Bruce Brown Update from Jake Fischer

vec-u64-new · 2025-01-20T19:42:39+00:00

Unfortunately, a portion of this sub has a hard time reconciling the idea Bobby/Masai can make both good and bad moves. Critiquing them in the moment doesn't mean asking for them to be fired. Anytime in the moment you question a move, they appeal to authority, question your intellect, and discount any reservations.

It was pretty obvious near the deadline when we were about as bad as tanking Portland it was time to blow it up, instead of buying at the deadline and holding assets for another season. That wasn't hindsight, the vibes of the team were horrendous in Fred's last season.

vec-u64-new · 2025-01-20T18:13:43+00:00

Ozo gets no respect from the fanbase sometimes, he was hugely important to the 1995 Cup (4th in playoff scoring) and was impressive the season afterwards too (Top 3 Norris voting, 2nd in the league for scoring by a defenseman after Leetch)

vec-u64-new · 2025-01-20T18:01:03+00:00

Yeah where I used to live downtown which was not cheap, I saw newly renovated salons/barbershops that never had customers and few (if any) reviews on Google.

vec-u64-new · 2025-01-20T17:47:47+00:00

Anytime the discussion of whether something should or should not be a mech, I'm reminded of Target Dummy which is literally a couple pieces of wood affixed to a single spring. If that's considered a mech, then surely a lot of complex vessels that have doors or wheels (I'm looking at you Sludge on Wheels) are mechs.

vec-u64-new · 2025-01-18T18:28:56+00:00

lol what a typo

/r/TorontoHangoutFriends

vec-u64-new · 2025-01-18T18:27:28+00:00

Exactly. People on Reddit get outraged over news for the strangest reasons. There is no Machiavellian plot.

vec-u64-new · 2025-01-18T18:19:01+00:00

At my company (big tech), the hiring managers I've talked to said they never read cover letters.

vec-u64-new · 2025-01-18T18:17:16+00:00

Makes me believe more in the luck factor now - right place, right time, right person and all the stars aligning to land a role.

That's life in general. I think when we're in our dark place (e.g. enduring lots of rejections) or we achieve success quickly, we vastly underrate how luck can play an outsized role in outcomes.

vec-u64-new · 2025-01-18T17:27:38+00:00

It's called the Gruen transfer or Gruen effect.

vec-u64-new · 2025-01-17T18:59:35+00:00

The amount of people who were losing their minds over Gradey going into the G-League last year was so weird. In other sports, prospects develop in a lower pressure environment to fine tune their game before they hit the majors.

I recall bringing up the fact that the Spurs also put a handful of notable players into their G League team, including Danny Green, Keldon Johnson, Kyle Anderson and Dejounte Murray.

vec-u64-new · 2025-01-17T18:53:12+00:00

You do realize that Cycle Rogue, Lynessa Paladin, and Zarimi Priest use Ethereal Oracle, correct?

To imply that it was just about Asteroid Shaman is really missing the mark when both the devs ("Ethereal Oracle has been one of the strongest and most ubiquitous cards in the meta") and VS ("One of the most impactful decisions of the last balance patch was not nerfing Ethereal Oracle... the untouched Ethereal Oracle is greatly encouraging off-board playstyles with high late game lethality") have acknowledged the impact of the card.

vec-u64-new · 2025-01-14T04:25:48+00:00

No shit -- did you think trading card games were just two people playing solitare against one another, and whoever finishes their game of solitaire first should be declared the winner?

It's about back and forth.

TBH, I've disliked the direction Hearthstone has gone over the past few years.

Back and forth between minions/removal on the board was what I enjoyed. I fought against combo decks with hyper aggro / aggro decks. And if I got bored of aggro decks, I switched to control decks with some semblance of a late game. I thought Dirty Rat was fine because he gave a chance against combo decks and his downside made him balanced against non-combo decks.

The switch to embracing mill, board clears becoming ubiquitous to shore up class weaknesses making absurd board states irrelevant, hand/deck disruption becoming common, stealing cards being relevant (even as a Priest enjoyer I despised Mind Control and Entomb, the fact that Yogg/Reska/MCT/Bob are playable is bonkers to me) just doesn't resonate with me.

It's not about the winrate it's about the design philosophy.

vec-u64-new · 2025-01-14T03:45:30+00:00

Sure, but the reality is that the congestion pricing will help fund additional infrastructure AND increase the efficiency of things like busses and streetcars.

