247 crystal ball 2023

Linescore	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E	LOB
Royals										0	0	0	0
Cardinals										0	0	0	0

Royals Lineup

1. Nick Pratto (L) LF -- .301/.395/.437
2. Vinnie Pasquantino (L) 1B -- .262/.341/.466
3. Salvador Perez (R) C -- .280/.317/.528
4. Bobby Witt Jr. (R) SS -- .232/.270/.438
5. MJ Melendez (L) RF -- .210/.303/.370
6. Michael Massey (L) DH -- .240/.296/.349
7. Maikel Garcia (R) 3B -- .272/.330/.370
8. Nicky Lopez (L) 2B -- .262/.385/.369
9. Drew Waters (S) CF -- .231/.231/.231

Pitchers Used:

• SP: Zack Greinke (R) - 0.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 SO, 4.55 ERA (0 P, 0 S)

Cardinals Lineup

1. Brendan Donovan (L) RF -- .247/.341/.367
2. Paul Goldschmidt (R) 1B -- .290/.395/.517
3. Nolan Gorman (L) 2B -- .276/.367/.565
4. Nolan Arenado (R) 3B -- .262/.307/.429
5. Willson Contreras (R) C -- .222/.308/.365
6. Alec Burleson (L) LF -- .234/.288/.391
7. Paul DeJong (R) SS -- .240/.319/.510
8. Juan Yepez (R) DH -- .243/.300/.432
9. Tommy Edman (S) CF -- .262/.317/.448

Pitchers Used:

• SP: Miles Mikolas (R) - 0.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 SO, 4.23 ERA (0 P, 0 S)

Stats: BA/OBP/SLG
Links

• Gameday
• Baseball Savant
• Game Graph
• Baseball Theater

I am a fan of Henry ‘Hank’ Lockwood. I regularly consume his content and consistently root for his personal development and professional success. I cheered him as he learned to read on air, I supported him when he was simultaneously banned from every rideshare service, and I felt his despair when he was cucked by a coworker who routinely cosplays as a homeless man. But, whatever you feel about Hank, it is undeniable that his transformation from an uneducated drunken masshole into a legitimate corporate powerhouse is nothing short of amazing. I for one hold Hank in high esteem.
However, it is because of this high esteem that I must question Hank’s recent lottery ball “win”. Without mincing words, I do not believe that Hank’s recent “win” was legitimate, and I feel that everyone is overlooking obvious issues in order to gift Hank a victory. Moreover, I do not believe that this gift comes from a place of respect, but instead comes from a misguided sense of pity. To be clear, Hank does not need pity victories. He is not a charity case, he is not legally disabled, he can claim victories on his own.
On the May 12, 2023, episode of Pardon My Take, Hank was credited with correctly predicting the Lottery Ball. However, Hank only selected the winning number after receiving direct material assistance from another person. Specifically, Hank established specific intent to select a non-winning number, but another person interceded, taking this non-winning number, and allowing Hank a second selection. After receiving this help, Hank went on to select a different, and ultimately “winning” number. Selecting the correct number with help from another and effectively being granted two selections should not result in a “win”. Rather it should result in a rules violation and a general penalty. To use a sports analogy, this situation is akin to a violation of PGA Rule 10.2b – Other Help.
I do not know why everyone else discounts this line of thinking especially given that Hank agrees that his win is not legitimate. Upon “winning” Hank responded “you forced me into getting it . . . like if you could have, if you would just let me do my thing, I wouldn’t have gotten it . . . I thank you forever, that is one of the best things you’ve ever done for me”. Hank does not say I won of my own skill and merit, rather he says you’ve done it for me, you caused me to win. Hank is too good to accept “victory” on these terms he does not need the charity. The “win” is not legitimate, and it should be stricken.
I don’t know how everyone feels about this issue, but on the next episode of Pardon My Take I’d like BigCat ask each person on the show if they have gotten the Lottery Ball unassisted and see how everyone responds. I think that Hank will agree that he was unfairly assisted in his “win” and commit to proving himself by winning on his own.
You are better than this Mr. Lockwood. Do it. It’s easy for you. Do it on your own and prove the haters wrong.

I’m still in love with my high school crush and it’s been 9 years, in 2014 to be precise. Here’s the story from the beginning:
We had a class together, but he was a senior and I was a freshman. The class was all about communication, so for the whole entire class, we’d do nothing but talk, like a break.
(All of my friends, including the ones I hung out with during lunch time, were seniors and I was caught up with what prom means and a couple of other things I couldn’t have known if I didn’t met them.)
Anyways, I fell hard for him, blushing, stuttering, rarely speaking to him in public because my heart would beat faster. I’d talk a lot about him and how much I like him with my friends… the twist is, it was crystal clear he liked me back, but I missed the social cues. When sitting next to each other, he’d snap his fingers under the table and close to me, to get my attention.
There were various times where he’d look at me and then look at my privates… wayyy too many times. When he made jokes, I’d catch him laughing and blushing out of embarrassment all while glancing at me to see if I wasn’t noticing. He had a group of friends and at one time, they all came and abruptly sat with me. I noticed he’d wink a lot while looking at me. They were really suspicious, one of them acting as an intermediary (the only one in the group I’d feel comfortable speaking with) to spark up a conversation so she could get the ball rolling and then I could eventually speak with him (my crush).
Within this conversation, he said to the intermediary friend “I feel weird. When I'm in this room, I feel like... I don't know.... Different than being outside with other people... Do you understand me, (intermediary friend’s name)?" Then he raised an eyebrow as if pointing at me.
^ that’s just a snippet of the whole scenario that I wrote down in my notes app back in 2014, so this isn’t something I just came up with right now. I also wrote down what I’d first send him along with different interpretations of that first message, one being something like: “No matter what happens… I will always like you” … I would’ve thought “silly me” but now that’s proving to be true. (That experience happened AFTER the below 👇)
(This happened BEFORE the above) Learning his name, I found him on Facebook and sent him a friend request. He accepted. I went on to message him expressing my feelings for him and he appreciated it. My dummy self tried to be the interviewer, asking him questions about what his favourite movie, song, color, is… we spoke for a while… until he graduated. Months went by, maybe a year went by, and I decided, at around 16, to delete my whole entire Facebook account out of embarrassment for the stuff I had posted on my feed… a year or 2 went by and I played truth or dare with my cousin at a sleepover. I expressed that I still had feelings for him and she dared me to send him a friend request again on my new Facebook account. I did, but he didn’t accept.
Fast forward, 6-7 years later, and my feelings for him remain, very well knowing his whole personality might’ve changed, but despite that, there’s something about him that I love so much. I’m aware of everything that could go on, from the possibility of him being a relationship already, to the possibility of him not accepting my friend request again to maybe perhaps having the luck of reconnecting. I did notice he removed any form of information that would find it easier to find him on facebook (like the “goes to…”, “attended…”, “in a relationship” “works at…” etc.)… so it’d be kinda sus, confusing as to how I was able to find him. His at-that-time intermediary has an Instagram account.
I don’t know what to do since there’s no one I’ve met who’s ever made me feel that extreme attraction. I don’t know if he’s single or taken. (My friend suggested to create a fake account with a fake name and pose as a male friend who hasn’t spoken to him in a long time and just so happen to stumble across his profile. That’s clever until he clicks on it and finds out it’s a brand new account.) I grew up and was a senior, in his shoes, and even then, no one made me feel the same. I mean… went all the way to me having a dream of him on a romantic cruise date in 2014…. and… doing it with him. My subconscious wanted that… what were the chances he wanted that too.
(There were MANY MANY social cues that I missed that hinted he liked me back and I never found out because I didn’t pay attention to them. There were various opportunities where I could’ve spoken to him more or even privately, such as being the last one to enter a room and him holding the door for me. I could’ve used that opportunity to pull him aside. My thinking, I believe at that time, was that the more I ignored him, the harder he’d fall for me, but I let that thought play out till I lost him…)
TLDR: I had a high school crush in 2014 who I added on Facebook. We had small conversations in person, but I was too shy, and he was nervous (not a good combo). There were obvious social cues that I missed like snapping his fingers under the table to get my attention, winking at me numerous times and looking at my private part. There were also times I could’ve pulled him aside, like when I was the last person to enter a room and he was the one holding the door. I expressed my feelings to him through message and he appreciated it. I thought the more I ignore him, the more he’ll fall in love with me until I lost him (he graduated). 2 years later, I deleted my Facebook out of embarrassment. I created another account and added him again as a dare from my cousin. He didn’t accept. I noticed he removed statuses like work, education, relationship etc., making it harder for anyone to find him, but I managed to find him. Since then, 7 years from the dare, I still have feelings for him, I mean it went all the way to having a romantic dream in 2014 and doing it. I don’t know what to do, if I should friend request him again or message his at-that-time intermediary or who else knows what to do?

