Lebron James and Michael Jordan are the two greatest basketball players of all time in most people’s eyes. Instead of looking at their arguments for being the goat and comparing their legacies, I decided to compare their defense, something they both have been elite at.
In order to compare the 2 defenders, I watched a lot of historic films, compiled evidence and created their defensive profiles, I focused on every aspect of defense, what they were good at it, bad at, how they helped their teams, their defensive prime and careers, etc. I don’t use any accolades or awards, this is mostly based on re-watching countless hours of games and looking at historic film and paying some attention to advanced stats to contextualize the information. I don’t pay as much attention to advanced stats as I recognize they’re not perfect, they do give a fair idea and help in providing substance.
I watched regular season games to look at defensive fundamentals, tendencies, how frequently they make mistakes, what defensive skills they possess. And I used playoff games to track their one on one match ups when they guard stars like Kevin Durant, Magic Johnson, Tony Parker, Isiah Thomas, etc. I also paid attention to how many ‘good’ or ‘bad’ rotations they made, how much rim protection they offer, how many gambles, etc.
So here are the two players:

LEBRON JAMES

Lebron James is a 6’9, 250lb freak of nature, who is considered one of the most athletic basketball players in the history of the game. He has a 7’0 ft wingspan and he has a hand-span of 9.25 inches which is actually below average for his height. Really quick, really agile for his height, physically dominant and insanely powerful. Lebron has a 44 inch vertical and he is quick off the floor. A perfect mix of speed and strength.

Defensive Profile

Coming into the league as an 18 year old, Lebron was this super athletic raw player who needed time to develop into something positive on the defensive end. From 2003/04 to 2007/08 he was a slightly above average defender who had a lot of highlight plays but a lot of breakdowns too. His first major leap to being an elite defender was in 2008/09, after 5 years in the league, Lebron had become an excellent defender.
Starting things off with his man defense, Lebron for the most part of his career was a really good one on one defender, often guarding the best guard or wing on the opposing team. His athleticism and combination of lateral quickness and strength help him keep offensive players in front of him. He is really good at limiting drives to the basket and making the offensive players take tougher jump shots, something he wants them to do. Early on in his career he didn’t have the best footwork, this affected his ability to defend in space and often led to easy baskets. Over the years his footwork improved significantly and he became a better individual defender.
Lebron guards Durant, uses his body to stop the drive, good use of hands to make KD lose the ball and contests well for an airball
Lebron guards Joe Johnson 1v1. Does a great job of keeping him in front uses his size to make it a difficult shot and then blocks the shot.
It’s really hard to beat a prime Lebron off the dribble, his 6’9 frame and explosiveness makes it difficult for anyone going against him. Lebron was one of the better man to man defenders in his prime, however he wasn’t at an all time level.
Lebron did get beat a few times too often for me to call him an all time one on one defender. Elite ball handlers and quick guys would blow past him once in a while. For the most part he shifted his feet well, but he did have errors on a more consistent basis than Michael Jordan for example.
He got beat off the dribble a fair few times by elite ball handlers, a touch bit slower at sticking with them. He’s got good footwork, not great. He shifts his feet well but it’s not an uncommon thing to see Lebron get off the dribble at times.
Here Paul George beats him off the dribble.
Another element of Lebron’s defense is his recoveries, if he gets beaten he often tries to erase shots from the back. “Blocked by James” haunts a lot of players and fans. His speed, leaping ability and IQ make it easy for him to run back and contest or block shots from the ball handler.
Lebron’s post defense is also great. He has the strength to bang down low, can contain players in the mid post and force and contest mid range shots.
Lebron uses his strength effectively to cut out Zion in the post
Lebron is guarding Kevin Durant here. First he fronts the post, great ball denial. Then he uses his strength to keep KD in that spot, doesn't bite on the pump fake, contests the shot well to force a miss.
When guarding bigger players like centers or power forwards, he usually fronts the post and is great at ball denial. He usually tries to swipe down at the ball when in the post.
He isn’t able to defend deep post positioned players though, once he gives up deeper post position it’s hard for him to alter the shot, often leading to an easy shot at the basket.
Lebron wasn’t great at navigating screens for the first half of his career, just a tendency where he had trouble moving his body around and over screens effectively. Later in his career he improved a lot and is good at staying with his man when other players are involved.
Lebron’s man defense is great, but not all time. What puts his defense at an all time level is his off ball and team defense. Lebron in his defensive prime was a master at reading and breaking up plays, making rotations. He is super active on the court, when locked in (something I’m going to touch on later) his ability to understand other team’s offenses and make sharp rotations, move around the court, offer rim protection and perimeter defense is super valuable.
This is a good example of his rotations. He helps off of his defense when the pass is made and AD rolls to the basket. Provides great rim protection is forces a miss from an all time finisher
Lebron helps off the point guard when Dwight gets the ball, he makes a great play by blocking the shot right at the rim
Lebron comes in from the weakside to deny Dwight Howard.
Lebron’s off ball and team defense is easily his best defensive attribute and that’s where a large amount of his defensive impact comes from. Often Lebron played the free safety role, helping off of his matchup to slide over to the roll man, or protect the rim or attempt a steal in the passing lane.
This iconic play is a great example of Lebron's ability. His rotation is on time and he offers great rim resistance here. He made these type of plays often in his prime
Lebron is extremely active on the defensive end, switching through multiple positions, rotating over to stop the rim roller, closing out shooters all on the same play.
His playmaking and vision help him in reading plays, often anticipating which pass is going to be made ahead of time. He is amazing at knowing the ball handlers passes making rotations ahead of time often breaking up plays. Rotating over to players, helping and getting blocks from the weak side, disrupting passing lanes, Lebron is great at all of these components. He’s at the right place at the right time and adds a lot of value to his team’s defense. The Miami Heat had a hard hedging defensive scheme due to Lebron’s ability to play the free safety role. Helping when the roller got the ball on a pick and roll, coming over to stop a driver, closing out a shooter on the opposite side of the court, Peak defensive Lebron did it all.
Lebron reads the ball handlers pass way ahead of time and gets the steal. Fantastic anticipation, his all time vision helps him here
His vision here too helps him a lot. Sees the pass ahead of time and makes a fantastic read.
Lebron's lightning quick reaction and anticipation
Lebron is one of the very best in NBA history at playing off ball defense, he has value as a rim protector too. In Miami he played closer to the basket at the power forward position a fair bit, his ability to influence shots at the basket was really helpful in the “small ball” lineups they played.
Another big reason for Lebron being an all time defender is his versatility. Lebron can guard 1-4. I wouldn’t say it’s fair to say that he can guard 1-5, but he can sure switch 1-5. You’d often see him be comfortable at handling all positions. Lebron has been consistently guarding point guards through power forwards in his career and when he switches on centers, it’s not a mismatch most of the time.
Mostly in the playoffs, having Lebron during 2009-13 meant you can have him guard the best opposing perimeter threat. He’s spent time on nearly every player, he guarded Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili and Kawhi Leonard in the 2013 finals. He’s spent time on Derrick Rose and David West while being the primary defender on Kevin Durant.
In a nutshell, Lebron in his prime can guard points, shooting guards, small forwards very comfortably. Against average power forwards he does a great job relative to other players. He can contain non scoring centers, against better bigs he may make it harder for them to score. Saying he would completely stop them is a stretch though. I absolutely don’t mind Lebron guarding 1-5 for stretches, but guarding them throughout the game (1s and 5s) is something I’m not too comfortable with.
Here he is switched onto Jokic and uses his strength well. He contests into a miss and secures the rebound.
This versatility allowed the heat to deploy several schemes and make use of them effectively. Lebron is one of the few players in history to effectively be able to switch through all positions.
He does struggle at times against dominant post scorers, at times the physicality is overwhelming even for him. In his prime he did a really good job vs most shifty guards, often staying with them and sliding his feet well. Guarding wings was no problem for him either.
Lebron’s weakside shot blocking ability also helps in him playing different off ball roles. He has value as a rim protector, often helping alter shots at the basket.
He’s great at reading passing lanes, posting healthy steal and deflection numbers. His length and ability to read plays make him effective when stealing passes.
Lebron Steal Rate Percentile
Lebron doesn’t make a lot of errors in off ball situations, though he has some minor flaws. Lebron’s closeouts at times are sloppy, not the best footwork and getting beat by subtle fakes a fair few times. He misses out on a few rotations which are extremely close to the basket, being marginally late or not realizing he could make the play.
Lebron’s transition defense has been up and down throughout his career. In his prime it was really good, he was a great transition defender. In the later end of his career, the effort reduced and his ability to track back and impact plays wasn't as common. Lebron’s speed and size make him a really effective transition defender, closing out, swatting shots or even simply slowing down attacks.
Lebron is an elite rebounder for his position and was great at not fouling.
Another important element of Lebron’s defense is his really high defensive IQ. Lebron is a walking scouting report, with so much attention to detail and time spent studying the sport he basically knows players, their tendencies, their shooting splits on different areas of the court. The guy is simply a genius. Super high IQ defender who knows when to help off of his man, knows which shooters aren’t good ball handlers; makes them uncomfortable, etc.
Heck he knows every play of other teams too, the guy is a walking playbook too. His IQ on that side of the court is so helpful, knowing where to be, when to be, what play is being run, how to play a man, this guy is prepared for basically everything.

Defensive Career

Lebron dPIPM
Lebron rDRTG
Lebron James has had an eventful defensive career. During 2003-07 he wasn’t a super impactful nor great defender. Around 2008 is where he started making greater strides and 2009 is the first season where his defensive potential was realized. His on ball defense was never great pre 2009 and off ball he wasn’t super aware. During 2009 he improved in all aspects. This was around his peak athleticism too. He became more versatile, a much better on ball defender and most importantly a smarter defender. After he went to Miami, he became an ever better defender. At this stage of his life he was at his athletic peak, added more weight to his frame and as explosive as ever. His crazy athleticism along with super high IQ made him one of the best defenders in the league. He was super versatile and constantly engaged. Around 2014 is the time his effort dropped a bit. He was still a great defender, his consistency was slightly lower. When he went back to Cleavland, his athleticism had declined a touch bit. Mainly his on ball defense took a slight hit due to slower feet and his off ball defense took a slight hit due to slower reactions. In 2017 he probably reached the defensive low in his career after the first major improvement in 2009. His effort greatly reduced and his foot speed was slower. His athleticism had faded a bit too. 2017-19, Lebron wasn’t a good defender by his standards. All aspects of his defensive game took a hit to some extent. A lot of this was mainly due to him “coasting” on defense or lack of effort. He got beat more often off the dribble, he wasn’t making rotations as frequently and proficiently, he struggled with shifty guards and players in general. In 2020, he is back to being a great defender. He is very clearly not in his defensive prime but added effort along with unparalleled iq makes him a really valuable defender.
To sum his defensive career up, I think 2009-13 was his defensive prime, this is the time he was one of the greatest and most impactful wing defenders of all time. Before that period, his fundamentals, IQ and actual ability wasn’t that high and after that period his effort and athleticism had decreased. More often than not, Lebron’s defense in the postseason becomes better than his defense in the regular season, showing he clearly saves himself for when it matters most.

