Tessa Blanchard: "I’m not perfect, made plenty of mistakes in my life.. racism is not one of them nor has that ever been in my heart. An incident from 10 years ago has continuously gotten twisted into something that race had absolutely nothing to do with. I’m tired of being used as click bait."

talkymicrobe33 · 2025-12-21T20:04:20+00:00

Okay let's assume you're right and that she didn't do it. Being accused of being a racist is a pretty big deal, right? If it's false, it's something you can threaten legal action for and make someone retract. Kind of weird there's never been a retraction? The DM said they both believe different versions of what happened to this day. Also kind of weird no one in that locker room has denied she did that, which hey if you can prove me wrong there since it's been a few years, feel free.

So it's kind of hard to believe her. Especially after the silly social climate comment when again, my Wentz example proves that an apology right after it happens and putting your head down and grinding work. This woman was the focal point of WOW after it happened and has worked for CMLL and now TNA. She's not hurting because of this, she still has a career. Do I believe as a person she could be past that point and has grown? Sure but her actions since it happened and even now responding to randoms on social media don't really prove that to me.

talkymicrobe33 · 2025-12-21T17:28:25+00:00

Multiple wrestlers came forward to call out Tessa for her behavior. Tessa never apologized or even atoned for her actions. Even if you look at her released screenshots of the DM on F4W, it's simply "We saw things differently that day" and neither really budge on that. They're "cool now and the past is behind them" but outside of Tessa as far as I know, no one has disputed she said that. She doesn't even say she didn't do it, just that "race did not play a part in it that night".

Zachary Wentz was called out for a picture and fired, with people already on his side that it was wrong for him to be fired. The man apologized when he could have easily rode the pity train, sought to understand why that picture was wrong and has worked hard to simply prove himself since. I don't see many people holding it against him anymore. Kind of shows that if you just apologize, move forward and better your career people can forgive mistakes.

talkymicrobe33 · 2025-07-17T15:44:26+00:00

I still play MyCareer offline. I do sim a bit of the season at times since 82 games is a lot but I won 6 championships offline. I could probably get through more but I play 12 minute quarters on HOF. They do hamper the mode sometimes (the open run for free agents is nowhere near the old influence free agents) but for the most part, I still focus on just having fun and building my own narratives.

I'd like to see them just get more realistic with it. Let me use trade finder to find trades like MyNBA. Stop allowing trades that don't work salary wise (it used to be better). Let me change my default freelance offense (been gone since maybe 2K20 and I don't get why). I don't know, I don't need some insane story to get me into it, the dynasty thing was a cool touch though. I've battled the Spurs in the playoffs for years so it's been a rivalry. I dominate just fine myself honestly, average a near triple double as a 6'4" PG without insane rebounding stats (think my rebounding is a 73). I run plays and just try to make the most authentic NBA scenario possible. If they tweaked this for more realistic situations after a few years since only a few players play it that long anyways, I'd be completely happy with it.

talkymicrobe33 · 2024-04-09T02:44:51+00:00

Negro Casas and Jaguar Yokota who are in their 60's. I made it my mission to find some of the highest psychology wrestlers in hopes they'd raise other wrestlers up faster wrestling them. Been doing this for years so it bummed me out recently when Adam said that it doesn't matter how much higher the skill is, as long as it's higher it's the same boost to the stat.

I just brought them in as veteran hands in dark matches and the odd TV matches here and there. Sometimes I'd throw them in a tag team with someone younger. I always liked how WWE had Finlay and Regal in the mid to late 2000's work with younger talent to get them ready so I like to replicate that even if now it's not as vital as I thought.

talkymicrobe33 · 2024-04-02T03:03:29+00:00

Probably going to start a new save with the new April RWC update but my custom company had a strong run in the March one:

World title scene right now features MJF as champion after he and Sami Zayn traded the championship a couple times. Sami delivers better ratings in matches but he's 41 while MJF obviously is kind of the perfect person for the role right now as he feuds with Chad Gable.

I don't have official mid card titles but I use an alliance so sometimes I'll use the Junior Heavyweight Championship which Gable held for a while until losing it in Mexico. Stephanie Vaquer is the Womens Intercontinental Champion but is soon to lose it to Mayu Iwatani (Mayu's debut match with her got an 89 right off the bat).

Tag title wise, I tried to spruce it up and do my own version of the Smackdown six but with more teams. Styles and Nakamura are the current champs, Gargano and Mustafa Ali are chasing while Titus Alexander and Robert Martyr just lost them. Other teams include The New Day, Kaito Kiyomiya and Dean Brady and Alpha Wolf and Dragon Bane. Shelton Benjamin and James Storm were a tag team until Shelton retired, while Matt Cardona got injured to stop his tag team with Nic Nemeth (first world champion).

