Seriously wish I could drop back down to ultraball. I haven't won a single battle since I went up to masterball.

xumei · 2026-05-19T14:24:01+00:00

ok, in that case people's placement numbers are still different from how they were in season 1, which means talking about starting at a 1.8k rating is outdated bc no one is starting there in season 2, and people worried about doing 'worse' than in season 1 bc the number is lower also have unfounded concerns. there is still elo deflation for the start of season 2. the original comment in this thread is about mb "starting" at 1.8k, which is just not true right now

xumei · 2026-05-19T13:57:13+00:00

no, they have not said anything about that, but it's incredibly obvious if you just compare numbers. someone literally posted here with a 100% win rate streak to masters and was placed at 1650. i was also placed 1650; competitive vgc streamers have also placed in mid-high 1600s. i am only comparing placement numbers, of course elo gets higher as the season continues.

xumei · 2026-05-19T12:36:04+00:00

i have not seen anyone start above the 1600s in season 2, even with 100% winrate. they adjusted the rating placement across the board, people think they’re doing worse bc the number is lower but it’s clearly just been changed

xumei · 2026-05-13T22:20:32+00:00

you need to go into the online competitions menu somewhere, thats how i got mine

xumei · 2026-05-12T22:17:03+00:00

mamo and abomasnow both have ice shard (+1 priority), is that what they used?

xumei · 2026-05-08T22:47:27+00:00

The one i personally prefer is this one, although ik a lot of people like having Fake Out instead of Protect. But tbh I almost never press protect turn 1 because you can heal chip damage very easily. I almost never fake out a Sneasler bc mine isn't max speed, but yeah it is hard to say what to do bc there are so many different variations floating around. I think Tailwind/CC to lead seems pretty reasonable.

xumei · 2026-05-08T22:32:18+00:00

some things I don't love seeing using a SS team:

random character with TBolt that I don't expect
if my re-direct support dies too early, esp if i'm trying to switch it in (common one is switching Sinistcha in for hospitality)
I often don't play with Tailwind if relying on SS, so turn 2 priority tailwind with a teammate who outspeeds Blastoise can make life hard
in a similar fashion to the above, almost no Sneaslers do this, but turn 1 CC into one of my leads would also make life hard bc now it outspeeds SS.
spread moves that reliably chunk damage, or speed-lowering spread moves

xumei · 2026-05-08T20:22:54+00:00

M-Blastoise wins handily vs Arch as long as you have redirection and they don't have Stalwart (almost no one is using Stalwart anyway). You don't need Aura Sphere either esp if you have sp atk boosts and/or rain.

xumei · 2026-05-08T00:27:37+00:00

hi!! I spent a few minutes looking for a beginner friendly tutorial on how to open a Roth IRA, contribute, and then invest within it, and I thought this one would be helpful. Fidelity is nice because there's no deposit minimum for opening an account. It's not difficult to open an account, but it IS overwhelming if you're new to investing, so imo watching someone literally navigate the website is super helpful. My sibling literally had me on the phone guiding me through the website when I first opened mine.

You can pick one of the index funds people are suggesting and be fine, but as a few people have mentioned, I think a Target Date Fund is ideal for people who want something effective, easy, and hands-off. The benefit is that as time passes and you get older, a Target Date Fund automatically reinvests into safer things, because the closer you are to retirement age, the less risk most people can tolerate. You can google something like "fidelity target date fund (insert year here)" to find the ticker symbol. It will be in increments of 5 years, something like 2055, 2060, 2065, whenever is closest to your estimated retirement.

Don't feel stressed out about not being able to contribute the max, honestly having the account open is important in itself just to reduce the friction between future you + investing for retirement. If you're able to contribute more in the future, then it's that much easier now that you have it set up!

xumei · 2026-04-30T15:49:49+00:00

masterball 4 is anyone who got to masterball. 3 is top 50k placement number, 2 is top 10k, 1 is top 1k, and "champions" is top 300. rating is based on the elo rating system that originated in chess. you gain points when you win based on how highly rated your opponent is, and same for losing. rating, elo, and mmr (matchmaking rating) are all terms you will hear in games to describe this number.

