Chris2K

From a former Heavyweight champion being a hero to the current one being a dick, Jon Jones has been arrested (again), this time for threatening drug testers who came to his house for a mandatory drug test.

I did it! I'm still awake! Just like I could do 20 years ago! And there's a red fla-zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Bronny is entering the draft, so look forward to 3 months of consistent talk about where he's going and whether LeBron will join him.

I can't help but feel there's a saying that reflects that decision, something about not learning history, doomed to repeat it etc.

Weirdly I just watched Heat 3 of Season 6, and one of the female contenders did the exact same thing - she injured her knee in Whiplash, then skipped Gauntlet to concentrate on the Eliminator, so there is a precedent for it. The difference is she had a much worse injury, and completely blew out her knee on the second obstacle on the Eliminator and had to be carted out on a stretcher (whilst Ulrika was still interviewing her). On that note, the gulf between seasons 1-5 and season 6 is enormous. Jeremy Guscott is a terrible host, they lost five Gladiators (Panther, Trojan, Zodiac, Nightshade and Laser) and replaced them without giving the new Gladiators any introductions (although Laser was only a temporary Gladiator for S5 when Nightshade had to stop, she wasn't even in the title sequence), they started splitting the events between genders (e.g. the female contenders played Hang Tough and the male contenders played Duel) and completely revamped the Eliminator for seemingly no reason. They also spend more time showing the Gladiators doing training exercises in Mauritius and cut out the majority of the post-event interviews to make room for that, adding to the new Gladiators getting no time to introduce themselves. I defy anyone to be able to tell the difference between Siren, Fox and Gold.

A producer has said that they fully intend to bring back every Gladiator for the second series, which is great. There's also a lot of speculation, mainly based on it happening in the Australian reboot, that Finlay and Marie-Louise will come back as Gladiators next year as a reward for winning this time. Given how they were both Eliminator-experts and barely scored points outside of Gauntlet (where everyone scored 10 points) that doesn't seem like a good idea.

There's part of me that wants to take on the challenge of staying up to watch WrestleMania Saturday and going straight through to watch the Japanese GP at 6am as well. There's another part of me reminding me that I'm 37, and should probably stop trying to do this now.

BAFTA have done a poll to find the Top 20 most iconic video game characters, and I have issues, despite the fact that it was a poll of 4000 people and therefore has no actual meaning other than the creation of this list. The Most Iconic Video Games Characters of All Time (ranked in order of votes received): Firstly, Mario is, and always will be, #1. This is undeniable. Secondly, I love Agent 47, and I've never played a Sonic game, but he shouldn't be ahead of Sonic. Thirdly, I love Arthur Morgan, but he's been in literally one game and shouldn't be ahead of Pikachu (who should be top 5) Fourthly, I am very glad to see that Kiryu got in there, it speaks for the remarkable rise of the Yakuza/LAD franchise in the UK. Lastly, Sackboy being as high as #5 is perhaps the most ridiculous part of all of this.

SCREW YOU, PLAY IN GAMES!

1988 season done, and the Trail Blazers dynasty continues as they win their third NBA championship in a row, with Hakeem Olajuwon picking up Finals MVP once again. MVP went to Magic Johnson, Rookie of the Year to David Robinson of the Knicks, 6th Man to Paul Pressey, Defensive Player of the Year to Michael Jordan of the Pacers, and Hot Rod Williams was the Most Improved. Whilst the Blazers were dominating, the rest of the league went a little crazy. The Knicks, after four seasons not making the play-offs, went all the way to the NBA Finals (although did get swept), and the Nuggets, 3rd worst record in 1987, made it to the Western Conference Finals, despite not really improving their team in the off-season. Not such great news for the Clippers who went from 4 straight play-offs to the worst record, and the Nets and Bullets continued to struggle, with the Bullets losing Reggie Miller for the season after just 21 games. Perhaps the most shocking news is that Doc Rivers, at the age of 26, has been forced to retire after a devastating ACL injury, leaving the Hawks without their All-Star Point Guard, and inflicting his coaching and commentary on the league earlier than in reality. Artis Gilmore was the only major retirement due to age, and he didn't even get his jersey retired. We welcome the Miami Heat and the Charlotte Hornets to the league, meaning we have an Expansion Draft to deal with. We also get the hilarity of the Heat being allocated to the Western Conference, because they're more geographically west than Charlotte. I'll just give you the top 5 picks for each. TL;DR - Both teams are terrible. The #1 pick went to the Spurs thanks to the lottery, the Bullets finally got a high pick with #2, the Suns #3, and the Clippers fell to #6 behind the expansion teams. First round is below: Major Free Agent moves: Dennis Rodman to the Clippers Terry Porter to the Nuggets Hot Rod Williams to the Lakers Mychal Thompson to the Warriors Kelly Tripucka to the Celtics

Sebastian Vettel confirms "conversations" with Toto Wolff regarding the available Mercedes seat for 2025. Because this hadn't quite got crazy enough already.

