Author Archives: Aidan McCloskey

GeoGuessr And The Birth of a New Competitive Scene

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If you’ve been on the internet in the past few years, you’ve probably heard of the game GeoGuessr. But if you haven’t, are you living under a rock or something? Let me clue you in anyways. GeoGuessr is an online game where you get placed somewhere random in the world using Google Street View and you have to figure out where you are.

GeoGuessr debuted in 2013 as just a simple browser game created by a man named Anton Wallen. But nowadays in 2024, it is much different. The game wasn’t very big from 2013-2020, but it did maintain a decent-sized active community. As GeoGuessr became a bit more popular thanks to creators like Geowizard, a much bigger community was formed. Players all across the world started sharing videos of themselves playing GeoGuessr on YouTube and streaming platforms like Twitch. This allowed other people to showcase their GeoGuessr abilities.

The game got even better when Google Street View updated its coverage. This new coverage allowed for higher quality images, making it easier to see clues and thus figure out where you are in the world. When GeoGuessr was gaining popularity, the developers took notice and decided to add new game modes like country streaks and more multiplayer options, appealing to a more competitive style of play.

A major boost to GeoGuessr’s popularity came from Trevor Rainbolt, who you may know as GeoRainbolt. He was one of the first creators to showcase his incredible skill of identifying a location on GeoGuessr in 0.1 seconds on YouTube and TikTok. His videos dropped many jaws, including mine, showing that GeoGuessr can legitimately be a competitive game. Rainbolt’s videos inspired others to try and master this insane skill and become professional GeoGuessr players. Many people were actually able to successfully do this and professionally compete in GeoGuessr tournaments.

With more and more people playing competitively, a professional scene started to form. Many players began studying what made a country unique, whether it be a telephone pole, bollards, or road structure you name it, people were studying it. Different platforms like Twitch and YouTube helped make GeoGuessr widely recognized as a competitive game. The community played a big part in shaping the competitive scene. They started organising tournaments and created various resources to help new players improve at the game.

The developers of GeoGuessr added features like leaderboards and custom game modes to support competitive play. GeoGuessr’s journey from just a simple browser game to a competitive one highlights the power of community and technology. Content creators like GeoRainbolt helped demonstrate the game’s potential, inspiring many others. Today, GeoGuessr continues to grow as a competitive game, engaging players around the world.

 

Best Golf Courses in British Columbia

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British Columbia is home to over 300 stunning golf courses, each offering its own unique scenery and holes. I’ve been lucky enough to play lots of different courses across B.C., from my hometown of Prince George to down here in the lower mainland.

Now, I’m not the best when it comes to swinging a golf club, but to me golf isn’t just about trying to get your ball in that tiny little hole. It’s about that feeling you get when you’re enjoying the game’s beauty and excitement. You may be asking yourself, what are some of the best courses to play at in British Columbia? Well, let me tell you.

At number five on our list, we have Talking Rock Golf Course. Situated near Kamloops, on the east end of Little Shuswap Lake, lies a beautiful 18-hole golf course that has views that will blow your freaking mind. Talking Rock is well known for its beautiful views of the nearby mountains and its challenging design. I’ve had the honour of playing at this course before and I gotta say, it’s one of the nicest courses I have played at. I didn’t do as well as I wanted to, but hey, I can still tell my friends and family that I have played at one of the most beautiful courses in all of British Columbia.

Eagle Ranch Golf Course takes the number four position on this list. Located near the border of British Columbia and Alberta in a city called Invermere, is a course called Eagle Ranch Resort & Golf Course. Eagle Ranch combines mountain terrain with very wide fairways. Eagle Ranch offers incredible views of the Columbia Valley and the Rockies.

Number three on the list of the best courses in British Columbia is Tobiano Golf Course. Whenever I’m going down to the Okanagans for a little vacation in the summer, I always drive past Tobiano and, man, do I really want to play a round there one day. Tobiano, just like Talking Rock, is located near Kamloops and it offers one of the most incredible views of Kamloops Lake. The course has a desert-like landscape, making the whole thing like one giant bunker.