I’m still in love with my high school crush and it’s been 9 years.
I’m still in love with my high school crush and it’s been 9 years, in 2014 to be precise. Here’s the story from the beginning:
We had a class together, but he was a senior and I was a freshman. The class was all about communication, so for the whole entire class, we’d do nothing but talk, like a break.
(All of my friends, including the ones I hung out with during lunch time, were seniors and I was caught up with what prom means and a couple of other things I couldn’t have known if I didn’t met them.)
Anyways, I fell hard for him, blushing, stuttering, rarely speaking to him in public because my heart would beat faster. I’d talk a lot about him and how much I like him with my friends… the twist is, it was crystal clear he liked me back, but I missed the social cues. When sitting next to each other, he’d snap his fingers under the table and close to me, to get my attention.
There were various times where he’d look at me and then look at my privates… wayyy too many times. When he made jokes, I’d catch him laughing and blushing out of embarrassment all while glancing at me to see if I wasn’t noticing. He had a group of friends and at one time, they all came and abruptly sat with me. I noticed he’d wink a lot while looking at me. They were really suspicious, one of them acting as an intermediary (the only one in the group I’d feel comfortable speaking with) to spark up a conversation so she could get the ball rolling and then I could eventually speak with him (my crush).
Within this conversation, he said to the intermediary friend “I feel weird. When I'm in this room, I feel like... I don't know.... Different than being outside with other people... Do you understand me, (intermediary friend’s name)?" Then he raised an eyebrow as if pointing at me.
^ that’s just a snippet of the whole scenario that I wrote down in my notes app back in 2014, so this isn’t something I just came up with right now. I also wrote down what I’d first send him along with different interpretations of that first message, one being something like: “No matter what happens… I will always like you” … I would’ve thought “silly me” but now that’s proving to be true. (That experience happened AFTER the below 👇)
(This happened BEFORE the above) Learning his name, I found him on Facebook and sent him a friend request. He accepted. I went on to message him expressing my feelings for him and he appreciated it. My dummy self tried to be the interviewer, asking him questions about what his favourite movie, song, color, is… we spoke for a while… until he graduated. Months went by, maybe a year went by, and I decided, at around 16, to delete my whole entire Facebook account out of embarrassment for the stuff I had posted on my feed… a year or 2 went by and I played truth or dare with my cousin at a sleepover. I expressed that I still had feelings for him and she dared me to send him a friend request again on my new Facebook account. I did, but he didn’t accept.
Fast forward, 6-7 years later, and my feelings for him remain, very well knowing his whole personality might’ve changed, but despite that, there’s something about him that I love so much. I’m aware of everything that could go on, from the possibility of him being a relationship already, to the possibility of him not accepting my friend request again to maybe perhaps having the luck of reconnecting. I did notice he removed any form of information that would find it easier to find him on facebook (like the “goes to…”, “attended…”, “in a relationship” “works at…” etc.)… so it’d be kinda sus, confusing as to how I was able to find him. His at-that-time intermediary has an Instagram account.
I don’t know what to do since there’s no one I’ve met who’s ever made me feel that extreme attraction. I don’t know if he’s single or taken. (My friend suggested to create a fake account with a fake name and pose as a male friend who hasn’t spoken to him in a long time and just so happen to stumble across his profile. That’s clever until he clicks on it and finds out it’s a brand new account.) I grew up and was a senior, in his shoes, and even then, no one made me feel the same. I mean… went all the way to me having a dream of him on a romantic cruise date in 2014…. and… doing it with him. My subconscious wanted that… what were the chances he wanted that too.
(There were MANY MANY social cues that I missed that hinted he liked me back and I never found out because I didn’t pay attention to them. There were various opportunities where I could’ve spoken to him more or even privately, such as being the last one to enter a room and him holding the door for me. I could’ve used that opportunity to pull him aside. My thinking, I believe at that time, was that the more I ignored him, the harder he’d fall for me, but I let that thought play out till I lost him…)
Ages: 23, and around 27 Female and male
TLDR: I had a high school crush in 2014 who I added on Facebook. We had small conversations in person, but I was too shy, and he was nervous (not a good combo). There were obvious social cues that I missed like snapping his fingers under the table to get my attention, winking at me numerous times and looking at my private part. There were also times I could’ve pulled him aside, like when I was the last person to enter a room and he was the one holding the door. I expressed my feelings to him through message and he appreciated it. I thought the more I ignore him, the more he’ll fall in love with me until I lost him (he graduated). 2 year later, I deleted my Facebook out of embarrassment. I created another account and added him again as a dare from my cousin. He didn’t accept. I noticed he removed statuses like work, education, relationship etc., making it harder for anyone to find him, but I managed to find him. Since then, 7 years from the dare, I still have feelings for him, I mean it went all the way to having a romantic dream in 2014 and doing it. I don’t know what to do, if I should friend request him again or message his at-that-time intermediary or who else knows what to do?

I'm on the verge of buying my first home. It was at a good value (slightly overpriced but WAY better than what else is out there on the market right now). I know that my income will be increasing in the next year or so. And while I don't have a crystal ball, I don't expect housing prices to drop.
I didn't buy last year because it was a seller's market, and with the housing crisis I wasn't desperate enough to buy something that was insanely overvalued.
However, a friend of mine claimed today that I shouldn't be buying a house right now, because he anticipates the costs of houses to drop over the next year (due to high interest rates).
I always thought that houses always increase in value over time, as long as you are properly maintaining it and have adequate renovations done. I didn't treat it like the stock market, which can be volatile.
I want to live in this house and maintain it for the next few years, and potentially move into a bigger home down the line when I get married/kids. If that move happens to be 5 years from now (for example), I would certainly expect the value of the home to be much higher than what I buy it for now (based on appreciation rates).
Could a properly maintained home ever really lose value over 5+ years?

Hey guys! So I have seen in some forums articles from 2017 to 2020 reporting about issues with scratches in the AR Coating of the Omega Seamaster. Surprisingly don't seem to find newer posts about this.
I am currently looking into purchasing the new green Seamaster Diver 300 and after reading those posts and seeing pictures of the crystals I am somewhat put off. Does this issue still occur with the models from 2022/2023 or did they fix this after the video from Adrian Barker? I wouldn't want to buy this watch and have to worry about this becoming and issue down the road with the only solutions being polishing off the coating (on a 6k watch) or replacing the crystal for a few hundred euros.
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts! Also if you own this specific watch l'd be happy about hearing your owners review.

Halo's I'm willing to trade: Mermaid halo 2020,Winter halo 2020, Winter crystal 2018,Winter halo 2022, Starlight halo 2023
Horse's I'm looking for: iuh arabian or V1 valentine Friesian
( We will be using a mm/mw ) Pm me if interested!

