Author Archives: Gibbs Dela Cruz

The THREE Video Game Cheating Scandals You Didn’t Know About!

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Wherever there’s competition, there will always be cheating.

As far as we can all remember, in every sport, in every game, and in every way of life, there are cheaters.

For context, India is one of the biggest untapped Esports markets in the world with almost the second most populated country in the world, and more eyes means more chances of revenue, so in 2018 Optic Gaming decided to be the first North American mover to establish the Counter Strike Global Offensive (CSGO) in India, with it’s Optic India lineup of Antidote (Sabyasachi Bose), haiVann (Vishal Sharma), Marzil (Agneya Koushik), yb (Lukas Groning), and forsaken (Nikhil Kumawat). In eXTREMELAND 2018, forsaken got caught using a cheat software live in a LAN event. That’s bad. REALLY bad. Forsaken got banned for 5 years which will expire this September 2024. Not only pushing him out of the CSGO scene but also pushing India out of CSGO. But I happy to tell you that forsaken’s teammates are doing well in esports after so long, so it’s a happy ending for everyone. Except forsaken. Freaking loser.

I have never played Trackmania but I know that Trackmania is the best racing game in the world in terms of competition, and skill. And no, F1, and other games like that are okay but nothing beats the skill needed for this, and for a game that’s built on player’s trust, reports of cheating on this game is one of the most surprising news happening in video games. The video above will be able to explain all of the cheating of rioluTM and in a better way. Heck I don’t even play the game that well, and I am just in it. The impact of these players crushed all the trust of the entire Trackmania community and now living in a time where it’s hard to believe when top records from previous maps are legitimate. This scandal was just crazy. 

Clash Of Clans was one of the biggest mobile games, ever. EVER. You played this. I played this. Everyone and your grandma played this. This game was everywhere, in every phone, in every tablet, and in every emulator on PC, and I can’t believe that cheating in the game was even possible but people’s need for glory and dominance in a competition with exploits, bugs, mods, and just downright corruption. I have no idea on how is Clash of Clans in 2024, but with the mobile gaming genre is at an all-time high, I believe that COC is still up in it.

The THREE things I liked about the Pro Bowl

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The NFL Pro Bowl was amazing. The NFL is making strides every year, and here are the ones that I liked about it. Apologies in advance for the Youtube links that can’t be seen straight from the article, because NFL is very protective or “No-Fun-League” about embedding. 😒

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqMOyU9vGdM

Man, the Madden Pro Bowl was great! I’m not a pro Madden gamer but I like watching Madden Esports as well as when NFL Pros play matches with each other. This year it was David Njoku and Tyreek Hill for the AFC vs Micah Parsons and Puka Nacua for the NFC. I liked how the players just got to be themselves during this hour. Trashtalk from left to right, and all around good times, that the host was having a hard time moderating the entire thing, but it was all good from both ends. One thing to note: never give the controls to David Njoku ever. Cmon AFC, Tyreek needs help! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfWPxuUPKmg

The Gridiron Gauntlet was an amazing showcase of friendly competition between the NFC and the AFC. This is what I like about the current format of the Pro Bowl games. It’s competitive enough that the players can still push hard but not to the point of injury. It was all going in the AFC’s favor for most of the competition, but on the final leg, newly-retired Eagles center Jason Kelce, did some forbidden techniques with rocking back and forth, and somehow lifting the back wheels for a better push and got the NFC the victory, and I love how everyone the NFC team was just hyped that their team finished first. The spirit of competition is still strong. It’s a great showing for the fans who flew from all over the world, to Orlando of all places, for this year’s Pro Bowl.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrreV-h56mU

Flag Football is the greatest idea in the Pro Bowl. I love every single minute of this match. I love how flag football is slowly carving an identity for itself in mainstream American sports. Before it was just tagged as the Wienie Hut Jr version of Football but now with increased awareness on concussions and CTEs, and now with recognition that flag football can be part of the Olympics, I am excited! I know there’s still a place for old hard-hitting football, and I’m glad there’s an equally competitive option giving less injuries but still showcasing the talent and skills needed to play football.