Second place is a course just outside of Merritt called Sagebrush Golf Club. Sagebrush is known for its challenging layout as the course features a variety of uphill and downhill holes with multiple ways to get to the hole from tee to green, suiting different skill levels.

In first place for the nicest course in all of British Columbia is none other than Capilano Golf & Country Club. Capilano Golf & Country Club in West Vancouver is an iconic course. It has a classic design, great maintenance, and stunning views of downtown Vancouver and the Pacific Ocean. It’s the top golfing spot in B.C.

I gotta show some bias to my hometown of Prince George, so an honourable mention on our list is Aberdeen Glen. Considering I’m from Prince George, I of course have had lots of opportunities to play here and I gotta say it’s highly underrated when it comes to a golf course. It offers a friendly atmosphere, well-maintained greens, and a challenging layout, making it a great spot for golf for both locals and visitors.

British Columbia is home to over 300 stunning golf courses, each offering unique scenery and challenges. From my hometown of Prince George to the lower mainland, I’ve been fortunate to play on many of these courses. While I’m not the best golfer, I believe golf is about enjoying the beauty and excitement of the game.

Canucks Playoff Atmosphere is Unbeatable

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Despite the Canucks losing in game four of their second round series to the Edmonton Oilers, it was somewhat a positive day for me yesterday. Yes, I was disappointed that the Canucks lost last night, but this was also my first NHL playoff experience. Although it was a watch party with no actual hockey happening on Rogers Arena ice, I was absolutely blown away by how much Rogers Arena was buzzing last night.

The puck hadn’t even dropped yet but the fans attending the watch party didn’t care. I don’t know if you know this but did you know that the Canucks still play “Where The Streets Have No Name” by U2 even at away game watch parties? I, of course, knew that so I was so hyped when I heard that iconic intro start playing. I was telling my friends before the game how hyped I was going to be when they played “Where The Streets Have No Name”. When that intro hit, it felt like I was a kid again watching some early 2010s Canucks playoff hockey. To witness that intro in person, it’s just something that dreams are made of.

Not even that, the puck still hadn’t dropped yet, and Canucks PA announcer, Al Murdoch, started reading the starting lineup for the game and when he announced Canucks goaltender Arturs Silovs, Rogers Arena just popped. I have never heard or should I say felt a pop like that ever in my life before. It was pretty much like that for every name he announced. During the anthem, the fans there were just belting out every word of the Canadian anthem. Witnessing that kind of thing just puts a smile on your face.

Then finally, the puck dropped. But of course, the Oilers had to score 11:10 minutes into the first period to suck out the energy of Rogers Arena. At intermission, the score was 1-0 for Edmonton, but many fans there still had hope for their Canucks to tie the game. Nearing the end of the second period, the score remained 1-0 for the Oilers and it was looking like it was going to stay that way going into the second intermission but Ryan Nugent-Hopkins had to snipe it past Arturs Silovs to double the Oilers’ lead and suck out the energy even more from the Rogers Arena crowd.

But did we give up hope during the second period? Nope. We all still had hope in the Canucks to pull off a comeback. They’ve done it before in this series, so we all thought it was very possible. It was looking more likely because Conor Garland brought the energy back inside the Rogers Arena crowd. Fans, including me, were waving their rally towels like madmen. I was waving my towel so fast my arm got tired in probably 30 seconds. The arena was buzzing and all you saw in the stands were fans waving their towels. It was pretty much a sea of white. And the noise level was crazy. I’ve been to Canucks regular season games and when they scored a goal I thought it was pretty loud but compared to when Garland put the puck in the back of the net last night, it’s just incomparable.

This brought even more hope back into the fans as the Canucks brought the score back within a goal. With less than 5 minutes to go in the game, coach Rick Tocchet decided to empty his net. Rogers was buzzing in the final minutes but then, guess who stepped up to bring Rogers Arena off their feet? None other than Dakota Joshua. Honestly, my voice is still recovering from how much I was screaming because of that goal. I’m sure I’m not the only one whose voice is still recovering. That goal was probably the loudest pop of the night.

