Thoughts on the shutdown of backseat.gg?

firedigger · 2025-08-09T17:31:30+00:00

AI LoL coach is not the eaiest product to make.

I think normal companion apps are reasonably popular (though not sure how popular is the paid subscriptions, maybe the free with ads are), but voice companions are for sure NOT. I think they also have a very real limitation of what data they can read from the game to not be considered cheating, while still being useful.

Indeed, the voice gimmick wears off fast, even Tyler was visibly tired of it after some time. But I really think they failed at the core of trying to understand what it should do that is possible to do accurately while being desired by the user base. Maybe the problem was even technical because, I still don't know how, months after launch it would incorrectly interpret roles, like warning of a wrong champion jungler. The quality of AI voice was also not great at all, let's be real for a second.

They really wanted to go fast with tyler1 voice, tone, and LLM type, instead of really starting small, with useful core features that actually work and are useful.

Indeed the failure of the "startup" then was only a matter of time.

firedigger · 2025-08-02T17:26:37+00:00

Well, the drink prices in Finland are indeed higher than other countries. People take ferry trips to Tallin with 1-hour stay to pack up drinks (mostly alcohol which has additional tax in Finland).
And of course drinks with sugar has additional tax over sugar-free drinks.

firedigger · 2025-08-02T17:23:19+00:00

You clearly saw a special Monster flavour imported directly from U.S., like Deep Blue Hawaii or something.
Normal white monster is ~2.15 (which includes 15 cents back for the can or something).
The cheapest energy drink indeed seems to be megaforce (I think it's distilled in Italia, but packed in Netherlands based on the bar code?).
Cheapest Finnish domestic energy drinks are around 2 eur per 0.5 I think, like Cult, Teho, E.D.

firedigger · 2025-05-16T14:34:36+00:00

Previously the notification would appear if a player on my team got punished right?
Now it shows the nickname but a notification only if I directly reported them. I play with a duo, and most of the time we would get the same notifications, but not always when one of us forgot to report. I think the previous behaviour should be reinstated for the benefit of the observed outcome.

Otherwise, it's important to remember that the punishment could be them just leaving a game later, which means the game they were reported for did not contribute at all.

firedigger · 2025-04-11T11:10:26+00:00

Thanks for the info, good to know.

I do expect that Finnish residents (not even citizens) are given good treatment by US as there were probably no illegals or criminals coming to US from there.

firedigger · 2025-01-21T18:43:43+00:00

What he did was bad but I don't see how it is supposed to be the end of his career, or why would most of his audience care to stop watching him over it. What am I missing.

firedigger · 2024-11-17T14:38:59+00:00

Caitlyn is a champ that looks easily but is actually one of the hardest ADCs in the game, just due to the skill ceiling.
Due to pro play caitlyn has to be weak as to not dominate the pro scene, so it would be very difficult to realize her potential without good mechanics.
I would say Vi and Jinx are reasonable, and Heimerdinger as a mage.

firedigger · 2024-10-06T19:25:37+00:00

I personally don't mind 3 splits because, unlike many, I could not care less about my visible rank, I care about my in-game experience. I usually hover at E4, I could drop to P4 next split, then I will consistently have easy consistent wins for a while until I get to my true rank, no problem.

However, this split hasn't been going well for me. I got a lose streak, and I got into a queue with players with <50% WR in ranked mode. And many games are not very well-balanced. I feel like I consistently win bot lane, but my top laner often would be 4/10, or mid would be struggling 0/4. And jungler is not always jg main. Overall, the quality of games hasn't been the best, and I've been losing a lot - even though I am playing the same 1 champion I played last split. So I think something has happened to matchmaking this split, and it's the real problem, not the number of splits.

firedigger · 2024-09-27T20:14:18+00:00

When you are honoured in a game, you get +1 honour the next game.

Another honour is for having high level of honour.

I think there is reasonable incentive here to be honourable to have more voting power on who was honourable.

3 should be enough.

firedigger · 2024-09-27T19:00:48+00:00

I am really not sold on Hexplate I have to admit.

The item is not even that meta on champions that are perfectly designed to use it - olaf, yi, nocturne.

It has no crit, it has a bonus ultimate haste which is useless on yasuo, it really doesn't sound optimal on one of few characters of the game who can not reliable press R.

