Avengers Endgame, Game of Thrones, Esports and coral reefs

ART BY JESUS RODRIGUEZ

Born with a comic book in one hand and a remote control in the other, Cory DLG is the talent of Conroe's very own Nerd Thug Radio, Sports and Wrestling. Check out the podcast replay of the FM radio show at www.nerdthugradio.com!

Hey Nerds!

Alright, ignore the hangovers and shake off the miss the weekend blues, it's the most important day of the week, MONDAY!

GOOD DEED OF THE DAY

This week we're going to focus on helping some people right in the circle of nerds, at the Spring Charity Drag Show. It's a themed drag show within Houston's nerd community and will feature pop culture, gaming and nerd icons as well as prominent drag queens in the "Gaymer" community. The proceeds go towards this group which all year long put on events for their community and give those people a place to go and be accepted.

KEEP ON LOSING

The Hosuton Outlaws played their first game of Stage Two and started off with another loss. They were playing the talented Vancouver Titans who won the Stage One playoffs, but they posted a lowly 1-3 match score and honestly they didn't impress in the outing. Other than Stage 1 of the first season, The Outlaws have struggled to find consistent rhythm and sound strategy and honestly, they've been losers and this initial loss in Stage Two now drops them back to 12th place in the standings and doesn't present a lot of of hope for this season either. Hopefully there's a change in team coordination or maybe it's a chemistry change that has to be made and a trade is necessary but either way, as it's presently composed, The Houston Outlaws aren't much of a threat in the Overwatch League.

NETFLIX TO THE RESCUE

For those who sometimes feel like one man (or woman) can't make a difference, this little tidbit should give you hope. Single time plastic usage has dropped over 50% in just one year, and in the UK they're calling it the "Attenborough effect". Essentially the concept is that data taken in the UK has broken down that while women and the newer generation are most swayed by the messaging in things, even Men at a strong rate have been moved to take an interest in the amount of plastics being used and where they go afterwards. Named after the guy who has put two different docu-series about nature on Netflix (Blue Planet II and Our Planet), David Attenborough. It's very cool to know that people are actively getting involved, they're seeing the effect we're having on this world and realizing we aren't being very good guests and trying to do better. So what difference can one man make, a lot if he tries. So are we all trying enough?

IN OTHER GREAT NEWS

Now I'm not a marine biologist and I don't pretend to even understand the importance of coral reefs. I've been told they are massively important to the ocean's ecosystems but I couldn't give you a lot of reasons why. I know they're dying due to the rise in seawater temperatures oceans wide and that without them overall the ecosystems of the oceans are in danger and that between 25 and 40% of them have now died off in these current conditions. Recent breakthroughs though may have finally given conservationists a short cut to helping these reefs grow back and going back to the previous articles question of "can one man change the world?" we have one man to thank for it. David Vaughan basically discovered by accident that you can sort of replant the reef over and over and it's base system can break off, stay behind and continue to grow helping speed up the process of regrowing large coral reefs in a much shorter amount of time. So that's pretty cool, Apocalypse delayed.

EARTH'S MIGHTIEST INDEED

So tickets are available in pre-sale for Avenger's Endgame which still doesn't come out until NEXT weekend, but the sales have soared to record breaking levels. It's is incredible to see and think, but Avengers Endgame has now sold more pre-sale tickets than Aquaman, Avengers Infinity War, Star Wars The Last Jedi and Captain Marvel combined! Those were the top four movies in pre sales before Avengers came through, meaning this thing is rolling through all the records. This is a essentially a 20 plus movie pay off and there's no telling where the numbers on this thing could go with some estimates have an opening weekend at a mind crushing $800 million. The story of Captain America, Iron Man and Thor may be seemingly coming to an end but the world and Disney will always have Avengers, so it'll be interesting to see what comes next for the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

SPEAKING OF AVENGERS

Game of Thrones debuted last night and don't worry there will be no spoilers here, but for people who have watched from the beginning, how exciting is it now that all the heroes of this story are in one place now? They're all together and they're all preparing to fight against the army of the dead. It's a fascinating story and I'm very intrigued by the finale of this show but honestly if they end this show with some weak, punk ending I'm going to be very unhappy. And if they end this show like the Sopranos with questions unanswered, I'm going to be even more angry. The bar is high but so far they're well over it.

