Intro

• "The last month has convinced me, that we are going to be heading into a dark place for Counter-Strike esports in 2021."
  • "I think I've seen the scene essentially kill itself."
• "For the past 5 to 6 years, we've basically been in a holding pattern of people coming into our game wanting to run it, wanting to run all of the esports and wanting to profiteer and its been sort of a concerted effort to drive them off and push them away."
  • "We're spread way too thin."
• "If Riot don't get involved and stop the scumbags that have moved over to Valorant from getting their feet under the table, Valorant is going to have real problems."
• RL thinks too much has happened all at once for us to do anything except watch it play out, like:
  • Recent CSPPA strike against BLAST
  • ESIC failures and them not being supported enough
  • Teams cheating i.e. coaches/bugs
  • Widespread match fixing
  • The Pandemic
    • "People who try to hold bubble events are so incompetent and fuck up and people get the 'rona and its their fault."
    • "People who say Flashpoint is a bubble is full of shit and is a lie and people are now suffering for that lie."
      • "To save money they let people go home and break the bubble for a week."
      • "Not just Flashpoint peoples decision, they have a partner that handles the production." (hinting FACEIT)
      • "People are trapped in hotels essentially under house arrest because of COVID restrictions and has fucked peoples lives up."
• "It's all too much, all of this incompetence, all of this greed, maybe we ride it out."
  • RL says he has talked to the Riot devs (the ones working on Valorant) and says, "They are so cognizant of all the fuck ups and all the problems we have in Counter-Strike."
    • He continues to say that this is factored into their business plan and that we never had a competitor, but just so happens to have one coincide, when we are at our worst.

CSPPA - Counter-Strike Professional Players' Association

"Who does this union really fucking serve?"

• RL believes that the CSPPA is a mockery.
  
  • He points out the hypocrisy that they wouldn't strike for the pros who were kicked out of ESL Pro League, or for Jamppi or dream3r.
    • He also says ESL paid CSPPA and are racketeering and many other TOs have to pay them to get their "seal of approval"
      • He says they would strong-arm TOs saying "well if you don't give us the money, these guys are so we'll just have to commit to playing their event."
    • Also points out that they will strike against a competitor they are not in agreement with (Flashpoint)
    • RL: "It's what it says about every other time you haven't done it and it's about every time you don't do it now moving forward." "The issues they've chosen to ignore this year alone are embarrassing."
    • Then he points out that there was no strike for Valve qualifiers even if we have no major but Jamppi and dream3r can't play in them.
      • "and Valve have said 'Oh yeah we know actually their stories are accurate, Jamppi didn't cheat, now in a legally binding document. Yep dream3r did have his account hacked in a LAN café', but they still can't play. Where is the fucking solidarity? Gone. Doesn't exist. It's not important [because] it doesn't affect you." "That's what the union does right now, it looks after all the tier 1 people."
• He says the CSPPA doesn't represent all players all the time and has driven a divide where you have the haves and have-nots
  
  • "We have a tier of players that operate with impunity and do not help their tier 2 or tier 3 players out at all." "If you are not a tier 1 player you do not matter, they don't event ask your opinion."
  • He tells chrisJ to admit and own the fact that the reason he didn't speak up during the ESL Pro League debacle is because it didn't affect him
  • "They are looking after some players at the expense of other players. How the fuck is that a union?"
• He says the BLAST situation is a reasonable dispute and supports the players but is not the right time for a strike and have not even identified the correct enemy
  
  • He thinks players are lashing out now due to previous incidents and are upset that BLAST are working with ESIC
    • He stated that CSPPA shouldn't beefing with ESIC and they should be working in harmony
  • He says what they need to do is talk with the teams/organizations that have sold that right to BLAST
    • RL: "Your employers, the people who pay you that massive exorbitant salaries, when you don't stream and you don't do interviews and you offer no value beyond your ability to click heads and you get 25k dollars a month." "Why don't you talk to them about it? Oh right. You're happy to take away BLAST's paper, but you don't want to risk your own."
  • "I am seeing such unbelievable cowardice from the players here with the battles you choose."
  • "Where was the strike action when in the qualifiers for the world championship, there were teams and players engaged in huge conflicts of interest?" "Where was the strike action when your image rights were taken and sold to every league you've ever been in every union type organization you've ever been associated with like, WESA, to your org every time you sign a contract, to the leagues you play in."
    • "Your image rights are essentially worthless now, there's about 10 fucking separate parties that have them, and how many of them are giving you anything for it? Not much pretty much your org by the way."
    • "That's a big issue. Your image is you, your image is your brand. What are you doing about that? Nothing."
• He is also angry at SirScoots who is "popping off" at people on Twitter who all want the same thing, which is 'A unified Counter-Strike scene for everybody, that works for everybody, that has a sustained ecosystem that nourishes everybody.' "We don't have that now."
  
• He also says their rankings are a joke
  
  • "Just so happened, oh look TACO, that very important prominent member of the board, we pushed his team artificially up when they weren't even in the fucking top 20, not by a long shot."
• He also says the ineptitude of the CSPPA cost Flashpoint a monitor sponsor
  
• "Is it really a player association or is it like a fucking agency at this point"
  

ESIC - Esports Integrity Commission

"They have been put in an impossible position."

• RL says that Ian Smith, the founder of ESIC and who was done work in mainstream sports, is a good and honorable man who has dedicated his life to integrity and sports. He takes on both sides, ensuring match fixers are punished, but also doing appeals and ensuring those punishments were fair.
• "ESIC is a tiny organization" and are in need of money, "They didn't run a grift like the CSPPA did."
  • "Saying 'you want our support and you want the players to turn up you better pay us.' They don't do that."
  • "Had startup seed money from MTG and since then they've been pecking shit with the hens."
    • Ian Smith made sure that the money given by MTG (Modern Times Group, parent company of ESL, ESEA, DreamHack) was nothing more than startup money and wouldn't be in debt to them
      • Ian Smith sat down with other TO's not part of MTG and wanted to partner with them. They declined and called ESIC "ESL spies and we will never align ourselves with you"
  • "They only were just able to afford, hiring a PR guy on a full time salary to deal with the press and send out those releases you've seen, this year."
    • "They have a tiny group of staff investigating these things and they have taken on the biggest problems in our scene: the cheating, the match fixing."
• ESIC have had "unprecedented levels of cheating to deal with, because there's something wrong with our scene ever since we went online. There's something wrong with it, everyone's lost their fucking pride and self-respect and they got no passion for it anymore, so they think fuck it, what's in it for me?"
  • He calls out coaches who are talking about players rights when they would rob and steal from them.
    • Also says more coaches being banned are coming
    • He also points out flaws in community's reaction to the punishments to coaches bans: "Half of the cunts still have jobs and some of the cunts got new jobs. We didn't even shun the cheating coaches."
• ESIC have "found I think another 2 or 3 exploits like that one and they are investigating them all right now, it's going on right now."
  