MICHAEL JORDAN

Michael Jordan was a 6’6, 195-215lb freak of nature. Just like Lebron he is considered one of the most athletic players ever too. MJ has a 6’11 wingspan and a ridiculous 9.75 hand length, crazy for a 6’6 player. He also has a 11.5 handspan, again ridiculous. One of the quickest reaction times and agility in nba history, Michael was really fast both in short and long distance runs. He has a crazy 48 inch vertical, one of the best ever.

Defensive Profile

Michael Jordan was a super energetic high risk high reward defender for the most part. One of the most athletic players of all time, he had all the tools to be an elite defender. In his younger days, he wasn’t the smartest or most polished defender, he was still a positive on that end though. As the years went on he developed into being an elite defender with his athleticism, reactions, energy and technical ability. He made the leap from being an ok defender to good one around 1987 and became elite in 88.
In his prime, one of the best components of his defense was his man to man defense and ability to guard skilled ball handlers. His speed, reaction time and footwork made him a really effective defender when guarding isolation possessions. Often guarding the best perimeter player on the opposing team for the first half of his career, Michael had the ability to contain players, stay in front of his man and be a superb point of attack defender.
He put his 6’6 frame to the max using every bit of his athleticism to stop penetrators, he was so quick when moving, always keeping offensive players in front of him. On the ball, he had great fundamentals; moved in his stance really well, had great footwork and his massive hands helped in navigating players. The combination of fundamentals and supreme athleticism made Jordan really difficult to beat off the dribble. He was one of the best ever at guarding players one on one.
Michael’s error rate on one on one defensive sequences was lower than Lebron, he got blown by less and got beat less. Younger Michael did have problems with this element, often getting beat at a higher rate. Before his 88 season this was a problem.
During 1988 and onwards his ability to slow done drives was amazing, often locking up players. He was so quick to spots and he used his chest to cut out a lot of drives. Anticipating where his man would go and reacting before the move was even made. 1988-1993 he often took on the best guard, great at containing them and forcing higher turnovers and lower shooting percentages.
His hands were really active, one of the biggest hands in NBA history. He troubled ball handlers constantly by getting under them, great stance and using his hands to disrupt their dribble. This generated a lot of steals with him often swiping at the ball. He was so effective at this, completely shutting down players at times, getting the ball in his hands like they were gloves and killing their momentum. He was also great at contesting shots with his massive wingspan and reaction time.
His ability to remove players from games was valuable, especially in the playoffs.
Jordan’s post defense wasn’t great for the most part. 1984-90 Jordan weighed around 195-200 pounds, he wasn’t the strongest. He struggled at times with good post players and would often try and snipe the post, a risky strategy which didn’t always pay off. Gradually as he got stronger he also got smarter, not taking as many risks and using his body more effectively. Overall Jordan’s post defense was good and didn’t hurt his team that much.
MJ sniping the post and getting the steal. Something he did fairly often
In the second half of his career, he added more strength and lost some speed, he became smarter, less risk taking defender and used his strength really effectively. During the second three-peat he was slower than before and his defensive errors on ball increased, he got blown by more. Although he didn’t bleed that much value, still a great defender
Moving onto his off ball defense, Michael Jordan is one of the greatest in passing lanes, his anticipation, hands and aggressive style means he has few of the greatest steal numbers of all time. A master at creating havoc in the passing lanes, he is 3rd all time in total steals, 18th in steal percentage and 4th in steals per game. His aggression in passing lanes was great, although again a high risk high reward strategy. He had one of the best reaction time in NBA history, lightning quick reflexes and extreme speed made him great in rotations.
Good subtle double by MJ and his active hands lead to the steal. Great at getting steals from the passing lanes.
Michael tracks the shooter well and gets the steal.
He was phenomenal at denying passes, denying and stealing a post entry, not allowing post entries when guarding the ball handler, fighting over cross screens and stealing passes, Jordan had a lot of value on creating turnovers.
With all these positives comes the negative, Michael was a big gambler (on the court obviously), he went for steals a touch bit too often. At times his mistakes led to easy baskets, although his error rate wasn’t that high. As he matured as a player, he took less risks, went for less steals and played a more conservative (a good thing) style of defense.
Michael attempts the steal but fails. This leads to open dunk. His high risk high reward playstyle would lead to these types of breakdowns at times.
He was a really good team defender too, making accurate reads and timely rotations at a high rate. Michael consistently helped off of his man to provide help defense, his quickness and activity rate made him a really good help defender. He was a great weakside shot blocker, he was really good at helping from the weak side in general often leading to steals or blocks.
Michael rotates over from the weakside to swat the shot
His reads were accurate, although he was a little too aggressive at times, this high risk high reward strategy led to over helping at times. An evident tendency of Jordan was his super aggressive style of defense for the first 9 years of his career. Another minor flaw was he didn’t offer a lot of resistance at the basket when rotating over. Despite having a crazy vertical leap, MJ’s rim protection wasn’t super valuable, he did make the right rotations but his contests weren’t necessarily shot altering. Younger Jordan didn’t have the mass to offer good protection, older Jordan didn’t have the vertical. He wasn’t the strongest and rim rollers could easily finish over him. He shys away from contact at the rim and wasn’t reliable in these situations.
Here his overhelping leads to the open shot.
Relatively early into his career and in the second three-peat, the number of good rotations he made were lesser than his prime. It was clear when he was taking the gas off and conserving his energy. Around 87-92, Michael’s activity rate was phenomenally high, both on the ball and off the ball.
Michael’s off ball activity allowed Chicago to have one of the most aggressive perimeter defenses in NBA history. Since the bulls didn’t have great rim protection, they built their scheme around Michael, Scottie and a suffocating perimeter defense. Due to their point of attack defense, aggressive helping and stealing passing lanes, the bulls had a defensive dynasty for almost a decade.
Jordan helps off his man and gets the steal. Great timing and help defense
Michael was also a versatile defender who could guard point guards, shooting guards and small forwards. His ability to guard and switch 1-3 to near perfection was really valuable to his overall impact. Throughout his career he’s guarded these positions and he’s done it really well, he’s quick enough for points and big enough for small forwards. There’s not much of a sample size where he can guard power forwards or centers. Basically you would not trust him to switch onto PFs or centers without it being a mismatch. He’s not big enough to alter their shots or make it tougher for them. He never really needed to guard 4s and 5s but switching on bigger players wasn’t ideal.
He’s mostly spent time on guards although he is able to guard SFs with no problem. In his career he matched up with elite offensive players in Magic Johnson, Clyde Drexler, Reggie Miller, Isiah Thomas and more. This meant the bulls could almost take a player out of the game at times, Michael’s defense was so pest like he troubled ball handlers like no other.
Michel’s steal and block numbers for a guard are insane.
There's only been 13 players in NBA history to have 150+ steals and a 100+ blocks in a single season. Only 2 are guards. There's only been 4 total seasons with 200+ steals and 100+ blocks, Michael did it twice. The red points are the 86-87 and 87-88 Jordan seasons.
Talking about a trend in all of his defensive skills, his high risk high reward playstyle. Michael’s defensive IQ wasn’t amazing a lot of times, especially when talking about unforced errors. He didn’t make that many one on one errors, missed rotations due to his inability; it was rather due to going for steals or being a little too aggressive. This isn’t to say he wasn’t a smart defender, it’s just about losing some value due to avoidable errors.
His transition defense was a bit streaky, he wasn’t super aware early on and later on his effort was reduced. In his prime he was a really effective transition defender, slowing down fastbreaks, switching onto whoever he wanted to.
He was also an elite rebounder for guards. His foul rate was fairly high for his position throughout his career.

Defensive Career

Michael Jordan dPIPM
Michael Jordan rDRTG
With all the tools to be a really good defender, Michael entered the league as a raw defender. He was a positive around 84-86 but not a good defender. Around 87, before his dpoy campaign he improved a lot in all departments of defense. Became smarter, increased effort, much better concentration, footwork and movement had improved. His defensive prime and where he truly realized was 1988-92, at this point of time he’d solidified himself as one of the best defensive guards in the league, in fact defenders in general. Michael was one of the best defenders ever for this prime, an all time one on one defender and an elite team defender. He was still making his risky plays but he was smarter. He was about 205lb during this stretch, phenomenal athleticism and on a defensive juggernaut. In 93 his defense had dipped a bit, slightly reduced effort and a bit of a dip in athleticism. He made less good rotations, his man defense was still great and he was still as versatile. After he came back from retirement, he had lost more athleticism, was slower footed and less active in passing lanes. In 95-96 and 96-97 he became one of the best guard defenders in the league again. He was much smarter and had developed a great defensive IQ by this time. His rotation activity wasn’t as frequent but it was more controlled and really valuable. In 98 he wasn't the same athletic freak he once was, he wasn’t guarding quicker guards as frequently as it wasn’t the best matchup. He was much slower relative to young Jordan, but during 96-98 he was even stronger than before. His post defense improved and he was great at using his chest to stop players. He was still a good defender but clearly not the same. In his wizards days, Jordan was a negative defender, obviously at the age of 38 and 39 it’s hard to be a good one.
Overall he had a great dominant defensive career, with him reaching his apex around 88-92. He was an all league level defender throughout 87-97 (missing 2 years:-94&95) and he was consistently a positive on that end up till his Washington days. He became a smarter defender in the second half of his career and he was way more athletic in the first half. Consistently being an all time man defender and great team defender, Michael also had a really high motor. Just like Lebron his defense in the postseason became even better.