Hi I’m sitting in La Jolla thinking of the time when we were coming back from 169 and like the dutiful motherly type I am I told u to pee before we left well I had great amusement watching you jump up and down like a track hurdler to Keep the wolf blitz in- through the inevitable A train delays that come in summer at 3 am - if u were like me you would have just let go but you had too much class even drunk. I purposely raced in the hotel room and went into the bathroom before u and u still just laughed at me and said something to the affect of whore when I came out. But u said it lovingly Now that I am older and not that much wiser I would give all I had to go back and change life for both of us. I look at the beautiful ocean before me and wish u were looking too next to me and we were both ok. I am flooded w memories today I can hear u laughing bc I did some dumb shit again. What happened to us between 2015-2023 I’ll never understand but I’m going to say I will never put anyone before u again or anything I’m on the straight and narrow most days I want to sleep but I do think of u often. And hope ur taking care and being a mild pain in the ass to society just enough to leave ur mark. Will we ever fix this whatever it is I don’t know but I’m praying to every archangel there is for the return of some kind of friendship- I want us to have dinner on the roof top of the cannon ball while we rehash old stories and make new memories

First off, I just want to say Im a Yankee fan and respect the heck out of Alonso. I think Alonso is the NL MVP if his season keeps pace. I forgot about Acuna....sorry Pete, but you'll be top 3!
But lately there has been a convo on Pete vs Aaron... and why Pete isnt getting the same love that Judge did last year.
I've got some points on the why, but first wanted to say I dont think we have to have a VS here. These guys are both NYC studs playing great ball.
Now to the question... why isnt Alonso getting the Judge-level love?
Answer: Because Judge is a better, more athletic ball player. Simple as that. Now add onto it Judge is personable/marketable, on the biggest sports franchise in the world...and it is no mystery.
While Pete is a stud...he's not on that level. He's def a weirdo haha. He's not as good of a D player, he's not even as good as a slugger and he's on a team that historically is not a perennial winner.
But this is baseball....so lets talk stats....

• Judge is a better defensive player.
  

  Player	Position	Fielding % 2022	Fielding % 2023
  Alonso	1B	.992	.998
  Judge	CF	1	1
  Judge	RF	1	.971

• Overall Aaron Judge is a better, more efficient hitter.
  2022
  

  Player	AB	Hits per AB	Runs per AB	RBIs per AB	HRs per AB	HRs per Hit
  Alonso	597	27%	16%	22%	7%	25%
  Judge	570	31%	23%	23%	11%	35%

  2023
  

  Player	AB	Hits per AB	Runs per AB	RBIs per AB	HRs per AB	HRs per Hit
  Alonso	202	24%	19%	23%	10%	41%
  Judge	162	30%	24%	23%	10%	35%

  Career
  

  Player	AB	Hits per AB	Runs per AB	RBIs per AB	HRs per AB	HRs per Hit
  Alonso	2165	26%	16%	20%	8%	25%
  Judge	2800	28%	21%	19%	8%	35%

First shot at a recap so let’s see how we do!
Race Info
What – IM 70.3: Chattanooga
Where – Chattanooga, TN USA
When - Sunday, May 21st, 2023
Overall Goals
- PR - Yes (previous PR was a 5:30:12 at Ohio 70.3 in 2022)
- Sub 5:00 - Heck no
- Not blow up on run - Sorta?
TL;DR and Results
This was my 3rd 70.3 and my first with my coach who has been training me since the start of the fall 2022
Swim – 35:07
T1 – 5:03
Bike – 2:49:55
T2 – 3:13
Run – 1:51:57
Total time – 5:25:14
58th in AG (M27), 579 overall
Background
Was a college soccer player (GK) and after college had a foray into BJJ and MMA with a couple fights. Realized that was dumb for longevity and switched to triathlon
Training
Swimming
2-3 sessions a week of 2.4K to 3.6K yards per session. Some workouts are speed focused, some are technique focused, so on and so forth. I have seen a good improvement on CSS these last few month from 1:40 to 1:33. I did swim team as a kid so I have been trying to recapture some of that swim experience. I also felt some recent breakthrough with decreasing my stroke rate and using fewer more powerful strokes. Have been very happy with my improvement these last months. I still remain a terrible to nonexistent kicker
Goal split - 35 Minutes
Biking
typically rides a week. Longer weekend ride and 2 during the week (on zwift trainer) with focus on cadence or power or VO2. I have a big problem with low cadence, recently been trying to get up into the 80s for when I am normally riding. However when I start putting power down I start reverting to the low 70s cadence of riding. As far as FTP I had worked my FTP up to 257 leading up to the start of the season. However I have felt pretty weak these last 2 month leading up to this actual race. It has been harder for me to put the power down. However on the outdoor longer rides I have felt very strong and very comfortable riding for longer periods. Outdoors I ride without power so will probably need to make that investment soon.
Goal Split - 2:30:00
Running
Running has steadily improved with increased mileage and more speedwork. Recent 5K test had improved me to 6:33 for my fastest 5K. Additionally in the most recent half marathon race I had I finished 1:30:12 with a 6:57 avg. biggest issues I have been dealing with are some pain in my left Achilles at the very start of runs that typically disappears after a mile or 2. Typically 3-4 runs a week (1 tempo short, longer run on the weekend, Z2 10k).
Goal Split - 1:40:00
Race Morning
Woke up at 4 AM to get the body rolling. Had my usual prerace breakfast of 2 English muffins with peanut butter and honey as well as a power armour with caffeine and a cup of coffee. Transition setup right at 4:40 to give me plenty of time for the most important part of the morning, THE BM. Went back to my hotel and was able to get showered and dressed up for the race. Headed over to the busses for drop-off to the swim and get to the swim start 20-30 mins before the race start
