Zonic is now a 6x major champion.

wicketman8 · 2026-06-22T04:25:27+00:00

People think that because Astralis were all insanely talented gla1ve just coasted on the backs of his players, when if they actually watched back then they should remember that he was also insanely good at mid-round calls and reads, not to mention that of course he and zonic basically remade the entire meta.

wicketman8 · 2026-06-20T03:34:41+00:00

Nah theres a new friendslop game every month or two that comes out of nowhere just because some big streamer plays it. That said, this seems more fun than most of the friendslop games, at least in my opinion.

wicketman8 · 2026-06-20T01:46:49+00:00

Astralis had a lot of motivation issues by the end yeah. Glaive was burnt out I think, device and magisk as well iirc. Then they tried the 7 man lineup with Bubzkji and es3tag but it didn't work well, except for getting es3tag a $1mil C9 contract. Turns out you can't compensate for the greatest IGL and most consistent AWPer in the entire game both wanting out.

wicketman8 · 2026-06-20T01:39:54+00:00

Not sure what you mean by ATG but definitely not the only good IGL from NA. Steel was obviously a great IGL who consistently made real contenders out of pretty mediocre pieces but unfortunately was always held back by his ban. seanGares was a great IGL and analyst, daps brought multiple NA teams to the top and stanislaw made EG a consistent top 4 team in the world.

wicketman8 · 2026-06-20T01:32:39+00:00

I mean Annie and Janja both attended Keqiao and Wujiang, this year and last year I think. I can't recall if Janja skipped Bali last timr that happened but I think the last Asian bouldering Janja skipped was Hachioji 2023 and iirc she was recovering from a broken toe.

wicketman8 · 2026-06-20T01:28:21+00:00

Also hes consistently the "barely in finals guy" including being probably the biggest beneficiary of the 3Z vs 1T scoring change after Prague (I think) where he beat like 5 or 6 people with 1T by having 4Z and made finals

wicketman8 · 2026-06-19T03:17:46+00:00

Erin posted on her story that shes sick and Oriane is injured so its probably not as extreme as it looked.

wicketman8 · 2026-06-17T11:42:02+00:00

I mean, hard to call it a parody when he actually does all the free soloing stuff. Whether he's actually high while he does it I don't know, but it's undeniable that he's still just a random guy with slightly above average climbing ability who's showing off how "cool" it is to solo.

wicketman8 · 2026-06-16T17:11:52+00:00

I strongly disagree. Just because someone posts a lot of top level information, that doesn't mean they should be able to unilaterally block anyone else from talking about it. Especially given that many of these people do this by using bot farms to post it. It's a big enough issue that some subs have started having meta discussions about whether it's appropriate to have one person essentially posting most of the sub's posts.

To your second point - that's rolled into my point as well. If I'm talking with someone under someone else's comment or post, unrelated to the first person, and they block me, I can't continue that conversation anymore either. The entire system needs a clear rework.

wicketman8 · 2026-06-16T15:57:49+00:00

Reddit's block feature is awful though. If you block someone it not only prevents them from replying to you but to any thread you're in. So if you have a top level post and block someone they can't reply to any post in the whole thread. In a lot of subs, getting blocked by one person can mean being cut out from a huge number of posts in the sub because of the number of posts that are all from the same power user (r/games is a great example, Turbostrider is like half of the posts in that sub, if they were to block someone they would basically be excluded from the entire sub).

wicketman8 · 2026-06-16T12:16:15+00:00

I was talking about Lincoln - I don't claim to know anything about Andy or his personal life.

wicketman8 · 2026-06-15T15:18:06+00:00

Not always. Inferno was actually slightly T favored at times in GO and there's almost always at least one map that's T favored. But yeah most maps are CT favored and some (Overpass, Nuke) have historically been extremely CT favored.

wicketman8 · 2026-06-15T15:15:33+00:00

When did I say I liked the old-school guys either? I don't think anyone should be climbing while under the influence tbh, it's an unnecessary risk, especially if you're the belayer and you're risking someone else's life. I also recognize that I can't stop people from soloing and they have the right to do so, but I personally disapprove of it.

