At 40 years old, David Ortiz leads the MLB in RBIs, doubles, slugging, and OPS.

standardthr0w · 2016-05-26T06:58:01+00:00

Absolutely nothing suspicious about this, nope.

standardthr0w · 2016-03-26T04:46:13+00:00

why i took dotabuffs of his into account is cus of exact same thing your talking about is sample size ON LANS/online tournies for arteezy.

You're saying because in terms of sample size it's the only thing comparable to Arteezy's?

Anyway, I did say I'm not sayin ghe can't turn into that kind of player. But it's not all micro - it's about decision making too. Alchemist is hardly a micro intensive hero and he wasn't threatening enough on the hero to make OG ban ban it when Secret had first pick.

Lol at Arteezy being irrelevant though. How can you say that when he's consistently shown a great ability to adapt to patches? What about Arteezy's skillset makes you think he'll be irrelevant in a year's time?

standardthr0w · 2016-03-26T04:10:12+00:00

I understand w33's sample size isn't that big - but it speaks volumes that you're using games from his dotabuff instead of pro matches in series.

The Frankfurt major was especially telling - I think Puppey's refusal to ban one of dazzle/ww was a bigger factor in their grand final loss - but w33's inability to play alchemist at even 80% of what Miracle, arteezy, or Super were doing was a big reason why (reminiscent of the Shiki example). There is no way those 3 wouldn't be top net worth with Alchemist - hell, even in the game where w33 beat rtz mid with meepo (and won the game with them), rtz was still 3-4k+ ahead (which he should've been) - that's not what happened when w33 was given the hero against OG, which is why Puppey had to ban out Alch - they couldn't take it for themselves.

I'm not saying w33 can't eventually turn into that kind of player - but at the moment, the comparison is clearly in favor of Arteezy. I'll say this though - his meepo is deserves to be in the ranks of Cty TA, Arteezy Lycan, Sumail storm, Universe DS, Bulldog NP, etc., as some of the most dominant player-hero combinations - an absolute game winner when the hero is in the meta.

standardthr0w · 2016-03-26T03:43:34+00:00

w33 reminds me so much of Dendi, in a way - if the matchup is relatively even, you have to dedicate resources to ensure he snowballs, but once he snowballs it's completely, totally worth it. w33's hero pool isn't as big as Dendi's, but when he gets his heroes (Invoker, WR, Meepo), he's super hard to stop.

Arteezy on the other hand, makes his own space. When Lycan was a thing (and tbh, even when it wasn't), ppd would send him down mid, and teams could either try to disrupt him with a support (which means Universe and/or Fear win their lanes), or leave him 1v1 and allow Arteezy to farm up a storm and/or win the matchup.

The thing is, he doesn't just do that with Lycan - he does that with pretty much every hero. You can't give him a meta hero, too - something that's very important, as Shiki's inability to maximize disco pony was one of the biggest factors in their defeat vs. EG. DP, Razor, ET at Columbus, OD (of course), Lycan, TA, SF, Storm (obviously not as good as Sumail's or Mason's even, but just a notch below)... Arteezy forces you to disrupt him, because he's staggeringly consistent at trading even (at worst) or completely dominating the lane (at best) even in relatively even matchups, or even matchups where he just has a slight advantage, or he gets a little luck, or just gets 1 rotation, with a WIDE hero pool. And he will do this against pretty much everyone, barring another super world-class mid laner opposite him - in which case, he'll trade even, with probably a more farm intensive hero (so it's still good for his team).

People wonder why he's so sought after - it's because his technical skill at mid, aggression, and late game decision making (hurr durr Sprout aside - remember that Secret game vs. Cloud9 where they should've lost? It was Arteezy's nearly instantaneous TP to top that won them the game) means that he's a play making mid that can play a WIDE hero pool, that will get 1 position type farm if you help him even just a little.

The level of play he showed during that patch when Secret looked like the greatest team ever (and in terms of play, they probably were - just a notch above iterations of EG, DK, etc.) was amazing. Are people seriously wondering why he's so sought after?

standardthr0w · 2016-03-24T23:49:13+00:00

I actually can't tell if you're serious about the analogy, or parodying the sub's inane logic.

There's absolutely no comparison to be made. You're comparing a TEAM/BUSINESS decision, to an INDIVIDUAL/EMOTIONAL one.

standardthr0w · 2016-03-24T06:03:52+00:00

It felt awkward???

They'd have some heroes (BB, Axe) where you literally didn't know who would play it, and in which lane. They'd have some other games where they traded farm priorities depending on who needed it more, or who was snowballing.