Swim – seeded myself in the 30-35 minute group and set off! for those that fear swimming Chatty is a great race. It is a with the current swim so it felt like we were flying down the river. Dealt with a slight leak in my left goggle the entire swim which was pretty annoying but it was far from terrible. Also I forgot that in Chatty the swim is actually 1.4 miles instead of 1.2, so as I swam over 2100 yards I was thinking WTF why are we still swimming? This was the first time I seeded myself in the 30-35 min so I did deal with less of the slower swimmers who seed incorrectly. However I did still find quite a few in front of me who should not have been where they were. Mini Rant here, but seriously people why are you doing this? IDK this is just a huge pet peeve of mine when I have to swim all the way around a person (small problems I know...) rant over. But got through it without any real major contact with anyone
35:07 @ 1:23/100 yards - 7:48 PR!
T1 – Never had a wetsuit stripper before! that was fun. But this transition is long as crap. My watch clocked my total transition distance as almost half a mile which was crazy to me. Also I was a little slow getting my socks on today which was unusual. all and all a odd transition where I just felt slow and unfocused on what I was doing.
5:03
Bike – Set off on what had previously been my nemesis for my first 70.3 but felt like I would have an area of great improvement for today! with my goal of 2:30 I knew my goal average speed was around 22MPH, and for the first bit we were well on track! If I look at my average speed through the first 26 miles I was averaging 21.6 MPH. And this is a course with rolling hills most of the way. Goals of the bike were to try and really spin to get through the hill and not stuck grinding it out as this would destroy my legs. Also wanted to keep on my nutrition as I felt this really caused me to blow up on my runs in Galveston and Ohio. Fueling per hour was 1 x 55g carb Gatorade mix bottle and a maurten gel to get to 80 g carb per hours. Would then rinse down the body and sip water through the aid stations. after I burned through my 2 bottles I sipped on the Gatorade endurance bottle taken from the aide stations. In total took 160 g carb + some of the Gatorade endurance for nutrition. So all was going ok until after the "big" climb halfway. Not sure if it was fueling or the headwind that started. But my average speed just tanked. I felt like I had no power. When I tried to flex and stretch my legs I could just feel the damage in them. Not good. Then with the slower speed my mental game fell apart. mile 40-50 I was in a really bad mental spot and had decided at several points to just quit when I got back into transition as there was no way in hell I would break 5 hours. I felt like a failure and a loser. why had I been training 9-12 hours every week to just suck? Talk about a tale of 2 half's. Managed to get back to transition. Mini rant #2 - draft packs... screw you. A literal peloton of 8-10 people 2 abreast 5 deep flew by me at mile 45 and let me tell you I was big mad. Rant over. Also saw a guy lose control at 30 MPH and hit the deck pretty hard, hope he's ok. That was a nice bike to wreck on :( Also another guy almost started peeing on me (I was behind him) near the end and definitely did not use enough water to wash himself down after LOL.
2:49:55 - 20.07 MPH - 11ish minutes slower than PR :(
T2 – Made it into T2 and said alright lets just run the first 5k and see how we are doing then we can DNF if you really are that miserable. So got everything racked and ditched the 10 maurtens I had somehow acquired on the bike. but threw on my trusty Saucony Endorphin Pro 2s and set off
3:13
Run – That first hill out of transition took my already bad mental state and threw it into the fire. So I have never come closer to quitting than that moment. I did not somehow. And then the run flattened out. So after 1.5 miles I actually started to feel good mentally and that's when I knew I was going to finish. I also saw how my pace was going and I knew I would at least PR on the day if I just held the pacing I was doing. after the 1st aid station I decided I wouldn't push too hard on the run and simply walk through the aid stations. avg pace as 7:40-8:00 while running then would walk through the aid stations. in the aid stations I would douse with water and take Gatorade in. Also was putting ice in the suit. I think in total I had 2-3 gels throughout the run? and I stopped at every single aide station for drink and splashing myself with water. Besides the aid stations the only section I had to walk was an incredibly steep little hill right before the first bridge crossing to the other side of the river. That hill is a real ball buster. In terms of improvements I think if I really want to chop some time I have some free time if I don't walk through aid stations. I need to get better at doing that on the run to enable me to get that free time. Also I really didn't push at all my heartrate was pretty much in high Z2 for me the whole run. Also I was dealing with side stitches off and on the whole run so not sure how I can prevent that in the future but if I could eliminate that I would be a much happier camper. Also lap 2 on the run was SO CROWDED mind you there were 3k athletes but man that was a busy run course for the second lap. Saw the shoot and had the tear well up a little. Got over the line and had a quick little 30 second sob so that was that.
1:51:57 - 8:31 AVG - 11 min PR
Final Thoughts
Chatty has me feeling some really mixed emotions. I really was sure I was in for massive PR., chopping 30 minutes off my last PR. Instead I got a measly 5. Maybe I am being to hard on myself or am being greedy with the amount of time I feel I should be dropping? However when I think about it practically it is a much harder course with 2.3K feet in climbing over the bike and 600 or so feet in climbing on the run. So to PR on a harder course is good right? Just a confusing weekend for me about how to feel about it. I think nutrition is still and issue as I am left thinking why did I feel so weak on the bike? I have read some literature that 90-100g carb may be even better now so I think I will implement this into training. Also could I have been tougher and gone harder on that run? If you saw me out there I was in an blue and orange suit with a white helmet riding and old black and blue trek equinox 7 or black running hat. Next race is in July with the Happy Valley 70.3 so I have even more climbing to look forward to there. Will I be able to further PR? Let me know what y'all think of this write up or your thoughts on all this!