  • "I know that there are going to be more names getting banned, again."
  • "So they're doing that on a skeleton crew while, investigating 3 continents worth of match fixing in MDL and semi-pro level CS." "They're doing this with half a dozen people." "They don't have any money or any help. People barely even fucking cooperate with them, they are treated like pariahs. It's ridiculous."
    • "Why are the CSPPA popping off at ESIC on my Twitter timeline, when you should be working together." "because its all about what's in it in for me." "2020, the online era of CS: 'What is in it for me?' How can I cheat, how can I get my paper, how can I bleed this scene one last time before I fuck off and play shooty shooty bang bang Riot Games babys first fps."
• RL says that in the CIS region, teams have gone to tournaments and have been eliminated multiple times by the same team. We found out they were cheating and those players who lost, have been cut from their roster, careers ended because of cheaters.
  

Stream Sniping

"They're all at it in the online era, they're all at it, they're all cheating, they're all using exploits, probably that see through smoke bug got used a bunch of times"

• RL talks about how there is no integrity from dead (the player), always denying when caught doing something
  • On the topic of 'BLAST never said we couldn't stream snipe': "Lies, BLAST never said you could do that, they had to sort of retcon it." "because what happened after that they fucking started snitching and squealing"
    • "Suddenly you had like, 10 of the top 15 teams in the world, staring into the abyss of being banned for 6-12 months in line with ESIC recommendations."
      • He says that ESIC was put in a tough situation and couldn't enforce the bans because it would have resulted in killing CS. What resulted was, BLAST, ESIC, and teams came together and gave them a warning and told them, in RL's words "don't do this again or you're gonna get got."
        • He then says the top teams brushed this off and didn't give a fuck
        • The new MiBR team playing Flashpoint, that wasn't involved in the previous incidents are doing it again (stream sniping). He gave credit to Flashpoint for the quick resolution and punishment and respect for cogu's response to the situation.
        • "ESIC came out and said, once more, 'Guys, zero tolerance from now on.'" RL then got upset at community's reaction calling ESIC "pussies" for their non enforcement and said if we want competitive CS we cant ban the top 10 teams.
• He points out how players have no integrity and will do anything for an edge as long as they won't get detected or banned or it's within a grey area.
• "All of this shit was mad avoidable, even in the pandemic era."
  • He talks about why aren't we filming them. Why aren't there representatives for leagues and tournaments making sure players aren't cheating?

Match Fixing

"How many years have we let our scene be fucking pillaged by these greedy cunts?" "We just let it happen."

• RL says that gambling and skins betting which existed in moderation was "accelerated and blown up by the Call of Duty greedy fucks."
  • "Never forget TmarTn was on the board of EnVyUs." "His website, CSGOLotto, they had a bunch of off-the-books sponsorships." "NBK promoted them. People forget."
• "Those people who had access to the skins, go to the players" "Even people like s1mple, best player in the world, even he scammed knives and skins off fucking fans."
• Owners of skin casino sites would approach pros and lend them skins to use in tournaments and possibly keep them after reaching a deal
  • Players would tip off inside info about matches and teams in exchange for skins. Info such as: roster changes, how they played in scrims
    • They would use this info to bet and subvert the odds on their sites. "That happened religiously, I can't even tell you how many times it happened."
      • "I had access to the biggest database of information, from an inside betting circle in NA, and it would take information and screenshots from other pro players, who were feeding them info in exchange for money or skins."
        • "Some of these players are still playing." "Incredibly, there are players still in the CSPPA today, complaining about the BLAST recordings, that were embroiled in this murky shit back then."
• RL also says that there were tournaments where teams contrived with each other, who should throw, who should win.
• "There's a handful of people that are trying to fucking clean it up, and you think you get something over the line and you see something like the CSPPA and it's run by corrupt fucking chuckle heads, and now you've got another corrupt body you have to fight on a fucking daily basis, it's demoralizing."
  • "It's too far gone. Our entire semi-professional scene is compromised."
• "It's rife guys, I'm not going to lie any more. It's not just China, it's not just Russia, it's here, it's NA, it's Europe, it's Australia, so much more than you think, so much more than we can prove."
  • "I get sent chat logs all the time […] and they're morons, these players, short-sighted, amateur, morons and they're doing it on WhatsApp." People would get cut from the bets because they want to make more money, then they leak the logs. He says, from the chat logs, they spread "little" bets across every site they can (400 to 1k dollars) to prevent shifting odds
• He says the scumbags who've fucked off to Valorant will do the same there if Riot doesn't do something and says Valorant "is an esports scene heading for a very early fall based on the sheer volume of scumbags that are already there."
• "That's tier 2 CS in a nutshell these days. They know they're never going to play in a major, so what's the punishment?"
  • "All of these tier 2 fucks that are fixing games now they are like the fucking mafia compared to iBuyPower" "These guys are working with organized criminals to fix entire seasons worth of games. That's what's going on in your tier 2 CS."
• "I'm literally being told that there are players fixing games at all levels of Chinese esports and motherfuckers with guns are turning up to team houses and stuff."

North America

"Everyone in NA has left we've lost a continents worth of support during this pandemic and Valve haven't said a fucking word."

• RL says the Call of Duty "goblins" that destroyed CS for years are the same people who are now trying to leave CS. "The nerve to treat a game where the fans, and the community, and the TO's were nothing but good to you." "To just kick the players out now and go and leave and say 'It just doesn't make financial sense.' Oh you'll slither back when we have a major though for them stickers won't you."
• There's a cascading effect in NA where people don't bother with CS anymore and people like Chaos suffer.
• He says NA team owners are incompetent for always wanting it easy and always wanting a guarantee on their investment without skill or nuance.
  • RL says he would be able to market a team correctly and would have a good ROI and also points out how TSM wouldn't even be bothered to tweet that their team, which was one of the best in the world, was playing at the Major.
  • He also says not all NA owners are like that, compliments and respects Jason Lake who nearly lost everything to keep Complexity going.
• He then calls out the incompetence in Infinite Esports when they acquired OpTic Gaming and bought an Indian CS team.
  • He says HECZ is not to blame here and that they couldn't tell forsaken was cheating when it was so obvious.
    • They measured his reaction time to the likes of dev1ce and s1mple
    • When an enemy showed up on his screen he won that duel something like 44% of the time
    • "was like the number 1 player in the world statistically"
    • He brought a laptop to their bootcamp and refused to use the high end PCs that hey provided
• He respects Andy Miller (NRG CEO) and HECZ but says that the attitude of not being able to easily monetize their teams is "piss weak" and there needs to be a risk.
  • He says Chaos EC shouldn't be cutting their roster and should be competent enough to be able to figure out how to make money off their team.
• He says there are still opportunities in NA and people are panicking and pulling out, and says Valorant will be the same if not worse.
  • He also says "bums" who couldn't even get out of groups in NA competitions, are making crazy money in Valorant and says it will continue to inflate.
• He also said that he heard rumors that EG (Evil Geniuses) are done.
• He also thinks that the rumors of a Valve franchised league from before was sparked up from "these lazy fabled weak NA fucking team owners basically trying to see if Valve would bite at the hook if it was dangled and they didn't"
  • Slasher says NA team owners are really in favor of franchised leagues because they want to make more money. "Most of the powerful team owners right now are on board with ditching this third party organization structure, or they are trying to play this power politics with all the TOs, and that is contributing to a lot of the problems there"
• RL says that Riot has proved they can run a franchised league (LCS) and will be profitable in 2021 which is what a lot of team owners care about and says the competition will only serve to snatch people away from CS.
• RL continues to say, "I am so sick and tired of what we have done to this scene, I am just exhausted with it." "I think we have legitimately fucked it, I really think we have. I think we're staring into almost like a CGS (Championship Gaming Series) wasteland in NA." "Counter-Strike esports is a fucking joke."

