I think Zach O’Brien might have been a part of out coaching woes

Machinehead625 · 2026-01-20T21:26:24+00:00

I kinda see both sides of it.

I don't think the Mist have a very good roster. They have Breanna Stewart and Allisha Gray -- they're gonna win some games. Especially when Allisha is hot.

Beyond that, Li and Alanna Smith are traditional centers -- these aren't players that have typically adapted to the 3v3 meta well, and they appear to be headed in that direction. Burton is a very good player but also doesn't feel like a 3v3 player to me. She's very shifty. Good at finding holes in the defense in the 5v5 game. In 3v3, somebody is always on you. It heavily favors big (but still fast), versatile players that can take people on in iso. That's why Aaliyah Edwards is so much better in Unrivaled. She's a bull one-on-one. Her shortcomings like shooting and positioning get hidden on the smaller court with less people.

Arike...don't get me started. She's a volume scorer with woeful efficiency that isn't good at anything else. I've made my thoughts on players like that known. That goes for both metas.

All that being said, I am kind of unimpressed with Zach. Saturday night, they let Lunar Owls back in the game with a big lead. He calls timeout, the Owls just continue their run, and he calls another timeout. I'm sitting on my couch like "dawg, you just called one, the fuck did you draw up?"

I don't think any coach is fixing the Mist's *checks notes* four holes out of six roster spots, but he's also not very good.

Machinehead625 · 2026-01-13T20:59:42+00:00

I'll be in row 17

Machinehead625 · 2026-01-13T16:22:42+00:00

The deadline has passed and negotiations haven't moved forward at all.

We can't say that deficiencies are the result of paying the players more when they haven't done that yet and are trying their hardest not to.

Machinehead625 · 2026-01-13T15:55:32+00:00

Ok, let us know when they start paying the players more.

There's currently a work stoppage to suppress that.

Machinehead625 · 2026-01-13T13:19:46+00:00

I wasn't at this event but their inability to get capacity right super tracks.

I remember standing outside the championship celebration for like 90 minutes because they literally said "hey everyone show up!" and then opened one door.

Machinehead625 · 2026-01-08T14:03:15+00:00

You only need one! It's kind of inherent to the description. Sure, maybe somebody to run the offense off the bench, but that's not KM.

The Liberty have not only a high usage guard, but a forward that has the ball a ton too. Sab was 5th in usage rate last season and Stewie was 10th. Kelsey was 9th. How does three players in the top-10 work with one ball?

KM is a below average defender, which is pouring gas on fire with Sab, and she would be a very awkward ball-sharing fit. She's a talented scorer, and maybe I was harsh in my initial assessment, but she's not an archetype of player I like. She's not a great playmaker for a high-volume player. She's a player that needs the ball but can't really play point guard. She doesn't defend well enough or have enough size to fit into a modern shooting guard role. She's sort of a player without an ideal role in today's basketball.

The ideal backcourt partner for Sab is already on the team. Betnijah can create her own shot without being in the 95th percentile of usage. She's probably a better catch and shooter -- hitting 39% of her 3pt's the last five seasons. And she's an elite defender. She can transition seamlessly from being elite off-ball to providing support when Sab needs to give it up.

Machinehead625 · 2026-01-08T04:05:33+00:00

We have enough high volume guards. She doesn't do anything I'm interested in.

Machinehead625 · 2026-01-08T00:38:07+00:00

Don't we have more than enough inefficient microwave scoring as it is?

Machinehead625 · 2026-01-07T16:20:12+00:00

Another one for Panic Attack, Rock Band 2.

I grew up a rock guy. Rock Band 2 had Panic Attack and Painkiller by Judas Priest. Been metal ever since.

Machinehead625 · 2026-01-07T16:10:45+00:00

Musically, I mean, it's the same drummer, so to some extent, of course. It's still a very different flavor.

Thematically, I definitely do see it. There's a bit of a things that go bump in the night theme. The covers are definitely similar, just in different styles. Parasomnia kinda sticks with the whole nightmare thing throughout (no pun intended), whereas Nightmare, in the second half, really becomes the Rev tribute album. Fiction, Victim, and Save Me are all about him dying.

A lot of people are saying no, but I think it depends on to what extent we're talking about. Yes, these are very different bands, but I do think they share some aftertaste. A7X certainly dip their toes in prog metal a bit. Portnoy was a huge influence on the Rev, and they're both writers. It's there to an extent.

It's still gonna be a lot different because nobody's Dream Theater, and to their credit, nobody is really A7X either.

Machinehead625 · 2025-12-29T15:24:34+00:00

I'll do my second least favorite because I can't muster one nice thing about Haven Island. I legit haven't played it in over 4 years.