BUT BUY THE DIP

Hello everyone. I recently platinummed the PSVITA version of Sly Cooper 4: Thieves in Time as my 28th platinum. It only took me 10 years, 4 weeks, 22 hours to do it. Did you know this game hides its true ending behind the platinum?
Anyway, I'd like to talk about the experience.
Sly 4 was a bit confusing and inconsistent to platinum. I get the feeling the game wants you to platinum it given how on every loading screen it shows you how much you've completed the trophies and collectibles for the game. And that there no missable trophies. But there are some decisions that don't help with that.
So I'd say there are around 3 groups of Trophies in this game.
The first group are the mandatory story trophies. Not much to say about these. There's nothing missable here and the names are quite cool. I do like looking at the percent completion to see how many players completed the PS VITA version of the game. Did you know that around 73% of players booted this game up and completed the prologue? And only around 25% of players even beat the game. The biggest drop happened around the start of Episode 2 since the completion dropped from around 60%to 48% for some reason.
The second group are the trophies for the collectibles and arcades. I'll talk about these later.
The third and final group of trophies are for miscellaneous challenges. I'll start with these first and highlight some of the notable ones that I missed on my first playthrough.
"Crazed Climber - Scale the dragon lair in under 90 seconds". This was one I missed during my original playthrough of the game. This requires you to climb a giant tower filled with traps in the mission "Mechanical Menace". And this one was really fun even though it took me like 3 attempts. Sly 4's movement and platforming is quite fun so having a mini speedrun challenge using Sir Galleth's moveset was a treat. The one criticism I have here is that the game drops a checkpoint as soon as you get to the top. If you haven't gotten the trophy by then and need to retry, you need to quit to the main menu/hideout and reselect the mission, skip through all the cutscenes and get back there which gets annoying. At least the tower is near the start of the mission.
"Ancient Warfare 3 - Crackshot 10 enemies within 65 seconds. Sly's ancestor, Tennessee "Kid" Cooper" has an ability similar to "Dead Eye" from Red Dead Redemption where he can slow down time, mark enemies and objects and then instantly shoot them dead called "Crackshot". I never got this trophy when I first played the game because there wasn't much opportunity to. There aren't large groups of enemies wandering around that you can casually get 10+ of them line up for you to shoot them. Plus, I was already good at shooting them normally. I tried running around in the open world trying to lure enemies but found it wasn't working. There's a mission in the game called "Blind Date" that throws lots of rabbit enemies that chuck TNT at you that worked better for me.
"Hubba Hubba - Don't miss a beat in the Carmelita dance game." This trophy is, without a doubt, the main reason to platinum this game on VITA instead of the PS3. So nobody can see you play this dumb minigame and call you a Furry. This trophy requires you to complete the minigame where Carmilita needs to disguise herself as a belly dancer and dance to distract guards while the Cooper gang try and open a door. You just need to hit the button prompts perfectly. So you can ignore the times the minigame asks you to shake the VITA from side to side like a champagne bottle to make Carmilita shake her ass (seriously, why does this game sexualize Carmilita so much? None of the past Sly games did it).
"Get To the Chopper - Don't take any damage during Up In Smoke." This one was actually fun. In the mission "Up in Smoke", you have to control an RC Helicopter and drop bombs on turrents while drones and mines chase you down. It was fun dodging and weaving through them. There are 3 phases to this mission and you have a checkpoint in between every phase. So if you mess up, you can just restart the checkpoint to the last phase. You don't need to avoid taking damage the whole way through which is nice.
"Unexpected Package - Place 60 bombs in enemy pockets with Bentley." When I first saw this trophy, I groaned. This would be a massive grind. And I had actually made it harder on myself. You see, normally, when you sneak up behind an enemy as Bentley and hold triangle, Bentley will try to put a bomb in the enemy's pocket. Larger enemies won't notice this but smaller enemies will. But the main issue is that I had previously unlocked the Heat Seeking upgrade for Bentley. Meaning sometimes, the bombs would "miss" and stick to an enemy guard's arms or legs instead. So it was annoying going around the hub world and planting bombs on guards.....until I remembered that I had purchased the upgrade for sleep bombs. My plan now was just to find a lone guard on a rooftop, try and place one sleep bomb into his back pocket and detonate it. He'd then fall asleep. Then I'd go to his sleeping body and try placing 5 sleeping bombs in his pocket and back away (the max you can place at any one time). When he wakes him, I'd detonate all 5 which set him to sleep and then repeat. Even if I'd "miss" a few bombs that would stick to their legs instead, I generally 3 or 4 bombs work perfectly. So it didn't take long to get all 60.
"Apollo Wins - Have the perfect workout during the Training Montage." During the mission "Getting Stronger", you have to do a training montage with Bob where you alternate through 6 minigames as you complete them with the minigames getting harder as you complete them. The trophy requires you to complete 10 randomly selected minigames without making a single mistake. If you mess up, you can restart the checkpoint to the beginning of the montage and have to play through a new set of 10 randomly selected minigames. The Minigames are "Slippery Slope" where you balance an egg on a beam using motion controls while penguins jump around on the floating iceberg you are standing on. "Penguin Popper" where Penguins are diving in front of you and you have to play baseball using them. "Sumo Slap" where you have to perform QTEs to push a giant penguin out of a Sumo Ring. "Duck and Cover" where penguins get launched at you from 4 different directions and you have to move the left stick to dodge them. "Super Sling" which requires you to use a catapult to launch a penguin at a flying pterodactyl. And "Whack a chump" which is Whack a Mole but with penguins. Some of which are fake and you should avoid.
Penguin Popper was easy. Once you get the timing down it's easy to get into a rhythm and hit the penguins since they don't vary when they dive. Whenever this popped into the rotation, I considered it a freebie. Sumo Slap was extremly easy. The button mashing was extremely generous. This was another freebie. Duck and Cover requires a bit more focus because of the timing and inconsistent patterns. It's not too challenging. Interestingly, I noticed that the VITA's speakers would reflect if the penguin was coming from the right or left but not above or below you. I guess headphones would make this easier but I had no need for it. I was generally glad when this popped up in the rotation. Whack a Chump was a bit harder than Penguin Popper because there is no set pattern and the additional challenge of not hitting the fake penguins. But it wasn't too bad. I was glad when this popped up in the rotation.
Super Sling and Slippery Slope were the 2 I dreaded and the ones I messed up the most on. Super Sling doesn't give you much indication of where your sling will go. The Pterodactyls have varied speeds so you can't rely on pattern recolonization and reactions. And there's time pressure as taking too long counts as a miss. And it kept popping up in the rotations for some reason!
Slippery Slope was stressful because of the motion controls and how wild later versions of it were.
"The Cooper Open - Have a 20 hit rally with Bentley in each hideout." There are 6 hideouts in the game. In each hideout there is a table tennis table where you as Sly can play a round of table tennis with Bentley. I question the inclusion of it but I suppose it can be a nice distraction. This trophy requires you get a sequences where both you and Bentley hit the ball back and forth 10 times each (or 20 times overall) without missing. And repeat for each of the 6 tables. I found Bentley kept messing up so I had to intentionally hold back and avoid making good shots and try and hit the ball towards him. The main issue is the fact you have to repeat it 6 times. I feel it would be better off just once and as nothing is really added by doing it 6 times. If anything, it's more annoying given the long load times to switch hideouts and Bentley's random AI.
"Hassan Would Be Proud - Pickpocket a full collection of every item in the game." Each of the 6 or so locations have around 3-4 items that can be pickpocketted from guards. The main issue with this trophy is that it doesn't keep track of which items you have already pickpocketed in any way. The game already tracks how many treasures and masks you've found per general area but not pickpocketted items.
I only got this trophy by planning on systematically going through every location in the game and pickpocketting every enemy item and noting down which ones I found.....only to get it in the first level when I used Murray's shake move on some rat enemies. Enemies that you never encounter or have a reason or opportunity to naturally pickpocket. I guess 2013 me had already gotten 99% of these items previously.
"Navigate Like Drake - Take a look at every map in every episode". I found this trophy really annoying. The way it works is that every location in the game, including linear interiors that are exclusive to missions and even the hideouts, have a map you can look at by pressing SELECT. The game doesn't keep track of which locations you've seen the map of. So I had to systamatically play the game from the first mission and press SELECT whenever I entered a new interior. Then quit out and play the next mission and repeat. It popped for me in Episode 4 so somehow, 2013 me had looked at all the maps in Episode 5 without realizing it.
I don't like this trophy. It doesn't really add anything. The player would already be looking at the maps in the hub worlds where they would be at their most useful since those are open world sections. They have no real reason to use the map in linear interiors. And even less useful in hideouts as these aren't even explorable. They are basically just menus that happen to have a 3D background. I'd be more forgiving of this trophy if the map showed collectibles at least. That way, players have more of a reason to use this feature.
