Chris2K

Not a franchise so much, but I have a save file on NBA2K24 that I'm simulating a rewritten NBA landscape thanks to MyNBA going back to 1982-83. Basically it's a controlled simulation, I have control over every team and deal with free agency, drafting, contract renewals and occasionally step in to change some rotations I don't think are right. I also have it set for the CPU to make trade scenarios which I judge to accept or decline depending on if I think they're fair.

For free agency I allow every team to re-sign one player during the season, and every other player is made available for teams to sign. Free agency itself is a draft, the order based on the previous season's standings (no lottery), but before it starts a team can choose to give up their free agency pick in order to re-sign a second player.

All the regular season games are simulated, then I put the first playoff game of every series and the potential series-deciding game of a series on a CPU v CPU game, which is mainly to grind VC whilst I play something else.

This is my second go-around, the first time I got to 1992 but found that I had been trying too hard to keep things as true to history as possible, to the extent that I traded away a first overall pick from the Bullets to the Spurs so they got David Robinson. So I started again, this time with a blank slate and telling myself to pretend reality never existed.

So far I'm in the third season, and the major things are:

The Lakers have won both championships so far, beating the 76ers in 1984 and the Celtics in 1985.
The Pacers got the #1 pick in 1984 and have Michael Jordan, and have made the play-offs as the 2nd seed in just his second season.
The Rockets have a decent frontcourt core of Ralph Sampson, Chris Mullin and Charles Barkley, but are still unable to get into the play-offs.
The Trail Blazers managed to get a #2 pick in 1984 despite getting into the play-offs thanks to a trade that I don't even remember, so they have a solid team of Fat Lever, Clyde Drexler and Hakeem Olajuwon which you'd think would be enough to challenge a soon-to-be Kareem-less Lakers.
The Spurs have Patrick Ewing from the #1 pick in 1985 but don't have much around him in their aging line-up.

The 1986 free agency is likely to be the most notable one so far as the Celtics haven't been able to keep Parrish, McHale and Bird, so its likely either Parrish or McHale is going to be available to sign depending on who I think is the better option at the time.

I'll throw some more in when I get home.

And more:

I was right about the Trail Blazers, but I'd forgotten they'd surpassed the Lakers and got the #1 seed in the West for the 1986 playoffs.

The Nuggets are the #2 seed because Alex English has just gone nuclear, he's up to a 96 OVR and averages 25/6/6.

Philly are dominating the East behind Erving and Malone, they've gone through to the conference finals with two sweeps against the Bulls (with Karl Malone) and the Cavaliers (who in real life would have had the #1 pick in 1986).

The Mole was so good, way ahead of its time in many respects, and unfortunately on a UK channel that had a poor reputation and at that point was only available in 75% of the country. The amount of thought that went into the clues, most of which were far too intricate for anyone to actually work out, was amazing. 

My favourite part will always be Glen (aka the Banker) being borderline schizophrenic in the way he spoke to the contestants, alternating between being best mates and brutal army drill sergeant at a moment's notice.

I had no reason to buy it, I don't know whether I even want to play it much, but I keep seeing things about how good it is, so I bought it.

I'll probably play MyFaction mostly, but I've given Showcase a try, and, blurring aside, it's really fun to watch the rendered cut-scene turn into archive footage, then back into the game render again. It's a shame that there's not something from every WM, but I guess there's only so much you can do with the image likenesses available.

(OK, blurring Fink's face is one thing, re-recording his announcements is both annoying, and unnecessary. Just mute the audio.)

I want to do some Royal Rumbles as well, I was thinking of doing a diary in the Cube (maybe letters of the alphabet or active years for each Rumble) but I don't think it would transfer well to a diary format.

More news than opinion, but Bruno Mars is reportedly $50 million in debt to the MGM Grand due to his gambling addiction. He works as an artist-in-residence there and is paying off the debt with the money he would be earning for doing so.

Firstly - shame on anyone associated with him who didn't stop him from getting to this point, granted I am the son of a gambling addict and am fully aware that it can be impossible to stop even a normal person let alone a megastar, but surely someone could have done something more.

Secondly, shame on the casino for not showing just the slightest bit of humanity for their artist-in-residence and not protecting him from himself, instead just allowing him to build up an insurmountable debt that they can use as leverage against him.

Now THIS I can get on board with. Wilson feels like a good mentor for Fields (on the field at least) and I think Fields has a lot of untapped potential that Chicago didn't have the patience or coach to get to.

And for a 6th round pick? That's insane.

I feel like this is the last chance for the series, the reduced price speaks to the lack of sales for the last game (which is mainly on them for offering so few new features).

Personally I simply can't get into it despite my love of F1, I really enjoy watching streams of it, but the amount of time and concentration it requires just isn't something I can muster.

Like A Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name: Done

On to Infinite Wealth which I have just bought, so expect to see it for free on GamePass next month.