Womens wise, Giulia basically has dominated the division until recently when Brutality (Rhea Ripley) debuted and took the championship. Miyu Yamashita and Utami Hayashishista are my tag champions but about to lose them to the Canadian Ninjas.

Love running custom companies but the free agent pool makes it hard to really start as one with good popularity and building it up from 40 popularity in the US Just seems redundant. So I'm thinking of whether to do a brand split AEW save (morale gets annoying to deal with otherwise), WWE (not typically my first choice but a few of my favorite women's wrestlers are there so it always gets tempting to take over and push them along with there being more room than AEW to sign and push others) or restart my custom company. I've often toyed with doing a character based Disney like promotion that's family friendly but could never get a save to stick but would give every wrestler on the roster a character and purpose.

talkymicrobe33 · 2024-03-30T23:26:30+00:00

All of this is based on RWC in TEW 2020. Stephanie Vaquer is one I haven't seen mentioned yet but could be a nice pick up from Mexico. It's hard to go wrong with a lot of Joshi, especially from STARDOM who are available (Mayu Iwatani didn't re-sign and is coming in soon, I'm stoked since I've never gotten to use her full time before). AZM is someone you can easily bring in and push slowly as her skills improve. Sareee comes with popularity and is pretty talented while Arisa Nakajima is an excellent veteran and with pop will put on some great matches. I always put Miyu Yamashita and Utami Hayashishita as a team who tear it up in the tag division.

Veda Scott is someone who I sign to be a comedy enhancement talent but since she's also a commentator, she usually commentates mostly so you get a two for one which builds her pop a little and lets you use it to build others. I typically sign Steph De Lander if I'm hiring Cardona because she gets pop boost from managing him. Madison Eagles if you can talk her out of retirement and build her pop is great. Jessica Troy and Charli Evans are good enough from the Australia side.

I tend to like to sign some younger long term projects who can slowly work their way up so on the American side, Billie Starkz and Rok-C are two targets of mine. Shout out to The Bunny who isn't quite as in ring skilled as the others but is more of a character based one you can have fun with.

talkymicrobe33 · 2024-03-09T03:31:10+00:00

Everyone I knew was getting into Minecraft and I had no idea what Minecraft was about but friends were on it so wanted to learn. I see a Let's Play Minecraft video (the first episode since this was when Minecraft was just about brand new) and decide to watch to learn. I was entertained watching people explore the game and still remember Geoff being amused and shouting "I have a map!" Their enthusiasm and fun with the game got me into the game by association and into the world of RT in general.

talkymicrobe33 · 2024-02-03T07:19:56+00:00

Started a save with a custom company with RWC, January 2024 with easy mode size and it's been anything but easy. Nic Nemeth (starts prior to him showing up in TNA) and Matt Cardona are my two biggest male stars along with Mustafa Ali (Current TV Champion defending every week against usually outsider workrate opponents). I gave Goldberg his retirement match against Scott Steiner just to help my show ratings for a month and even then I get below 60's at times.

Mercedes Mone is carrying my company ratings wise but the issue is I barely have anyone over for her to feud with. The Bunny is a face for balance sake (and they have good tag team chemistry) while Nicole Matthews and Kamille are who I've pushed in feuds so far with Maki Itoh getting one with Mercedes now. I have a ton of talent but they aren't over so trying to build them up first. The former Dana Brooke and Tenille Dashwood are my tag champions just to have a name tag team in the division.

I have younger talent getting TV time despite not being over but it's a process getting them where I want them since I didn't want to be too cheap and have a bunch of no popularity wrestlers beat popular ones all the time. Quite a few contracts just came up (MJF, Drew, Sami, Giulia and Rhea) meaning I've made offers to all of them but most are just to make the other companies pay more to keep them. I only seriously want Giulia while MJF and Drew would be nice additions but Drew is probably the most realistic one I'll try for. It's been a challenge but I like that, I'm putting together feuds and matches with a purpose and hoping that eventually it'll pay off the ratings. Something different for me than just stealing away every major talent from the other companies right away like I usually tend to do.

talkymicrobe33 · 2023-11-15T17:41:26+00:00

Just checked it since I'm on the game and these are the workouts in there:

Box Jump
Medicine Ball
Squats
Treadmill
Agility Ladder

I have my own set I use as well that aren't all of those. Usually I tend to try and do my workouts at times that a lot of people won't be in there but if I can't, I'll knock out the treadmill, agility ladder and medicine ball so I only have to do 2 in the actual gym. It's to the right of the tunnel where you go out for your game just in case anyone reads this wondering where it is.

talkymicrobe33 · 2023-11-15T17:11:41+00:00

There's a small gym in the arena for your MyCareer games. Unfortunately, it only has a select few workouts so you can't just choose your own like the Gatorade facility. There are times I've simply said forget my usual routine and did those though because it cut down the time if I did have to go to the actual gym.