However, that happiness didn’t last long as a minute later, Evan Bouchard had to break all of the hearts of the fans that were attending the watch party. I sat in silence for the next ten minutes. Although the Canucks couldn’t get it done in game four, I am still very happy that I got to witness the closest thing to Canucks playoff hockey action. I will probably cherish that night for the rest of my life.

The Impeccable Rise of Internet Live Streamers

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Twitch has been around since 2011, and it only seems to be going up. In just a few years, Twitch has gone from this niche live streaming website to a major factor in the online entertainment world.

If you don’t know what twitch is, let me clue you in. Twitch is an online live streaming website where people can stream themselves playing video games, making music, cooking, or just their life in general. If you’re lucky enough you can actually make streaming your full time job. Now that may sound stupid but it’s true.

Twitch has created a wave of new internet celebrities that entertain millions of people from all across the world every day. So let’s take a closer look at how Twitch and streamers have achieved this success.

Twitch really started to make an impact in mainstream media around the late 2010s to early 2020s. When Fortnite was the most popular game in the world, streamers started to take advantage of that and started streaming the game to viewers. There were tons of people that found success doing this, but there’s really only one that found success.

Tyler Blevins, AKA Ninja, was at his peak viewership when he streamed him playing Fortnite with Drake, Travis Scott, and JuJu Smith-Schuster. That’s a stacked lobby if you ask me. Ninja managed to pull in more than 600,000 viewers to his stream. Although the exact amount of money he made during that stream with Drake wasn’t publicly disclosed, it’s estimated that he made around $500,000 to $1 million in that one stream and that’s excluding the $5,000 Drake wager that he won.

After Fortnite slowly stopped trending, Twitch was kinda back at square 1 with its viewership. That is until around the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. When there was nothing to do but stay home, people decided to take up different hobbies and some people took up streaming. Then a new game started trending. Among Us is a game where players work together on a space-themed mission, but some are secretly impostors trying to sabotage and eliminate the crew. Streamers like Sykkuno, Corpse Husband, Disguised Toast, and Valkyrie. heck even already big internet celebrities, like PewDiePie and XQC started to hop on the Among Us craze. Sykkuno was able to pull in over 13,000 viewers in one Among Us stream. Now I know you can’t really compare Sykkuno’s 13,000 viewer peak to Ninja’s 600,000 viewer peak. But you gotta admit, 13,000 viewers is still a massive amount of viewers.

Fast forward a few years later to around mid 2023. A streamer that really started to make waves was Jynxzi. A streamer that mainly played Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege and a few other games as well. Now you may be asking yourself, how come Jynxzi got popular even though his main game wasn’t a massive game at the time compared to Fortnite and Among Us. Well, I got an answer for you. Jynxzi had an interesting twist when it came to his streams. Each stream he focused heavily on viewer engagement. This kinda explains how he blew up out of nowhere. Whether it be reacting to video game clips that his viewers sent him or just reading his chat. Jynxzi saw this success and continued to do it and it only grew him even more. One of his streams nearly reached 100,000 viewers in one stream. Before Jynxzi saw this success, he was streaming to practically nobody for over a year. This goes to show that hard work really does pay off.

Another streamer that seems to get bigger and bigger is CaseOh. Just like Jynxzi, he also kinda blew up out of nowhere. CaseOh got popular because his viewers made fun of his weight. Now this may seem a bit insensitive but CaseOh actually embraces it. The most infamous clip of him is when one of his viewers compared him looking like a one by one lego piece. This one clip skyrocketed his viewership, going from averaging under 1,000 viewers a stream to averaging 50,000 viewers a stream and his viewership only seems to be going up every day.

https://twitter.com/3vi1j0rdan/status/1785045041469084100

Twitch has come a long way, creating internet celebrities like Ninja and responding to trends like Among Us. Streamers like Jynxzi and CaseOh prove that engagement and uniqueness can lead to big success. As Twitch evolves, its impact on online entertainment remains strong.