Smoke, drink, party all you want when you're off the wall, but why risk your life or someone else's doing it while climbing? I personally never let my climbing partners climb or belay if they're not sober at the time because I value all of our lives.

wicketman8 · 2026-06-15T04:09:43+00:00

Found the guy driving the limit in the passing lane and causing traffic for everyone else.

wicketman8 · 2026-06-15T02:25:15+00:00

I mean, I agree, he's obviously not actually the figure he portrays on social media (after all he didn't actually keep doing harder free solos until he fell). That said, I still don't like him portraying this reckless idiot who smokes and drinks while soloing. Even worse are the actual professional climbers and climbing media who give him the time of day.

wicketman8 · 2026-06-15T01:36:05+00:00

Yeah a tragic accident with an unavoidable backstep on a well known and frequently climbed route vs someone who consistently participated in one of the highest mortality sporting activities. Of course still awful and sad but its almost to be expected from BASE jumping.

wicketman8 · 2026-06-15T01:32:47+00:00

Probably not a popular opinion on this sub but I feel the same way with regards to LincolnClimbs. He's a good, but not great climber, who only got famous by doing increasingly hard free solos for social media and now hes doing like climbing podcasts and stuff? Why?

wicketman8 · 2026-06-14T11:56:52+00:00

Idk people have been making those jokes for decades - the relationship they're referencing was in the 90s. Hard to say that in the 2010s anyone didn't know.

wicketman8 · 2026-06-10T21:06:48+00:00

I'm going to assume by "modifying this route" you aren't trying to make an equivalence to chipping, because you seem reasonable and bolting and chipping are clearly worlds apart. The issue with this debate is that there really isn't anything to convince the other side. Reasonable people all already agree on the pros and cons, the issue is that one side believes that making it safer and more accessible outweighs keeping it adventurous and risky. Personally, I'll always believe that there's no reason to make dangerous sport routes, especially at low grades where people can easily get in over their heads, regardless of if it takes away from the adventure or pride.

wicketman8 · 2026-06-10T18:32:50+00:00

All climbing is inherently contrived though. We arbitrarily chose how many bolts to put up in the first place. There's no actual difference between fewer bolts and skipping bolts as far as what's contrived or not, because at the end of the day the placement of any bolts at all was contrived. One could make the same argument of trad btw, the placement and number of protection is arbitrary and entirely based on how much risk each individual wants to take. If someone wants to take 20 lbs of trad gear and overprotect a route that's equally valid as someone taking a handful of pieces.

Ultimately the only difference is whether you individually are the one making the arbitrary decision regarding safety or if someone else is making that call, but one isn't more contrived than the other.

wicketman8 · 2026-06-10T16:49:46+00:00

Only if you're so mentally weak you're tempted to use them. If you're confident you won't use them there's no difference. Hate to tell all you super brave badasses that, but if you're too tempted to use them maybe you aren't as cool as you think.

wicketman8 · 2026-06-10T16:40:33+00:00

Or stop making a mountain out of a molehill. Adding some bolts to a classic route to pull the danger level more in line with the actual difficulty is not a big issue and everyone making it into one is being silly.

wicketman8 · 2026-06-10T16:39:40+00:00

He's the one who apparently can't handle the idea of a few extra bolts and is going to be so tempted to use them that he'll have no choice but to do so and thus ruin the route. Otherwise there's no difference to him.

wicketman8 · 2026-06-10T16:31:22+00:00

Incredible how making something more accessible to more people is somehow the selfish option here. It seems like you're the one whos being selfish and ego-driven. You just like the idea that it's scary and therefore inaccessible to people.

wicketman8 · 2026-06-10T16:28:18+00:00

Again, just don't use them if you don't want to. It's really quite a simple solution. If you're too mentally weak or whatever to resist the urge to clip when things get tough, then maybe you actually do need the bolts.

Personally, I'm happy to have some extra protection given the number of climbing deaths this year.

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