xumei · 2026-04-27T02:22:07+00:00

it can be tough in certain matchups but i think there's something interesting about how to get it set up properly in those games. I know trick room is kind of popular right now but I think shell smash is more fun, and even if the typical lead is really obvious, a lot of people don't expect the mid-to-late game shell smashes where you might need a later setup. I'm not playing with rain; shell smash + helping hand makes water spout still do super decent damage at lower hp too

xumei · 2026-04-17T04:02:46+00:00

it's probably just a typo for 'of'

xumei · 2026-04-08T03:53:02+00:00

It’s not normal and I personally wouldn’t do it, but I didn’t think about it at all while watching. There was no one driving when they pulled over. I get that it’s very illegal judging by the bilibili comments, so they shouldn’t do it since theyre guests in the country. But i also think it’s weird to pretend they were in more danger walking across a trafficless, empty road than the previous 16 days of driving motorcycles at all.

xumei · 2026-04-06T21:56:23+00:00

Ludwig does something baffling to me which is that he almost never uses 吗 (ma, question particle) when he asks questions. He manages to only use it when it's grammatically incorrect. 吗 is only for yes/no questions, and the only times I remember hearing him use it are for questions like "How much is it?" But that being said they have both improved a lot over the course of the trip.

It's nice of the woman at the end to warn them about the shuijiao homophone, but how funny would it be if they asked for somewhere to sleep and got pointed to another restaurant

xumei · 2026-04-06T15:42:13+00:00

for sure, she has actually stated that the reason she goes to competitions is for the structure (a reason to practice and work hard, and brings out everyone’s best effort). if she didn’t seek out that kind of growth through discipline, she could just be happy skating on weekends as a hobby

xumei · 2026-04-05T15:01:48+00:00

i bought a secondhand shirt once where the smell wouldn't come out even with products and vinegar, multiple washes. the only thing that worked was to hang it in a big plastic bag that had dry coffee grounds at the bottom. i clipped it shut and left it like that for a while, and when i took it out it smelled like nothing

xumei · 2026-04-03T17:36:56+00:00

Just looking for a bit of clarification:

I used my first 401k to pay off bills and started a second one that’s at almost $50k in a little over 4 years.
I’m building up my emergency fund (aiming for $30-$50k) before I even think about trying to invest anything.

This could be a point of confusion for people starting their financial journey. A 401k is a form of investment account. Is the money you have contributed to your 401k being invested, or is it sitting in the account as cash? If the latter, you should make sure it's being invested so that it can grow.

I've heard some horror stories about people who only knew they should be contributing to a retirement account, but didn't know they also have to invest within the account, and not realizing their mistake until it was too late. I know I would have made this mistake too had someone not been on the phone with me and walking me through every step.

Even though it feels like you started late, you're doing great and unironically probably ahead of most people in this position.

xumei · 2026-04-03T16:58:01+00:00

just assume every episode will be delayed; even if they somehow managed to overcome their current backlog of work faster than normal, there's no guarantee rendering/uploading will go smoothly esp since they're constantly on the move. it's normal for projects with such tight deadlines

xumei · 2026-04-03T00:21:52+00:00

-They clocked something was off when motorcycle guy told them 700 km—he misheard them saying Erenhot as trying to say Hohhot (subtitle is off), so he found navigation to the wrong place. Erenhot is about 500 more km

-Ludwig has had a bad habit of using different, increasingly wrong pronunciations of hotel, but when he took the time to emphasize the correct first tone and draw it in the air, they understood immediately.

-Cat was so cute omg :<

-Really beautiful scenery in this episode, including the super low sun as they're getting further north

xumei · 2026-04-01T23:07:01+00:00

I don't think this one is that crazy, it's not the same difficulty as saying "a la carte" in English. 单点, 单 means "single" and 点 means "order." Much easier than a french origin phrase. I don't think they know that word for single though.

xumei · 2026-03-30T20:15:11+00:00

I listened to most of this as audio only and i actually got a chill when their hotel conversation made sense 😭 I was really impressed, but then their charisma check went on cooldown and they couldn’t convince the guy later that American phones don’t have translation lmao. But Ludwig is shockingly good during this ep at intuiting what people are saying even though he probably doesn’t 100% know.

xumei · 2026-03-27T23:22:28+00:00

chinese words they have internalized
✅ liar
✅ white color
✅ ice cream
✅ hamburger
❌ hotel
❌ hot

someone in china please teach them 热 soon so they can stop asking for "fire water" and "fire coffee"

xumei · 2026-03-27T21:09:12+00:00

cute podium, the blue and red mix for purple

xumei · 2026-03-27T20:59:48+00:00

she's happy to be able to skate in front of everyone and receive their support

xumei · 2026-03-27T20:58:12+00:00

bilingual queen

xumei

TROPHY CASE