NERDS AROUND TOWN
Nerds Around Town: Overwatch 2, Blizzard's China Problem and Extra Life
Nov 6, 2019, 6:25 am
NERDS AROUND TOWN
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 and Sports. Check out the podcast replay of the FM radio show at www.nerdthugradio.com!
Tomorrow we'll shout out a new charity event, today we celebrate all of the hard work that went into Extra Life. Helping the Adventure Begins in Conroe earn over $7k for the cause was a true pleasure. In donations they raised around $3600 and then in hourly donations there was another estimated $3000 raised, it was a great and exhausting and trying time. 25 hours of streaming and working and gaming and hosting and entertaining, it was intense but totally worth it.
Blizzard announced/confirmed Overwatch 2 and released a trailer called "Zero Hour". As usual its cinematically awesome, all of the little videos they've released over the years have been amazing and there's no question they are the undisputed kings of great cinematics for their video games, however looming like a shadow over what should have been awesome news was China and the Hong Kong controversy.
So in a way all of this still starts with Daryl Morey's tweet about standing with Hong Kong. That tweet mired the NBA and its players in this awkward place where capitalism dictates they expand forever into more and more complicated markets but then American pride dictates that we crush people who bow down to the whims of a communist government that oppresses the freedoms of its people while cheaply making our iPhones and supporting our entertainment industry. The spotlight on American companies and the Chinese markets bled into everything including video games. There, a prominent eSports player FROM HONG KONG named Ng Wai Chung, was banned by Blizzard and had his prize money withheld at first for life than was shortened to a few months after fan backlash for speaking in support of the protests. There is a delicate balance to these things that has to be struck between all roads, here's a truth that nobody will like… Capitalism is both the root of this problem and the solution to it. Capitalism is what led these people to take China's money and it is the eventual all consuming greed that will rot away China's core beliefs eventually leading them to take a "money before all other things policy" like America has not so secretly come to adopt over the years. We know this to be true because we were once a nation of principles and beliefs about bigger things and now we just don't care about anything that doesn't affect our wallets directly.
We are now officially one week away from the release of Disney+. We are literally at the dawn of the NEXT big chapter in the streaming TV wars. It's confusing to think where it will all end, obviously Disney will keep acquiring things and Amazon's position feels secure considering the strength and size of the brand overall, so its just Netflix, HBO Max, CBS and the Peacock that will eventually have their fates decided. I think the thing that has hurt Netflix the most is that CBS' free sign up had millions of people signing up to watch their streaming exclusive Star Trek show. Those numbers were way over the estimates and left many people staring dumbfounded at their screens when NBC took that as a sign that a network exclusive service could survive alone. Moving NBC from cook to supplier so to speak. Netflix and HBO Max while kings of original content have to face the facts that they are standing alone as just essentially large content producers that haven't had to deal with much competition before. Now things are looking grim as a big dog steps in. Netflix is going to have to address their debt portfolio and find more revenue streams and things to partner with, perhaps merchandise and licensing deals for original projects, maybe reverse engineer the Disney concept the otherway. Otherwise they will eventually be eaten up by one of the true giants, they're publicly traded, they have shareholders who value a strong return, it is simply a matter of time and math.
Yesterday was the one-year anniversary of my Father's unexpected passing. It's an odd day, one where I just tried to not think about what it meant for as long as possible. One where I just wondered what the hell happened to the last year. How is he? Is he looking down on us? Is he happy? Have we let him down? I just don't know how to feel sometimes, I love him and I miss him and I hate how much I feel like I let him down over the years. I hope he gets to see the things I'm working on now and that they make him proud.
Feel free to check out my brand-new comic book Another Day at the Office or buy a shirt from Side Hustle Ts where some proceeds help people struggling with cancer or listen to Nerd Thug Radio. Thoughts, complaints, events and comments can be sent to corydlg@gmail.com.
José Ramírez homered for a third straight game, Angel Martínez also went deep and the Cleveland Guardians got a 4-2 win over the Houston Astros on Wednesday night to complete a three-game sweep.
It’s the first time the Guardians, who entered the series on a 10-game skid, have won three in a row since a four-game winning streak from May 21-24.
Slade Cecconi (4-4) allowed five hits and two runs with a career-best nine strikeouts in 7-plus innings for the win. Paul Sewald pitched a scoreless ninth for his second save.
Martínez homered for a second straight at-bat with his shot to the Crawford Boxes with one out in the first inning. His grand slam with two outs in the 10th inning Tuesday night lifted Cleveland to a 10-6 win.
Four pitches after Martinez’s homer Wednesday, Ramírez also connected off Brandon Walter (1-2) to make it 2-0. Walter settled in after that, retiring the next 17 batters, with seven strikeouts before Bennett Sousa took over to start the seventh.
Ramírez and Carlos Santana hit consecutive singles with no outs in the inning before David Fry walked to load the bases. Johnathan Rodríguez then singled to score two and extend the lead to 4-0.
The Astros had managed just four singles when Taylor Trammell walked with no outs in the eighth and scored on a double by Mauricio Dubón that cut the lead to 4-1. There were two outs in the inning when Jose Altuve’s RBI double made it 4-2.
The AL West-leading Astros went 1 for 8 with runners in scoring position to cap this disappointing series which came after they swept the Dodgers in Los Angeles over the weekend.
Martínez and Ramírez had back-to-back homers in the first.
Ramírez, who dropped out of next week’s All-Star game Wednesday to rehab a nagging Achilles injury, has four homers and seven RBIs this month.
LHP Logan Allen (5-7, 4.07 ERA) will start for Cleveland in the opener of a four-game series against the Chicago White Sox Thursday night. The Astros are off Thursday and haven’t announced their rotation for their weekend series against the Rangers.