Final Comparison

So after watching the film, looking at the data available, putting their defense into context, who do I think was the better or more impactful defender?
The best way to put this is I think Lebron James had the better defensive prime (08-13) and Michael Jordan had the better defensive career. I think Lebron’s prime defense is more impactful and adds more value to his team compared to Michael’s. That added off ball defense and versatility gives him a slight edge over Jordan. Michael Jordan has the better defensive career, he was as valuable to more valuable for a longer period of time. I have 08-13 Lebron beating 88-92 Michael by a hair, his combination of team and isolation defense along with amazing versatility added a lot of value to his team. Both are all time defenders, especially in their primes. Jordan’s defensive consistency stayed up till later in his career, Lebron declined earlier. Both these greats turn it up in the playoffs, predictably their defense gets better when the stakes are higher. Both of the players were a part of great league defenses and clearly had an all time impact.

Tactical Nuclear Warheads and You: A Neheb, The Eternal Decklist/Primer

Hey you. Yeah, you. You tired of playing the same Golos deck, playing two lands a turn, drawing into your combo pieces, and winning while the entire table finishes War and Peace on their phones? You bored with your Sultai landfall deck, where you play solitaire for three hours? Board police getting too much to bear?
Well, let me introduce you to your new best friend: [[Neheb, the Eternal]].
Now, if you've never seen Neheb before, I know what you're thinking. "Wow, that card looks absolutely absurd", and buddy, you're right. Neheb decks aren't as much EDH decks as they are high-score attempts, seeing how much damage they can dish out in a single turn. Damage doublers, triplers, pingers that only go face, and enough X spells to make Zaxara cry in a little Sultai corner.
You want infinite combats? Neheb. You want to [[Comet Storm]] for 80? Neheb. You want to burn that lifegain deck right back to the pit it crawled out of? YOU WANT TO PUT THE FEAR OF GOD INTO ANYONE WHO DARES CONTINUE TO LIVE? N E H E B.
STEP ONE: RAMP
While Neheb himself is both a beeftank of a man and creates mana like he's eighty mountains strapped to a rocket sled, Neheb works best when he's out, and five mana isn't exactly cheap. So, what do we need? The standard rocks and ramp, like [[Sol Ring]], [[Wayfarer's Bauble]], [[Mind Stone]], [[Arcane Signet]], [[Ruby Medallion]], you get it. We do, however, run a few interesting ramp cards.
[[Cryptolith Fragment]] comes in tapped, sure, but once we have our big Lazotep Lasher out, we can tap it for one mana in the main phase, and three (3!) mana in the 2nd main phase. The good news is that if it transformed, something has gone horribly wrong, so we're not even gonna talk about the back. If it does flip, though, nine mana in the 2nd main isn't bad at all.
[[Everflowing Chalice]] isn't a rock, it's a bank. If you have a ton of mana floating in the second main, and you will, Everflowing Chalice is a way to keep some of it and use it on turns going forward. You can replace this with [[Horizon Stone]], I guess, but Everflowing is just a bit faster, and remember: Horizon Stone is based on Kruphix, and he's Simic, and we blow Simic players into small chunks. Oh, also, we have better Horizon Stone.
THAT'S RIGHT WE HAVE [[Leyline Tyrant]] BABY. You want to float mana? Leyline Tyrant. You want an evasive beater? Leyline Tyrant. You want protection from removal in the form of Leyline Tyrant choosing violence and blowing up someone's face? Ley. Line. Tyrant.
You want mana? You want it NOW? Cool. We got [[Seething Song]] and [[Jeska's Will]] for all your mana needs. Turn 2 Neheb is always a bucket of fun. Black can keep [[Dark Ritual]], I bet they're casting single target removal with it, what a bunch of nerds.
Our mana doubler is [[Extraplanar Lens]] and [[Snow-Covered Mountains]]. We want mana. Not them. If they have snow-covered mountains, blow them up first. Cowards.
[[Chandra, Torch of Defiance]] has two +1 abilities: gain red red, or deal two damage to each opponent, draw a card, and get six red mana. She's here for her good +1.
Now that we have our mana online, let's talk about our two plans: Nukes and Dukes.
STEP TWO: DUKES
PART ONE: BOXING GLOVES
Neheb is a commander that likes to attack. Once he's out, we're going to want to have him swing probably ever turn, because even if he's blocked he goes right over the top. The issue, however, is that while he has 6 toughness, that's not a lot going into the late game. So, we've got some boxing gloves for our beeftank.
[[Darksteel Plate]] lets us not really worry about Neheb. Slap some darksteel on that lazotep and watch the haymakers fly.
[[Sword of War and Peace]] and [[Sword of Sinew and Steel]] give him protection from white and black, and also importantly, RED. We can use our X spells that also hit creatures with impunity once we give Neheb one of his twin blades.
[[Shadowspear]] gives Neheb trample, which lets him smack harder, and also, for two mana, you can remove indestructible and hexproof from an opponent's permanents. A glorious piece of tech. The lifelink can be nice, but it's, there to punch through. Speaking of punching through
[[Embercleave]] needs no introduction. If you're turning something sideways, Embercleave is always a great way to make sure it damn well hurts.
[[Swiftfoot Boots]] makes killing Neheb harder, and anything that makes Neheb stickier is good in my books. Haste is also an absolute plus. We don't have [[Lightning Greaves]] because we want to give Neheb more equipment than just lightning greaves, and shroud makes that harder than it needs to be.
PART TWO: SIDEWAYS CREATURES
If we're swinging more than once a turn, and we WILL be swinging more than once a turn, we want to swing with things that create effects that benefit from multiple combats. Enter our beaters:
[[Tectonic Giant]] swings once and deals three damage to everyone, or impulse draws. You swing multiple times with him and with Neheb in play, and boy howdy did you just draw and make a ton of mana. An absolute unit of a card.
[[Etali, Primal Storm]] is four free draws per swing. You swing multiple times with Stompy McCardsteal, and you've basically cast Villainous Wealth in red.
[[Neheb, Dreadhorde Champion]] is both real and not impulse draw and mana ramp. Swing, dump bad cards, get mana, repeat. EZ Clap.
PART THREE: TECHNICAL KNOCKOUT
[[World at War]] and [[Savage Beating]] gives us extra combats, with World At War having rebound to guarantee us extra combat the next turn and Savage Beating giving us double strike to combat trick like an absolute madman if we need to really add insult to injury.
[[Aggrivated Assault]] takes a small amount to explain. So, if we swing with Neheb, and he's unblocked, we get four mana. Tap a mountain, five mana, get an extra combat, swing with Neheb, go to the next main phase, EIGHT MANA, because Neheb cares about total damage of the turn, and checks every post-combat main phase, not your first one. That's right. We go infinite. Blow up the world, send out Neheb, and swing for infinite gaining infinite mana.
Also do not shout the names of the cards in this section because most of them are absolutely crimes and your pod will call the cops to stop you from beating their life totals into the dirt.
STEP THREE: NUKES
PART ONE: PRIMING FOR FISSION
Before we can bow up the world, we need to prime ourselves for it. To do this, we need to damage our opponents, and get our damage increasing abilities online.
[[Acidic Soil]] and [[Price of Progress]] are pretty much free damage. That guy who spent all game mana fixing? Yeah, he's getting shot for 16. The Golos deck? 30. Acidic Soil is there because it also counts basics, so the budget player who thought he was safe can get slapped for daring to play Magic as well.
[[Chandra's Ignition]] is 5 red mana for 12 red mana if you hit Neheb with it. It also board wipes. Slap it on Etali if you have protection for Neheb, and watch the world go down in fire.
[[Flame Rift]], [[Slagstorm]], and [[Fiery Confluence]] hit our opponents for dirt cheap costs. Three mana to get nine mana? two mana and four life for 12 mana? Treasonous Ogre is crying, he's been unemployed. Fiery Confluence is also a board wipe and a removal spell, which is super neato, as we're a mono-colored deck, so our toolbox isn't super diverse.
[[Combustible Gearhulk]] says "Give me draw or give me mana''. It's our Fact or Fiction, and much like Fact or Fiction, there are only bad answers. With an average CMC of 3, we're going to either draw three or get our mana back when someone takes 6 damage.
[[Pyrohemia]] says "pay one red mana: Gain three red mana". It's literally just Dark Ritual that is also removal. If you can't see why that's good I have no idea what you're doing in a red burn deck explanation.
[[Heartless Hidetsugu]] deals damage to each opponent equal to half their life total, rounded down. Deals damage. This isn't loss of life, this isn't 'becomes', Hidetsugu takes their life totals outside with a baseball bat and teaches it to fear the color red. Shadowspear on him makes you gain all the life they lost. If you have a damage doubler out, Hidetsugu says "Tap this creature, Win the Game." If he taps, and Neheb is out, one X spell almost guarantees a player death.
PART TWO: ROCKET FUEL
[[Torbran, Thane of Red Fell]] is not a damage doubler, but it does make our smaller pingers like Flame Rift, Fiery Confluence, and Pyrohemia absolutely backbreaking. Think of him as the initial charge.
[[Insult // Injury]] often time reads "Pay 3 mana: Your next spell kills a player". Injury is nice, but we're really here for the cheap damage double and to stop any damage prevention shenanigans. We're casting Insult when we know we can go off.
[[Fiery Emancipation]] Is here because, honestly, we make so much mana we'd be stupid not to run it. Six mana to triple damage when we make dozens of mana a turn is an incredible deal, and because it's one-sided, we don't have to worry about people killing us immediately with their tiny creatures. [[Furnace of Rath]] is two mana cheaper, yes, but importantly it doubles instead of triples, and also, uh, it doubles on US. We're trying not to self-destruct.
PART FOUR: DETONATION
[[Rolling Earthquake]] hits everything without horsemanship, so it hits everything. It's strictly better than Earthquake, because if we're casting an X spell, 80% of the time we're casting it because either A) We're about to lose or B) We're about to win.
[[Molten Disaster]] has split second, which makes it uncounterable, unreturnable, and uninteractable. It's our "YOU DARE PLAY BLUE?!" card.
[[Jaya's Immolating Inferno]] targets up to three targets. You will have three opponents in your pod. The math works.
[[Comet Storm]] is flexible, in that if you've already blown someone to kingdom come, it costs one less mana! So that's nice! It's also great target removal, and great with our newest card...
[[Toralf, God of Fury]]. Oh yeah. In this deck, a deck where we overkill everything, Toralf becomes an absolute monster. Earthquake everyone, and have the excess damage dealt to their creatures finish them off. The flip side of the card also goes mana-positive with Neheb, if we really need to get there and are just out of reach. This is a card this deck loves like your opponents love not being blown off the face of the earth by fireballs.
PART FIVE: CLUSTER MUNITIONS
[[Primal Amulet]] lets us copy our damage when it flips, and makes our damage spells cheaper before it does. It's easy to see why it's an all-star here.
[[Reverberate]] lets us copy something. Sometimes it'll be the counter that's trying to stop Jaya's Immolating Inferno. Sometimes it'll be the Immolating Inferno itself.
[[Reiterate]] is a multi-use reverberate, and we have the mana to use it.
STEP 4: THE REST OF THE DECK ^{ThisIsn'tAStepButShhhhhh}
HASTE
We want to give our creatures haste. [[Generator Servant]], [[Purphoros, Bronze-Blooded]], we can wheel away an [[Anger]] with ease, and [[Ogre Battledriver]] gives us a bit of oomph when our creatures enter the battlefield. Purphoros also functions as a sneak attack for when we want a creature to attack, but we don't have the mana to get it out.
DRAW
Look. We're in mono red, which means we have... one tutor that's halfway decent for our plan, and that's [[Gamble]]. We need draw. We're running a lot of it. [[Valakut Awakening]], [[Reforge the Soul]], [[Molten Psyche]], [[Magus of the Wheel]], [[Commune with Lava]], [[Cathartic Reunion]], [[Faithless Looting]] whatever we need to draw a whole ton, we have.
The real all-star draw card is [[Knollspine Dragon]]. Draw equal to damage to target opponent? In a burn deck? In a burn deck where our burn makes mana? Oh baby you best believe that when you slam this puppy down people are going to quake in their boots. From the dragon. And maybe from the Rolling Earthquake. Or the Molten Disaster. Whatever.
REMOVAL
We're not running much actual removal, because, well, A: Mono Red, and B: We're a player removal deck. If you want board control, or if you want a deck that doesn't feel like piloting a crashing roller coaster that is currently on fire, go play [[Zada, Hedron Grinder]]. We're here for the boom boom.
[[Vandalblast]] and [[Shattering Spree]] let us remove pesky artifacts, [[Blasphemous act]] removes board states for dirt cheap, and [[Chaos Warp]] lets us deal with one of anything.
[[Deflecting Swat]] is for anyone trying to touch our Lazotep Loverboy or for stack interaction when our [[Pyroblast]] fails to stop a counter.
LANDS
[[Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx]] is pure gas, [[Ancient Tomb]] gets Neheb out fast, and [[Rogue's passage]] gets us through chump blockers and deathtouchers if we need to swing with Neheb. Other than that, it's mountains, a [[Myriad Landscape]], and a [[Smoldering Crater]] to remind our opponents of the fate that awaits them and also some draw if we need it.
SIDEBOARD
For some, four X spells isn't enough. [[Fall of the Titans]] and [[Earthquake]] are easy to slot in, and for those who want more combat, [[Fury of the Horde]] is easy enough to get. [[Mana Geyser]] is great against landfall decks, [[Red Elemental Blast]] is good if your meta includes people who try to stop you from throwing the sun at them (Cowards.). If you want more draw, [[Apex of Power]] is a free draw 10 spell, and [[Dragon Mage]] is a [[Wheel of Fortune]] on a stick. Well, Magus of the Wheel is Wheel of Fortune on a stick ALRIGHT YOU GET IT.
UPGRADES
The easiest upgrade path for this deck is fast mana. [[Mana Crypt]], [[Grim Monolith]], [[Mana Vault]], [[Jeweled Lotus]] the faster you can pump out Neheb the better. They're not on this list because they're pretty goddamn expensive, and if you turn two Neheb people are going to focus you into the absolute dirt. [[Doubling Cube]] is neat, but honestly, it's just a but overkill.
Otherwise, upgrades include [[Wheel of Fortune]], your favorite Eldrazi Titan as a big ol' beater if you like the multiple combats, [[Sword of Fire and Ice]] is just the best damn sword we can get, and I'd say get [[Gauntlet of Might]] but for many people that card costs more than rent for the month, so just skip it.
GAMEPLAN
Step 1) Cast Neheb as fast as possible.
Step 2) Deal symmetrical damage, swing in.
Step 3) Go infinite with Aggressive Assault or cast a spell where X is, like, six trillion.
We're not interested in things like "Midrange" or "Control". No. We're Neheb. We're here to get high scores on the "How much damage can I make without going infinite" leaderboards. This is not a deck that does anything besides slam into people. It explodes. It goes absolutely haywire, totally off the rails, you'll need a calculator to check your mana.
This deck exists for one reason and one reason only: This deck is for Burn Timmies. Is it competitive? Eh. Does it win a lot? Eh. Does the fear in the eyes of your opponents make this deck worth it? Yes.
For your consideration, Nuclear Neheb: https://www.archidekt.com/decks/1072303#NUCLEAR_NEHEB