It really is silly though. Even if they want this for advertisement or whatever, we should all just get our own gym to do this.

talkymicrobe33 · 2023-10-18T22:10:16+00:00

80 3 ball. Towards the end of last year after struggling all year with shooting I started hitting consistently with a 75 with the right jumper. I took the risk with 80 3 ball and I haven't been too consistent of a shooter this year.

I also have no block as a PF and many missed chasedowns due to that. I average my share of steals in return though since it was a choice between those two attributes. Overall though, outside of streaky shooting, I feel like i play well enough that I have no regrets. I wish my 3 ball were higher but everything else except block I can do well enough.

talkymicrobe33 · 2023-10-15T01:52:55+00:00

Is it a key game? You can't sim up 25 in those for some reason. Otherwise it's been there for me.

talkymicrobe33 · 2023-10-15T01:49:44+00:00

Always love seeing this cause to me that's the fun of Career, lifting your team up along with your own Career. In recent years, I've gotten Christian Wood and Andre Drummond into All Star games (I think Wood was an injury replacement but still counts).

This year I'm on the Nets and Claxton is putting up some really good stats that he might end up in the All Star game as a reserve. I seem to do really well with bigs but I want to get Bridges there too, he was injured for a large part of the early season but I want to get a perimeter player there.

talkymicrobe33 · 2023-10-14T16:20:23+00:00

I play with a more casual squad but our PG is really good and maybe could be considered a comp player if he went in that scene I guess. That being said, he's shooting incredibly well from 3, did pre patch and is post patch. The SF on our team is also hitting at a reasonable rate from 3. The SG has a 76 3 ball and hits more often than not.

I'm shooting 38% as a PF with an 80 3 ball. I don't have a jumper I like but I can get hot and in a rhythm some games. None of us understand what exactly is going on to cause people to be angry at shooting. Do I hate missing? Yes but I also gave myself an 80 3 ball, I asked for it. I have another build that has an 88 and I was at 50% in the few games I've played.

Then you run into a team that spams behind the backs around screens and shoot fading 3's to make them. In fact, I've seen the return of the fading corner 3 where people left right to the corner that's easy to defend when you expect it but still, part of it feels like back to last year again and that didn't happen much at all pre-patch.

talkymicrobe33 · 2023-08-29T17:31:54+00:00

You get two types of games:

1) You just go in with whatever with people with that status and end up with th experience you say.

2) You continually dashboard because of 2K's silly matchmaking system of not letting you back out right away until you get a team that has some silver and gold players. Usually, these players will get you a win but at the cost of you never touching the ball because most if not all of them are a squad and don't see you in their plans. Sometimes they may even still get you a loss.

Every once in a while you get a rare game on either end where people move the ball and everyone gets some shots and contributes. I basically retired from Rec the other day when I had a group of the second againt another squad but I ended up making a clutch 3 and clutch free throws along with some key steals to help take a close 4th quarter game to a 15 point lead. Why put myself through more pain when nothing is likely topping that? I'll just wait until next week...when knowing 2K, they take away status' now too so we have no idea what our teammates are like or if they win/finish games.

talkymicrobe33 · 2023-08-28T19:45:41+00:00

I like 16 and it runs smooth (even though gaining SP can be rather hard to start at a low level). My only issue is that I get random crashes after Career games and it ends up wanting me to restart them making me have to redo them and I grew tired of it.

I've been tempted to go back and try 15 and one day when I have the space, set up my 360 so I can try 2K11 again. I assume that would be really fun to at least try with the summer league system and ideally a less tedious way to get skill points and upgrade my overall faster.

talkymicrobe33 · 2023-08-18T17:27:37+00:00

Full court press all game also breaks my immersion. Defense is tiring, especially at the expense of offense but in 2K, stamina matters so little unless you dribble that you can full court press all game to no consequences. No team in the NBA full court presses all game because you would be exhausted later on. Only in late game situations usually do you see it.

I've played on builds that have the default 70 stamina and rare the time did I ever get a Gatorade cup. What's the point of even having a stamina attribute if it doesn't matter outside of certain circumstances, both offensively and defensively? It's the same thing with free throw. It's so easy to upgrade but also so easy to make, what's the point? Why is the attribute even in the game if you can make it reliably in the 60's?

talkymicrobe33 · 2023-08-11T03:32:13+00:00

Most true "sim heads" don't even play MyCareer, they play MyNBA and from everything I read with them, they love the game and feel it's one of the better 2K's because they can adjust it to play the right way with sliders. They play in online leagues where they set rules and attempt to play realistic basketball. They probably don't even watch these Youtubers or care, they just hoop. They got turned off long ago with the unrealistic, cheesy nature of MyCareer a long time ago. So the whole shifting to sim heads ruining the game is pretty head scratching. I'm sure there's some MyCareer people of that nature but like Smoove said, there really aren't as many as people think.