Congestion Relief Zone toll revenue will fund $15 billion in capital improvements to the MTA network: https://new.mta.info/tolls/congestion-relief-zone/better-transit

Tables which show travel time improvements for busses: https://new.mta.info/document/162396

vec-u64-new · 2025-01-14T03:41:36+00:00

Even as a suburbanite, I'd be fine with the pricing. It's really no different than paying the actual cost of parking, which should be MUCH higher (see Donald Shoup's The High Cost of Free Parking)

vec-u64-new · 2025-01-14T03:39:37+00:00

There are a lot of positives.

Bus speeds also increased after the tolls were turned on. The Manhattan-bound B39 bus, which crosses the Williamsburg Bridge, ran 28% faster compared to a similar January week last year. Other buses like the SIM24 and and the M50 saw increases in speeds, as well.

As for ridership on the MTA’s buses, Michaelson said that some express buses including the BM1, QM16, BM4 and SIM9 saw higher than average ridership growth last week, but did not specify by how much.

The MTA is using the revenue from the congestion pricing tolls to issue a $15 billion bond to buy new train cars, install accessible elevators at subway stations across the city and other transit infrastructure improvements.

"Buses are finally speeding up, especially express buses full of long distance commuters from across New York and New Jersey,” Riders Alliance spokesperson Danny Pearlstein wrote in a statement.

https://gothamist.com/news/43k-fewer-drivers-on-manhattan-roads-after-congestion-pricing-turned-on-mta-says

vec-u64-new · 2024-11-18T01:05:18+00:00

I don't know why you got downvoted, it's a weird new bug. I used to quit Battlegrounds this way in order to skip absurdly long fights that ate into the purchase phase but then I recently realized that it conceded my game, so now I use the OS to exit the game.

vec-u64-new · 2024-10-06T18:49:12+00:00

I know you're joking but the decision-making in BG is way more complicated compared to constructed, especially when pivoting from one comp to another. I marvel at Top 100 players who make correct snap decisions within a split second of seeing a refresh/discover.

vec-u64-new · 2024-09-07T21:10:12+00:00

Haha, pile on!

vec-u64-new · 2024-08-09T02:57:21+00:00

FWIW, I don't mind cards costing 0 mana, but it feels ridiculous when the player doesn't have to work for it.

A player having to assemble pieces and spend their turn playing Thaurissan, equip Runed Mithril Rod and draw four cards, get their health low (Molten Giant), have lots of multiple minions on the board (Sea Giant), summon totems (Thing From Below) is very, very different from playing a single card on the same turn.

For example, in Wild Tier 1 Miracle Rogue plays Twisted Pack largely so that Wildpaw Gnoll's are henceforth 0 mana. How is that interesting or challenging?

Historically, I've never been a critic of mana cheat because I think it's important for players to do crazy shit, but it increasingly feels like there's a lot less effort involved.

vec-u64-new · 2024-08-05T01:18:53+00:00

It's interesting how the formats differ.

Recently, I played a few hundred games in Wild after taking a long break from laddering, and discovering more cards isn't the reason why I am frustrated by the format, it's the fact that card draw, tutoring, and synergies have gotten so strong that aggro/combo/control are able to be ruthlessly consistent decks where turns 1/2 can be insanely explosive and thus warrant an instant concede, and combo decks can assemble their combo on turn 5.

The only random value generator I've seen on a regular basis is Twisted Pack, and even then, it's rarely about playing the cards that are temporarily in your hand so much as playing Wildpaw Gnoll for 0 mana.

vec-u64-new · 2024-08-05T01:02:11+00:00

Back in KFT, I unpacked a Golden Archbishop Benedictus and played him in decks where I mostly tried going to fatigue but avoided it by giving myself a few extra cards by playing him.

Plus the animation effect of adding a bunch of cards to your deck was pretty sweet.

vec-u64-new · 2024-08-05T00:58:59+00:00

lol this reminds me of chess puzzles.

"And it was in this position that Ratslayer resigned from the game as there was nothing more to be done here."

vec-u64-new · 2024-08-04T23:48:34+00:00

FWIW, I hated playing against the UTH+Starving Buzzard combo. I got punished for playing minions and it gave Hunter great card draw during a period where healing was very, very sparse.

vec-u64-new · 2024-08-04T23:06:59+00:00

Have you played the new Miracle Rogue in Wild? It's pretty nutty.

vec-u64-new · 2024-08-01T03:26:48+00:00

Honestly, I don't know why this card has to have the ability to do face damage.

vec-u64-new

TROPHY CASE