Top 10 Most Valuable Hockey Cards

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If you’re a hockey fan, hockey cards might be a perfect hobby for you. I’m somewhat of a collector myself, just like many others who are also crazy about hockey cards.

As a collector, there are some cards out there where I just dream of pulling. For example, when I first got into hockey cards I really wanted a Quinn Hughes rookie card. Pretty much everyday after school, I would head to my local Walmart to get a few packs of hockey cards just hoping that one of them had a Quinn Hughes rookie card inside. And then, it happened. It was just a normal Saturday afternoon, I had just gotten back from running errands with my dad and he allowed me to get some hockey cards. When we got home, I immediately ripped open those packs. I wasn’t getting my hopes up, considering I was trying to pull that Quinn Hughes rookie for so long. I opened up the first pack, no luck, second pack, also no luck. But that third pack though, that was it. On the final card pull of my packs, I saw that young guns gloss that you just dream of seeing. At that moment, I was left speechless for a moment and then I let out a scream that probably shook the whole neighbourhood.

However, there are some cards that I have totally just accepted that I’ll never pull. They are close to impossible to actually pull. So what are some of these close to impossible cards to pull? Well, let’s look into it.

At the number ten spot, we got a 1980 O-Pee-Chee Wayne Gretzky card that sold for $60,400 in March of 2021. Gretzky’s 1980-81 O-Pee-Chee card, released during his second NHL season. It remains one of the more popular cards to pull. This card is actually rarer than his rookie cards from O-Pee-Chee and Topps, with only 2,177 of these 1980 O-Pee-Chee cards known to exist in PSA’s records.

Next on our list is a 1911-12 C55 Imperial Tobacco Georges Vezina. Vezina’s 1911-12 Imperial Tobacco card is his only recognized rookie card with only one card graded over PSA seven. He held a career goals against average of 3.28 and led the Montreal Canadiens to two Stanley Cups. This rookie card was sold for $61,200 in May of 2021.

At the number eight position,we got a 1951 Parkhurst Maurice Richard rookie card. Maurice Richard, an NHL legend, was the first to score 500 goals. He won the Stanley Cup eight times with the Montreal Canadiens. His 1951 Parkhurst rookie card is highly desired, with only a few receiving grades higher than eight. The NHL honours his legacy with the Maurice Richard Trophy for the highest goal scorer each year. The card was sold for $75,000 in July of 2021.

Number seven on our list is none other than Super Mario himself, Mario Lemieux. His 1985 O-Pee-Chee rookie card sold for $80,100 in January of 2021. Mario Lemieux was the first overall draft pick in the 1984 NHL draft. He played his entire seventeen-year NHL career with the Penguins. With 1,783 points in 915 games, Lemieux averaged an impressive 1.88 points per game, second only to Gretzky’s 1.92 points per game. Lemieux’s 1985 O-Pee-Chee rookie card is one of the most popular cards in existence, widely regarded as one of the most iconic hockey cards ever produced. Among its 4,433 PSA population, only forty-eight cards, roughly one percent, have earned a PSA grade of ten. One of these cards was sold for $91,200 in October of 2021.

The sixth entry on our list is the 1958 Topps Bobby Hull Rookie Card. Bobby Hull had an amazing 23-year hockey career in the NHL and WHA. Known as “The Golden Jet” for his speed and slap shot, he’s considered one of the greatest players ever. Collectors submitted 419 of his 1958 Topps rookie cards to PSA. Seven got a PSA grade of eight, with only two graded higher. The Bobby Hull rookie card was sold in July of 2021 for $87,000.

At the half-way point of our list, we got the 2006-07 Upper Deck The Cup Dual NHL Shields Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux. What a mouthful, am I right. A card that was sold for $91,200 in October of 2021. This card is a little unique as it’s the only card that’s on this list that features two players on the same card. Gretzky holds the NHL record for most goals in a season with ninety-two in the 1981-82 season, while Lemieux is third with eighty-five goals in the 1988-89 season. Wayne Gretzky also holds the record for most assists in a season with 163, with nine out of the top ten spots belonging to him. Mario Lemieux joins him in the top ten with 114 assists. This limited edition card is a one-of-one and showcases the iconic duo in NHL history.

