently just bought this, takes some time getting used to but it really is a fun game)
• Contractors - https://www.oculus.com/appreferrals/KFCisLIFE/2436897736439055/?utm_source=oculus&utm_location=2&utm_parent=frl&utm_medium=app_referral
• Into the Radius - https://www.oculus.com/appreferrals/KFCisLIFE/5817243991680545/?utm_source=oculus&utm_location=2&utm_parent=frl&utm_medium=app_referral (Words cannot describe how much shit there is in my pants after playing this game, 10/10. Fallout if Fallout made you shit your pants.)
• Onward - https://www.oculus.com/appreferrals/KFCisLIFE/2677344882310094/?utm_source=oculus&utm_location=2&utm_parent=frl&utm_medium=app_referral
• Pavlov Shack - https://www.oculus.com/appreferrals/KFCisLIFE/2443267419018232/?utm_source=oculus&utm_location=2&utm_parent=frl&utm_medium=app_referral
• Red Matter 1 - https://www.oculus.com/appreferrals/KFCisLIFE/2180753588712484/?utm_source=oculus&utm_location=2&utm_parent=frl&utm_medium=app_referral
• Red Matter 2 - https://www.oculus.com/appreferrals/KFCisLIFE/3682089508520212/?utm_source=oculus&utm_location=2&utm_parent=frl&utm_medium=app_referral (Playing this game should be a requirement for all Quest 3 players, the graphics are beautiful and the storytelling will leave a lasting impact afterwards.)
• Stride - https://www.oculus.com/appreferrals/KFCisLIFE/4901911359882668/?utm_source=oculus&utm_location=2&utm_parent=frl&utm_medium=app_referral
• The Walking Saints and Sinners - https://www.oculus.com/appreferrals/KFCisLIFE/2897337400373711/?utm_source=oculus&utm_location=2&utm_parent=frl&utm_medium=app_referral
• Ghost of Tabor - https://www.oculus.com/appreferrals/KFCisLIFE/7614022262006379/?utm_source=oculus&utm_location=3&utm_parent=frl&utm_medium=app_referral
• Asgard's Wrath 2 - https://www.oculus.com/appreferrals/KFCisLIFE/2603836099654226/?utm_source=oculus&utm_location=2&utm_parent=frl&utm_medium=app_referral
• Vail - https://www.oculus.com/appreferrals/KFCisLIFE/6625826934127580/?utm_source=oculus&utm_location=2&utm_parent=frl&utm_medium=app_referral
• Assassin's Creed Nexus - https://www.oculus.com/appreferrals/KFCisLIFE/5812519008825194/?utm_source=oculus&utm_location=2&utm_parent=frl&utm_medium=app_referral
• Arizona Sunshine 2 - https://www.oculus.com/appreferrals/KFCisLIFE/5245041552210029/?utm_source=oculus&utm_location=2&utm_parent=frl&utm_medium=app_referral
• Dragon fist: VR Kung Fu - https://www.oculus.com/appreferrals/KFCisLIFE/5075285115918784/?utm_source=oculus&utm_location=2&utm_parent=frl&utm_medium=app_referral
This is all, if any of you gents wish to trade links for Sniper Elite VR: Winter, Resident Evil 4, Eleven table tennis, Espire 2 or Beat Saber I'd love to hear you out in my messages. I really want to get these games, and I will be using the credit I get from my codes to get them. I love referral codes, literally everyone wins!
I hope you enjoy your codes, and your discounts. Once the codes are used up I will edit them, please notify me in the comments about this as it will be helpful!
Also, Device Referrals are region locked. All games aren't however, if you need to get a Device referral link remember to pick ones with your countries name in it. Example, I live in the United Kingdom. So I picked a code that was in the UK!
Have a good day all,
• Memememeguy