The Food Places I Haven’t Been To In Vancouver (and backlog still growing)

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Food places in Vancouver pop up every time I scroll on my Instagram Feed, and with a steadily growing backlog, let me share the 3 recent ones saved on my IG.

https://www.instagram.com/p/C2qxVL6rFYs/

2 Gather Seafood according to their profile is pretty simple: Seafood. Skewers. Beer. Cocktails. Almost all the good night-time restaurants in Vancouver are always in Richmond. That’s a lot of shots in one serving but with seafood and skewers, I think it’s enough for all those shots. According to the captions, I think each set of drinks are around $15-20 each depending on what kind, and I think it’s best to go here as a group of two, three or six so that you all can share shots. From what I can see on the video, the ambience of the place looks very Asian, and I am all here for it. Biased really but sorry not sorry. It’s on No. 3 Road of course if you’re planning on dropping by.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CzsL6o_LeKb/

Another No 3 restaurant in Richmond, and I also want to eat fried chicken as big as my face. Good thing I am writing this article after dinner because I will just be super hungry if I had written this otherwise. Squinting over on the video, the prices are decent for a full meal of fried chicken and other fried stuff. The restaurant got me even in the first few seconds of the video where it showed the big chicken. This looks like the perfect place to take out some chicken, head home, get some beer, and just have a vibe, but of course I would rather go to the place first and eat there. If only I had the money to just go out every weekend. Damn you economy!!

https://www.instagram.com/p/C2gm9aQLpIF/

Japanese Curry is straight FIRE, and there hasn’t been a curry that’s not on fire. Not even Steph lol. Yes forgive my pun. No, not really. I won’t apologize for this pun. I am proud of myself for that – *pat myself in the back*. What I love about this restaurant even if I hadn’t been there is how the restaurant looks. Very barebone but in its simplicity comes the sheer effort and money to make the food so good that you don’t need to spice up the decor. It’s also a mom-and-pop type of restaurant so there’s going to be lots of feelings about home, etc.

These are the ones that I saved recently, there are more if you want me to share as well. But make sure you’re not hungry while reading or watching.

Dookie is 30 years old — WHAT!?

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Green Day’s Dookie is now 30 years old, and therefore reminds me that I am old AF.

This album is one of my first encounters of Green Day back in the early 2000’s, and it’s been one of the pieces of music that helped shape my musical tastes and interests. And also made me fall in love with the bass guitar. Mike Dirnt on the bass guitar was amazing, with Billie Joe’s amazing songwriting and Tre Cool’s unpredictability, this album is goated to say the least. This album took Green Day to heights never before seen by a punk band.

Longview was the first Green Day song I learned on the bass, and I underestimated it A LOT. The note changes, the offbeats, the way you gotta play it in a certain way and no shortcuts, and since it’s on the bass guitar, it’s easy to hear whenever I don’t play it the way it should be played, especially with the next song below. 

Welcome To Paradise is by far the best song of the album bar none. Well this is totally not a biased take because I’m a bass player myself but, the way it builds from the beginning until the radical bass solo from one of the bass greats. Mike Dirnt has that dawg in him and where did he think of making all these bass riffs that are as memorable as any song. BUT THAT BASS SOLO THOUGH. My jaws just dropped when I listened to it for the first time, and when I tried learning it, and got it for the first time, it was an amazing feeling.

She is a simple song that has all the signature Green Day shticks. Great writing, great instrumentals, and with this performance here, very HIGH quality if you know what I mean.

I can’t believe Dookie is 30 now. All the kids who were born in 1994, it’s your turn to become 30 and have the joys, mostly pains of being up here with the rest of us. I grew up with this album, and it remains one of the albums of my childhood all the way to now. The album even in it’s nth time relistening has no skips, because if I skip something from albums like these, I feel like I’m fastforwarding way too much from a time in my life that I miss dearly.  I love you Green Day.