First mover advantage and network effect. The big lies in crypto. Don't fall for it.

I figured I would write this up because I keep seeing people making these unfair and misleading first movenetwork effect arguments over and over again, they are just lies. Being first mover or having network effect are not magic things that make everything oke and removes all competition.

First mover advantage

There are more disadvantages to being first mover in this space and tech in general than advantages, the first mover advantage is arguably even a myth. Most of today’s behemoths – from Google and Facebook to Instagram and TikTok – were not first-movers. Moreover, the last 20 years have seen a flood of first-movers failing, with companies like Nokia, Yahoo and G.M. all facing dire straits or going under completely. These are not outliers.
First mover disadvantages: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First-mover_advantage#Disadvantages_of_being_a_first_mover

Network effect

Network effect matters, it matters a lot. But there is no such thing as an insurmountable network effect, especially in the current crypto space. There are plenty of examples of disruption of very dominant actors in different industries. Microsoft was a monopoly and Apple managed to take a huge chunk of market share. Yahoo was the dominant search engine and Google took over. Nokia had a 50% market share in the mobile phone industry... Nobody uses MySpace anymore...

Why network effects in crypto are not that significant.
The size of the crypto industry is tiny compared to many other industries and seeing the potential it has. There is so much room to grow. The crypto industry is now at a $1 trillion marketcap. That's a whole industry of a revolutionary new technology that's not even worth half of Apple, one company, alone (https://companiesmarketcap.com/). And there are so many use cases not realized yet. I would argue there hasn't even been real adoption yet, the top applications are DeFi which is for the vast majority used by speculators and yield farmers and not real users, gambling and scams. And there are 22.6M developers in the world while there are only 80k Solidity developers on Ethereum.
There are also NEGATIVE network effects. Instead of 'more users = better experience = more users joining' you get 'more users = worse experience = users leaving'. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_effect#Negative_network_externalities) We have already seen negative network effects happen and they come to light the best when we are in a bull run (more users join). In 2017 Bitcoin was congested and transaction times and fees skyrocketed (worse experience). The narrative changed from 'p2p cash' used by merchants etc. (usage of Bitcoin in daily transactions was shilled heavily before the network got congested) to 'SoV' only. And people moved over to other solutions and Bitcoin dominance dropped (users leave). Ethereum had similar issues around that time, Cryptokitties alone pretty much stopped Ethereum from working. And currently Ethereum has major issues with congestion and high gas fees as a result. These negative network effects are only going to become worse the more users try to join unless the issues are fixed.
Bitcoin was promised Lightning Network to solve it's scalability issues but as far as I know it is not being adopted after 3-4 years of development and pushing for adoption. So Bitcoin is currently going to stay a SoV only and/or there will be heavy network congestion this bull run.
Ethereum is moving to PoS to solve this but ETH 2.0 is at the very least still a year away, this is way too late for the mass of new users that are coming in. Layer 2 scaling solutions are promised to keep Ethereum running properly until ETH 2.0 but we have yet to see this really happen.

How Cardano plays into this

Cardano was inspired by Bitcoin and learned from the mistakes of both Bitcoin and Ethereum. They took all the good things, got rid of all the bad things and improved. They took Bitcoins monetary policy and security properties for example and improved on e.g. scalability, energy consumption and decentralization. Cardano has the same if not better properties as Bitcoin to be a SoV, let that sink in. They learned from Ethereums problems that arose over the years like the DAO hack and used a rigorous principles first approach using academic peer review, formal methods and a functional programming language to prevent these problems from occuring, this is going to be the industry standard for development (to understand why peer review and formal methods matters see In Defense of Peer Review and what formal methods are https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formal_methods). And created Plutus and Marlowe to minimize bugs/mistakes which were often made using Solidity. They learned from UTxO and account based models and created Extended UTxO which has more benefits. They learned from the terrible fee structure Ethereum has and improved to prevent high fee issues. They learned from the problems Ethereum governance has and made it more decentralized and efficient. They learned that non-profit development running on donations is not sustainable and created an on-chain treasury to fund Cardano development in a decentralized way. The list goes on and on. Also don't forget that IOG is years ahead in research and there is tons of improvements yet to come. The first mover disadvantage here is huge.
There are 22.6M developers in the world and Ethereum has only 80k Solidity developers. Cardano is going to tap into the remaining 22.5M developers and make it easy for Solidity developers to move over to Cardano with IELE, KEVM and the ERC20 converter, see: The Island, The Ocean and the Pond (Soon). You tell me if having 80k developers in a group of 22.6M developers is a network effect anyone should be fearing.
Cardano has an on-chain treasury that is replenished by transaction fees and the reserves. It's worth almost $200M at current ADA price, imagine when ADA is $1 or much much higher. This is a forever sustainable source to fund development. Cardano does not have to rely on unsustainable donations or centralized entities deciding on funding. It will fund projects every 6 weeks and will just keep on chugging along forever. This will attract developers continuously. See Catalyst (link provided by bot in the comments). You tell me if this will bring network effect faster than some enthousiasts building on Ethereum.
IOG's other strategy for adoption is to bring economic identity to billions of people in developing countries. The idea behind this is that there will be less resistance than in developed countries to adopt the technology because these countries need it the most (most are unbanked and don't have financial services or good solutions for other problems like identification, land registry, etc. unlike people in the US or EU), don't have incumbents who will resist, have a young population who can adopt new technology more easily and it makes them able to compete in the global market. They also have the fastest growing economies and there is a lot more value to create. And when these countries adopt crypto and show the value it creates for them then developed countries will follow more easily. This will bring millions of users who will use Cardano for real problems they have not to gamble or be a "yield farmer", this is lasting real adoption. IOG has been working in Africa for 3-4 years and is really close to closing a multi million users deal in Ethiopia. See this latest interview with IOG's African Operations Director: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUPKtfTLvAk. And when Fortune 500 companies can easily reach all those millions of people in Africa with their products and services and can play in those markets then they have incentive to use Cardano. Again, you tell me if this is a better way to get adoption and network effect than whatever Ethereum is doing. You tell me if millions of real users is not going to create network effect.