Hi - I'm Paul and I follow the e-commerce industry closely for my Shopifreaks E-commerce Newsletter. Each week I post a summary recap of the week's top stories, which I cover in depth with sources in the full edition. Let's dive in...
STAT OF THE WEEK: Amazon could finally surpass Walmart to become the nation’s biggest company by revenue, having grown by 12% last year compared with Walmart's growth of 6%. Two more years of similar growth discrepancy would push Amazon past Walmart in sales.
Shopify is suing Shopline in New York federal court, accusing it of illegally copying Shopify's software to build its own e-commerce platform. Shopline is a Singapore-based subsidiary of the Chinese technology company JOYY Inc. Shopify said in the lawsuit that Shopline created a “thinly disguised knockoff” of its Dawn theme to power a competing e-commerce service. The lawsuit even says that the “Shopify” name still appears in the code of various versions of Seed that Shopline is distributing, and that Shopify found a Chinese webpage hosted by Joyy with the title “Seed Theme” that still carries headers reading “dawn-test.”
In other lawsuit news this week — Temu is facing legal action from 17 companies accusing it of violating new EU laws with “manipulative practices” such as making it difficult to delete your account, and lack of transparency over who their sellers are and why certain products are recommended to customers. Temu was the most downloaded app in the UK in 2023 and still remains as a top downloaded app in 2024.
The state of Arizona has taken legal action against Amazon, launching two lawsuits that accuse the company of monopolistic behavior and deceptive practices involving dark patterns. The first lawsuit claims that Amazon's business practices violate the state's Consumer Fraud Act by employing dark patterns to make it difficult for users to cancel their Amazon Prime subscriptions. The second lawsuit alleges that Amazon breaches Arizona's Uniform State Antitrust Act by maintaining a monopoly via enforcing agreements with third-party sellers to prevent them from offering lower prices on other platforms. It also challenges Amazon's Buy Box algorithm under the Consumer Fraud Act, claiming that it favors sellers who use Fulfillment By Amazon. The legal actions echo similar complaints from the FTC and various states.
Last week Amazon made a big splash with its first-ever event during upfront week, taking over Pier 36 in New York which has previously hosted upfront presentations from Disney and TelevisaUnivision. The company called on celebrities including Jake Gyllenhaal, Reese Witherspoon, Will Ferrell, and Alicia Keys to demonstrate how premium their content is. Amazon worked to separate itself from its competitors by showcasing its scale. Prime Video now has an average monthly ad-supported reach of 200M customers, with 115M in the US, making it the largest premium ad-supported streaming service both globally and in the U.S. It also announced new upcoming series such as Spider-Man Noir, Tomb Raider, and a prequel to Legally Blond.
eBay launched a new feature called “resell on eBay” that is designed to make it easier for brands and consumers to list clothing for sale on its marketplace. The feature is built into Certilogo, which was acquired by eBay in 2023, which features an AI-powered digital ID printed on the product tag to help brands manage the lifecycle of their garments and give consumers a way to confirm the item's authenticity. Users scan a QR code on a product's smart label to generate a “resell your garment” button. Clicking the button directs the user to check the authenticity of the item through Certilogo's AI authentication system by signing in with their eBay account. From there, an eBay listing is prefilled with information from the brand about the item. Users can then edit the listing, upload additional photos, and publish the item for sale.
Poshmark launched a new paid marketing tool called “Promoted Closets” that gives sellers the ability to promote their entire shop at once. The tool uses machine learning to automatically promote individual product listings from a seller's entire inventory, identifying shoppers' search terms and matching them with promoted items. Promoted Closet works on a cost per click model where sellers only get charged when a shopper clicks and views the item from a promoted listing. There's an option to set the budget manually or get a recommendation from Poshmark. Each campaign lasts for 7 days.
Klarna says that it is not sharing its customer data with credit bureaus in the US because the bureaus “do not have proper models to responsibly process the data and ensure good consumer outcomes.” It does share its data with UK credit bureaus. Klarna added that the credit models used today in the US “were built decades ago and calculate data based on monthly payments, long-term loans, and open lines of credit. But BNPL does not fit into these categories.” The company claims that BNPL is different because it offers bi-weekly instead of monthly payments, and unlike a credit card, Klarna doesn't offer an open line of credit.
Third party sellers on Amazon, which make up 60% of sales on Amazon's marketplace, are reconsidering how heavily they'll discount products this year for Prime Day, given how much seller fees have increased on the platform in recent months, according to Modern Retail. According to data from SmartScout, Amazon FBA fees for standard-sized products have jumped 96% over the past 10 years, outpacing inflation. Seller fees can eat up about half the cost per sale on Amazon, according to Marketplace Pulse. That doesn't leave much room for running Prime Day deals, which primarily benefit Amazon as opposed to the individual merchants who are pressured to wipe out their little remaining margin for the sake of running a deal at all.
Netflix announced durings it Upfronts presentation that it's launching its own advertising platform to compete against Google, Amazon, Hulu, Comcast, and other ad giants. Amazon has only been in the advertising business for a year and a half after launching its ad-supported tier in Nov 2022. Netflix originally partnered with Microsoft to develop its ad tech, which let the streaming platform enter the ad space quickly and catch up with rivals like Hulu, which has offered an ad-supported tier since 2010. Launching its own in-house ad tech will allow Netflix to take full control of its advertising and create targeted and personalized ad experiences. Netflix wants to experiment with “episodic” campaigns, which involves a series of ads that tell a story rather than delivering repetitive ads. Brilliant!
Slack is under attack after users discovered that the company has been using their messages, content, and files to train its global AI models, which Slack uses to power their channel and emoji recommendations and search results. It was discovered that if you don't want Slack to use your data, you have to e-mail the company to opt-out, which isn't a good look for a company that makes a big deal out of telling customers that “You control your data.” In response to the outrage, Slack published a blog post to clarify how its customers' data is used.