Talent

"TO's have treated CS talent like absolute human garbage for years now."

• RL says that people like Sean Gares and ddk switching over to Valorant isn't for financial reasons because they are making less over there.
• He points out that TO's can't even give talent a 3 month in advance calendar.
• Because of the pandemic TO's won't hire certain people and some people are working more hours for the same money.
• He says we as a community don't respect journalists enough which is why we don't have good journalists.
  • He also says DeKay is leaving the scene soon and that Thorin is close to leaving also
• He says he had to talk a caster down from quitting and was struggling to find reasons.
• He says that DreamHack told Vince they would hire him but not if he wants to stick with dusT and says that this is the norm in esports. "Constant leveraging of people against each other." and says this is why we don't have a talent union.
• New gen casters are getting put into shit situations and the community's reaction to them is adding fuel to the fire
• He says the reason Moses left was because of the terrible conditions
• He says that Anders had to constantly leave his family and kid because someone fucked up or broke promises and had to constantly tell his kid to their face that "daddy can't be home this weekend."
• He says that esports has always been a lie to sell you this dream, "Meanwhile there's about 2% of the cunts getting all the checks."

Valve

"Anything that Riot does, is better than Valve's inaction"

• Slasher says that the larger aspect of esports as a whole compared to other entertainment mediums and Valve's lack of inattention are the bigger problems. He continues saying that the fact that Valve let their game be ran as an esport, they need to take on the responsibilities of it.
  • Both Slasher and RL wants Valve to take control but not on the level of Riot Games, there needs to be a balance.
• In case it was ever a question: Gabe Newell has been to 0 CSGO Majors.
• RL calls Valve out saying they could have done something during the gambling era.
• He says Valve used to come to the majors, but doesn't think they do anymore.
• RL had met with Valve at the Cluj-Napoca Major and had tried to appeal iBP's indefinite punishment and had also gave Brax's life story:
  • A recent family member passed away, they had lost a lot of income, they had to live in trailer, iBuyPower did not pay any salaries, and was pressured by family to make money who didn't support his career.
  • RL said that Valve told him, "How dare you try and make us feel guilty." "We shouldn't feel bad about enforcing the only thing that matters that we need to make players afraid of: cheating and match fixing"
  • RL also tried to share other info about match fixing and nothing came of it
• RL points out that Source 2 or a new engine is not something you will want based on the experience of transitioning from CS 1.6 to CS:S. "Valve's track record with brand new engines being launched, not fucking great from what I remember."
• Slasher says "If there is anything the community should do, is pressure Valve to hire a community manager."
  • They say that we need a commissioner, a community manager (not the person who runs the Twitter who posts memes all day), then we need to have a circuit
• RL reiterates that Valve doesn't care about CS esports and says they need to change the culture at Valve to make them care about CS esports
  • Slasher says a systemic problem is making it so working on CSGO would be a bad decision for you as an employee for Valve
• He also hasn't talked to Valve in ages and have sent over bugs and cheats and doesn't get emails back anymore
• Slasher says we should be directing attention at the developer leads, pointing out Ido Magal, if he even is still the project lead
  • RL thinks that Ido and Brian are the only people that "vaguely even give a fuck about CS" and were the only people that RL recalled that actually read Reddit and paid attention from time to time
• "It is really fucking precarious. Somebody has got to step the fuck up and start giving a shit"
  • Slasher suggests org owners, with CSPPA, with ESIC, with TOs have a concerted effort against Valve
• "Riot Games are doing better things than Valve in the esports space" which is something RL didn't think he'd say.
• "People who used to be talent, working with unions, arguing with other talent, when the unions fucked them over, can't understand their perspective, TOs fucking over broadcast talent, broadcast talent wanting to leave and go and work for orgs, orgs having no money, Valve might take coaches away because all the coaches are cheating, ESIC has about 4 people in a fucking call doing the investigations, everyone thinks they're spies for ESL, ESL are just the evil fucking overlords wanting to rule the scene and will just somehow, like cockroaches outliving a nuclear bomb, and Valve are in a fucking holiday in Hawaii thinking about the next Dota character because they don't give a fuck about us."

Closing Statements

"We've peaked. If we want to sustain and exist, now is the time to figure it out. No esports lasts as long as this, we've already done 8 years. We've already broke the records. We have got to figure out a way to coexist and drive the negative forces out and we need to do it as a collective and we're not doing that."