Anyone who is not utterly biased will come to the conclusion that Cardano can challenge and pass Ethereum and Bitcoin. Keep using critical thinking. Think for yourself. Do your own research.

(23M)Gambling no more and finally getting it together.

Le Bilan - Ligue 1 Matchday 24 : Golowin

As PSG was preparing for the battle of sunday night in Marseille, the other three pretenders for the title were all thinking about the possibility of a misstep from the champion and capitalize on it while they were all facing low-ranked teams (Nîmes for Monaco, Strasbourg for Lyon and Nantes for Lille). Meanwhile, Lens was looking for getting the 5th place in a direct duel against Rennes.

Appetizers

Lorient and Reims were two teams from the lower half of the table who had earned 7 points in their last three matches and it's the visiting team that came out with the short end of the stick. Not that they were particularly worse than their hosts but when you consider the global poverty of Reims' attacking abilities, when Dia misses chances it's doomed to end badly. Laurent Abergel, already scorer last week against Paris gave the three points to Lorient.
Lyon had a nice training session on saturday evening against Strasbourg after Thomasson was sent off for a strong challenge then a protestation after only 14 minutes. That allowed Memphis Depay and Karl Toko Ekambi to increase their goal tallies, especially for the dutchman whose 66th and 67th goals now put him ahead of Karim Benzema in terms of goals scored for OL.
The match started under a torrent of fire for Rennes as Alfred Gomis' triple save saved them after only five minutes. Fortunately, the Bretons managed to calm the game. They even calmed it so well that pretty much nothing happened after that (the last shot on target happened at the... 9th minute). Another disappointing result for them while Lens get another draw against a stronger opponent, three days after Marseille.
The most midtable match of the day opposed Brest to Bordeaux and the visitors thought they would come out of this with the three points after Hwang opened the score following a defensive mistake by the Bretons. But Brest, as faithful as ever to their game principles, dominated heavily the second half (24 shots in total within the 90 minutes) and were rewarded in the last ten minutes with two goals from Mounié and Faivre, thus ending their series of five winless matches. Bordeaux however concedes a third straight loss before facing Marseille next week.
When you have troubles scoring and your opponent offers you a goal early in the game, you take it. That's what happened to Nice yesterday when the poor Souleyman Doumbia headed a ball towards his goalkeeper (well, rather towards the goal actually). Things got much easier starting from this point for Nice who get their first home win in four months while Angers manage to stay in the top 10 despite a series of one win in the last six games.
After nine winless matches, Montpellier had a golden opportunity to end this terrible series with the reception of Dijon, stuck in the bottom two. Unfortunately, things started rather badly as Coulibaly gave the advantage to the visitors after only 5 minutes. The second half was much different with a deluge of goals from Montpellier (Laborde twice, Savanier and Skuletic). Michel Der Zakarian has to be relieved as his team gets closer to the top 6, a nice celebration of Vitorino Hilton's 500th match in Ligue 1.
When you are dead last, up against a powerful Monaco and concede two goals in the first 12 minutes, you got to think the afternoon will be very long. Nîmes however were able to fight back and equalize. Up until the 62nd minute they were actually very competitive until Aleksandr Golovin, for his first start since the very first match of the season back in August, scored his third goal of the match on a free-kick which was probably not meant to go straight in the goal. Kevin Volland added a fourth goal but Monaco conceded another three minutes later, confirming once and for all that they have too many defensive issues to really compete for the title.
Lille were gently cruising towards another win with a dominating performance until Nantes got two chances to equalize in the 76th and 77th minute. Benjamin André first and Mike Maignan for the second one saved their team. Five minutes later, Jonathan David concluded a wondeful counterattack to score his second goal of the day, allowing Lille to keep their first place ahead of Lyon. Meanwhile, Nantes haven't won in three months.
The Parisians had extra pressure coming into the 100th Classique (in all competitions) after losing at home back in September. And despite two goals scored relatively early (a lethal counterattack that started by a header from Verratti (?!) and concluded by Mbappé after a 100 meters rush, then an improbable header from Icardi), they never managed to really control the possession that ended being in favor of Marseille (53-47). Deprived from Milik, the Provençaux were unfortunately never able to worry Sergio Rico (who was in the end more in danger because of his teammates or himself). Far from being as tense as the first fixture (only one red card compared to the five from the previous match), the match ended as a relatively peaceful victory for Paris.

Main Course

Matches

Home	Score	Away
FC Lorient	1-0	Stade de Reims
Abergel 53'
Olympique Lyonnais	3-0	RC Strasbourg
Depay 20', Toko Ekambi 30', Depay 68'
RC Lens	0-0	Stade Rennais

Stade Brestois	2-1	Girondins de Bordeaux
Mounié 80', Faivre 85'		Hwang 56'
Nîmes Olympique	3-4	AS Monaco
Deaux 23', Ferhat 32', Eliasson 81'		Golovin 3', Golovin 12', Golovin 62', Volland 77'
AS Saint-Étienne	1-0	FC Metz
Boye (og) 14'
OGC Nice	3-0	Angers SCO
Doumbia (og) 9', Maolida 17', Gouiri 83'
Montpellier Hérault SC	4-2	Dijon FCO
Laborde 48', Laborde 56', Savanier 61', Škuletić 90'+1		Coulibaly 5', Konaté (p) 88'
FC Nantes	0-2	Lille OSC
		David 9', David 83'
Olympique de Marseille	0-2	Paris Saint-Germain
		Mbappé 9', Icardi 24'

Table

#	Team	Pts	P	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
1	Lille OSC	54	24	16	6	2	42	15	+27
2	Olympique Lyonnais	52	24	15	7	2	50	20	+30
3	Paris Saint-Germain	51	24	16	3	5	55	14	+41
4	AS Monaco	48	24	15	3	6	50	35	+15
5	Stade Rennais	38	23	10	8	5	31	24	+7
6	RC Lens	36	24	10	6	8	34	33	+1
7	FC Metz	35	24	9	8	7	28	22	+6
8	Angers SCO	34	24	10	4	10	29	37	-8
9	Olympique de Marseille	33	22	9	6	7	29	26	+3
10	Girondins de Bordeaux	32	24	9	5	10	27	29	-2
11	Montpellier HSC	32	24	9	5	10	39	44	-5
12	Stade Brestois	30	24	9	3	12	37	44	-7
13	OGC Nice	29	23	8	5	10	27	31	-4
14	Stade de Reims	28	24	7	7	10	30	32	-2
15	AS Saint-Étienne	26	24	6	8	10	23	36	-13
16	RC Strasbourg	25	24	7	4	13	32	39	-7
17	FC Lorient	22	23	6	4	13	28	43	-15
18	FC Nantes	19	24	3	10	11	22	39	-17
19	Dijon FCO	15	24	2	9	13	17	36	-19
20	Nîmes Olympique	15	23	4	3	16	20	51	-31

1-2 Champions League group stage
3 Champions League qualifiers round 3
4 Europa League group stage
5 Europa Conference League play-offs
18 Relegation play-offs
19-20 Relegation to Ligue 2

Goals

Player	Team	Goals	This week
Kylian Mbappé	Paris Saint-Germain	16	(+1)
Memphis Depay	Olympique Lyonnais	13	(+2)
Boulaye Dia	Stade de Reims	12
Kevin Volland	AS Monaco	.	(+1)
Wissam Ben Yedder	AS Monaco	11
Karl Toko Ekambi	Olympique Lyonnais	.	(+1)
Ludovic Ajorque	RC Strasbourg	10
Andy Delort	Montpellier HSC	9
Tino Kadewere	Olympique Lyonnais	.
Gaël Kakuta	RC Lens	.
Moise Kean	Paris Saint-Germain	.
Gaëtan Laborde	Montpellier HSC	.	(+2)
Burak Yılmaz	Lille OSC	.
Jonathan David	Lille OSC	7	(+2)
Habib Diallo	RC Strasbourg	.
Amine Gouiri	OGC Nice	.	(+1)
Franck Honorat	Stade Brestois	.
Florian Thauvin	Olympique de Marseille	.
Yusuf Yazıcı	Lille OSC	.

Assists

Player	Team	Assists
Jonathan Bamba	Lille OSC	8
Ángel Di María	Paris Saint-Germain	.
Gaëtan Laborde	Montpellier HSC	7
Florian Thauvin	Olympique de Marseille	.
Kevin Volland	AS Monaco	.
Andy Delort	Montpellier HSC	6
Memphis Depay	Olympique Lyonnais	.
Kylian Mbappé	Paris Saint-Germain	.
Romain Perraud	Stade Brestois	5
Junior Sambia	Montpellier HSC	.
Karl Toko Ekambi	Olympique Lyonnais	.

COVID Championship

(May not be 100% accurate)

Team	COVID cases
AS Saint-Étienne	19
OGC Nice	17
RC Lens	14
FC Lorient	13
Paris Saint-Germain	.
Montpellier Hérault SC	11
FC Nantes	10
RC Strasbourg	9
Lille OSC	.
Olympique de Marseille	.
Olympique Lyonnais	6
AS Monaco	.
Dijon FCO	5
Nîmes Olympique	.
Stade Rennais	.
FC Metz	4
Angers SCO	3
Girondins de Bordeaux	1
Stade Brestois	.
Stade de Reims	.