Google will now let you perform a “web” search, which lets you filter out almost all of its AI results and knowledge panels that currently take over its SERPs, leaving you with just links and text like the old days. The order of the search results are the same regardless of whether you pick “web” or “all”, and it doesn't block links to YouTube videos or Reddit posts. There are also still ads that appear above and below the results.
YouTube is officially launching its YouTube Select “creator takeovers,” which lets advertisers buy out the ad inventory on channels representing the top 1% of content on the platform. The program began as a pilot at the end of 2023 and is now opening to more top creators.
Wix launched three new AI-powered image enhancement and creation tools to help users create and display high-quality images. The new tools include an AI Image Creator to make the images, Object Eraser to remove unwanted objects in the images, and AI Image Editor to add/edit portions of the image. Honestly, the three tools kind of sound like one tool with three features, but you do you, Wix.
Temu, which is already 20% bigger than Shein in the US and gets 42% of its business from the US, Mexico, and Chile, is turning its attention to Europe and wants to grow rapidly in the region. The company has redirected its enormous ad spend to Europe and Mexico while Washington scrutinizes its business practices in the US.
Visa announced major changes to how its credit and debit cards will operate in the US in the coming months and years. The new features mean consumers will be carrying fewer physical cards in their wallets, and will make the 16-digit card number increasingly irrelevant. The biggest change will be the ability for banks to issue one physical card that is connected to multiple bank accounts, which consumers can apply usage rules to.
Mastercard and Salesforce announced a new integration designed to help customers speed up the resolution of transaction disputes and chargebacks, as well as reduce costs associated with resolving them. The partnership will integrate Salesforce's Financial Services Cloud with Mastercard's dispute resolution services, providing real time notifications and a central dashboard for managing disputes.
Meta is taking inspiration from BeReal and Snapchat by developing a feature for Instagram called “Peek” that allows users to post authentic pictures that can only be viewed once. A photo shared via a Peek would have to be taken with your camera in the moment, as you would not be able to upload an image from your gallery, and you won't be able to add filters or edit the photo.
Ikea launched a TikTok livestream where cats and dogs model and demonstrate new Ikea products for pets. The Pet Shopping Network will appear for everyone in the UK on TikTok and showcase pets demonstrating Ikea's 29-piece pet furniture range.
Sam's Club is planning to launch an online shopping portal in Hong Kong within the next two months, giving the territory access to its products via e-commerce. The service will include free delivery for purchases over 599 yuan ($83).
Amazon raised warehouse worker wages to $15/hour five years ago, but today half of workers surveyed told researchers they struggle to afford food and rent. Amazon called the researcher's methodology “deeply flawed” and said the company had tried to raise its concerns with the study’s authors but never heard back.
Lots of layoffs this week… Amazon laid off more than 100 customer service reps, Walmart let go of hundreds of corporate staffers and ordering employees across the US and Canada, Gopuff laid off 6% of its staff, and Indeed laid off 8% of its workforce.
Remember that former diversity program manager at Facebook who stole more than $4M from the company through fake business deals in exchange for kickbacks? I first reported on Barbara Furlow-Smiles in December of last year when she pled guilty to the theft. Well, last week she was sentenced to five years and three months in prison for her scheme.
In the world of corporate turnover… The chief of Amazon Web Services, Adam Selipsky, is stepping down next month after a three-year term to be replaced by Matt Garman, a senior VP who has overseen sales and marketing at AWS. Also, eBay's VP of Global Communications, Michelle Friedman, departed the company to take on a role at Samsara, a cloud platform built for tracking and analyzing data from physical operations.
Meta is shutting down Workspace, a version of Facebook that had been built to enable communication among business teams and organizations. Sources say that it will be business as usual on the platform until August 25, 2025, and then it will be read-only until May 2026. Meta is recommending Zoom-owned Workvivo as a migration-ready alternative.
Ted Baker Canada is holding store-closing clearance sales across locations in the US and Canada after filing for bankruptcy in April. As of May 10th, online shopping is no longer available and all sales are final across the company's brick-and-mortar retail locations.
Sezzle, a US-based BNPL service, partnered up with Celerant Technology, a POS system for retailers, to offer a BNPL option when checking out in-store . The two companies had partnered in 2023 to offer BNPL options online, and now the solution is being brought to brick-and-mortar stores.
BuyBay, a Dutch recommerce platform, is launching a SaaS product using its own recommerce software. Retailers and manufacturers can now resell unreturned products from their own distribution center, which helps reduce CO2-emissions and increase profits.
Setapp Mobile, a subscription-based alternative to the Apple App Store that's now possible thanks to the EU's Digital Markets Act, went into invite-only beta last week. The new app store allows customers to play with a range of apps without being hit with reduced features, ads, options to upgrade, and without spending money on something they may not use. The biggest challenge with the Setapp iOS store is getting the app installed on your iPhone, which involves following a link, installing software, and then activating it — a process made intentionally cumbersome by Apple.
Avalara expanded its partnership with Shopify by joining the Shopify Tax Platform. Avalara has powered tax calculation for Shopify Plus customers since 2015, and now through the Shopify Tax Partner Platform, the company can serve all Shopify customers with their global tax compliance tools.
Walmart delivered 4.4B items the same day or next day, beating Amazon, which said it did 4B items in one day. Walmart's advantage is that it uses stores for its same-day deliveries.
Plus 9 seed rounds, IPOs, and acquisitions of interest including Gorgias's $29M Series C-2 round, which it plans to use the funds from to launch its new AI Agent.
I hope you found this recap helpful. See you next week!
PAUL Editor of Shopifreaks E-Commerce Newsletter
PS: If I missed any big news this week, please share in the comments.