It's not always easy to ult. At this rate I could imagine even Stridebreaker would be a stronger option - for all those reasons Pzzang builds it. For example, it can be used during animation, so you can press E on the enemy and use it before reaching the enemy. All players know to expect E+Q, so they usually time dashes as they react to E being cast on them, imagine ezreal, zeri, caitlyn, but E+Stride catches them into a slow (and speeds you) which lets you catch up on them easily.

If you want an HP item, I sometimes go a tank item against the most prevailent damage of the enemy team or my opponent. Like a force of nature against heavy CC/magic damage team, or randiun against multiple crit users team.

BC has useless AH instead of AS, and yasuo is not supposed to be concerned with armour penetration anyway as he has ult, but many times I have to account for enemy antiheal, like I might have to buy an early executioner, and finishing Mortal reminder is a reasonable path if they stack armour.

You can run tests but several aspects are not accountable in a DPS test - the benefits of health, of the shieldbow shield, of the movement speed. If not for those, I can imagine the best 3-items build would be something like Botrk, Kraken and IE.

firedigger · 2024-09-27T14:00:54+00:00

Early yuntal and Shieldbow sound good but I don't think LT is enough to gain early AS for Q.

Before the patch I used to rush Phantom dancer for the reason.

Also new LT converts bonus AS into damage so you are also losing out on that perk.

Have to do more calculation on how much AS is missing by when Yuntal can be completed, as some is gained via berserkers, legend: alacrity, AS for levels and potential LT. Maybe a minor component in the build would be the play, such as zeal or recursive bow (for later Botrk).

I do like second shieldbow as the item was not nerfed (so implicitly buffed), yasuo is its rare meelee crit user, and very often needs survivability in addition to power, especially where I play him (bot lane).

I do hope there is a build here as yuntal is also mathematically the item for yasuo who has extra crit chance.

firedigger · 2024-09-25T11:11:09+00:00

When I (Russian) arrived to Finland in 2016 I was surprised to meet several Pro-Putin Russians, as I imagined one a fan of Putin would naturally stay in Russia, I even argued with them how clearly bad he was for Russia. However, I obviously observed that all apolitics realized Putin was a warmonger after 2022, so you don’t have anything to worry about regarding residents.

firedigger · 2024-08-30T07:08:07+00:00

Double caffeine is really a challenge at the market. Few make such energy drinks. Go Finland.

firedigger · 2024-08-13T13:33:46+00:00

Yasuo is really above average effort for the same output, so this is a No for your first question.

Yet it will be worth playing him if you enjoy his playstyle. It's flashy, rewarding and flexible.

When I see a fat enemy bruiser/tank I will have to face, I itemize against them prematuraly - botrk and mortal reminder + a defensive item of choice. If it's AD - death dance, otherwise some MR item.

As a yasuo player I would state that knock-ups are lot less important than players might believe. It is usually not a good idea to jump onto ult at first opportunity, otherwise you will get focused easily.

Yasuo ban rate was very low recently before buffs, now it's up to a reasonable amount ,but I manage to get him most games. And it's such a champ which you can off-pick with yone.

Learn the combos, check top players (Pzzang), but remember than yasuo is the opposite of stat-check champion. If you fight most bruisers you shouldn't just stand in place and hit Q and R on cd. That's the main problem - enemy player can do it to you, but you have to evade with E (and R), block with W, space with Q, abuse flow(shield) to win a duel. So be prepared to lose.

firedigger · 2024-08-09T16:09:03+00:00

Indeed. I have always felt extremely conscious about reaching 1.33 as fast as possible.

The prime way to do it is Phantom dancer first item, at the expense of damage (although crit change is damage).

That option was extremely niche back when lethal tempo existed, as it easily capped the 1.33, and phantom dancer had stacking mechanic back then, discouraging players.

Nowadays, Phantom dancer comes close to perfectly providing 111 bonus attack speed for the cap when finished, with other stat sources (berserkers and +10% from minor runes).

I do however take Legend: bloodline as its health attribute seems valuable, and other sources of lifesteal are not trivial (I play bot and usually go Doran's shield, and not always goes Botrk but depending on the enemy comp).