Shout out to the Lazy Trunk Spa & Lounge. A secret area in the game that contains a mask collectible and counts for the trophy with a unique map. No mission ever goes here. So even if you were to play diligently and open the map for every area you encounter, you'd still miss this. I only knew this existed because the trophy guide I looked at told me about it so I decided to tag this area while doing the "Get to the Chopper" trophy.
"Hero Tech - Battle with a secret weapon" Once you collect 50 Sly masks. You unlock Ratchet's wrench from Ratchet and Clank. This weapon even turns the coins you collect into bolts. Collecting 60 Masks unlocks Cole's Amp from inFAMOUS. This can electrocute the enemies you hit. I chose to use Cole's Amp to get the trophy as a tribute to inFAMOUS. Killed by Ghost of Tsumia 😭. May it rest in peace. Gone too soon.
That covers all the miscellaneous trophies. Now for the collectibles and arcades.
Sly 4 has a bunch of different collectibles scattered in each of its 6 episodes.
Bottles: Each hub world contains 30 bottles. Collecting all of them gives you access to unlock a safe hidden somewhere in the hub world. Unlocking that safe rewards you a special treasure. Bottles make a "clinking" sound when you're near them so if you're having a hard time finding them, try going into the game's settings and turning down the music and voice sounds. If you find the safe in Episode 3, the special treasure it gives you will highlight bottles and safes in every other episode on your map which is quite nice. I wish the game did this more often. If it hides collectibles from the player, at least give the player an endgame ability to highlight them. It makes it more feasible and fun to complete these tasks instead of combing every last inch (or looking up a guide).
Treasures: Each hub world has around 11 treasures scattered all around. The gimmick here is that in order to collect them, you first need to find where they are in the hub world. Then once you pick them, you need to race back to your hideout under a certain time limit and without taking any damage. If you mess up, you need to repeat the process. The treasures generally require you to have all of Sly's costumes. And a couple require you to be playing as Sir Galleth because England has increased gravity for some reason. Some of these treasures are really well hidden. Requiring you to go to these holes in the middle of nowhere which then require you to switch between some of Sly's costumes. Like, if you open the map when picking some of these up, you'll find Sly is located beyond the borders of the area.
I found it way more fun to race back to the hideout than actually finding them. It was tedious to find many of them because of how well hidden they are. There is no tool or item in the game that can help mark them on your map. Well, I say that. Supposedly, if you have both the PS3 and VITA versions of the game and play them at the same time, you can use the VITA like a scannebinoculars to locate these treasures. And then use the Cross Save feature to nab them in both versions. I only have the VITA version so no luck for me. Again, I'd argue it would be better if there was an endgame upgrade or tool you could get that would mark the treasures like how the game does it for bottles. There isn't even a "clinking sound" or any help for these.
Anyway, collecting all the treasures for an episode unlocks the arcade machine minigame for that episode.
Also sidenote, but this game has the worst map screen that still somehow can be useful. The map gives a top down view of the area but with a blue filter. This makes it harder and more annoying to navigate and use landmarks for reference. Especially on the VITA with its smaller screen. There are also no icons on the map (aside from bottles, safes and objectives) or the ability to make your own markers. The VITA version makes it worse as you can't even use the buttons to navigate the map. You have to use the touchscreen even though that's not how it is in the PS3 version. But you can still use it to know where you are and where collectibles can be from guides. It's technically readable and useful but just barely. I've never seen a map in a game so perfectly walk the line between useful and annoying.
The next collectible are Sly Masks. There are 60 total and around 11 per Episode. Collecting them unlocks skins and some goodies. But the catch with them is that they can be anywhere. There can be a couple in the hub world. But also couple during select missions and even some in the arcade minigames. There's no way to know where any of them are. They generally tend to be really well hidden even if you are trying to scour every area.
Again, I wish there was a way to highlight them. The game's long load times make it a chore to switch episodes or missions so it's tedious to try searching for them manually.
Now it's time to talk about the arcades. Sly 4 has 3 arcade minigames that are used in both the main missions and have a harder version in the arcades in hideouts. The arcade versions of these minigames are harder, go on for much longer and can have secret paths that lead to portals that reward you with points and some of them even have Sly masks. You need to beat the high scores to get the trophies
The first minigame is "Alter Ego". This has you play this 2D auto scrolling twin stick shooter minigame where you must avoid enemies and collect these "ionic bits". Collecting 5 yellow bits levels you up so your weapons get more powerful. At level 10 you have shoot crazy fast, can launch missiles and have floating drones that can damage enemies around you. But whenever you take damage, you drop an entire level. And you get left behind as the level autoscrolls, you respawn at level 0. You can also collect blue bits which can give you a grenade explosion around you.
Personally, I don't really like this minigame. It's fine when playing casually as a change of pace but grinding the high score isn't great. Since it is an autoscroller it is entirely possible you don't have enough points to match the high score and you won't know until its too late, wasting your time. I also found the hitboxes a bit too small. Making items more annoying to pickup.
The key to success is finding the right balance between collecting yellow bits as they give points and level you up (and how high your level is acts as a multiplier for your score) and killing enemies since they give more points. As well as avoiding taking damage and maintaining level 10 as much as possible and knowing where the secret paths are so you can get more points as well as level up if you have messed up.
The second minigame is "System Cracker". Here, you guide a little space ship looking thing through 2D levels in top down twin stick shooting sections. This isn't an autoscroller. You need to explore levels looking for keys and shooting enemies. There are 3 ships you can switch between by going onto specific coloured pads and each ship has its pros and cons. The green ship you start with does decent damage and has decent health and can carry keys. So it's a jack of all trades master of none kinda ship. The pink ship literally resembles a tank. It fires slower and at a shorter range but does more damage and has more health. It's also necessary for destroying pink crystals to progress. The blue ship has floatier handling and faster speeds. Its shots also bounce off walls and it can draw a line which can activate switches and damage enemies. It is weaker than the green ship though.
I actually really enjoyed this minigame and was happy whenever it comes up. It even feels the most fleshed out of the 3. Like, I feel it could even be released as a small standalone game with some tweaking and expansion. I'd probably play a mobile version of this in my free time.
I like how varied the levels can be. You can have a lot of different threats and mini-puzzles and even scenarios where you have to keep switching between ships on the fly to damage enemies. Like, there's this one enemy that's made up of orange, blue and pink hexagons that require you to switch between all 3 ships and use their abilities to damage it. It's quite fun. Damage one ship takes is "saved" on that ship. So if you take 50% damage with the green ship and switch to the pink one, the pink one will have 100% health. But whenever you switch back to the green one, you will be back at 50% health. So mistakes have consequences requiring you to make decisions accounting for them without being too overbearing.
Beating the high scores for the associated arcades is very easy. For one, there is no time limit or pressure so you’re free to take your time and play carefully. On top of that, the mode is very generous with points. Whereas Alter Ego only gives you points for killing enemies and picking up bits (and you need to get and maintain a multiplier for decent times), System Cracker gives you points even for shooting obstacles and barricades in your way. In Alter Ego, I was scraping for points until the very end. In System Cracker, I had more than enough points by the halfway mark.
I suppose the game could have balanced this by increasing the points threshold and rewarding extra points for taking less time to complete sections but I’m not complaining.
The third and worst minigame is “Spark Chaser”. Here you must guide a little electric ball across these maze like areas with gaps that end your attempt if you fall down them and these pinball like bounce pads that bounce you really far. There’s also a time pressure. You have around 20 seconds to get as far as possible with more time added as you pick up these purple clock icons.
The biggest issue is that it’s entirely controlled by motion controls. And this makes me experience worse on VITA. Seriously, I very nearly quit playing. This post was almost titled “I gave up trying to Platinum Sly 4”.
With the PS3 version, at least titling the remote doesn’t also affect your view of the screen. You can look at the game and play it the same as you normally would. But in the VITA version, the “neutral” position where no input is registered by the system is placing the VITA flat with its screen facing up. The standard “screen facing you” position registers as down.
The end result is a frustrating experience. This minigame requires really fine precision given how easy it is to fall off and the time pressure requires you both be fast and more precise to collect time pickups. On top of that, your view is constantly being messed with due to how much you need to tilt the system from odd angles. Especially how tilting “up” really makes it hard to see. Oh, and the dialogue from Bentley as you bounce gets really annoying and repetitive.
It’s barely tolerable in regular missions since those don’t require as much precision or speed. And even then, the usage there in 2013 was suspect to begin with. I only completed this because there’s a cheese where if you can get enough time early on, you can then keep bouncing on certain pads which give around 20 points per bounce. When I played “normally”, I’d get around 300 points with the high score being 1000 points. Using the cheese, I averaged around 990 points and managed to get lucky to win with 1010 points.