• RL compared the Counter-Strike scene to the people on the Titanic who ran around with guns robbing people while the boat was sinking.
• "We have given up on being a respectable esports scene." "We are now a conduit to make money for those who want to just milk it, just have one last ride, one last roll of the dice. It's done." "What a fucking mess. What have we done to our fucking scene?"
• "There's just too much self-interest driving all of this." "I don't see a way we stop the dominoes." "When it's that bad, when there's that many dishonest people that ESIC have to come out and say that if we punish them all there's no one left. What does that tell you?"
• "How many opportunities have we had to clean house? How many times have we said, 'this must never happen again', and another scandal." "The entire skins betting operations was the biggest criminal conspiracy in esports ever executed and no one has been punished for it." "The people who could be driving that don't want to."
• "Right now people are fans of those organizations because the scene has value. It is worth being a fan of Astralis because they are excellent at Counter-Strike. It is worth being a fan of s1mple because he is the best player in Counter-Strike, maybe the exception of ZywOo. If the scene is devalued, if the scene loses its meaning, those things lose its meaning too, and people will leave, people will stop tuning into the games. I have seen it happen in multiple esports, this is not my first time at the rodeo. I am getting big Brood War vibes right now and I don't like it."
• "The role you play in all of this as fans, as viewers, as listeners, as consumers of esports content, it's absolutely imperative that you know who the good guys are. It's absolutely imperative that you use your voice. It's absolutely imperative that when things are bad, you know who, at least, is trying to make them good, and you have to apply your criticism to the right targets."
  • He continues saying it's no good in continuing to attack ESIC and saying how they are bad, ESIC have it hard
• He says CSPPA are on the right side of the argument on BLAST but have been on the wrong side of many arguments many times.
  • "If you are not willing to stand along side the weakest member of the union, with the least amount of influence, and the least amount of power, then it is not a union at all and you shouldn't pose as one." "You wanna serve a bunch of special interest do it, everyone else in esports fucking does, but do not pose as something you are not." "We love the players. I've been fighting for players rights for as long as I've been able to, but the CSPPA is not what we needed."
    • "They are not applying the pressure to the right people, they are not fighting the right battles, they are not helping their weaker members."
• He says what orgs have done by keeping or hiring coaches is bad. "When you give up on holding an appreciable standard, you've lost the scene" "Competition matters, rules matter, punishments matter, achievements matter, excellence matters" "If you start stripping that away, you have nothing" "You guys need to take that knowledge and apply it sensibly."
• "Valve has sold you all down the river, they sold everyone in the esports scene down the river, tournament organizers are selling their talent down the river. Don't hate on them for sounding tired after a 16 hour day. Don't hate on them because the hype for a matchup they've seen for the 20th time in the past 3 months, they can't be as excited or it sounds contrived. Support your guys, they're there for you, these are your people."
• "This community has got to start acting like one for the first fucking time. Just put the petty shit away, let's try and fix this fucking scene while we still have one to save."
• "You can't rely on Valve, you can't rely on ESL, you can't rely on the CSPPA, you can't rely on anyone." "Once again, it's gonna be the likes of us, the amateurs, the people who give a fuck, rolling up our sleeves and grafting." "I'm old and tired and I don't want to have to do it again. People need to pick up the torch and do it."
  • "Like Michal did, like Dudenhoeffer did. You see something wrong, fix it. You see somebody doing something wrong, call it out. If you think something could be better, let people know."
• "Vote with your wallets if you're not happy with the direction Valve goes in. If when we do get to the Major, they serve up another subpar, same old bullshit stickers and signatures package again, do not buy it."
  • "You're a powerful block and if you use it correctly we can fucking avert this disaster."
• "I'm not doing another year in this broken, bust-up fucking scene, where everyone is miserable, everyone is broke, everyone is tired, and everyone is trying to fucking rob everyone else, blind, while the fucking people who are meant to be protecting you, are just fucking enhancing it and lining their own pockets."
  • "I'm not doing it anymore and you shouldn't want to do it either."
• "I stand by every fucking thing I said. I mean it, because this game fucking matters to me, this scene fucking matters to me. I put my life into this, my adult life, and to see it in this state is fucking sad."

Welcome!

• JC/Secondary/Poly kids waiting for next year
• "ORD LO" mates waiting for Uni
• University kids with spare time

• Calc II: C
• CMSC131 (Fawzi): C
• CMSC132 (Fawzi): C
• CMSC250 (Kruskal led): C
• STAT400: C

• CMSC216 (Nelson): C+

• CMSC330 (Anwar): C+
• CMSC351(Telli): C-
• STAT401(C): C
  Like Nelson, Anwar is another great CS professor that I highly recommend. CMSC330 is a very project oriented class and deals with new languages. In my case, it was ruby, rust, and ocaml. Mainly coding projects in ruby and ocaml. There was an optional rust project for extra credit which I did not do. Had I taken this class without 351, I probably would've gotten a B.
  

1. Manage your time and stress. Start projects early. Find some outlet for stress (mine was lifting 5 times a week). Sometimes you might feel stuck on a project/assignment. Relax, take a break, stretch once in a while.
2. Start thinking of personal projects early and do tutorials related to them. I was able to list at least two personal projects to my resume. None of which I completed or even coded successfully. However I had fundamental understanding of the technology I was "using" and what it did in my program. For example: I said I used Firebase as my database for a mobile app. I did some tutorials on using Firebase and was able to explain why and how I used it for my personal project. Companies will rarely ask you to see your code.
3. Apply for internships early and have your resume prepared and reviewed. Most companies want to see at least one professional experience relating to your degree. Applying for internships will sometimes feel more stressful than your classwork. Do your research early and take advantage of career fairs. I got no offers from career fairs but I was able to learn what they were expecting just by speaking to company reps.
4. Use online resources but be smart about it. Chegg was my go-to(if you have the budget for it). But it was worth it for me, especially for classes like 250, 351, 451, and my math classes. Don't just copy and paste answers, try to understand it before even attempting to copy it. Google will be your best friend.
5. Don't be shy and use the office hours. TAs are there to help. If possible meet a few early if you can and see who is the most helpful so that when you actually need help you will know who to go to. That being said don't abuse them either. Don't just expect them to give you answers. A good TA will nudge you towards the right answer.
6. Take care of your body. It's easy to sit for hours in front of your computer. Don't be like me and come out of school with chronic back/hip pain. Stretch and hydrate!
7. Solidify your knowledge in at least one language. Mine was Java which was used for all my coding interviews. Google interview questions and keep studying them even if you aren't preparing for an interview.

>>RESULTS<<

Section I: Basic Questions

• Most people seem to have joined in the past few years, with the most common year to join (2018) actually being after the last survey I posted (2017)! That's crazy! I wonder what's caused the boom in popularity these past few years.
  
• Mouse players are down from the last survey results and tablet players are up. Perhaps this has to do with the increased accessibility of acceptable consumer-grade tablets?
  
• Most people are hybrid players, with alternating players actually outnumbering single tap players this time around by 0.4%! This is a first and really surprising to me.
  
• Improvement seems to be a pretty hot priority on this subreddit. Unsurprising really; a group of people dedicated to browsing a forum dedicated to one of their hobbies will probably be more invested in it. Even still, 77.8% is a lot more than I expected past the 4 mark.
  
• Most people seem to play roughly 30-60 minutes per day or more on average; that's a lot! I guess with how much people want to improve though, it shouldn't be surprising that 72.7% (...) of you are really taking "play more" to heart.
  
• Once again, osu! Mania is the most popular game mode to dabble in outside of osu! Standard. And once again, osu! Catch The Beat is the least popular. I wonder if this will ever change, and what would have to happen for tit to do so.
  
• Only 11.0% of you are not satisfied with osugame content, with the very slight majority paying no mind to their satisfaction with the subreddit's content. A lot of the "Other" responses are probably better fit for the optional questions at the end of the section, so don't expect it to survive the next iteration.
  
• This is the first time I polled pp instead of ranks, but I think that it is a better choice for posterity. This time around, 4,000-4,999pp was the most popular response, with 69.5% of respondents at or above that threshold. So if you were wondering how you stack up to the general populace of osugame, there you have it.
  
• Both of the optional questions are hilarious to me. People seem to hate memes and scoreposts but others seem to want more of them. I thought it was hilarious that "bad memes" or some variation was a popular thing for people to want to see less of, and "good memes" or some variation was a popular thing for people to want to see more of. It's simple everybody, just be funny.
  