In the fourth spot, it’s Mr McDaddy himself, Connor McDavid. His 2015 Upper Deck The Cup Connor McDavid rookie card was sold in June of 2020 for $135,811.20. McDavid was drafted first overall in the 2015 NHL Draft, and he quickly made his mark, winning numerous awards including two Hart Trophies, three Ted Lindsay Awards, and three Art Ross Trophies in his first seven NHL seasons. McDavid’s most valuable rookie card comes from the 2015-16 Upper Deck The Cup collection. Limited to just ninety-nine copies, his rookie patch autograph card is heavily desired among hockey card enthusiasts like myself. Numbered ninety-seven to match his Oilers jersey, only nine copies have been graded by PSA, with just three earning a higher grade than PSA nine.

Heading into the top three, Bobby Orr is placed third on this list with his card being sold for $276,000. While Gretzky is known as the greatest hockey player ever, Bobby Orr is hailed as probably the most dominant defenseman ever. He clinched eight consecutive James Norris Memorial Trophies, the most in NHL history, after finishing third in his rookie season, Bobby Orr’s 1966 Topps rookie card stands out with only two cards out of 276 earning a BVG ten grade.

Our first and second spot is owned by the same player, and it’s none other than the undisputed GOAT in the NHL, Wayne Gretzky. His topps rookie card is a tiny bit different from his O-Pee-Chee rookie card. Wayne Gretzky’s 1979-80 Topps rookie card is the second most expensive hockey card in the hockey card collecting hobby. Both cards look almost the same, but the O-Pee-Chee version has a little bit of French writing on the back, while the Topps one is just in plain old English. Just like his O-Pee-Chee rookie card, Gretzky’s 1979-80 Topps rookie card is extremely sensitive to condition, with only two PSA tens out of 7,146 copies. Despite minor appearance differences, there’s a $3 million price gap between The Great One’s most desired rookie cards. His topps rookie card sold for $720,000 in December of 2020.

Finally, the most valuable card in all of hockey card collecting is the O-Pee-Chee Wayne Gretzky rookie card. There have been numerous fakes made of this card and I may or may not have bought one for the purpose of pranking some of my friends. It was totally worth it. Although Wayne Gretzky’s O-Pee-Chee rookie card isn’t that hard to come by, with a total PSA population of 7,411, it stands out as one of the most sensitive cards to condition. Only two cards in existence have achieved a PSA ten grade.

If you’re a hockey fan, collecting hockey cards can be an exciting hobby. I’m a collector too, and it’s so exciting hunting down special cards, like Quinn Hughes’ young guns card. Some cards are really hard to find, but when you do, it’s like striking gold. If you want to try and become rich, collecting hockey cards may be a hobby for you. On paper, collecting hockey cards may not seem like it pays the bills, but man, when you pull a valuable card, it can make you a very rich person

My NHL Bracket is Spot On

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The second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs is underway and I gotta say my bracket for this year’s NHL bracket challenge is looking pretty good. I don’t think there’s been a single year where I predicted every single correct team to move on to the second round. Well, that all changed this year as I have gotten one hundred percent so far.

 

In the first round I said the New York Rangers were gonna sweep the Washington Capitals, and what did the Rangers do? Well, they did just what I predicted. They knocked off the 2018 Stanley Cup champs in just four games. Now, what about last year’s champions, the Vegas Golden Knights. Well I said the Stars were gonna get rid of them in an intense game seven. When I told a few of my good friends this, they said there was zero chance the Stars were eliminating the Golden Knights. Truth be told, they may have been Vegas fans.

