https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nVk25ZvTkU

annd.... he's gone.

Since he'll be getting his second start today... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6CoykBqzdI

Play with your friends, if you don't have any, you'll make some. Stick with them. They'll make the game way more fun and you'll end up wanting to play video games with them several nights a week anyhow. Then branch out a bit, because it's crushing when they quit.

SourceOP 24/7 Goldrush - I have like 80+ days logged on that server lol. Rip SourceOP :(

Anybody super familiar with joysticks as they are now? The last one I bought was the super-ultra sweet Sidewinder in like 2001 and it was exorbitantly expensive, but it doesn't work on post XP systems :(.

Anybody familiar at all with joysticks/flight sticks as they are now? I'm looking for something in the 50$ range, preferably with a throttle box.

In my experience, there are players in open who are technically better than some IM/Invite players that I've seen.

By technical I mean things like raw aim, rocket jumping, etc. It's because some new folks grind MGE/Jump maps super hard. The thing lacking is a basic understanding of the game and how to function on a team. It's as simple as that. Your older players have a wealth of experience to call on in any situation, and even if they don't grind super-hard everyday, and thus may be a bit rustier than the aforementioned ultra-trier, they'll still win out easily because they know how to handle situations in the game. I haven't played a combat class in *ages* despite my multiple thousands of hours, and it would be entirely possible for me to find somebody who is *far* superior to me who would still lose out due to inexperience in the right scenarios.

The very *point* of being competitive is to try no matter what. I'm just not built to admit that something is impossible lol. The primary thing stopping me from playing is my age - I just don't connect very easily with most (young) players, and I end up feeling like I'm wasting my time. I've tried playing "just for fun" and that lasts for about 4-5 minutes lol.

Sometimes you have to rebuild. The basic strategy is you have to tank a few seasons, pay some risky people very little money, and see what rises to the top - you'll keep them when the time comes. Then you have a team later on down the road. Sometimes mistakes happen there and you're bad for a long time, but the Lakers have too much money for that to be the case long-term (unlike perennial underdogs who have to rely pretty much strictly on their scouts and developmental system). The few Lakers games I've caught have been basically par for the course of a team in a rebuilding phase.

They won't be making the playoffs, but a year or two down the road they'll find a cheap replacement for Kobe (draft pick or d-league find), and then put 1-2 similarly young players around him and make a run.

The Lakers pre-Kobe weren't a bad team by any means, but they were also a team on the mend from the early 90s primarily, and they managed to snatch Kobe right out of high school and stick some good players around him, and even then success didn't come right away. It takes time to build something really good.

Instant success is always short lived because you end up with a huge tangle of contracts and pieces try to leave for greener pastures - and then you're screwed.

I grew up watching the Pacers turn from the team with Reggie on it, to a team that was pretty decent until the fight, and then they were bad for a while again - it's just the way of things. The Lakers have enough money they won't likely turn into the old clippers or the T-wolves though any time soon.

@ marma, in other words, you lose, can't figure out why, come up with a bad excuse like "oh it's stacked" and leave lol. Maybe I'm just too egotistical.

@radman, people really ought to be more interested in being leaders and building teams. I mean this is live footage of a multiple time ESEA LAN champion pocket: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsYMUpW07s0 (it also takes up a lot less time)).

Good aim helps, but having a crew that you like playing with, and will consistently improve with, is way more important. In the annals of Tf2 there have been many a bad-aimer who has found success by teamwork, using their thinky-bits, et al.

As far as UGC goes - the primary work load when I was an admin was scheduling. Scheduling TONS of TF2, and also de-listing dead teams, took *forever*. That's part of the reason I left because I just didn't have the time to spend a few hours every week messing around making a schedule and deactivating teams. I think I only dealt with 1-2 cheating accusations which were all completely bogus. My all time favorite, was somebody submitted a hackusation against a guy that played sniper for an entire GPIT, who also went 4/16 lol. So that was really actually pretty easy to deal with over all.