This BC singer-songwriter is about to take over!

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I’m about to dive into a world of music here in BC, l that I wasn’t prepared at all. AT ALL.

The first time I met Haleluya Hailu was at the recording of Live At Evolution at BCIT at Burnaby and one thing for certain, I wouldn’t know who she was and stuff. She’s a self-taught producer, singer-songwriter, and performer that is on the alternative/indie, pop genre, and that is super cool.

I tried to listen to her discography before she arrived on set but I couldn’t because of some tech issues, and I didn’t know her Spotify profile because I only got “Haleluya” and there’s a lot of others with similar names, so I didn’t but it turned out to be way better for me than I expected.

The interview went great! I’m not gonna spoil anything about it. Just wait for the episode on our Youtube. You won’t be disappointed! Thank you to DJ and the crew for inviting me to be there and just witness the beginning of something amazing.

Listening to her story was awesome, and listening to her play with just a guitar with such feeling and passion, it took a lot of focus for me to take photos and videos of her performance because I just wanna listen and drop my jaw. The songs she performed were so good, afterwards we asked again for the titles because we wanna just binge it nonstop, but she said she unperformed unreleased tracks yet I guess we’ll find out sooner.

Now, I can’t leave you hanging right now, so I went through her Spotify and give you my casual, definitely-not Fantano take on her current discography as of this writing.

Pinball is wow. Just the first few notes and it took me somewhere like that critic in Ratatouille when he ate the title dish. I think the chord progression and how the song starts is what got me hooked, line, and sinker. This is LSS vibes for sure. In this chaotic time of my life, this song is a 2 minute 47 second break that I need. I can’t wait for new music.

Also if you want to see her play live, she’s going to be on March 2nd at The Fox Cabaret. Now I’m looking for anyone to come with. Let me know if you are though. I am seriously thinking about it. Lol.

All in all, Haleluya Hailu is such a kind and gentle soul, with a savage side. How savage? “No comment.”

Summarizing Both NFL Conference Championships in 2 GIFs!

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The NFL Conference Championship Games were one for the ages, but given everyone knows The Superbowl but outside of NFL fans in general, WHO ARE THE CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIP GAMES WHAT!? So, for those casual fans like me, let me summarize the 2 games in 2 GIFs!

Let’s be real. The AFC Championship game between Kansas City Chiefs and the Baltimore Ravens game was a bit of a meh. For those who don’t know, Chiefs win all the time, and everyone wants the underdog to win so it’s Chiefs vs America at this point. No need to sprinkle you with stats and stuff, but the most amazing play that didn’t really matter was this:

MAN CAUGHT HIS OWN PASS, AND ALMOST RUN A BAJILLION YARDS FOR A TOUCHDOWN. HOLY. IF HE MADE THAT TOUCHDOWN, IT’S OVER. GG. WELL PLAYED. CHIEFS FORFEIT. TAYLOR SWIFT NO MORE IN THE SUPERBOWL. LOL

But yeah, I bet the Chiefs just reactivated some past trauma remembering that another quarterback actually did that against them.

But at the end of the day, the Chiefs won, and the Ravens just couldn’t make it work. Raven got drops, fumbles, missed penalties, and everything under the sun. The NFL made sure that the scripts are completed as written. Congrats to the Taylor Swift Chiefs. Let’s see who’s coming out from the NFC Championship game.

The NFC Championship game between the San Francisco 49ers and the Detroit Lions was this. The Lions built a big lead in the first half, then proceeded to just not do anything and let the 49ers steal one from underneath them. Gambling caught up with the Lions’ Head Coach because he tried to make risky plays, but it backfired and that’s how the 49ers got the win.

Just a bonus for ya:

Chaos. That’s what the Superbowl is going to be. Two powerful teams with an equal chance to win the whole freaking thing. All bets are off, there’s a lot of money at stake but I have a great idea on what another thing people should bet on: Over/Under the amount of times Taylor Swift is shown on camera. And also, take a shot for every time Taylor gets shown on camera.