Dessert

Top 3 Goals of the Week

#	Player	Match
1	Memphis Depay	Olympique Lyonnais vs RC Strasbourg
2	Niclas Eliasson	Nîmes Olympique vs AS Monaco
3	Jonathan David	FC Nantes vs Lille OSC

Upwards

FC Lorient : I never put Lorient in the downwards section this season even though they spent most of the last months in the relegation zone. Probably because their status as a promoted team gives them some leniency or because they never completely looked like they were going to go back in Ligue 2. Maybe they will in the end, who knows, but there's a thing they have always tried to do : play. They are not like most of those struggling teams that gamble everything on the defense and hope they don't concede. With a coach like Christophe Pélissier, who formerly led Amiens to Ligue 1 for the first time in their history (and Luzenac to Ligue 2... until they were not, which is a story for another time), you don't expect to play boring football. You try to score whatever happens. And so far, what happened was a lot of goals conceded (the second worst defense of the league) and unfortunately not enough goals scored. Until a few weeks ago when Terem Moffi became the man they needed to avoid a relegation. His five goals in five consecutive matches didn't prevent the losses against Monaco and Bordeaux but they were certainly crucial in the following games against Dijon and especially when the Merlus faced Paris last week as the goal from the nigerian in additional time gave them three unexpected points. With 10 points out of possible 12 in their last four matches, Lorient has finally got out of the relegation zone. Of course they are far from saved yet but given the recent look of their direct rivals, they certainly seem to be on a better path.
Jonathan David : I was pretty hesitant to put Lille in this section in the last few weeks (even though I was pressured to do it by a certain group of people who think they can dictate the editorial choices of such an institution). Indeed, although Lille were winning their matches with the consistency of a swiss clock (six in a row now), they were quite obviously not as convincing as in the first part of the season. They were basically just doing the job. But while the rest of the team is pretty much on the level expected from them, one man has stepped up in a spectacular manner. Early in the season, I was saying that Jonathan David, the most expensive transfer of LOSC history, was having a slow start compared to his teammates. Slowly but steadily however, the canadian has improved and after regaining his starter status, he is now one of the most crucial pieces of Christophe Galtier's team. Quick and intelligent, he had always been but now he has become decisive. With five goals in his last five matches (including two consecutive winning goals against Reims and Rennes), David is showing why the investment demanded by Luis Campos was worth the price. And if Lille become champion at the end of May, he will definitely have been a major part of the feat.

Downwards

Dijon FCO : This should be rather short. The reason Dijon have amazingly not been in the downwards section so far is that besides the first matchday, they have never been out of the bottom three this season. So technically they could not have gone further down than they were already. But still, the situation is quite dramatic for the club from Bourgogne which lost in Montpellier their fourth consecutive game and whose only victory in the last two months was against their fellow relegation candidate (or favorite) Nîmes. Dijon have won only twice this season and have by far the worst attack of the league (17 goals in 24 matches) so the path towards Ligue 2 seems quite obvious. As much as I would like to give a ray of optimisme, I don't see any.

L'Équipe Team of the Week

https://imgur.com/a/EF7PPT5

Quotes

Jean-Louis Gasset, Bordeaux coach :

Brest's victory is deserved. For 20-25 minutes, we played the game we had decided to play. Then, either for lack of fitness or lack of quality in the duels, we were overwhelmed. We were amorphous, we stuttered our football. We were lucky enough to score the first goal, I thought it would give us a boost. We'll have to look at the stats, but I think we'll be in deficit in terms of running and recovering the ball.

David Linarès, Dijon coach :

I was ashamed in the second half because of the lack of solidarity and fighting spirit. It left me with a bitter taste, especially as we were lucky enough to open the scoring. When you are in Ligue 1, when you defend a club and a city, you must at least have the mental virtues that allow you to exist. I asked myself a lot of questions about the second half. We will try to digest this disappointment first before thinking about the French Cup match.

Stéphane Moulin, Angers coach :

In Bordeaux, we were 2-0 down after twelve minutes. Sunday, in Nice, same score but in seventeen minutes. If I was being ironic, I would say that we are making progress. For us, it's irrelevant. Nice were not confident. We did what was necessary to help them. But I'm not surprised in the light of our last training session.

Raymond Domenech, Nantes coach :

There are still 14 matches to go, it's obvious that we need to take points. We know it, we knew it, it's confirmed, it's getting tense, but let's not give in to panic. We have to keep this idea of wanting to play, of wanting to play our game, of causing problems for our opponents. Standing solidly behind and hoping to score on the counter won't work.

NotMeladroit, no need to introduce him :

We will get the chance to see Dédé Gignac shit on Bayern next thursday.

Next matchday

Saturday 13/02, 17:00
Paris Saint-Germain - OGC Nice
Saturday 13/02, 19:00
Stade de Reims - RC Lens
Saturday 13/02, 21:00
Olympique Lyonnais - Montpellier Hérault SC
Sunday 14/02, 13:00
AS Monaco - FC Lorient
Sunday 14/02, 15:00
FC Metz - RC Strasbourg
Angers SCO - FC Nantes
Stade Rennais - AS Saint-Étienne
Dijon FCO - Nîmes Olympique
Sunday 14/02, 17:00
Lille OSC - Stade Brestois
Sunday 14/02, 21:00
Girondins de Bordeaux - Olympique de Marseille
Thanks a lot to Hippemann and NotMeladroit for all the clips and the tables ! For more news about the best league in the world (except for the other four) and to improve your french, come and subscribe to /Ligue1.
All feedbacks are welcome !
Previous matchdays :
Season 2020-2021
M1 - M2 - M3 - M4 - M5 - M6 - M7 - M8 - M9 - M10 - M11 - M12 - M13 - M14 - M15 - M16 - M17 - Mid-Season - M18 - M19 - M20 - M21 - M22
Season 2019-2020
M12 - M13 - M14 - M15 - M16 - M17 - M18 - M19 - M20 - M21 - M22 - M23 - M24 - M25 - M26 - M27 - M28

Its a Boomer play, but its guaranteed money: $GE Leaps

So, this DD isn't actual TA. It is a series of (what I believe) are very safe assumptions: a combination of political analysis, energy trends, and inevitable nation-wide "must have" investments. WARNING: this is long. By necessity, one assumption leads to another. I'll give you the one sentence TLDR up front, but because this is an assumption-chain, I encourage you to read this post
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TL/DR:
In order for Biden to get a quick win for what is looking like unfavorable (to Dems) 2022 midterms, he will first shoot for a massive infrastructure bill. Either way Georgia goes, Dems won't blow up the filibuster. Therefore, if he wants to have any "green" policies in his first term, he has to make it super amenable to Republicans. (1) Connecting **rich** renewable areas (mostly Republican states) by extensive HVDC lines to (2) an enhanced nationwide Grid (HVDC lines) will kill two birds with one stone. This ^ infrastructure is inevitable, either way. $GE is the #1 and only American HVDC provider, 220k workers +. $GE Renewables don't contribute to revenue right now, but HVDC + Wind (which will be yuge) make it a massive discount rn.
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I am going to lay down a series of linear assumptions and realities below. I feel like these assumptions are all safe, therefore, it is highly likely that the outcome I describe comes to fruition within the next 4 years.

EVs are going to see mass adoption. Every automaker + Apple is trying to get in on this. BEV advantages are simply too great. It is highly likely that by 2025, 30% or more of the U.S. fleet will be electric. This will only continue to 2030.
This will cause big increases in demand on the grid. Go google around: Grid owners are ecstatic about this. The average American home uses ~33 kWh of energy per day. I own a model 3, and BARELY drive (i dont commute) and still use ~10kWh per day for driving. A commuter may use around 30-35 kWh per day just to drive. By 2025, if ~30% of the U.S. fleet is electric, that'll cause a significant increase in grid demand. More important, though, is that energy generation investment takes time. Grid owners know this is coming. They will beef up generation faster and faster as the U.S. economy becomes more electrified instead of based on fossil fuels.
Added capacity is likely to be green. This has 2 causes. (1) Finance: Coal isn't cost competitive with solar and wind anymore. Solar is getting very, very cheap and more and more efficient. Offshore wind is having a renaissance. Nuclear is greener, but more expensive (~$4,200 per kW), and NIMBYism will prevail. Solawind + batteries is cheaper than $4,200 per kW right now. Additionally, Alaskan oil can't even get bank financing now, and Coal isn't expanding. People see the end is near. (2) Politics. Dem administration for the next 4 years, and green energy isn't the political football it was 10 years ago. Fighting renewables isn't the focus of the right anymore. Additionally, Democrats resist natural gas expansion: remember the Keystone pipeline? Natural gas is pretty green and cheap af, but its not everywhere, and I deem it unlikely that population centers (NE Corridor, Cali, Chicago, etc etc) are going to be OK with more and more natural gas plants. I deem it unlikely that we're gonna be a 50%+ natural gas country.
Biden will do an infrastructure bill. This will happen. Its popular, its needed, and its perfect for his huge desire to be seen as a bipartisan president.
Biden will try and include moderate green elements in this bill because he knows he won't get green policies otherwise. Even if the two Georgia seats go blue, there is **ZERO** chance the Dems blow the filibuster. You have (1) a president that won by a narrow margin, that (2) isn't that popular, (3) who has a bad-looking 2022 midterm, that (4) won't run in 2024 cause hes ancient, with (5) a not-too-popular VP, can't afford to run roughshod over norms and weaken their 2022 prospects. 50-50 plus Kamala casting the deciding vote? Please. Not happening.
Green elements in an infrastructure bill will have to benefit Red states in order to get passed. We're not gonna get a carbon tax / cap and trade system. We're not gonna get massive oil taxes
A lot of Red states are RICH in renewables. Look at these maps (https://www.nrel.gov/gis/solar.html) for U.S. solar, and this map (https://energy.maryland.gov/Pages/Info/renewable/windmaps.aspx) for U.S. wind. What do you notice? For the most part, there are huge wind opportunities in the Midwest. There is huge solar potential across Texas and the South. Outside of California and Northeast Corridor offshore wind, renewables are concentrated in the Midwest and South.
Right now, we can't take full advantage of these areas because the infrastructure to transport 2025-2030 sized energy demands to population centers don't exist. This is key. Right now, the U.S. energy grid is largely disconnected in terms of HVDC lines (high voltage lines capable of transmitting huge amounts of power with minimal loss: it resembles small, little fiefdoms. Google "U.S. HVDC Map" (make sure you're looking at the current ones--not the projections). We don't have that much HVDC infrastructure. In this past, there wasn't a huge emphasis because there wasn't that much need....renewables price efficiency didn't make for THAT compelling of a need, and localized Grid owners made-do with the status quo. HVDC network improvement is INEVITABLE. Renewables are too cheap, and the efficiencies inherent in concentrating wind and solar where appropriate are too vast. Right now, as you read this, there is an UNDERSEA Ultra HVDC cable being laid between Australia and Singapore to transport solar power. I shit you not. Europe and China are building vast HVDC and Ultra HVDC lines right now. Look at this wiki page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_HVDC_projects. See how many are in Asia/Euro vs the U.S.? Its a fucking joke. It is extremely unlikely that we're gonna just slap solar and wind where they are sub-optimal, rather than seek greater ROI. Mass HVDC lines are inevitable.
General Electric is the only large American HVDC provider. GE employs 200,000+ Americans. It is literally one of the oldest American companies. It has a super American brand name, and is politically connected.
HVDC is expensive. I'm not an expert, but because of NIMBY, its likely that a lot of HVDC will be buried along rail lines (From what I read). HVDC between hundreds of wind/solar fields across the U.S. will need to be built, plus HVDC / Ultra HVDC between renewable zones to NE Corridor, Chicago, California. I'd google around for figures, but basically, its $$$$$$$$$.
Right now, General Electric's Renewables sector barely brings in any revenue (17% 2019 revenue, around $15 billion https://www.statista.com/statistics/245430/revenue-of-general-electric-by-segment/#:~:text=Aviation%20and%20power%20are%20the,U.S.%20dollars%20one%20year%20before.). The new CEO is actually pretty fucking great (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._Lawrence_Culp_Jr). He turned Danaher around, and is setting up GE for success. GE has a TON of debt (debt/equity above 6.0), but what will happen to the stock when GE is given absolutely gigantic contracts in order to buff up the U.S. Grid? They really are the only American company with the production/size ability to do this. What happens when the GE Renewables sector grows by 4-5x over the next 10 years? Grid improvements + Wind turbines are going to go up bigly. That $15 billion revenue line item may increase dramatically.