Section II: Beatmap Preferences

• Jump maps were pretty well liked! 71.6% of you said that you felt neutral or better (51.2%) about jump maps. Though I do wonder how much of that has to do with them being rewarding in the ranking system and the sheer prevalence of them.
  
• Stream maps actually came in as even more well-liked though! A whopping 78.2% of you said that you felt neutral or better (57.0%) about stream maps. Again I wonder about the correlation to pp, but in this case I think there's a weaker link there.
  
• Balanced maps (defined as being straightforward with jumps and streams) were by far the most liked, with an almost unbelievable 98.0% of people reporting neutral or better (92.2%)on them, with the most popular response being a hearty 7/7 (43.5%)! If you want to make players happy, I guess that this style is the way to go.
  
• Technical maps got a much wider spread. Even still though, at 77.1% neutral or better (61.3%) reception, they beat out jump maps in terms of subreddit enjoyment. There's just something satisfying about hitting long, fast sliders and crazy patterns.
  
• Gimmick and/or reading maps had more positive reception than I was expecting, with 66.8% of people reporting neutral or better (48.2%). This is a pretty broad category though, and the range of definitions people may have for a "gimmick" map makes this question less airtight.
  
• Alternating maps rang in at a 77.4% neutral or better (60.6%), which makes more sense to me now than it would have in previous surveys given the fact that apparently more of you alternate than single tap here nowadays.
  
• Speed maps came in with a 78.5% neutral or better (60.2%) approval rate. Like the term "gimmick" though, the concept of a "speed" map is more nebulous than others here and likely includes maps like Seventeen RPG as well as Image Material.
  
• Rhythm/finger control maps surprised me with 86.2% of people reporting neutral or better (70.0%) on them. For how many of you seem to like them, scoreposts on these types of maps sure do an impressive job of garnering virtually no attention lol.
  
• Old maps had the closest thing to a bell curve, barely above the halfway mark with a 56.3% neutral or better (36.7%) approval rate. It makes me sad, as I do love old maps, but I understand the more lukewarm community reception to them. I do wish that the "all old maps are bad" stigma would die down a little more though. Which year is the cut-off for "old maps" to you? For myself, I would say 2012.
  
• Short maps had a pretty good approval rate, with 76.8% reporting neutral or better (48.2%) overall. No surprise there really.
  
• Maps in the 2-3 minute range garnered considerably more positive attention though, with a baffling 96.9% neutral or better (80.4%) approval rate. I guess the formula to a super well-received map is a balanced 2-3 minute banger lol.
  
• Medium and long maps both had a 1-4 scale set for over half of this survey as an oversight from previous ones, so I will be ignoring these and consider them effectively impossible to dissect properly.
  
• Extra long maps were the only map in this section (other than the aforementioned erroneously scaled ones) that didn't pass the 50% threshold, with a 43.7% neutral or better (26.0%) approval rate. Personally I think these have really high peaks for enjoyment and especially satisfaction as a player, but I understand the general aversion to such a comparatively intense time commitment. Respect to all of the mappers who produce such lengthy content though.
  

Section III: Skillset

• A lot of you cited jumps as one of your stronger skills. And by a lot I mean 79.3% of you (59.8%). It makes sense with the distribution of maps available, their play counts, and their weight in the pp system.
  
• Streams were a little bit more all over the place, with 57.4% (34.7%) indicating some level of relative competence. Some of you pointed out that "streams" is a bit too broad, encapsulating maps with 16 object streams and 100+ object streams, but I don't know that making the distinction is particularly worthwhile. Maybe it is though, I'd love to hear your thoughts.
  
• Tech maps came in just a tad lower at 54.9% (31.5%). Not too surprising to me, as they may not award much pp relative to their difficulty as jumps and streams generally do, but are probably the most populawell-liked type of map for whom such a description applies to.
  
• Alternating maps sit above both stream and tech maps at 63.6% (43.5%). All of you alternators really showing up huh?
  
• I find it a little hard to believe that 57.2% (36.2%) of you consider speed one of your average or better skills. But that being said, I find it easy to believe that I could define it better, so I will concede that lol.
  
• I guess there are more rhythm gamers here than I thought, what with 61.5% (38.5%) of you implying that rhythm/finger control is one of your solid or better skills. Unlike speed, I don't know how much better I can phrase this; however, the section as a whole can probably be better phrased, because I simply do not think this is the case lol.
  
• High AR reading was not defined, but on interpretation of the question alone, 58.9% of you cited it as one of your average or better (42.7%) skills. With the current pp meta, this is not surprising to me. I gotta catch up lol.
  
• Apparently 43.4% of you are somewhat competent (27.0%) at low AR reading (which was also not defined). That's a lot higher than I expected, but I guess that's what happens when I don't define things super clearly lol.
  
• That bell curve on hidden is beautiful. No mod is the most universally enjoyed though, with +EZ and +FL being about what you would expect with a gigantic sum of 1/7 reports.
  
• No mod is by far the most enjoyed, with 7/7 the mode of that set. Others looked mostly the same, but with fewer 1/7s and more 7/7s.
  
• I'm glad to hear that 86.3% of you believe your skillset enables you to play the maps you generally like (74.1% if we wanna get nitpicky). Always a satisfying feeling. It boggles me when people say they "hate jumps and love tech" but look like they've never aimed a 2.00x SV slider in their life lol.
  
• All-rounders seem to be more popular here than specialists, with 55.7% of people reporting 1-3 (for reference, "all-rounder" was a 1 and "specialist" was a 7). Specialists (5-7) only came in at 29.9% Interesting.
  

Section IV: Maps & Mapping

• 58.8% of you haven't ever made a beatmap? Get on it! Or at least the 19.5% of you that actually intend to.
  
• Unsurprisingly, 1-4 beatmaps completed was again the most popular answer. I would imagine it's just players experimenting with the editor and then never touching it again.
  
• This subreddit sure seems to be a real expert on mapping when controversy pops up despite 80.7% of you never modding a beatmap lol. Though I do understand that you can have opinions without having modded something, but for those who work themselves up reading poorly informed opinions, maybe keep this in better mind to chill yourself out (or maybe this is just going to make you more worked up... oops...).
  
• I'd hate to be the 24.6% of you who aren't satisfied with the selection of ranked maps lol. This will definitely be a 1-7 scale in the next survey.
  
• Surprise surprise, people seem to not like pp mapping. In fact, 81.1% seemed to feel neutral or worse (52.1%). I wouldn't really call most of you you hypocritical if you play them though, exactly. If you want to rank up efficiently, it's understandable to play them. "Don't hate the player, hate the game" as they say.
  
• 60.2% of you feel like your ability to play a beatmap influences your opinion on it neutrally or more (46.2%). That's pretty interesting given the responses to the following question lol.
  