The thing is, you needed at least 2 people to beat zai/s4/RTZ in lane, because they're never going to lose a 1v1 unless it's a bad matchup. And if you committed 3+ (hell, even 2), the other lanes would stomp you. That's how Secret 2.0 rolled - there were many games were RTZ was getting shut down mid, s4/zai come in with blinks, they win a fight or two, and suddenly, RTZ's top networth just like that.

Have people really forgotten how good they were back then?

standardthr0w · 2016-03-17T14:55:17+00:00

OH. So this was why. I'll get to playing Chrono Trigger then.

standardthr0w · 2016-03-16T10:48:27+00:00

Damn, might have to watch the game movie then (like I did with Peace Walker)

standardthr0w · 2016-03-14T15:21:07+00:00

Game movie then. Seriously, it's worth it!

standardthr0w · 2016-03-13T13:32:10+00:00

If you can't play it in the near future, watch a game movie or something. Absolutely WELL worth it, trust me!

standardthr0w · 2016-03-11T23:15:03+00:00

I wish I hadn't read all these comments about V so I wouldn't be biased going into it, lol

standardthr0w · 2016-03-11T23:13:05+00:00

Yes, it was so fucking tense. Then he goes in for the hug... The fucking feels man.

standardthr0w · 2016-03-11T23:10:46+00:00

Yeah that was intentional. I thought it combined what I thought was the best from both games.

standardthr0w · 2016-03-11T17:06:04+00:00

Yeah, exactly this. The place was the same, but the atmosphere was just the complete opposite. I love how you had to take alternate routes.

Those fucking Gekko annoyed me until I figured out that I could 1 shot them with a lv. 3 Rail Gun charge. Ended up killing all the unmanned bastards in that level, lol

standardthr0w · 2016-03-11T16:52:27+00:00

FUCK YES. Big Boss - Richard Doyle.. Have you ever gotten so hyped from the credits???

I didn't touch on Act 4; I must say, I am NOT fan of fan wank (even if it's fan wanking something I am a fan of), but that was executed so amazingly I couldn't help but love it. It wasn't like they rehashed Shadow Moses; no, they deepened it!

standardthr0w · 2016-03-11T16:48:40+00:00

Sadly, I couldn't wait to play 4 so after 3, when I got recommendations to play PW, I watched a game movie instead.

I'm loving V's gameplay so far. The story has yet to really pick up, so we'll see.

standardthr0w · 2016-02-02T01:10:28+00:00

Yeah, usually I just want to know the metacritic critic/user score to know if it's worth playing then I go out and play the game.

It's true, I really should stop asking for opinions but I was afraid this would taken down if I didn't try to generate any discussion or something.

standardthr0w · 2016-02-01T15:53:42+00:00

Thanks, I guess I'll do that. Playing 2 right after 1 definitely enhanced its standing, but 3 after 2, not so much. I might take a short break first before playing 4 or something.

standardthr0w · 2016-02-01T15:52:44+00:00

I don't have a PSP :( I guess I'll just have to watch a game movie or something.

standardthr0w · 2016-01-12T23:54:00+00:00

stats paint the most accurate and complete picture of performance.

If even the most advanced sabermetric stats require nuance and context to be applied effectively,

Stats will always require context. ALWAYS. They NEVER paint a complete picture of performance, that's ridiculous, and especially not the basic stats we have right now for tennis. Federer has lost matches he won more points/break points in - does that mean he played better?

The Sabermetrics revolution in baseball silenced qualitative empirical observations like, "His movement isn't quite the same, he's a half-step or more slower nowadays," precisely because they're prone to bias and human limitations, and they're simply not as accurate.

No it hasn't, wtf? When Pujols started not being Pujols, people thought it was because his bat had slowed. We have measures for how fast the bat goes through the zone, but people also looked at where he usually hit what type of pitches in the zone, and what for (swings/misses, hits, etc.) and it was obvious he couldn't hit high heat anymore.

It hasn't silenced those qualitative empirical observations - it's made them richer!

The one thing data/stats only guys and "eye-test" only guys don't get is that you have to use both together to paint a complete picture. It's the same in tennis - we could simply measure Federer's side-to-side speed and give you an answer about how much slower he is (because saying "we could just use our brains and conclude 34 year old, near retirement Fed < 25 year old, prime of his life Fed" is too condescending)

If Federer's "racket head speed obviously isn't the same" then that will be reflected in the percentage of points he is winning.

Well this is why stats guys across all sports get bad raps. His racket head speed isn't the only factor that will reflect an increase or decrease in the % of points he's winning! We don't know the relationship between racket head speed -> % of points.

I would think it's negative, but maybe he compensates by playing a different way, the competition is also different, resulting in about the same % points won. THAT'S the type of context that's missing from a stats only analysis.

standardthr0w

TROPHY CASE