I'd say the primary difficulties for TF2 are *away* from the monetary sustainability of the game, and simply different factors about the game in general. People play and do things competitively regardless of the financial sustainability. Lots and lots of people all over play sports in competitive leagues with no real promise of any compensation at all - generally you have to pay a fairly high fee and get nothing in return - *maybe* a swag trophy. I mean little league is like 75$ lol.

There's a lot more to this story than prize money. Namely:

1. It's really hard to to get 6 people together regularly that can all get along and like each other.

2. Burn out is a thing - a lot of people simply play this game too much and have no desire to play after a few months.

3. The amount of fun derived from comp tf2 is directly related to how much you like your teammates.

4. For a lot of teams, it's really difficult for them to figure out why it is that they are losing - so they often blame their friends/teammates first. Especially newer teams.

5. The relative immaturity of the player base (let's face it there are just some people who are really hard to put up with sometimes)

6. Simple personality conflicts. It's hard to get 6 people together who can spend several hours a week talking to each other without some form of conflict arising.

There are also what I like to call dream graveyards in Tf2. Notably right at the start. If you look through UGC 6s rosters, you'll find there are a *lot* of people who give 6v6 and spin and then disappear within 1-2 seasons. You'll also find a similar graveyard in IM. Just leaf through some IM rosters, or low invite, and then look at how many of those players are still playing 1-2 seasons later - you'll find that the answer is very few. It's a structural problem rather than a monetary one. Folks start losing, can't figure out why, become frustrated, and quit.

It's mainly the moving fast part (in atmosphere). Once you're in space cameras work fairly well - although they have to be in a special case, and the case will often get dirty and ruin the camera show lol.

For some who might we wondering what's up with all the finicky delays.

Previous attempts to use this launch system in the past have resulted in *partial* failures because of cavitation and resonance - which is fairly common for rocket set ups of this size (the Soviet N1 project and the Apollo missions both had catastrophic failures due to cavitation and resonance). Pressure in particular is going to be something they'll have to be *extremely* careful about to prevent the liquid fuel they're using from forming bubbles so large that they implode (and cause damage to the rocket).

Resonance is another concern with rockets this big - where basically everything is shaking around a lot and the very noise of the rocket, and noises created by moving and flexing parts of the apparatus, can cause components to break down (and fail).

They also had a few fuel valves fail pre-launch tests - which is something, particularly NASA, is extremely paranoid about.

If you're interested in more factoids:

The launch system (not the Orion craft strapped to the top) costs 375 million dollars a pop.

This is essentially a do-over of the Apollo 4 mission, essentially proving that Orion works properly and that they've got everything sorted out.

The hardest part of these "big rocket" missions is getting the actual launch system off the ground and into space without it tearing itself apart :(

If you're launch crazy - here is what a Delta IV *heavy* taking off properly should look like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxMuxZWtiOU

The main difference here being that I assume the Orion payload is a bit heavier than your average satellite.

I just put their aliases, although I do make a habit of getting peoples real names lol.

I also abrogated the lists by putting "see previous list" lol I couldn't help myself.

Also question - is piracy considered stealing perse? lol Because if it is, well hell yeah I've stolen lol.

Well, we'll see JJ Abrams is not only producing this film, but also the film adaptations of Half-life and Portal lol. He currently has the ability to ruin not only star wars but also half-life and portal. With great power comes great responsibility lol.

I assume it'll be mostly action oriented since most of the production folks they've got on board have mostly only done action movies. Which could be fun.

I got my CM quickfire rapid on ebay for 20$. You will have to forgo being picky about switches though most likely unless you luck out lol.

My earlier posts referenced why the Mike Brown aspect of these protests is relatively unimportant Cherry. Federal charges may yet still be brought, but the grand jury in Ferguson is not an exception for instances of police officers killing unarmed civilians.

The point is to *change* the way policing is done in this country so you don't have so many pointless killings. It's centered on the black community because they are disproportionately represented amongst those who are shot by police, but it happens to other people as well.