• There is no way in hell I believe that 54.6% of you can critically evaluate a beatmap decently or better (34.6%) lol. I'm definitely not a pro mapper or anything, but while people may certainly have whatever opinion they want, when it comes to picking the beatmap apart, the arguments and supporting evidence do not hold up from most people in the community (anecdotally speaking). That being said, I don't mean to patronize, as I think getting into mapping and understanding core concepts of it is a pretty arduous and often unclear process. It's a lot less glamourous than playing, too, such to say that for most the journey to get there is a lot less fun as well.
  
• This question is a little bit flawed since the responses are inclusive of multiple answers (e.g. if your favourite CS is 4, then you could pick 3-4 or 4-5). That being said, the most common answer was 4-5, which is pretty representative of the fact that the overwhelming majority of maps are mapped within that CS range.
  
• Favourite AR was generally in the 9-10 range (74.3%) which probably describes almost every 4.50*+ map in the game, so no surprise there. I will definitely include an "unsure/no preference" answer in the next iteration; not including one was simply a result of a lack of sleep.
  
• Regarding the general quality of ranked maps, 74.0% of you seem to think they've generally been the same quality or better (48.3%). Good to hear! Hopefully this trend continues evermore into the future.
  
• Regarding the Loved system (in the next iteration I properly refer to it as "Project Loved"), 83.6% of you believe that it's in acceptable condition or better (57.8%). That's great! Thank you to everybody who works on Project Loved!
  

Section V: Performance Points

• Generally, pp is a pretty good addition to the game according to 59.9% of you. Many of which believe it's more important than not (44.2%). Not very surprising; though I will rephrase it in the future to just be "pp is important to me" instead of "very important" for a more reliable set of responses.
  
• pp=skill? Not according to roughly 86.7% of you. In fact, 75.3% of you think it's more false than true. A whole third of you straight up just reported a 1 lol.
  
• Apparently 80.1% of plays are weighted decently or worse (63.8%). Ouch. Well, the pp system is open for anybody to contribute to, so if you have the means to suggest systemic (systemic or systematic? I'm not sure which one here) changes, by all means please go for it.
  
• Appropriately, about 73.8% of you think that your highest pp plays are not representative of your most impressive. 62.9% think there is a subpar correlation, but hopefully changes to the pp system would remedy dissonances like this.
  
• pp mapping is apparently not good for the game, at least that's what about 82.9% of you say. Well, specifically, 59.8% of you think it's bad. Realistically pp mapping will always exist though, but to what degree of exploitativeness and prevalence can be better regulated by all sides of the community.
  
• General satisfaction with the pp system is about as good as you would expect given the previous responses. 71.9% of you reported neutral or worse, but the "worse" crowd is still pretty sizable at 44.9%. Going forward, hopefully this changes, but that's going to either need a bigger contribution from the community and/or some sort of unprecedented general attitude change.
  
• That rhythm I mentioned earlier really came in clutch here; 32.3% of you SS'd this survey so far! Nicely done!
  

Section VI: Tournaments

• Wow, 92.2% of you have watched an osu! Standard tournament before! I'm impressed! Though I wonder how many have watched a tournament outside of OWC lol.
  
• An impressive 37.5% of you have competed in a tournament before; to the 34.3% who are interested but haven't, get on it! There are always tournaments going on that you can find on the forums.
  
• On the flipside, 72.2% of you have never staffed a tournament and would not like to. Well, to the 17.4% of those who want to, I would also direct you to the forums lol.
  
• Pack it up, pp is over. 90.1% of you believe that tournaments are an equal or better (78.7%) indicator of skill. Maybe Tom's initial pp system of weighing different skillsets (albeit pretty frivolously) was the pp system we needed all along.
  
• It's nice to see that 90.3% of you generally believe in the growth of osu! Standard competitively (79.4% for those who with true faith). I'm in that boat too.
  

Section VII: Music

• A whole lot of you (82.3%) seem to have had your music taste influenced by the game. I don't blame you, it's hard not to! This will most definitely be a 1-7 scale next time.
  
• Bruh, 73.2% of you have NEVER made a music purchase related to music from the game? Um, yeah, change that! Though I do get that a lot of osu! music is Japanese and that accessing those products isn't that easy. Even still! I would at least hope that a lot of you stream them somewhere that isn't the client lol.
  
• Sounds like most of you particularly enjoy 20-79% of the music in your beatmap library (73.7%). I'm glad that the mode was 60-79%, that's just nice to hear in general. Though I do wonder how many of you would say that if you judged the music currently in your beatmap library before you started playing the game. Maybe I'll add that to the next iteration of the survey.
  
• This was a bit tricky because I didn't really imply which was the independent variable. Well, anyway, 84.9% of you seemed to feel there was not a negative correlation, and 71.9 felt there was a positive correlation.
  
• Extremely similar results to satisfaction with maps in the ranked section. Again, this will be a 1-7 scale next time. Survey patch notes. Woohoo. Exciting.
  

Section VIII: Anime

• Lotta weebs here it seems. 87.2% of you watch anime with Japanese audio and with subtitles, and a pitiful 2.0% watch Japanese audio without subtitles. 6.6% of you watch it primarily dubbed. 4.2% simply have never watched anime before. osu! must be horrible for you lol.
  
• I don't really like my phrasing of this question. It'll change in the next iteration. Anyway though, 90.3% of you felt neutral or stronger (81.3%) about the statement "I like anime" lol.
  
• Turns out that 57.7% of you have watched an anime series/film/OVA etc. that you discovered through the game. That's really cool! If only the music purchase number could look similar lol.
  
• While I am proud of the 48.4% of you for not identifying yourself as a weeb, the 9.0% of you that don't know what it means are based. For the 42.6% who selected the option that they almost certainly couldn't read, and may have actually skewed the results (lol), I assume you said yes. Not just yes though. "Yes, I am trash!~" (thank you Google Translate).
  
• mhm
  

Section IX: Miscellaneous Questions

• 65.5% of you play maps without leaderboards with some degree of frequency (51.3% reported 5-7, where 7 is "very often").
  
• Most of you don't really have a preference playing to pass or FC, but between the two, FCs won out by 8.9%.
  
• According to osugame, 1xSB plays are worse than 1xMiss plays. I gotta disagree since I think A rankings are hideous (not that every 1xMiss is an A rank), but I do most certainly empathize.
  
• 22.0% of you have never FC'd the tutorial???? What???? Alright then.
  
• 7.2% OF YOU DON'T KNOW WHO RRTYUI OR HVICK IS. WHAT. Apparently if it were the will of osugame though, rrtyui would be the one to return.
  
• One of you said that the pp record at the end of 2021 would be 485pp lol. I thought that was funny, and I didn't even realize until just now that it was probably an Azer United reference.
  
• 34.8% of you don't have any IRL osu! friends? :c That actually makes me really sad. I hope you can meet/make some.
  