I can't believe it's been another decade already.

3 hours ago, LL! said:

lol Steelers

 

Yikes, I knew we'd pretty much given up on him, but I didn't see us giving up on him to this extent. It sounds like he wanted the trade, probably because he felt betrayed by the organisation signing Wilson as a starter, but he's just going to be a back-up in Philly too.

For the first time in nearly 20 years I've been a Steelers fan this really feels like we don't have a coherent plan on what's going on. For example, our current #2 quarterback is former WWE Champion - Vacant.

Well, I'm crying.

After some rather dull offerings since Euro 2020, this one looks rather lovely.

UFC Hall of Famer Mark Coleman is in critical condition in hospital after suffering smoke damage following pulling both his mother and father out of a house fire.

A damn hero, hope he makes it through.

That's what surprised me too, which pointed out to me just how important it is for a Gladiators appeal for them to have single player matches. Not only do they get the screen time all to themselves, but they also have an almost guaranteed interview afterwards to get their personality across.

I can't remember a single thing about Athena this year other than one interview where she said how much she loved Gauntlet after letting both contenders go by her like she wasn't even there.

Also, it was obvious that the rebooted Gauntlet was far less of a challenge than the original series, but for the original to have an average time of twice as long is crazy, even with one extra Gladiator.

Shameless plug - I have done the data for how the Gladiators are doing in the series so far, which is here:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C4YTmcbCFpW/?igsh=aDJzOTBhamlrYXd1 

Poor Viper.

Well that was a lovely performance. Thankfully Udogie seems to be OK after McGinn tried to end his career.

Even Werner scored again, things must be going well.

It's amazing, no matter how many times Betti keeps coming back, she still shows the grace and sportsmanship of a fart in a lift. First quite clearly cheating in Powerball, even admitting it afterwards, and then kicking Dynamite in the face on the Wall which got even the usually sweet-natured Dynamite to throw some shade at her. But hey, at least she stood up during Duel. Jake was just as obliviously obnoxious as ever, and it was nice of Finlay to bother with playing Gauntlet this time.

Looks like this is where Sabre tore her hamstring so she's done for the series, I can't help feeling that her taking part in four of the five events might not have helped her body. In all the episodes I've watched I've never known the same Gladiator take part that many times in the same show. The good folks at Reddit and I have theorised that there are female Gladiators unwilling to take part in the height events like Hang Tough, The Wall and The Edge, so once Comet went down it was left to Sabre, Fury and Diamond to cover them every show.

Speaking of The Edge, it seems pretty clear that the Gladiators have been told not to throw contenders off the extreme edges if possible, as Legend was about to then just stopped and let Jake go through. It's possibly because that safety net doesn't seem to cover much more than the surface area of the beams, so anything outside of that could be catastrophic.

Viper not talking was a great idea given that his voice has the threat level of a marshmallow. 

And Nitro on the wall was absurd. 

I have no regrets in stopping watching halfway through to watch Gladiators.

Hooray! It's my once-a-decade opportunity to celebrate Italian rugby!

8 hours ago, Chris2K said:

I think there's a decent chance Ngannou knocks Joshua out.

This statement was incorrect.

On 07/03/2024 at 21:09, Chris2K said:

This week's show has been postponed due to the Man City/Newcastle FA Cup tie.

The folks on Reddit have gone nuclear about "sports always ruining the TV schedule", and my attempts to point out that more people like football than Gladiators haven't gone down well.

My bad, it's next week's show that's delayed, the first semi final is tomorrow at 5:50.

Also, as expected, Betti's in it as the fastest runner up. Hope she loses. Again.

I think there's a decent chance Ngannou knocks Joshua out.

Meanwhile, in "boxing" news, Jake Paul is fighting Mike Tyson on Netflix later this year. What a sentence to write in 2024.

1 hour ago, Adam said:

Pourchaire isn't a Ferrari reserve, and Bearman has the advantage of already being there and already used to the track out of the Ferrari reserves - he qualified on Pole for the F2 race earlier.

True, but Nyck de Vries wasn't a Williams reserve driver when he replaced Albon in Monza in 2022, and took over the seat at the same time that Bearman has here.

This may just be part of my ongoing annoyance that F2 champions like Pourchaire and Drugovich have so many restrictions placed on them through a combination of them not being allowed to race in F2 again, and F1's refusal to allow any new teams in where these young drivers can get a shot. Or in Drugovich's case, being behind the boss's underperforming child.

It feels a bit weird that Ferrari's reserve driver is an 18 year old Brit, but good luck to Ollie, even if I fear he might be a bit out of his depth with such little prep time. I would have thought Theo Pourchaire would have made more sense given his links to Vasseur, and being the reigning F2 champion, but maybe Sauber have him locked down.

Maybe it's not over if Ant can keep doing this...