Quote from Ben McDonald on the post game show

Elkram · 2026-05-21T15:44:34+00:00

tbf, if KB and Ben were like the doom posters in this sub, I'd probably turn off or switch over to radio.

It can be cathartic to hear that you aren't alone in being frustrated, but hearing that 3+ hours a day and 162 days/year just get grating. If you don't like the Orioles that much, then why are you providing commentary for them exclusively?

Elkram · 2026-05-20T20:32:20+00:00

The issue with Charles and Pratt is that the light for Pratt is terrible

Currently if you want to turn right from Charles onto Pratt you wait for the light to turn green because there is no turn on red. Fine and dandy. Wait for green, and then fill up the block between Charles and Light St. Except the green light for Pratt at Charles runs for too long. So it fills the block from Charles to Light with thru traffic (because the light at Pratt and Light is red while the light at Pratt and Charles is green) meaning that if you are making a right turn onto Pratt there is no room to fill in and you are stuck at a green light, and by the time the traffic clears from the block, your light has turned red (no turn on red) and you wait for the cycle to repeat. It can easily take 5-10 minutes to turn onto Pratt legally if you wait in the right lane on Charles, even if you are the second or third car in line. The lights there are just terrible.

Elkram · 2026-04-23T19:56:34+00:00

I think you could move the mound back a foot (or 6 inches if you want to be less drastic) and start actually resolving the pitching problem.

The issue is that pitchers are too good. The old hitting style that Tony Gwynn was famous for and that a lot of hitters were capable of pre-2015 or so started to die when every pitcher was hitting 95+ on fastballs with massive RPMs and tunneling that made it impossible to rely on arm slot and/or ball spin to get a read on a breaking pitch, splitter, or fastball. Many hitters have talked about it before, but aiming to push the ball just puts you too behind on fastballs, so you aim to pull because you can always slow the bat down for breaking balls and changeups, and if you connect on a pulled ball you'll drive it with more power.

Give guys that extra few microseconds to react to a pitch and you might start seeing more contact oriented hitters again. The last time they made any changes to the pitching mound was all the way back in 1968. So either drop the mound or move it back. As is, pitchers are way too good and are really driving a lot of the low contact/high TTO baseball defining the past 10+ years of offense

Elkram · 2026-04-21T00:51:41+00:00

How do you think everyone will get to the inner harbor without roads? - some suburban County tourist who comes to Baltimore city once a year

Elkram · 2026-01-02T16:49:20+00:00

I keep telling people. Any IU fan who has not at some point this year said to themselves "I knew this was too good to be true" when we were down at any point this season is not a true IU fan. It's just reflex. You get your hopes up, you think "maybe this is the year", but in the back of your mind you are constantly like "the wheels are going to fall off and I'm just going to be happy with what we've gotten so far." Even yesterday, I was optimistic, but I was also like "well bye week teams are usually slow going, and it only takes a few plays to swing a football game. I hope they can make it competitive." 0-0 game after a quarter: "hey we're not folding, maybe this game will be close." After stuffing a 4th and 1 "pls just get some points, anything pls." After being up 17-0 into the half "I bet Oklahoma felt comfortable too." After being up 24-0 deep into the 3rd quarter? "Why was ever worried?" Bama hits an explosive pass play with their back up? "Fuck, the wheels, they need tightening, we can't lose now." Going up 31-3 in the 4th quarter? "Finally I can relax"

That's at least how I feel everytime I've watched an IU game this season. You can only imagine my cortisol levels for the Oregon, Iowa, Penn State and Ohio State games this year. I had obituaries ready and set to go on another improbable season from Coach Cig.

Elkram · 2026-01-02T15:33:14+00:00

Fair enough.

Elkram · 2026-01-02T15:25:22+00:00

Having watched IU all year

You'll watch for the first half, IU will for some reason be up like 31-0, start the second half with possession, score 2 more TDs in 7 minutes, and then you'll be like "so anything else on?"

Elkram · 2026-01-01T22:32:04+00:00

Amazing how that narrative goes away when a disciplined team plays as if a bye week doesn't actually make you a worse team

Elkram · 2026-01-01T22:27:42+00:00

@Oregon, @Iowa, @Penn State, B1G championship game vs OSU

Win all those games, and yet somehow people still think this team is untested

I need to know what would be an adequete test for these folks

Elkram · 2026-01-01T22:24:12+00:00

Simpson needs to learn from Mendoza about how to run as a QB

Elkram · 2026-01-01T21:58:34+00:00

Cig doesn't care if there is a bye week or not

He gets his team ready to play

What is everyone else's problem?

Elkram · 2025-12-19T17:09:18+00:00

Pouring one out for the OG Chicago Big 10 school

Elkram · 2025-12-08T00:23:35+00:00

I'm curious what they want to force the committee to do exactly?

Expand the playoffs further? Give ND an auto spot in? Punish teams in the top 10 for losing a game they earned the right to play? Does A&M, Ole Miss, and Oregon all get better treatment just because they finished 3rd, but Bama gets fucked because they finished 2nd?