Now that’s gonna be a drunken party in the first half not gonna lie lmao.

But nonetheless, we’re all here for the ride. It’s going to become either the best Superbowl in years, or going to be another snoozefest. Let’s go!

P.S. I want the 49ers to win. lmao.

 

Netflix-mania is running WILD!

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So whatcha gonna do brother!? RAW IS NETFLIX!!!

This has got to be one of the biggest news in wrestling broadcasting since Peacock.

Beginning January 2025, Netflix is the exclusive home for WWE Monday Night Raw every single week for the next 10 years for a WHOPPING 5 BILLION DOLLARS!! *insert Dr. Evil gif*

This is no surprise though as media is heading over to streaming services and less to traditional media, and the biggest of them all, Netflix, has to flex their chops and tell everyone to put some respect in the Netflix name.

This is amazing because WWE has a massive content library, not just their current shows and live events, but also past live events, documentaries, and so on. It’s going to be monumental when WWE switches everything over to Netflix. The amount of accessibility to the masses all over the world is going to be amazing.

Welp, Netflix sure loves money, because in the heights of all the publicity about this WWE deal, news came out that Netflix will remove its basic plan for the US and UK markets. But let’s face it, it’s only a matter of time when the basic plan will be removed from all markets, and another thing: people will still pay. Even if they remove the basic plan, the customers, even if they opt out because of it, will eventually come back. Sooner rather than later because of this WWE deal. I mean, in my country, WWE isn’t as accessible as other countries, but with this, Netflix is gonna take over the world. I promise you.

At this time, I don’t think Netflix is done buying deals like these anytime soon.

I think this is just a testing ground and see if Netflix can handle this deal first before moving on to bigger and better ventures. Imagine if one of the top-four sports leagues in America decides to make Netflix its exclusive place for all things… basketball? That’s right! What if Netflix has eyes for the NBA, once the NBA ends its current deal in a couple of years.

Imagine the NBA on Netflix? It’s basically available to everyone around the world at that point, and that would derail all the free games on traditional media, which is great.

Anyways, back to the WWE and Netflix, I am a fan of this decision. I am a fan of this way better than WWE’s Peacock deal because Netflix is more accessible to a lot more people. No offense to Peacock, but.. WHO!?

This transit strike is getting CRAZIER by the minute!

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This transit strike is gonna put a chokehold on Vancouver.

It’s been a few days since the dreaded transit strike that took out 90% of the buses in Vancouver and left thousands of commuters without a way to make it to anywhere. I was one of those. I mean I could go to school but I would’ve walked for 7 hours. Ain’t got no time for that!

Transit is at the heart of Vancouver as a city. It’s one of the things I like about Vancouver in general. The ease and relative convenience of transit here. I mean I know it has its problems but it has way better problems than the ones I have experienced before. Also I don’t have a car too so I depend on transit even more.

I hope things get better between the union and the CMBC because according to the news that if it doesn’t, they’ll stop all forms of public transit from Friday Feb 3rd to Monday Feb 6th. That’s a full weekend of no transit, carpooling, and expensive Ubers. I’d rather just stay at home lol.

Okay, let’s take a step back to see what’s the effect on this for the city. First off, no transit means a lot of workers wouldn’t be able to get to their jobs, and that means businesses, especially the smaller ones, would just close for the day, and that is lost revenue and a lost day that they’ll never get back. It’s going to be a stress test for the BC Government on how Vancouver will work… without work.

And let’s be real, regardless of the debates between both sides about if the bus supervisors are worthy of the wage hike equal to their train counterparts, it’s only going to be hectic as if the bus supervisors win (I’m on this side as they deserve that pay), CMBC will work on ways to make reasons to increase the price of transit, little by little for them to have us actually pay for the wage hike. If bus supervisors lose, it’s only gonna be worse because they’ll just downright stop serving. I’m not saying this will happen, I’m just saying it’s all gonna come back to bite us sooner or later. 