Let’s not forget the team that denied the Tampa Bay Lightning achieving a three peat back in 2022, the Colorado Avalanche. I had the Avalanche in six but it actually only took five games for the Avalanche to knock off the Winnipeg Jets. For the Canucks and Predators series, I said the Canucks were gonna get it done in six, and they did exactly that after a crazy game six in Nashville. This is when I started to notice that my bracket was looking absolutely phenomenal.

For the Oilers and Kings series I had the Oilers in seven and surprisingly the Oilers got it done in five games which in my opinion was kind of surprising cause the Oilers have a history of game sevens with the Los Angeles Kings. The Toronto vs Boston series was probably the most predictable series out of them all considering, just like the Oilers and Kings, the Leafs and Bruins have a very long history with game sevens. The most infamous game seven coming from 2013 after the Leafs famously choked a 4-1 lead in the third period and lost in overtime. I predicted the Bruins were gonna leave Leafs fans heartbroken in game seven once again. And what do you know, David Pastrnak sealed the series with less than two minutes into the first overtime.

Finally let’s move on to my final correct prediction of the first round, the Florida Panthers versus the former back-to-back Stanley Cup Champions, the Tampa Bay Lightning, I had the Panthers moving onto the second round in six games but surprisingly they moved on in only five games. Hopefully the rest of my predictions are as good as my first round predictions.

I have the Stars and the Canucks meeting in the Western Conference Finals, and as of right now things aren’t looking too great for the Stars as they choked a lead in game and they almost choked again in game two but they were able to pull off the 5-3 victory. All in all I have the Stars coming out on top in the Western conference finals.

In the Eastern conference, I have the President Trophy winners, the New York Rangers, meeting with the Florida Panthers. Rangers have been absolutely dominant in these playoffs and as of right now they have yet to lose a game in this postseason. They currently have a 3-0 series lead against the Carolina Hurricanes so for the sake of my bracket, I hope the Rangers get it done.

In the finals, I have the Rangers and the Stars and for the first time since 1999, I have the Stars winning the hardest trophy in all of sports, the Stanley Cup. This year’s Stanley Cup playoffs have been full of surprises, making my bracket look better than ever before. Can the surprises continue in the upcoming rounds?

Subway Needs a Middle Ground Sub

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We all love Subway right? I mean who doesn’t. Whenever I’m feeling a bit hungry for something and I’m too lazy to cook anything, my brain immediately goes to Subway. Subway has some of the best sandwiches out there and man it really does fill my stomach right up.

 

But, sometimes it can fill my stomach up a little too much. Like the other day my stomach felt like it was a shriveled up grape, it was that empty. I asked my friend, who was also feeling a bit hungry, if he wanted to go get some Subway with me. He agreed with my Subway idea and we ran straight to the subway just up the street.

I ordered what I usually got, a footlong canuck classic on Italian herbs and cheese bread with 2 M&M cookies and a bottle of iced tea. I absolutely annihilated that meal in probably less than 10 minutes. Immediately after, I felt I was about to spontaneously combust, I was that full.

This got me thinking, A 6 inch sub isn’t enough for me but a footlong sub is way too much and it makes me feel sick? Don’t you agree? I also thought, what if Subway had a middle ground sized sub. Like for example, an 8 or 9 inch sub. Imagine the possibilities with those sized subs.

When I told a few of my friends this idea, it was somewhat 50/50. Some of my buddies said it was the most genius idea they’ve ever heard and a few of them said, I shouldn’t pitch this idea to Subway. Now I know you’re only adding and getting rid of inches on the 2 sub sizes up on the menu.

If Subway has those sized subs, it would just add more to the already stacked lineup of combo deals. Subway could introduce combo deals specifically for the medium-sized sub. A combo deal that pops right into my head, is a medium meal. Imagine a meal that has medium sub, a medium-sized drink, and like I don’t know a medium-sized cookie.

That medium sized cookie is honestly very possible because you know Subway and their crazy snack options. Earlier this year they made the footlong cookie so it’s very possible we could see a medium-sized cookie in the near future.

Overall, i think Subway should take notes from me because a medium-sized sub would probably benefit people who share the same ideology that a 6 inch sub isn’t enough and a footlong sub is too much.