• By a VERY small margin of 1.2%, the prediction that an 11* map gets ranked just barely beat out a 1,500+pp play in the category of "most likely to happen first". Y'all have no faith in the U.S. dropping out of OWC top 3 at all.
  
• Which is indicated here, where it is the most popular answer for least likely to happen first by 11.1%.
  
• CIRCLE GANG. Spinner fans btfo.
  
• I actually can't believe 50.9% of you think that 727 is funny >50% of the time. Actually, I thought about it. Yes I can.
  
• Wow, 63.8% of you have bought osu! Supporter before! That's awesome! Honestly more than I expected.
  
• I guess most of you think you're okay. But in reality...
  
• 48.7% of you think you are better than your pp/rank would suggest! Okay didn't realize we had such a populace of absolute gamers here. Honestly though I can buy it lol.
  
• So 62.0% of you really think osu!lazer will be the main client before 2023? That would be cool I guess.
  
• rip faith in 5k pp play
  
• osu! is (un)officially now rated T for teen
  
• Imagine voting for fish lol.
  
• Naruto would definitely be a pp farmer I agree. Though the fact that 19.9% of you looked at that list and thought "Gandhi" is hilarious lol.
  
• Cake gang get owned pie.
  
• Whoa this one was super close lol. 51.2% said they would let a genie magically double or halve their improvement rate... not worth it at all IMO lol.
  
• I actually cannot believe how close this one is. 47.8% of you would rather be a veritable osu! God than learn two additional languages? Actually I thought about it and now I can believe it. Sorry for being dramatic.
  
• Okay, no way. 37.5% of you are crazy. For all of Superman's incredible feats, he would have literally no clue how to even play the game, and would instantly fail on the first stream. Dummies.
  
• LMAO 35.2% of you are absolutely wild.
  
• peacock
  

• Fujitora making a meteorite fall from the sky
• Karasu producing giant birds that carry Sabo away
• Usopp awakening his Observation haki to snipe Sugar from extremely far away

• The meteorite from the sky represented by Fujitora and the Marines
• The Birds carrying her away represented by Karasu and the Rev Army
• The sniper with their sights on her represented by Yassop and the Red Hair Pirates

• The Gorosei speak of Cobra’s request of them and refer to him as a traitor.
• The one known as “Imu” has chosen Vivi’s picture as an apparent “light to erase from history”
• Shanks meets with the Gorosei to discuss a pirate
• The Admirals And The Revolutionary Army clashed in their mission to retrieve Kuma, as reported by Blackbeard
• The Shichibukai system was abolished
• There was a fatality, as reported by Morgans
• There was also an “attempted murder” as reported by Morgans
• Alabasta is somehow involved with the events that transpired, as reported by Garp
• Sabo is also involved in events, as we learn from the reactions of many people that know him, including shock of his comrades and sadness from his family.
• Whatever has transpired, Blackbeard decides to mobilize to claim something before the government can get their hands on it.
• Finally, Wapol also calls Morgans to leak some additional intel

1. Shanks is the son of Rocks D. Xebec
2. Blackbeard is the one who inherited the will of Rocks D. Xebec

• The Rocks Crew fell 38 years ago at God Valley in an incident that has been erased from the history books. Most notable about this incident is that Garp and Roger teamed up for it and it involved protecting Celestial Dragons. Shanks is slightly older than this at 39 years of age.
• In the Oden flashback Roger remarks it has been ages since he’s held a baby, to which Rayleigh responds it reminds him of “the good ole days” implying they once had a baby involved in their adventures or on the ship.
• During the ceasefire of the Roger vs Whitebeard duel, a newly recruited Teach asks his crew about Buggy and Shanks, to which they tell him despite their young age they have been on Roger’s ship for ages.
• Prior to his death, Roger tells Garp he has a child and he needs to protect him as the son does not carry the sins of the father and he deserves his own life. Garp then takes in his rival’s child and raises him as his own.
• When Whitebeard and Shanks meet up Whitebeard remarks that seeing Shanks’ face makes the scars he got from him ache. It is said that the Rocks crew got along terribly and were often very violent to each other, with even killing occurring within the crew.

• Sengoku said Rocks’ ambition was to become King of the world and that he broke the world's taboos. Shanks suggests something similar about Blackbeard when he warns Whitebeard - he won’t ever stop aiming for the top. Blackbeard has also broken the world’s taboos by consuming two Devil Fruit which was previously unheard of.
• His ship is named Saber of Xebec, seemingly after Rocks D. Xebec
• His base of operations is on Hachinosu Island, which was the same place that the Rocks pirates were formed. Also the birthplace of the Davy Back Fight.

• Monkey D. Garp - His son Dragon directly looks to overthrow the organization he works for and his grandson is also one of their biggest threats and aims to become Pirate King like his rival, Roger.
• Gol D. Roger - His son, Portgas D. Ace completely rejected him and dedicated his life to making his pirate rival, Whitebeard, the Pirate King.
• Kaido - His son Yamato literally wants to be Kozuki Oden, the only person to ever scar him and someone he only shamefully defeated through trickery.
• Oden - While his son Momonosuke seeks to carry out his father’s will, by an ironic twist of fate he ate a Devil Fruit that turned him into a Dragon, the same form as the beast who killed his father. (This is a little different, but worth pointing out imo)
• Shanks (D. Xebec)? - If what I believe to be true, Shanks is the son of Rocks D. Xebec, and was raised by his father’s rival Gol D. Roger, who he respects and reveres. Shanks seeks to stop Marshall D. Teach, the man who inherited his father’s evil will.

• When Shanks warns Whitebeard about Teach, he doesn’t try to prevent a quarrel altogether but says it isn't time yet.
• When he saves Koby he mentions the importance of a few seconds.
• When he asks Teach if he wants to fight he laughs it off and he too seems to recognize it is not yet time.
• Most recently Shanks has gone to the Gorosei in an attempt to talk to them, most likely about Teach, in an attempt to maintain balance.

• The World Government
• The Revolutionary Army
• Blackbeard Pirates
• Red-Hair Pirates
• Strawhat Crew (and Grand Fleet)

D: Odacchi! I noticed an amazing thing!!! It is that if you show the Straw Hat Devil Fruit users in numbers, it will be the numbers from 1~10!!
Luffy→Gomu Gomu (5.6.5.6.), Chopper→Hito Hito (1.10.1.10), Robin→Hana Hana (8.7.8.7.), Brook→Yomi Yomi (4.3.4.3.)
(1.3.4.5.6.7.8.10), but there is no (2.9), so is the one who ate the Nikyu Nikyu (2.9.2.9.) no Mi, Bartholomew Kuma, gonna be a Straw Hat next? Please tell me!!! P.N. SHANKUS.LOVE
O: WHAAAAAT?! (shock) Gosh that surprised me! Why was I surprised?! NO COMMENTTTTTTT!!!!!!!! NEXT!!