Tangent Time:
I’ve said it before. Motion controls work best when they complement existing controls in an optional way or in more restrained ways. I love it when games have gyro aiming since that can help compensate when aiming with sticks with small fine corrections. It works here because the sticks do most of the work and the gyro sensors work where they are best suited.
Or in many mobile racing games, steering is often done by tilting your phone. I enjoy this because there is only one axis you need to tilt your phone, the screen often rotates in conjunction so your view is preserved and it’s more intuitive to feel the “range” of rotation and how it corresponds to steering.
Hell, even ignoring these approaches, motion can still be used in worthwhile ways. Such as by mapping an extra action that is infrequent if all other buttons are occupied. The Mario games on Wii map a “spin” when you jump and shake the remotes giving Mario a bit of grace allowing him to make slightly further jumps or correct a bad jump. Call of Duty MW1 on Wii allowed you to assign certain commands to custom motions of the controller and nunchuck. So you could map stuff like jumping, moving and shooting to buttons but map reloading to smacking the nunchuck to the Wii Mote or plunge the Wii Mote forward to do a melee attack or tilting the Wii Mote to bring out a grenade or alt fire.
Even Resistance 1: Fall of Man had a neat idea. You could quickly tilt the controller left to bring up the Scoreboard screen without needing to take your thumbs off the sticks or stop moving. The Soulsbourne games allow you to quickly do emotes without needing a menu by holding the interact button and quickly tilting the controller in certain directions.
I bring all this up to highlight how Sly 4’s use of motion controls are a failure on every level. They’re mostly used in place of minigames as the sole method of control. So all the issues of motion controls (such as the lack of broad control and feedback) are front and centre. The only place where the motion controls are understandable is when firing arrows as you can then control the arrow after it’s fired using both the sticks and gyro aiming. But even then, the lack of any ability to tune the gyro sensitivity or even invert the controls hampers any use it could have had.
I don’t mind the idea of Sly 4 having decent motion controls. There are places where I can see it being beneficial. In addition to shooting and guiding arrows, I can see it being useful when you have to use the binoculars. Especially as Bentley as you need to shoot darts precisely.
Or, here’s a gimmicky one: you can bind certain costumes or tools to also be selected by quickly tilting the system. Even though using the D-pad for a quick select would be faster, it would still be a better use of motion controls for Sly 4 than most of what’s currently there.
End Tangent.
Back to getting all the trophies, the final arcade machine, unlocked only when you’ve gotten all the treasures in every other episode, is very easy. It has “3 rooms”, one featuring every minigame thus far. But the high score requirements are really low and rooms aren’t as tough as prior versions. You can easily get the high score in the first area which is the Alter Ego one. Even if you miss it there, the second area is Spark Runner but you can keep reloading the checkpoint to preserve your score. So you can get some time clocks, reload a checkpoint when you’re close to running out of time or about to fall off and repeat until you get the high score.
You do need to get past the Spark Runner section to the 3rd and final section that uses System Cracker's gameplay in order to get a hidden Sly Mask, but it's far easier than the dedicated Spark Runner arcade minigame as the section is shorter, is more generous with Time Pickups, has easier level design and lets you reload a checkpoint if you're about to fail which doesn't end the run.
So yeah, Sly 4 Thieves in Time was....inconsistent game to platinum. I enjoyed the base gameplay, System Cracker, the various challenge trophies and the mini speedruns for collecting treasures. I didn't enjoy finding the collectibles and doing some of the other minigames. I hated Spark Runner.
If the game had more ways of tracking collectibles, fewer minigames and better load times, I'd gladly recommend it as a fun game to platinum.
As for the base game itself, I am mixed on it. The gameplay is arguably the best in the series. Sly's movement and costumes are so fun to play around with. Murray, Bentely and Sly's ancestors are also fun changes of pace during missions.
The story is lacking. My main issue is that it doesn't feel like it realizes its following up Sly 3. The story so casually undoes the ending of Sly 3 to get Sly 4's story going. I get it, that's what a sequel has to do. But the way it does it really undermines Sly 3. It's also much more lighthearted and doesn't have as much of a theme or focal point as its predecessors. Sly 1-3 explored the theme of legacy and the consequences of adhering to it so tightly. A major aspect of Sly 3 was Sly realizing the Cooper Vault wasn't worth dying for. It's what prompts him to fake his amnesia and retire with Carmilita in the end. So for Sly 4 to then have Sly have an itch to steal just for the fun of it, it's sending mixed messages here.
In addition, Sly is really casual about the fact Carmilita now knows about his betrayal and has broken up with him. Seems like that should have been a bigger deal. In fact, that kind of "casual-ness" persists throughout the story. Sly doesn't really have much of an arc or any real heartfelt moments with his ancestors. Nor do they seem to really care their decedent from the future is here with them.
If I could have tweaked the story to address these points, here's what I would have done:
I'd have the story open with Sly, Bentley and Murray enjoying their "retirement" and have no plans of thieving. I'd go so far as to have Sly even scoff at the idea of him ever wanting to be a thief. Then when the pages of the Thievus Racconus are dissapearing, Sly, Bentley and Murray have to reluctantly unretire to try stopping them. There would be dialogue during the opening mission of Sly being worried if they get caught as it would undo their happy ending. And then when Carmilita catches Sly, Sly at first is flustered and tries to explain the situation to Carmilita who isn't having any of Sly's BS. Sly is forcibly extracted by the gang and then they time travel. As they are time travelling. Sly is upset that, in order to go literally defend the Cooper Legacy, he has to give up his happy relationship and can't be repaired now. That even if they fix the problem, they'll be on the run forever now. Murray had to give up his professional career as well.
Already, I feel this introduction has a few things going for it. It respects the ending of Sly 3 and keeps the characters in more character, as well as putting more heat on Le Paradox. Sly 4 had to rip away the happy ending that was Sly 3. The characters know that and aren't happy about it. There is immediate consequences. And that heat can be directed at Le Paradox when he comes later.
I'd also like if all of the ancestors Sly met had different reactions to both him and the Cooper legacy and how it affects Sly's arc.
For example, lets say when he meets Riochi Cooper, Ricohi is initially disappointed in Sly as the future Cooper decendent as Sly doesn't act honourably or respect the legacy or something like this. Something that makes Sly start to question if it's even worth defending the Cooper Legacy. Bentely is the voice of reason here and mediator that gets the gang to work as well as they can.
Then when Sly meets Tennessee Cooper, Sly is initially expecting another traditionalist ancestor that cares a lot about the Cooper Legacy. But Tennessee is kinda the opposite of Riochi in that Tennasee doesn't care about the legacy in the same way. He adds his own spin and contributions but also uses the knowledge from it to do his own thing. Perhaps Tennessee is this Robin-Hood esque figure who uses his heisting skills to steal from the corrupt ruling class and give to the lower class. The point being that through Tennessee, Sly considers another aspect of the Cooper Legacy on how he's not that beholden to it and can potentially make it his own.
Then when Sly meets Bob, part of Bob's training is also from Sly as Sly teaches him some of the Cooper moves he knows. Since Bob is the first Cooper ancestor, he has no bias towards the legacy or any knowledge. So he's far more grateful and begins to use his new skills in helpful ways. Causing Sly to wonder if he could use the Cooper Legacy in more ways.
It's a similar situation for Sir Galleth. And for Selim, perhaps by that point, Sly has a newfound outlook and appreciation for the Cooper Legacy and ways on how he can improve it or make it his own that he encourages Selim not to retire or to retire in such a way where he could help people or something like that.
So yeah, there's this theme now of "Don't let the past define you now. You can make it your own and grow past its flaws". Which I feel would give Sly 4 more of a punch. I am basically copying Metal Gear Solid 4 and Assassin's Creed though.
I also feel it would be better if Penelope wasn't the villain of episode 4. It seems to contradict her character from past games and the explanation given for her heel turn doesn't really hold water. I feel the story would be better if Penelope had the role Dmitri has where she's their help in the present and the Knight was a new character. But if you need to have Penelope as the antagonist, have her be under mind control or something. That way the team has the conflict of how will they stop the plan without hurting their friend. But if you really insist on Penelope being a full on antagonist now by her own choice, perhaps flesh out her motivations more? Maybe something like "she sees how Bentley will never reach his full potential as the Bill Gates of the world because of his criminal past that requires him to lay low and not take public credit for his inventions. So she's trying to erase the Coopers so Bentley will have never met Sly". That would at least be more than "I want money".
Everything else, I feel works more or less.
I will note that the cliffhanger ending was a weird choice given that this game wasn't projected to sell well and kinda pigenholes any story Sly 5 would be going for. Plus, it being locked behind the platinum trophy means only a small portion of the few players that played Sly 4 would even know about it.
So yeah, that's my take on platinumming Sly 4: Thieves in Time. What do y'all think?
Next up for me is platinumming every Spider-Man game on PS VITA. See you then.