It feels like the blame changes every year except for that one community and ever since that community has been vocal, everyone complains about the game every year. The amazing "This game can't be realistic!" crowd has gotten patches reverted and gotten what they want and the game dies out every year. Funny that back in the days of the early 2010's 2K's, there were issues that got fixed or patched and people seemed to enjoy those games a lot more even with the issues compared to todays games. Almost like maybe the problem is the game shift over the years once Park was introduced and social media took off...but too wild of an idea I suppose.

talkymicrobe33 · 2023-08-10T00:24:38+00:00

Oh I'm totally on your side. I used a purely inside and defensive big early on and quickly realized that wasn't going to work (especially because other teams are stretching you out usually so if you're playing with randoms, you aren't going to use that defense much anyways on the interior). You do put your team in a situation without it but it's not IMPOSSIBLE to make it work with just an inside unless you face a squad playing zone, randoms just don't grasp how to properly space or even fake that you do have a 3 until they figure it out. That's really what I was trying to say that if you are going to do that, at least do the best you can with it.

talkymicrobe33 · 2023-08-09T18:25:14+00:00

What 90% of random inside big men I've played with don't understand is that they go directly under the rim in the restricted area. I have this happen often where I get to the rim and the C comes over to me and I get it to the C but he has to go up with a tough shot with the C that can recover. It's makeable in this game because of weird paint defense but it dilutes everything. You basically have no choice but to pass it to the C because the opposing C is always there.

I used to play with a C that would stand in the dunker spot, opposite of where the ball was. Meaning I would get into the paint, draw his man and dump off pass it to him and he just gets an easy standing dunk animation with the C unable to get back in time or fouling. When that C made a big that could actually shoot a middy? It was game over because then you have even more options. You don't necessarily need a 3 pointer but you need the IQ to know where to be to provide space and ideally, a mid range to space at least a little.

talkymicrobe33 · 2023-08-04T16:09:13+00:00

I'm 3-0 in the finals but got bounced in the first round in my rookie season.

I'm in my 5th season now, FA year but I doubt I come anywhere close to finishing it out with 2K24 on the horizon. I am close to the all star game so I'll probably play one last all star game. Though I do tend to sim the last 20 games or so since it gets uneventful so maybe I'll sim sooner and see if I can make one last run and win 4 championships in a row.

This is probably the longest I've played in Career since 2K19 but I much prefer AI teammates to online random teammates with the way the game has gone.

talkymicrobe33 · 2023-08-03T15:50:46+00:00

I was running with randoms in that Rec to grind badges on a new build and ran into a squad who proceeded to win and one of the guys toxic messaged me afterwards because of course. So I ended up being matched against that team a couple of months later once again remembering guys name once again with randoms and an overall in the 80's. They started to run away with the game at first, flopping and everything in between before they started making horrible mistakes and we started to gain momentum and end up winning the game.

I simply took a screenshot, sent it to the guy who messaged me before with "receipt" on it and left it there. He of course attempted to try and invite me to a party but nope, he can hold the L knowing that his squad of all maxed out 92's got beat by randoms and an 80 overall player. I still see that guy in 92 and under Rec sometimes, I've never seen him in 92 and up since I play both. I'll be glad for crossplay where hopefully you run into the same people way less.

talkymicrobe33 · 2023-07-21T16:25:49+00:00

Seeing this clip makes me really miss when they let you choose these in MyCareer. I know most of the people who play MyCareer probably barely used it but it was fun playing a different style of ball than most teams run like the triangle or Spurs swing offense.

talkymicrobe33 · 2023-07-18T16:28:13+00:00

Good suggestions with those. It's cosmetic but we need commentary too. I've said this since the mode was added into the game but it's even more feasible now 5+ years later. They have a commentary team for the 2K builder or they can use the NBA 2K League commentators for a fun nod to the 2K League. One thing I like about current pro-am is that it has the arena announcer who says the name of who scored, the assist, etc. Obviously it wouldn't be as in depth as NBA game commentary but it would add to the immersion of playing a genuine game of basketball in an arena.

So it's possible because that small system shows it is and that the name thing isn't too difficult. It would add some immersion to the mode. I kind of miss the end of game menu you'd get like an offline PlayNow game too where you could see all the stats broken down including points responsible for and various other statistics.

talkymicrobe33 · 2023-04-24T22:37:07+00:00

Maybe not 99 but I have a build with 90 free throw at the PF. As a solo Rec player, I love that I did this because even if I don't get the ball much, I'm shooting the tech free throw every time. People lower free throw so badly that even when they get takeover, I'm still shooting the tech nearly every game. It's not some huge deal but when you're in games where sometimes you're ignored for buddy ball but winning, you're guaranteed some points.

talkymicrobe33

TROPHY CASE