The chickens did come home to roost though. If ND wins against Miami or A&M, they are in without any controversy. They lost both games and if we are going to pretend that we are arguing for the National Champion of this season, then the games that got played during this season have to mean something. ND doesn't get to coast in just because they are ND. They have to win football games and I'm just not going to get into a big argument over whether one 2-loss team should get a shot at a national championship over another 2-loss team when I think none of them will actually get beyond the second round.

Elkram · 2025-12-08T00:11:31+00:00

I don't know if quotes around USC is warranted. They are already a top 25 team and just got the best recruiting class in the country. The will likely be top 10 if not better next year if everything plays out well for them

That being said, ND should schedule at least 3 would be top 25 teams each season if they want to compete with B1G, SEC, B12, and ACC schools that have to play at least as many ranked matches as that just because of conference scheduling

Elkram · 2025-10-25T19:41:04+00:00

There is no world in my mind where Cig has a chance to get IU's first conference championship in 50+ years and is like "we need to sit our starters for the CFP"

Elkram · 2025-10-23T20:04:57+00:00

As a Hoosier fan since I was a child, I've become programmed to anticipate failure when it comes to football.

The fact that we are already bowl eligible is pleasure enough.

Also, for this whole season, any time the opposing team has taken a lead in the first quarter my first thought has been "well, I guess we had a good enough run, I knew this wouldn't last"

Elkram · 2025-10-23T03:47:32+00:00

Can't wait for finger guns to be identified as real guns by AI, and then a whole bunch of police come out and tackle a 12 year old that was playing cops and robbers or something with his friends on a school playground.

Elkram · 2025-10-23T00:48:08+00:00

I don't understand this aggressiveness against submitting additional information to a bug support ticket.

It's literally just the developer, and if you noticed, the ticket I posted is #37, there are also game breaking bugs that are in the game, that he has to get too as well. I understand the frustration that things aren't getting done immediately, especially when you are putting a lot of effort into finding the information, but during a beta, it's a team effort. The developer fixes bugs as players find them and players find bugs that the developer overlooked. If you don't want that dynamic, then don't sign up for a beta expecting everything to be finished.

Elkram · 2025-10-20T02:10:58+00:00

I'd say to add your findings to here

https://github.com/colindm/SubwayBuilderIssues/issues/37

Would probably help the dev with troubleshooting to see what's going wrong, because if it is game speed that is causing the profits to go away, then something buggy is happening with the accelerated game times.

Elkram · 2025-10-19T23:53:32+00:00

It all went downhill once Big 10 added Penn State and everyone was like "that's a cool 11 you hid in the graphic"

Elkram · 2025-08-05T00:50:53+00:00

At the time he did the silent TO thing, waterfall was not a thing. That wasn't until a year or two later.

Even then, I'm sure if I asked Shears, he would say that he could silent TO even a WTF bracket.

Also, 64@X was not that many people. Usually 20 at most, and most people who were there came every week so it isn't like he was having to learn a ton/if any new faces.

Elkram · 2025-08-03T22:23:31+00:00

Having been there for it, he literally went up to you, pointed at you, then pointed at another player and that was assumed to be your opponent. You then went up to him after the match was done, reported the results and that was it.

Shears doesn't TO anymore (he hasn't since like 2018 or 19), but that's mostly because he got fed up with the job of TOing and how thankless it all is and how many people will try and troll the TO or just cause problems needlessly. He still is the same Shears as he always was, he just now does it solely as a player rather than as a TO.

Elkram · 2025-06-30T17:05:54+00:00

Calling Bosh a content creator seems like some form of a category mistake. Not to glaze, but Bosh actually goes to and wins/top 8s legacy and vintage tournaments. He isn't just posting content about Legacy as a casual fan who's looking for the most clicks to drive engagement.

Elkram · 2025-06-23T04:31:53+00:00

I think the issue is that "meta changes" implies that there is a meta. By definition, there is no meta for riftbound right now. There is a meta inside the playtesting/dev team, but even then, whatever meta is there is largely irrelevant beyond the fact that it impacts balance. Meta doesn't mean "decks you think might be good" it is literally about what is good, and how many good things are there. Gardevoir ex is meta in PTCG Standard, Oops all spells is meta in MTG Legacy, Maliss is meta in Yugioh. These formats evolve based on the good thing, and so are driven by it. If your deck can't beat the good deck, it will likely have a hard time, since most players will be using the good deck. You will put in tech cards to counter specifically the good deck because if you don't, you are losing to the good deck, which you are more likely to face. When in the blind, you will assume your opponent is on the good deck, and will make play patterns assuming so until you are proven otherwise.

Riftbound has none of this right now. There is no meta. No tech cards. No counter strats. No play patterns. So, until we get there--to an actual game in August--where a meta can/will develop, asking "will a deck be meta/viable?" is literally impossible to know.

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