It seemed obvious that Finlay would win no matter what, he's an army guy who excels at assault courses so the Eliminator is a formality for him. It's a shame because Wesley is great, loved the Spinarooni this time around. I've done the whole series of stats now, including a "best Gladiator" ranking. Viper does not win that.

I really like Nick, he seems genuinely happy to be there and I'm glad he's not doing an act other than the costume. It's also been pointed out that the Taskmaster editors are all-in on Nick's outfit too - during the river task they edited out his reflection.

I'm up to Chapter 4 in Infinite Wealth, plenty of spoilers ahead.

What puts 0 ahead of 6 for me, other than Majima, is the villains. The 0 villains are so recognisable and borderline iconic, whereas 6's villains are an old man who can't move, a businessman, a coward, and the biggest villain of all, 2 hours of cutscenes about a boat.

It's kind of a shame that they're going back to Sheffield Arena because it's lack of size really limits some of the events, but I guess it's cheaper than a bigger arena. They've made the contender application more public this year as well, which should open up more places for people outside of the M1 corridor and Ireland. I just hope they get a few more episodes so they can do away with the constant need for fastest losers.

I love 0, but Like A Dragon is probably my favourite, I think I just prefer the turn-based combat in general. I'm enjoying Infinite Wealth as well, but I'm taking my time with it because I want to keep it going as long as possible. It's quite a gulf between my feelings for the games using the Dragon engine and the middle games that don't. 3 in particular I found very jarring after playing Kiwami 2, and 5 just goes on, and on, and on without really achieving much story-wise. Then back to 6 with the Dragon engine and I'm in love again.

The 1987 season is in the books, and the Trail Blazers repeat thanks to another fine performance from Hakeem Olajuwon. The final four were the same as 1986, with the Trail Blazers beating the Lakers again, but this time the Pacers overcame the 76ers to make the finals, and even won the first game, only to lose in 5. The Pacers have gone from worst record (getting the #1 pick to draft MJ) to first round of playoffs, to eastern conference finals, to NBA finals in four seasons. Only one step left to go... The biggest improvements were the Hawks going from #1 pick to the fourth seed in the playoffs, and the Kings going from second pick to sixth seed. Not so much luck for Bullets who had the worst record for the second season in a row, and the SuperSonics have now finished in the lowest four teams for all four seasons. Olajuwon was also regular season MVP and Defensive Player of the Year to add to the Finals MVP, Mark Price of the Spurs won Rookie of the Year despite the success the Hawks had with Brad Daugherty, Wes Matthews was 6th Man of the Year, and Tony Campbell of the Suns won Most Improved. The only noteworthy retirement was Bob Lanier of the Pistons. Again the Bullets fell to a worse pick in the lottery, with the Knicks getting the #1 pick (CONSPIRACY~!), the Spurs #2, Bullets #3, Nets #4 and the Bulls #5 thanks to a trade with the Nuggets. Draft is below, spoilered for your convenience: I introduced bidding wars for free agents, still allowing teams to keep 1 player rather than sign a free agent immediately (so all the 1984 draft big names stayed with their teams), wackiness ensued when Ennis Whatley chose the Bullets over the Celtics, and Chris Mullin opted for the Warriors instead of staying with the Rockets. The Celtics then lost out at Darnell Valentine to the Pacers (they like losing to the Pacers), and ended up with Maurice Cheeks. The 76ers grabbed Derek Harper to take advantage of the Mavericks not being able to keep two players, but the biggest player to move talent wise may be George Gervin, leaving the Spurs to join the Hawks. Can David Robinson be the man to revitalise the Knicks? Bonus content: Here's a guide to each team's best three players just to give an overview of what the NBA world is like:

In what I guess you could call "don't trust what the F1 graphics say", it turns our Russell was screaming for a red flag in the cockpit in fear of being hit as he was on his side, with the weakest part of the chassis facing where the cars would be coming around the corner blind. Plus for extra danger, Lance Stroll was the first on scene. The TV graphic showed the usual Team Radio inset with George saying "I'm OK" - which he didn't say at any point.