First off, I just want to say Im a yankee fan and respect the heck out of Alonso. I think Alonso is the NL MVP if his season keeps pace.
OK so yesterday there was convo on Pete vs Aaron and why Pete isnt getting the same love that Judge did last year.
I've got some points on the why, but first wanted to say I dont think we have to have a VS here. These guys are both NYC studs playing great ball.
So to the question... why isnt Alonso getting the Judge-level love?
Answer: Because Judge is a better, more athletic ball player. Simple as that. Now add onto it Judge is personable/marketable, on the biggest sports franchise in the world.
While Pete is a stud...he's not on that level. Hes def a weirdo haha. Hes not as good a d player and hes not even as good as a slugger.
But this is baseball....so lets talk stats....

• Judge is a better defensive player.
  

  Player	Position	Fielding % 2022	Fielding % 2023
  Alonso	1B	.992	.998
  Judge	CF	1	1
  Judge	RF	1	.971

• Aaron Judge is a better, more efficient hitter. AKA less AB but higher production. Looking at the last 2 years - Pete has only beaten Judge in one area....his 2023 HR pace.
  2022
  

  Player	AB	Hits per AB	Runs per AB	RBIs per AB	HRs per AB	HRs per Hit
  Alonso	597	27%	16%	22%	7%	25%
  Judge	570	31%	23%	23%	11%	35%

  2023
  

  Player	AB	Hits per AB	Runs per AB	RBIs per AB	HRs per AB	HRs per Hit
  Alonso	202	24%	19%	23%	10%	41%
  Judge	162	30%	24%	23%	10%	35%

  Career
  

  Player	AB	Hits per AB	Runs per AB	RBIs per AB	HRs per AB	HRs per Hit
  Alonso	2165	26%	16%	20%	8%	25%
  Judge	2800	28%	21%	19%	8%	35%

Miracle Max from The Princess Bride

Howdy all!
This week, our bonus seed is FAD Keysanity. Our goal is all dungeons, keysanity mode. GTBK will be somewhere in Ganon's Tower, and the Agahnim's tower keys will be in their standard locations.
New seed for this week:
Game Details

• Name: FAD Keysanity
• ROM build: 2023-03-15
• Accessibility: items
• World State: open
• Swords: randomized
• Goal: dungeons
• Permalink: https://alttpr.com/h/ZYvPP9envW
• Code: Flippers, Lamp, Somaria, Magic Powder, Mushroom

Logic Settings

• Glitches Required: NoGlitches
• Item Placement: advanced
• Dungeon Items: full
• Accessibility: items

Goal Settings

• Goal: dungeons
• Open Tower: 7 Crystals
• Ganon Vulnerable: 7 Crystals

Gameplay Settings

• World State: open
• Entrance Shuffle: off
• Boss Shuffle: none
• Enemy Shuffle: none
• Hints: off

Difficulty Settings

• Swords: randomized
• Item Pool: normal
• Item Functionality: normal
• Enemy Damage: default
• Enemy Health: default

Results for last week:

• anongogogo: 1:21:51 124/216
• Silenthillnight: 1:30:49 135/216
• doggiedolphie: 1:35:56 132/216
• PixelFan05: 1:37:18 143/216 VOD
• leejo: 1:49:34
• caitsithx: 2:01:29 172/216
• scanlor: 2:14:10 181/216

The lowest collection rate was 124/216 by anongogogo.
7 results were submitted. The median time was 1:37:18. The median collection rate was 143/216.
Congrats to anongogogo for taking the top spot with a result of 1:21:51.
anongogogo's comments:

1:21:51 124/216
very cool jet seed, pretty much everything was in an efficient path. beginning could be tough depending if you get the extra heart from stumpy and the master sword at the bomb hut. Went inside looting TR and big surprise with the Somaria. Go mode was bombos, tempered sword in GT was nice thought I was gonna be doing silvers and master

As always, the rules:

• Timing is based on the in-game timer, not real time
• All "thinking" time should be done in-game on the clock
• Reset using save quit to preserve in-game timing
• Halting the game (turning off the clock) to do real life stuff is fine
• Fast-forwarding is fine
• VODs are welcome, but not required
• Rewind and slow motion aren't allowed
• Save states can be used to halt/continue the game, but not as a way to revert mistakes
• Competitive glitches are permitted, as per the ALTTPR Racing Ruleset.
• At the end of the run, put your total time and comments
• Feel free to submit disqualified times; simply note that the time was DQ and mention why

I wanted to dig deeper at the dart throws and what it would take for 2023 or even 2024 path to starting and fantasy relevant.
Here is the pool of players I am looking at (they may or may not be there): BOLD is players I like
By Sleeper ADP:

• Michael Wilson (Ship has sailed)
  • 2023 Path: D Hop is cut
  • 2024 Path: D Hop is cut, M Brown isnt renewed
• Evan Hull
  • 2023 Path: Injury to J Taylor, Passing down role earned
  • 2024+ Path: J Taylor isnt resigned, Passing down role solidified or 3 down back
• Tyler Scott
  • 2023 Path: Injury to one of top 3 AND Chicago is passing more
  • 2024+ path: 2 of top 3 WRS are not resigned. Speedster gadget role
• Xavier Hutchinson
  • 2023: Compete with HOU WRs for 2nd or 3rd WR role
  • 2024+: Compete with HOU WRs for 2nd or 3rd WR role, Overtake Nico?
• Stetson Bennett
  • 2023: Stafford is toast and starts as needed to get better pick
  • 2024+: Rams have no high picks to acquire QBs
• A.T. Perry:
  • 2023: Michael Thomas is done and AT Perry shows up on outside
  • 2024+: MT done, backup wrs not resigned, Cap space issues
• Kenny McIntosh
  • 2023: injury to 1 of top 3 rbs, mainly top 2
  • 2024: maybe 3rd RB unless trade from ahead RBs
• Parker Wahington
  • 2023: Overtake random room of WRS
  • 2024: Establish a cheap WR option for QB rapport, low volume
• Puka Nacua
  • 2023: Take over the R Woods role of blocking and outside field stretch
  • 2024+: - Take over the R Woods, limited draft picks, and 2 WRS are not resigned
• Tucker Kraft
  • 2023: Build ball skills
  • 2024+ 2 TEs are not resigned, skills improve to match combine
• Chris Rodriguez
  • 2023: Injury to 1 of 2 starters in WAS
  • 2024+: Gibson isn't resigned
• Keaton Mitchell
  • 2023: BAL cuts 1 of 3 vet RBs for value
  • 2024: BAL doesn't resign 2 of 3 RBs and shifts to passing more
• Brenton Strange
  • 2023: Blocks well enough, Maybe gets some goal line Tds
  • 2024: Engram is done and he develops 1 TE set routes
• Tre Tucker
  • 2023: QB can throw the ball 5 feet
  • 2024+: Raiders get a QB
• Justin Shorter
  • 2023: Multiple injuries to WR and TE room. Mix between WR and TE off the line
  • 2024: finds 3rd wr outside role to stretch field.

Assuming any get their path, who has the highest ceiling/potential, vs highest floor or minimum value guaranteed based on depth chart and contracts?

Hi! How is it going?
As with the previous 3 weeks, we're running the 2023 main tournament standard boots ruleset as our main seed.
New seed for this week:
Game Details

• Name: Standard Boots
• ROM build: 2023-03-15
• Accessibility: items
• World State: standard
• Swords: randomized
• Goal: ganon
• Permalink: https://alttpr.com/h/bYMNZOLkM0
• Code: Boomerang, Lamp, Moon Pearl, Ice Rod, Shield

Logic Settings

• Glitches Required: NoGlitches
• Item Placement: advanced
• Dungeon Items: standard
• Accessibility: items

Goal Settings

• Goal: ganon
• Open Tower: 7 Crystals
• Ganon Vulnerable: 7 Crystals

Gameplay Settings

• World State: standard
• Entrance Shuffle: off
• Boss Shuffle: none
• Enemy Shuffle: none
• Hints: off

Difficulty Settings

• Swords: randomized
• Item Pool: normal
• Item Functionality: normal
• Enemy Damage: default
• Enemy Health: default

Results for last week:

• anongogogo: 1:36:28 141/216
• Silenthillnight: 1:38:52 155/216
• doggiedolphie: 1:41:01 142/216
• skepticCanary: 1:43:31 152/216 VOD
• leejo: 1:43:46 143/216 VOD
• scanlor: 1:43:58 153/216 VOD
• PixelFan05: 1:46:37 149/216 VOD
• GiBc2003: 1:48:31
• caitsithx: 1:49:11 147/216
• woody-mc: 1:58:49 154/216 VOD
• Sam5253: 2:01:22 150/216
• Successful-Badger961: 2:06:35 158/216

The lowest collection rate was 141/216 by anongogogo.
12 results were submitted. The median time was 1:46:37. The median collection rate was 150/216.
Congrats to anongogogo for taking the top spot with a result of 1:36:28.
anongogogo's comments:

1:36:28 141/216
Had to went back to thieves town for the Hammer after clearing everything else, otherwise not that bad. Plenty of bottles so I didn't even take the blue mail in dp ledge

As always, the rules:

• Timing is based on the in-game timer, not real time
• All "thinking" time should be done in-game on the clock
• Reset using save quit to preserve in-game timing
• Halting the game (turning off the clock) to do real life stuff is fine
• Fast-forwarding is fine
• VODs are welcome, but not required
• Rewind and slow motion aren't allowed
• Save states can be used to halt/continue the game, but not as a way to revert mistakes
• Competitive glitches are permitted, as per the ALTTPR Racing Ruleset.
• At the end of the run, put your total time and comments
• Feel free to submit disqualified times; simply note that the time was DQ and mention why