I'm going to jump out and wish you guys a great Monday and remind everyone to be kind to each other and try a little harder to have a great day! I'm coming back Tuesday and we'll be bringing more good times your way. Feel free to check out my digital short story The Wilson House, or buy a shirt from Side Hustle Ts where every shirt is now under $20 or listen to Nerd Thug Radio or support our Patreon Page. Thoughts, complaints, events and comments can be sent to corydlg@gmail.com.

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Texas hosts Clemson on Dec. 21. Photo by Tim Warner/Getty Images.

No. 4 Texas will be competing for a return trip to Atlanta when it plays at home against No. 13 Clemson in the first round of the College Football Playoff.

The winner of the Clemson-Texas first-round game on Dec. 21 will play No. 10 Arizona State in the Jan. 1 Peach Bowl in Atlanta in the CFP quarterfinals.

For Clemson quarterback Cade Klubnik, who is from Austin, Texas, the game will be a homecoming.

“We recruited him hard," Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said Sunday, calling Klubnik “a winner. He will do whatever it takes to put his team in position to be successful.”

Added Sarkisian: “When he made the decision to go to Clemson, honestly I wasn’t surprised. Both his parents went to (Texas) A&M.”

Klubnik applauded the announcement of the game at Texas for Clemson's seventh CFP appearance.

“For him to be going to his first playoff in Austin, Texas, where he grew up, you can’t make that up,” Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said. “Pretty cool opportunity for him and his family to go compete against Texas there in Austin.”

Swinney said his only visit to the Texas stadium was to watch Klubnik play in a high school playoff game.

“We’ve never played Texas or played in that stadium,” Swinney said. “... It’s going to be amazing. It’s one of the best venues in college football.”

The Longhorns (11-2) were seeded No. 5 in the CFP following their 22-19 overtime loss to Georgia on Saturday night in the Southeastern Conference championship game in Atlanta.

Sarkisian said his players were “really excited” to see Texas land the No. 5 seed and have the opportunity to play in the Longhorns' first game against Clemson.

Texas safety Andrew Mukuba is a Clemson transfer. Sarkisian said players already were calling the matchup the “Mukuba Bowl.”

Swinney said: “I love Mukuba. I just love his spirit and love his heart. He was a really neat kid.

“I certainly wish he had been able to finish here. He did everything that was asked of him at Clemson. Made a bunch of big plays.”

Clemson (10-3) beat SMU 34-31 in the Atlantic Coast Conference championship game Saturday night to land an automatic CFP berth. The Tigers are ranked No. 16 in the CFP but were given the 12th and lowest seed. As the fifth-highest ranked league champion, the Tigers do not get a bye and instead must visit Texas.

Arizona State (11-2) earned a bye by rolling over Iowa State 45-19 in the Big 12 championship game Saturday. The Sun Devils were led by running back Cam Skattebo's 170 rushing yards in their impressive win to cap their first season in the Big 12.

Peach Bowl president Gary Stokan noted the Sun Devils were picked to finish last in the Big 12.

“You proved them all wrong,” Stokan told Arizona State coach Kenny Dillingham.

Arizona State players celebrated the announcement of their No. 4 seed.

Dillingham said he hopes the conference championship and berth in the CFP helps him recruit and continue to build the program.

“Hopefully this stage will help get our branding out there, and show people that we can be one of the newer brands in college football," Dillingham said. "Every 10-15 years a new brand shows up, and a new brand becomes a national brand.”No. 4 Texas will be competing for a return trip to Atlanta when it plays at home against No. 13 Clemson in the first round of the College Football Playoff.