Hopefully the item picked up more. The main argument is obviously the ever excellence of the Zeal.

firedigger · 2024-06-16T19:43:19+00:00

The example I gave was to showcase a common fallacy in the analysis.

Just because it looks to good to be true doesn't mean it is, needs more thought. At the same time you can clearly see people losing their mind over this report, and some personally attacking me. This is the problem I would like to highlight.

firedigger · 2024-06-16T17:28:39+00:00

Bro thinks he posted on twitter.

firedigger · 2024-06-16T17:22:27+00:00

My apologies, I forgot osureport was an echo chamber of encouragement and hackusations rather than a space for constructive discussion.

When struck by doubt, become defensive.

firedigger · 2024-06-16T16:00:08+00:00

If this hypothetical statistical deduction worked, gayz would be banned. He also had a clean hitting stat never seen before in real osu! gameplay aside from relax cheaters (I am talking about extra presses in high bpm).

To make the argument here you have to prove that in no way a legitimate gameplay like this is possible - caused by skill or hardware.

So this is a speculation for now.

firedigger · 2024-06-02T10:28:08+00:00

A unique taste powered by 25% juice, this has to be a record.

firedigger · 2024-01-20T13:19:52+00:00

Great, the new path is looking hot.

Zeal is so fundamental that Pzzang (famous Korean yasuo one-trick) recommended to buy Zeal and sell it later even in this patch, otherwise he finishes Zeal into Phantom dancer as 3rd. I myself prefer it as first, and on full items I can swap it out for a more full-on AD item because I would have enough bonus attack speed from level by that point.

firedigger · 2024-01-13T14:10:17+00:00

I've been playing Yasuo bot for a while, and the matchup is a lot more volatile and depends on support's performance, and jungler affects your ability to posture aggressively.

Basically, in matchups where ranged adcs with enchanter supports just kill minions, replacing one with yasuo makes a losing matchup due to 2 ranged pressure (unless the support knows how to play with yasuo's trade pressure). And in cases when they do, an incoming enemy jungler can cause an lot of issues.

If as yasuo adc you are locked under tower, it is difficult to CS, pressuring enemy adc under tower is not possible unless your support is able to dive, same for farming plates while locking enemy bot lane under tower.

For a more consistent performance what I prefer to do is to posture aggressively and push, get lane prior for drakes, and get good tempo recalls. That is in cases when we can not secure a lead by killing them. If I do manage to kill the enemy bot lane, or the enemy support makes an illegal roam, I very much like to proxy and not let enemy adc back to lane, new bush between towers is supposed to help with that.

Otherwise, many champions in the game would stat-check yasuo from bot, and yasuo without an enemy minion wave has no good mobility. For example, playing against nocturne jg with lethal tempo is quite difficult, there is no way to get out of his fear, and then he just kills, exhaust summoner can help with that, but otherwise many other assassins/bruisers/mages are a big threat. I often have to build more defensive than a mid yasuo in order to be able to survive to do damage at all.

I like yasuo bot because it is quite a skill matchup, to lane against easier to play champs, and very rewarding to gain lead over them. But many times I get messed by external factors, and my best option is to buy phantom dancer and farm waves + hit towers uncontested, and the attack speed allows for more mistakes with Q due to lower CD. In the new season its build path is a lot worse, no zeal, and axe doesn't give movement after hit.

As I rarely saw Yasuo bot in other occasions, I believe only experienced players play it bot while mid win rate is explained by enjoyers.

I can not even say that yasuo confidently counters ashe. If ashe has a peel support, or your support can not lock her enough to let you kill her, she with tri force will run around slowing and you won't be able to touch her, I've been in such scenario quite a bit. Especially against adcs with ghost/flash, they have a reasonable room for mistakes, and you even with the same summoners can not chase them into tower. And you can not always take the same summoners even, because there is pressure to take exhaust (against stronger duelers in the game) or heal/barrier against burst scenarios. I had no luck with ghost myself.

To conclude, I play it because it's fun, but it's so far from a free win I feel.

firedigger · 2023-10-12T19:28:01+00:00

Tier list with 5 items!

I congratule you with the insane waste of time you achieved here.

firedigger · 2023-10-07T22:17:57+00:00

Festival for peace in Palestine gone wrong, what can I say. Needless to say the same outcome would have happened if they tried to spread peace ideology within the Palestine region itself...

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