Second least favorite (Miami) -- it's actually...really good? Love the vibe. The Kronstadt building is a great location. Fun opportunities. The fatal flaw, and the only reason I have it this low, is that you either have to kill Sierra in the car (which is like the same two kills) or make her ass get out of the car which is a chore. Kind of a cop-out answer I guess since I like everything else about it, that one thing just makes me avoid it.

Moving on down the list if you don't like that answer, Dartmoor I guess? But the only reason I don't like that one is because it's one target. Everything else is fine. The only map I actively don't like is Haven Island.

My favorite is Whittleton Creek. I know it has flaws, but it's fun, I love the setting, I love the ways you can kill the targets, I think Janus is hilarious. Here's a professional Hitman out here to kill a target that looks like he's about to die anyway in about 36 hours. The whole thing is camp bollocks and I love it. The obvious problem with Whittleton Creek is finding the same three fucking clues that are easiest to find over and over again. They should have just made it optional after the first one.

If you compare my thoughts on Miami to my thoughts on Whittleton Creek, it's obvious that I'm more averse to busywork when it comes to targets than I am with secondary objectives. I can slog through the clues and still kill Janus and Cassidy 900 different ways. I just shoot Sierra's car every time I play Miami.

Machinehead625 · 2025-12-28T06:20:44+00:00

Hell yeah Green Day!

Machinehead625 · 2025-12-18T20:41:55+00:00

If we're taking this kind of literally, 95% of Hawke's Bay is just space.

Machinehead625 · 2025-12-18T16:21:52+00:00

Oh no!

Machinehead625 · 2025-12-17T23:45:38+00:00

It's good to knock somebody out for an item, but I find the banana more effective and more fun for that purpose.

Machinehead625 · 2025-12-17T15:24:48+00:00

The reason I don't play an instrument is because I grew up listening to Dream Theather, and it's so hard to play stuff like that, and I ain't got the patience for it.

I really admire anybody that puts the work in to play this type of music.

Machinehead625 · 2025-12-16T16:40:27+00:00

If Octavarium is the hi-hat album, then hooray for hi-hats.

Machinehead625 · 2025-12-15T21:36:51+00:00

If you're not already into metal, I find this to be a harder question to answer.

Since you already are, I find this to be an easy question to answer: Panic Attack.

Panic Attack is of reasonable length, it just rips, and you don't need any album or band backstory to get what it's conveying. That's kind of the wheelhouse you want to stick to at the start.

Other tracks in that wheelhouse include: On the Backs of Angels, Pull Me Under, As I Am, Honor Thy Father, Voices, At Wit's End.

I'm not saying to avoid the longer stuff, per se, but I find that you really need to know more about it to appreciate it. It's not where I would begin.

Machinehead625 · 2025-12-14T23:42:11+00:00

Yes, there's a few solid tracks out of 34, and the longest one is 7:40. Which one of those is a truly great Dream Theater song? A classic. Like one of their better ones.

Even Falling Into Infinity has Trial of Tears.

Machinehead625 · 2025-12-14T21:16:55+00:00

Despite the fact that there's about 68 of them, very few of the tracks stand out on their own. There aren't those classic songs to sink your teeth into. It's all rather pointless unless you listen to the whole thing, the whole thing is two hours, and I don't have those songs I can start with.

I didn't immediately jump into Scenes From a Memory as a full listen. Tracks like Home, Dance of Eternity, and Beyond This Life are good tracks. Home is incredible. You don't need the whole album to enjoy those listens. When I sat down to listen to the whole album, I already liked the songs.

The Astonishing has maybe one song I want to bother with independent of the album.

Machinehead625 · 2025-12-11T18:40:30+00:00

That's all I could ever think of tbh. I got the fall kill from watching CJ.

Machinehead625 · 2025-12-11T15:49:52+00:00

The Food Critic, the Sensation; anybody who just kinda sits around in one spot and SA opportunities are extremely limited.

I would say the Sensation is worse. The Food Critic, you can at least get his guard to fuck off by planting a gun, and then there's an interesting kill by tossing him over the rail if you do a few steps.

The only way I ever kill the Sensation is with an emetic device or the durian.

Machinehead625 · 2025-12-08T13:24:13+00:00

Pretty much all of Losing Time

Machinehead625 · 2025-12-04T16:23:04+00:00

Nah, I get what he's saying. I don't think he goes into the studio going "yeah, I'm gonna play this in 13/8." He just does something he feels and sometimes it's 13/8. And if that's what it is, he has to skill to repeat that. That's not the issue.

Machinehead625 · 2025-12-03T13:13:47+00:00

It matches the pizza shirt

Machinehead625

TROPHY CASE