If you read this far, let me restate that this isn't TA. I don't have strikes for you. I don't know how to value HVDC and Wind over the next decade. However, I have a STRONG feeling in my nips that $GE is going to be a major American comeback story, and ^ that political/economic/renewable trends make it exceedingly likely that GE will have huge grid contracts coming up. How much of this is already baked into the price? I have no idea, but I do know that the big boys don't gamble on Adderall rantings like this, so it probably isn't baked in.
I'm using GE to add some safety to my current 100% TSLA portfolio. I encourage you all to pick up at least a few cheap 2022 GE Leaps. I'm buying the furthest out, highest strike calls I can get.

Good luck on your pulls

Extensive list of "improvement notes" I used to climb from Silver to Plat with Yuumi

I recently climbed to Plat for the first time playing nothing but Yuumi, and wanted to share some notes I compiled along the way. Ever since high Silver, after each game, I would try to think hard about mistakes I made, going back to watch the replay if necessary. If anything stuck out, I would make an "improvement note" in a text file. These really added up after a while, and I have pasted the entire list below. Those closer to the top are more recent. There may be a few typos here and there -- feel free to ask if you don't understand something.

When early game goes rough, you often start tunneling on immediate fights, and forget about vision set up around OBJECTIVES; try to calm down and think further ahead
Using Ignite+Exhaust on a seemingly isolated target while enemies are missing keeps baiting your allies to overcommit, and then die to the response
Basic: deep river wards are good against speedy junglers, but make no sense if your jungler is just about to take the crab in that same section of river...

In lane, highest payoff of mental energy seems to come from: 1) avoiding all CC; 2) hitting Qs (these add up!); 3) procing passive on enemy ADC while they last-hit
Reminder: continuing to lose 2v2's post-6 against Lulu in lane, even with significant HP advantage and good engages; stop underestimating her poly+R combo
When an ally is getting CC'd and potentially picked in an early invade, give them the heal and shield, then gtfo onto another ally; safer, and equally effective
Reminder: bush wards do NOT cut it against Hecarim, Nunu, Rammus, etc.; to be safe, you NEED a mid-river ward, and if possible, a control ward in your own jungle

With Tryndamere: even if he's fed, he's not a great anchor; your heals have anti-synergy with his kit, and may throw him off his ult; let him split if possible
Reminder: as games get later, not body-blocking a single Jhin W can mean ADC dies, which can in turn insta-lose the whole game on the spot
Best practice for ulting: ping your ult + target beforehand -> calculate best angle and fire -> continuously look for improvements using W and E for full duration
Missing P procs in crowded minion waves; try to better incorporate the target champion only key and use right-click on them

For first ward when on red side, putting it a bit further into the river, or bit left of the bush, will both give more time to see enemy jungler coming to gank
Reminder: whenever LeBlanc is anchor in a fight, you need to be holding space; crazy woman is constantly blinking, reverting, and cloning; very easy to get lost
When you get off to a really good start, you sometimes get too hype and want to perma-fight in lane; this is very dangerous if enemy jungle/mid are missing; careful
Weird aspect of Yuumi: perhaps because you often end up mainly supporting just one person, multiple teammates often feel useless; accept this and play, don't tilt

Against Sylas: in order to not get caught off guard by his CC and escape options, you MUST pay closer attention to whose ultimate he has
According to leagueofgraphs.com, my weakest stat by far is my gold income, relative to other Yuumis; seek out more quest procs -> get Moonstone sooner -> win more
If you're under 10% HP, just don't get off OR switch allies in any remotely hostile environment; sometimes weird effects proc and you just die to a light breeze
If you only have enough mana left for one heal, never use it to top off ADC, no matter how long they are; wait for right moment to use it to maximize MS/AS as well

Reminder: STILL forgetting to use heal when running it; try just permanently thinking about it?
Rather than wait out enemy CC before procing P, it's often better to ANTICIPATE ally CC, and then proc P during brief window where enemy can't retaliate
In a tight chase down on enemy target, E first to get your anchor closer, THEN Q to apply the slow; seems straight-forward, but you often mess it up
Playing a passive, safe lane is very coin-flippy (and boring), but against bad matchups (e.g. Thresh) that is better than trying to force an advantage and dying

When a teammate is tunneling and throwing, but doesn't seem outright tilted/toxic, try pinging them harder; may help snap them out of it
As games drag on and everyone tilts, both teams often seem to get dumber, regardless of who's winning; just chilling and looking for picks is weirdly effective
Even with Elder AND Baron, if your team doesn't have any tank/engage, and some members are weak, you can't just run it down mid; will have to split-push a bit to end
Reminder: if an important objective fight is coming up in ~1:30 min, you NEED to place wards there, back, and refill your wards; this is a critical responsibility

Observed: body-blocking works not just on Kaisa's W (missile), but also on her Q (burst), as some of the projectiles will naturally target you
Observed: if you are on Illaoi getting collapsed on 3v2, and she chills in a bush, the approaching enemies are in as much danger as you; stay calm, Illaoi strong
Observed: whenever anchor is backing, maximize downtime to scout whatever you safely can nearby, and W back to them at the end of their channel
Observed: you need to use W to laterally reposition during your ult more often; it's often key to rooting more enemies while your original anchor does their thing

Observed: you can proc passive on most forms of enemy clones, including Illaoi spirits
Observed: if enemy support keeps roaming and you can't follow, you should be attempting to freeze on enemy ADC
Reminder: you are a good tool for freezing waves; you can start tanking aggro if alone, then repeatedly apply aery to your ADC for free freezing
Observed: you are not utilizing Q to scout bushes enough; it's pretty cheap and can save a death

Observed: body blocking all types of enemy projectiles at the very last second is incredibly effective
Observed: if your ADC is absolutely going to be fatally hooked, and you can anticipate it, get off and take one for the team
Reminder: on ADCs like Ezreal and Tristana, if they get caught out and still have their dash, do NOT get off to proc P and then get left behind
Observed: on blue side, bush above red buff is a nice spot for an early control ward if you have a moment; try to use it more often

Client keeps resetting preference; ALWAYS make sure you have champion names visible over health bars, to prevent skins confusing you during key moments
Decent anti-tilt strat: after you make an "inexcusable" mistake, consider the game a well-deserved loss; then just play your best for your team, regardless of outcome
Against ANY type of engage/ambush/all-in lane opponents, just start E; you or your ADC keep giving up first blood from sudden, whacky shenanigans
When an ally makes you die, there will be a burning sting through your neck, stomach, and legs; if can feel it and not tilt, that's a major advantage over opponents

When a game is going well and there is no perfect support item to build, strongly consider building: mejai's, boots of lucidity, and redemption/mikael's
Major: you keep baiting in your ADC's with sudden exhaust+ignite on enemy ADC; instead, just ping they are ready and target, and let YOUR ADC be the one to initiate
In a way, every game starts as a coinflip either for or against you, just the degree varies; your goal: lose no games in your favor, and win those slightly against you
Reminder: you tilting leads to losses more directly than teammates throwing; enjoying or at least tolerating the game while losing is a very underrated "skill"

Even in high elo, good decisions are worth much more than perfect mechanics
10 minutes worth of smart lane trading can evaporate in an instant due to one slightly careless misposition; the game always hangs in the balance
Rage warding a new pink ward while your old pink ward is being destroyed is very rarely worth it
Reminder: don't blow your E for AS/MS alone unless there is zero danger of counter-kill; better to hold it for heal value in most cases

If possible, you want your lane to be a slow, safe war of attrition, not a violent fiesta of death
Reminder: when one enemy is uber-fed, you MUST save exhaust for them at all cost; doing anything else = directly lose the game
Reminder: ultimately, you will climb if you consistently outperform the enemy support; that means better lane trades, better vision, better objective/teamfight support
Against Rell/Tristana: if they hit level 2 first and all-in, they are capable of killing your ADC under tower, unless you start heal (!)