Built a fun and risk-free way to learn about stock trading and potentially win real rewards. It's called StockPe.app -- the ultimate fantasy stock market game app!
What is StockPe?
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• Start trading with virtual currency and hone your skills before diving into the real market.
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• Share the app with friends and earn bonus coins!

StockPe Features:

• Put your skills to the test against other players in live competitions.
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• Get help and answers to your questions whenever you need them.
• See how you stack up against the competition and climb your way to the top!

How to Play?

1. Download the StockPe app (available on Android and iOS).
2. Sign up for a free account.
3. Join a tournament and start trading!

StockPe is the perfect platform for anyone who wants to learn about stock trading, compete with friends, and potentially win real money while starting your journey to becoming a stock market master!
I'm always looking for ways to improve the app. Let us know your thoughts and feedback in the comments below! ⬇️

I have a resource I'd like to share. The Health and Human Performance Lab at Carnegie Mellon spun out a new mindfulness training app (called Equa Health) that is based on the heavily researched Unified Mindfulness system. And we are offering it to the public as a free resource!
The learning experience is meant to feel like a Duolingo for mindfulness. It is tailored to the many who want to learn these skills but struggle to stay with it, especially at first.
Here's a link to download the app via the App Store & Google Play: qrco.de/beOBWJ
Access code: REDDTT
Hope this helps some of you with your wellness goals, especially those who are feeling ready to add a more clear-cut mindfulness practice to your routine!