I'm trying not to like John Robins, but when he namedrops David Boon, Ayrton Senna and Andre the Giant in the space of five minutes, it gets more difficult.

Well it seems I should sleep instead of watching races more often. VAMOS!

So many injuries in the men's competition, to the extent that we've ended up with a replacement facing a fastest loser in the final, in a rematch of a quarter final. Wesley was already my favourite, but his Eddie Guerrero homage at the end sealed the deal.

Got to respect the social media team for just carrying on like nothing happened.

I have no particularly love or hate for Sargeant, but this feels like a really shitty decision. I realise Albon is more likely to score points, but under no circumstances should a driver be literally told "give up your car to your teammate" in 2024. I don't see why Sargeant should suffer for both Albon's and Williams' mistakes, and if this was a more popular driver then the reaction would be a lot more hostile. Maybe it's just his portrayal in Drive to Survive making him look like a bumbling, data-obsessed bore, but I'm getting the feeling that James Vowles was excellent at Mercedes but has now found himself in a position where he's out of his depth.

So the Trail Blazers are the 1986 NBA champions, knocking out the Lakers in the Western Conference Finals, and then the 76ers in the NBA finals. The combination of scoring from Fat Lever and Clyde Drexler alongside the defence of Hakeem Olajuwon made for an unstoppable force. To be honest, the 76ers did well to get there after losing Julius Erving halfway through the Eastern Conference Finals against the Pacers, but Moses Malone kept them going, only to fall two games short. The game even suggested giving Malone the Finals MVP award (he averaged 35.7 points and 19.5 rebounds in 6 games), but I overruled that for realism reasons and gave it to Olajuwon. The Pacers did well themselves, getting past the Celtics in 6, and have gone from having the worst record in 1984 to the conference final in 1986. This Michael Jordan guy might have a future. Someone who doesn't have an NBA future is Kareem Abdul-Jabbar who retires after 17 years in the league, naturally going straight into the Hall of Fame and having #33 retired by both the Bucks and the Lakers. Joining him in the retirement pool is Elvin Hayes, Spencer Haywood, Wes Unseld, Pete Marovich and Phil Jackson. Hayes also heads into the Hall of Fame with Kareem. The regular season awards were MVP to Magic Johnson, Rookie of the Year to Karl Malone of the Chicago Bulls, 6th Man of the year to Mitchell Wiggins of the Cavaliers, and Defensive Player of the Year to Hakeem Olajuwon. It's not a great draft line-up this year so the 11 win Washington Bullets probably won't be as annoyed as they could be that the draft lottery resulted in them picking 4th. The Hawks end up with the #1 pick, whilst the Knicks fall from the second worst record to the 6th pick. The #1 pick stays the same but to a different team, as the Hawks select Brad Daugherty. The Sacramento Kings select Ron Harper #2, the Spurs select Mark Price at #3, and the Bullets select Chuck Person at #4. At #5 the Houston Rockets add Kenny Walker to their young core, whilst the Knicks select some guy called Dennis Rodman, who I'm sure will have no distractions in New York City. The Seattle SuperSonics select Dell Curry, and will be hoping the city will be a good home for any future kids he might have, and the Jazz select Arvydas Sabonis at #8. The 9th pick sees Kevin Duckworth go to the Suns, and the Bulls take Buck Johnson at #10. The Cavaliers pick #11 instead of #1 as they did in reality, and select Chris Washburn, the New Jersey Nets select Scott Skiles at #12, and the Golden Stae Warriors choose John Williams at #13. The Mavericks go for Jeff Hornacek at #14, and the Cavaliers are back at #15 for Drazen Petrovic. The Bucks select John Salley at #16, whilst the Pacers bring in Nate McMillan at #17, followed by Mark Alarie going to the Nuggets at #18. The Celtics add William Bedford at #10, whilst the 76ers take Harold Pressley at #20, and the Nuggets pick again with Billy Thompson at #21. The Lakers pick Johnny Newman at #22, and the final pick of the first round is Kenny Gattison to the Trail Blazers. I'll spare you the 2nd round. The major free agency pickups were James Edwards to the Knicks, Jamaal Wilkes to the Kings, Mark Eaton to the Rockets, Butch Carter to the Spurs and Buck Williams to the Nets. My plans for free agency to be a big deal with lots of available players to "draft" isn't quite working out as planned so far. On to 1986-87 we go...