As I’m writing this while riding a full bus, I hoping for the best for both parties. I can’t even believe it got to this point. Get it done guys. Vancouver can’t be taken hostage from this situation.

 

The Pokemon Game for ADULTS!

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And when I say “For Adults”, it’s not THAT kind of game, you sicko.

Palword is taking over the gaming world by storm, and they’re just getting started. Palworld is an action-adventure survival game by Japanese developer Pocket Pair. The game is set in an open world populated with animal-like creatures known as “Pals”. The players can battle and capture Pals in order to use them for base building, traversal, and combat. It’s basically “Pokemon with guns” *cue America soundboards*

This has been one of the most popular and yet controversial games in recent times because of a lot of things, mostly because of its main competitor IP, Pokemon.

Let’s talk about the allegedly copy-pasted elephant in the room. It looks really close to Pokemon. From visual assets to its eerily similar sprites and models from Pokemon, the integrity of the art if they really used AI to make them, and the fandom that are leading this fight, Pokemon fans.

Okay, let’s be real here, even if there are so many similarities between Palworld and Pokemon, these are all just allegations, and Nintendo is being smart about this and not letting public opinion cloud their judgment. But the only action Nintendo has taken so far is wise: taking down actual Pokemon assets from the game.

For context, someone created a mod that replaces the models and sprites of all characters and “Pals” to Pokemon. From the NPCs to the actual monsters themselves, it now looks like actual Pokemon with guns, and that alone Nintendo went to work. The developer of the mod told the media that he got a cease and desist notice from Nintendo to take the mod down, and we all know how Nintendo has Scrooge McDuck money to take these all down. There are mixed opinions on this from “Nintendo has the right to do this. Good for them” to “Wow they sure have time to take out random people, instead of making a great Pokemon game for once.”

But at the end of the day, regardless of all the controversies and issues, the real question is: Is it a good game? No, it’s a great game.

View post on imgur.com

Palworld has over 1 million concurrent players worldwide with a peak right now as of this writing, around 1.2 million. No one can deny it’s an absolutely great game, and one of the first great hits of 2024. I’m really looking forward to seeing what happens with this IP. People are playing this too much and we’ll see if there are content updates ahead of schedule if not, people are gonna burn out fast.

So I’m stuck at home for the next few days.

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I made an article on this last Thursday and now here we are. Stuck.

So, just to give a recap on what’s happening:

Employees of Coast Mountain Bus Company (CMBC) started a Union strike following an impasse between them and the Company. A complete strike would commence in the wee hours of Monday morning and continue for 48 hours. Commuters would face a suspension of all buses and the SeaBus for the two-day withdrawal.

A mediator interjected in on the 11th hour to see if there’s something they can agree on before the deadline, as entire Vancouver commuters refresh the news and X (formerly Twitter) every hour every minute of yesterday, we got news around midnight or so earlier that nothing was agreed upon and now there’s a strike for the next two days.

I know there’s so much opinion about this but for me who just moved here a couple of years ago, transit here is way better, but without it, the alternatives are fewer than ever.

So being stuck at home, I think I’ve been stuck at home since the snow days from last week, and it’s been refreshing and not not refreshing at the same time. It felt refreshing yes that I don’t need to get up in the morning as much, and I get to do more work at home, than waste time on transit sometimes, but at the same time it hurting my mental health a bit, when I’m just stuck at home, and all I do is work, but then I could just go outside but during the snow days last week, it was hard to, and now with no transit, I can only go as far as my legs would take me but not far enough to see my friends and stuff.

So I got curious and checked the worst bus routes in Vancouver, and look! The 25 bus is there. I always take it whenever I go to school and the dreaded 99 B-Line. Every time I ride this bus, I always encounter the same crazy lady and the gloomiest bus route ever in my opinion. 

But I’ll stop complaining for now. Now I’ll make most of my time at home, making sure this article gets written on time, and hoping for the best for Vancouver transit in general.