• His bounty is 296,000,000
• His birthday is February 9th (2/9)

• Most notably, Blackbeard is able to take Whitebeard’s power immediately after death. While this could be something unique to Blackbeard it has been demonstrated that they can take the fruit of others and give them to their own crew (shiryu gaining the Clear-Clear fruit)
• Caesar Clown also has shown some knowledge of this, as he seemingly left a bag of fruit on the raft rigged to fail when Smiley was to reincarnate. The fruit then transformed into a Devil Fruit, and he said he’d meet Smiley again.
• Vegapunk also seems to have an insane breadth of knowledge when it comes to Devil Fruit. However, we don’t have evidence of him knowing how they transfer.

• Mr. 2
• Mr. 9

Match Information:

Lineups and Squads:

Head-to-head:

• Last meeting: Barcelona 3:1 Rayo Vallecano
  
• Date: Saturday, 9th of March 2019, 18:30 CET
  
• Competition: La Liga
  
• Threads: Pre-match thread | Match thread | Post-match thread
  
• Highlights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=526M24y-xvo
  

Form guide:

• Form: [L] W W W W
  
• Goals scored: 10
  
• Goals conceded: 5
  
• Last match: Rayo Vallecano 1:3 Mallorca - Segunda
  

• Form: [W] W L D W
  
• Goals scored: 11
  
• Goals conceded: 4
  
• Last match: Elche 0:2 Barcelona - La Liga
  

Comments (Post-match thread):

Vidal is a beast of a player. He chased the ball every single minute and recovered it an absurd amount of times.
Pique, Dembele, Semedo, Suarez and Busquets had an amazing game tonight.
It also seems that we do pretty well with the 4-2-3-1 formation with one of the two pivots (either Vidal or Raki) sometimes advancing further to the final third and helping with the attack.
I hope Valverde keeps experimenting with this formation since it seems quite successful.

We're winning games without Messi being on his top form, this is good. Theres no doubt that Messi will be back when it's the late stages of the season, and it's good to see the quality of the team showing what they have now and not being 100% dependant on him.
Also that free kick would've went in if it wasnt for that Rayo player sprinting back, pretty genius plan in all honesty

Really enjoyable game. We shifted around so much, tried atleast 4 different setups - im excited for the game midweek.
We are starting to click. Just lacking a bit in the finishing department but its going to come as well.
Should try couts in mid more in the league. Dembouz semedo connection is a beaut. And suarez is looking better than he has all season. Vamooos

Apart from the Sevilla match, Barca have been winning tough games without depending on Messi these last couple of months. Good signs for the team and credit to Valverde for setting up the team to play as a collective.

Rayo player gets the ball
Vidal: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BYVbbddCIAA9sGm.jpg

Vidal man of the match for me. He breaks up play and gets the team back on the attack. Nobody better than him in that role.
Coutinho played better centrally so it was good to see EV change formation to accommodate him.

I think theres no A or B team at the moment. Almost every player is available for a rotation, that way we can A) fight the fatigue from the last half of the season and B) build the best team we can have against different opponents because not all of them can be hurt with only one formation.
​
I'm happy with this Barca.

Rayo gave us more trouble in their two matches against us than Real in four: fact.
Dembelé + Semedo are a joy to watch: also fact.
​
Other assorted thoughts:
Coutinho in midfield looked rejuvenated. Let's build on this.
Piqué rules.
Messi was brilliant tonight, bar a couple of optimistic runs into walls of 6 to 8 defenders, but I'm sure plenty of people will keep insisting he's been off for months.
​
I enjoyed this match a lot. Not to deny Rayo their due, but it looked to me as if we were a predator circling the prey even when we were down a goal, and even when they were actually going for it near the end; I liked the "experimental", almost playful feel of most of the second half.
However, we committed enough mistakes to know what to be on the alert for (but not alarmed) against Lyon.
edit: in the post-match interview Piqué is emphatically defending Coutinho. No Piqué, Marca said you're fed up with him, don't you read the papers?

Dembele switched the game up with his pace, Rakitic added that element of skill too. All in all a nice game.
Cou please please get back in form, although if he does anytime now that would be perfect considering he would be integral in CL at his best.

Great game from Vidal, Suarez and Dembouz. Goat did his usual game, even though he was unlucky at times - whoever said around here that he s been bad doesnt get shit in football Demvele and Semedo work really nice together on the right. Our defence was really nice, even tho Umtiti seems a bit off, i dont know how to describe it- maybe rusty. Lastly, I wanna point out the fact that Malcom knew what he was getting into. Guys, I also feel bad for eveybody rotting on the bench, I myself know how horrible it is. But he knew what he was signing up for when coming here. Even though he may deserve more minutes, from some povs I can see why EV would rather try to being Couts back to form than give Malcom minutes: it would be more beneficial to the team in the long run. however, I do agree that Malcom should get more chances, but stop blaming EV for not playing him when there are 2 other 100m+ players competing for the same spot with hum. Over to the CL game, visca barca boys

Quotes:

Koeman: "Rest is an advantage for Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid, since they will not have a game during the week now. But I prefer to play every three days because it means that you are in all three competitions." - src @barcacentre
Koeman: "The Copa del Rey isn't easier because Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid are out. Those that remain are also very strong teams." - src @barcacentre
Koeman: "The calendar is what it is. We lack days and time to train things. We have to go fast to recover and prepare for the next game. We play at night, we're late at home... Now thank goodness that the game after this game is on Sunday, and at home." - src @barcacentre
Koeman: "Of course we want to win without the need for extra time. To achieve this we have to work, put in intensity... The most important thing is to go through to the next round." - src @barcacentre
Koeman: "Resting Araújo? If there is a moment that we think he has to rest, he will rest. Otherwise, he will play." - src @barcacentre
Koeman: "We try to fight for all the titles. But you have to be realistic; Atlético have a great advantage, a great run, and now they will have rest. But until it's possible, we will try the impossible." - src @barcacentre
Koeman: "Financial struggles? From what I've seen, the players are not impacted by this." - src @barcacentre
Koeman: "Sergi Roberto has done two training sessions with the group, but he still needs to do some more. On Friday we will have a tough training session, and then we will decide if he can play on Sunday." - src @barcacentre
Koeman: "It's important that players who can have a future here train with the first team from time to time. That's the case with Ilaix. If there are opportunities for him to enter the squad lists, we'll do it, so he can see that we trust him. He has a future here." - src @barcacentre
Koeman: "Messi is very eager to play, but tomorrow morning we will decide who will play." - src @barcacentre
Koeman: "Barça are one of the big teams that have suffered the most from COVID-19, for the attendance and for tourism. I think, however, that all the big clubs have bad financial numbers." - src @barcacentre
Koeman: "We will have to play against a difficult rival tomorrow, at a complicated stadium, and we have to be very focused." - src @barcacentre

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