If your ADC gets hooked and locked down, try to time and aim your ult to root the enemy ADC just as the CC chain ends; this gives your ADC the best chance at escaping
After Moonstone, a point-blank Q can actually provide a critical heal to another teammate; in this rare situation, point-blank Q is good
Teamfighting directly underneath an angry Baron is not a good environment for Yuumi; his AA's alone can quickly kill you
Bad habit: when low HP ally is running, you keep trying to proc passive on the pursuer, and getting caught in hard CC; sometimes, it's better to just pray

When your team is winning early, it's fine to play safer, but don't play lazy; at the very least, keep hitting your Q's
Against any melee support, whenever their dangerous spells are on CD, HARASS the living hell out of them; show no mercy (though watch out for enemy ADC of course)
Too often, you "go down with the first ship" in teamfights; unless they're the sole carry, just let your anchors die; because if you die too early, then EVERYONE dies
Reminder: respect enemy burst more at level 2, regardless of their comp; you keep giving up first blood, stop that

If you are solo guarding while enemy ignores you and whacks your tower, treat them as a gold sponge; +20 per quest proc is great
Observed: on blue side, you can often soak lane experience at full value while in river bush, in order to better support your jungler invading enemy bot side
Observed: on blue side especially, if enemy jungler can't dash over walls, no reason not to ward a bit DEEPER in river on first ward
If your W gets put on CD, don't take potshot Q's while off; they are very unlikely to empowered hit, and you can be much more effective in a few seconds

Don't neglect landing your empowered Q's during key teamfights; the slow and extra damage are significant; keep one eye on your anchos, but aim it properly
Against Swain: fyi, his W (eye) has an insane range (5500+); also, his E (claw) has 850 range, and gives least time to dodge root at very tip, making it quite deadly
When you and your anchor get collapsed on in neutral territory, sometimes breaking off and running in opposite directions makes the double-kill impossible for enemy
Against Alistar: his flash-Q with ADC follow-up will 100-to-0 you through all countermeasures at all levels, just like Sett

Reminder: STOP getting off for random greedy P procs; you are throwing fights
For squishy ADCs like Twitch into CC heavy enemies, consider starting Mikael's; test it out a bit
If things are going south for your anchor, start looking for Plan B anchor immediately; slight delay can make a big difference
Consider P proc in teamfights as risk/reward; better to lose one anchor and continue the fight than lose whole game from getting hard CC'd and dying

In ~3/4 of games, someone on your team will be making attrocious decisions; if they're not playing with the team, do not encourage them with heals
When chasing and weaving in AAs, be more mindful of W CD; sometimes it is better to do nothing and just wait for Q
Reminder: when facing a tank support in lane, hard focus their squishier ADC with Q poke; if they all-in, hard focus their ADC in counter-attack
Against Malphite: if he levels up sapling first, then you probably want to start E; starting Q and then having your ADC get chunked low can be pretty rough

When games devolve into total fiestas, just sitting on whoever is farming mid is an okay principle; you're pretty good in ARAMs, and less likely to die in a pick
When you feel someone on your team doesn't "deserve" the win, just go on someone else who does; feels better, and sometimes it works out
When a carry is on a full rampage, just stay on them; no use trying to keep the whole team together, as the carry may dive in without you while out of sync
Your mid-laners keep getting killed by roaming enemy support; since you usually can't really match well, you must ping better

Against Sett: careful, his flash-E will not just chunk you at level 2; with his ADC, it can straight-up 100-to-0 you even through your E, potion, and ADC heal
Reminder: champ icons are safer to W to than champ models; also, you can't just W around in later teamfights once you've been chunked once; will explode
Against Lulu: if all her CDs are up post 6, you can't 2v2, even with HP advantage; she will just polymorph your ADC while ulting hers, and you will quickly die
Against Galio support: if possible, you want to poke down the enemy ADC with AP, while your ADC pokes him down with AD

Not tilting seems to make you play about 25% better, which is usually enough to turn a game
Reminder against Jhin: later in lane, his 4th shot or 4th bounce will chunk you for like 50% or more; imperative to keep track of and avoid these
Consider: roaming before end of laning phase often disheartens ADC a bit, especially if they get 2v1'd; try to ensure the roam is worth the mental toll
When an ally is "medium raging," just sitting on them and healing them a bit more than usual can actually seem to calm them down...

Reminder: on average, roughly HALF the players are better than you; if an ally is carrying, try just trusting them unconditionally unless it repeatedly backfires
Reminder: hold onto Exhaust, and put it on a dps carry, NOT a tank or support
Somehow keep getting stuck on the wrong side of the dragon/baron pit; again: stick to the member with dashes to avoid this
Unless grinding for wins, looking up teammates before the game often seems to make you play worse, like when someone is first-timing their champ, etc.

Late-game, try to save ignite for large threats with high healing, or those about to leave vision; don't just slam it on anyone unless it's the FINAL fight
Weird: if you ditch the carry before they die, they may believe they would have lived with you there, and int more; sometimes it may be worth dying WITH them??
If a teammate does something that makes you lose the desire to win, remember we're all ignorant in different ways; play for the moment and limit test
As soon as a player toxic pings once, mute them until at least late game; repeated toxic pings are sapping your desire to win

Play purely for improvement (win/loss due to team is meaningless!), until you feel you are at goal elo threshold; then play hard for the wins to try and reach it
Don't type after the match either, unless it's something all-around positive; not good for mental health
Major: sometimes you know your ADC is bad, but enemy gets low; in such cases, going in usually backfires horribly; just play safe, and do NOT fight with them
Pay closer attention to ebb and flow of minion waves for Q and P procs; there are certain windows when it is much easier to strike

Against Poppy: getting off or on in her W field counts as a dash, and will severely mess you up; never do that
Be liberal in your use of caution/danger pings; don't assume people see or understand obvious risks; this is your best chance of "improving teammate IQ"
If your ADC gets chunked horribly low and looks to back, don't bait them to stay with heals; good junglers will just dive and kill you before you can recover
Against Ekko: his W stun is telegraphed enough that you should never get caught; don't cut it too close either

Even when there is nothing to be body-blocked, getting off and getting aggressive can sometimes distract enemy enough for your ADC to escape in close fights
Pattern: your ADCs keep trading 1 for 1 in early bot lane battles; if possible, YOU should be the one dying in these trades, not them
There is an art to abandoning a teammate; heal them if they can get a kill, heal yourself if they are totally doomed, save heal if a new anchor is closeby
Some carries do NOT want your help (i.e. exp share) until late game, and will actively int if you force it; may need to play "suboptimal" to increase win chance

Boots of lucidity work surprisingly well after second item; CDR makes a big difference
Rare: potentially lost an entire game by hovering cursor too near a teammate while trying to get off to proc passive; be more precise
If enemy team has a single carry tearing through everyone, ping them hard whenever you see them in standoffs and throughout fights
In wild skirmishes, if you have ample health, things are really coming down to the wire, and everything is on CD, just get off and start AA'ing/body-blocking

Against Jhin: by mid-game, 3 ult shots will kill you; be careful not to get too carried away blocking; also, just stand still to block if possible, safer
If a hard carry anchor is destroying a T1 or T2 turret, and you can back, you can do so before it falls to increase the local gold going to your carry
General: at least once a game, you seem to make some completely questionable ult/exhaust/W decision; try to slow things down a bit and not make nonsense plays
Against Morgana: W is too slow to dodge her bind if she fires it from medium distance; give it more respect

When you have low vision and feel a gank may be coming, don't just ping once and hope your ADC wards; ping a lot, back off, and stay safe
The first honey fruit spawns between 6:00 - 6:30 near dragon pit; consider going to get it at 6:20 if safe
The wall-jumping blast cone spawns between 5:00 - 5:30; factor this into gank considerations
River ward placed at 2:30 will expire just as second ward comes online at 4:00; together this can give uninterrupted river vision until 5:30

When an ADC is not stepping up for your Q's to land, try pinging your target just before you fire; may help them get the message
Minor: when steering by map and hopping off to path to different ally, you keep hopping off in wrong direction (towards map); stop doing that
Still not used to running heal; when ADC takes ignite, try crossing your toes or something to remember
Unless you're at max mana, just do not shoot low chance/impact Q's in lane; your mana conservation is usually more important than your quest item

Talk as little as possible during champ select; much better for your mental
Especially when with jungler, need to be aware which of you revealed the ward, so that the other one can clear it for more gold; basic fundamentals
If ADC is pushing up with no vision, neither should you sit on them nor facecheck bushes; just BACK off, they can die alone if they insist
Against Neeko: she can be a surprisingly tough support to deal with; her emp. AA stings, her root is deadly, and her disguise can bait important CDs; careful!

Reminder: Wukong's ult continues to put your W on CD at bad times; whenever he is in the game, pay special attention for it
Consider getting an elixir of sorcery a bit more often if you sense both teams are tilted; one big win at a mid-game objective often makes the other team ff
Wasteful double-wards with allies happening fairly often; try to anticipate ally ward, or else ping your own ward and the spot beforehand
When there is clear down-time with no objectives, priority is: ward / rotate for possible picks -> back for more wards -> soak exp.

Leading up to a river fight, if no one else is placing control wards, pixel bush often get more mileage than dragon/baron pit; sweep pit and ward later
When you are below average level, melee minions actually take 2 tower and 2 AA's to kill
In poke-heavy lane match-ups, make better use of aery shield as a blocking tool; especially good for Tristana and Zilean delayed explosions
Roaming to mid briefly after first back often has surprisingly good outcomes; even topping off their HP, hitting a Q, and leaving can give them an edge
Immediately going for free passive procs should be second nature; keep them in mind always until they are
Poke a bit more conservatively in lane, and try to focus the same target repeatedly -- whoever seems worse at positioning/dodging
When someone ganks you successfully once, there's a good chance they'll try again by the same angle; ward accordingly
In skirmishes and teamfights, work on holding Ult for an extra second; the improved angle once people burn their dashes can be devastating

Quick hop offs to land Exhaust/Ignite still need significant work; focus extra hard when you anticipate needing to land summs at longer range
Reminder: competent enemy supports will just clear your vision on objectives before fights; better to set it up well ahead, and then back for more wards
Sometimes, you really don't need to be fast and flashy; just give the heals and wards and hit your Q's, keep it simple; otherwise, risk a rushed misplay
When there's Leona+Wukong right on top of your anchor going nuts, you just can't get off; CC everywhere

When going for picks, there may be no "perfect" ult angle, as they can just dash diagonally out; then best to ult to cut off the max amount of retreat path
When it's too dangerous to get off, a point-blank Q can proc moonstone renewer and give an emergency heal to a nearby ally
Reminder: when getting invaded through tribush on blue side, run DOWN around the rock outcrop; cuts enemy vision of you, and you can ward back over
Reminder: when alone and getting invaded on either side, you must E in the proper direction within about 0.5 seconds, or you should die unless enemy messes up

Against Yasuo: don't forget or underestimate his tornados; they move fast, and getting hit by one at the wrong moment can lose the whole game
Minor: just put support item on proper key to begin with; it doesn't shift when it upgrades
When AA'ing a tower, rather than mindlessly kiting back and forth, better to position in safest place, and then inspect the map/scoreboard
In lane all-ins, once you've used all your CDs, it's often best to just stand directly in front of your ADC and AA; if you die and they live, it's ok

"Hookshot" Q's that you can bend all the way behind enemy minions have very high hit chance; keep them in mind as priority method
With Ekko: avoid procing shield when he's likely to ult; very easy to get left behind
Generally, the deeper up the river you can ward, the safe you'll be; ward near the actual crab early if convenient
When behind, just stay calm, set up vision ring, and predict where/when enemy team is most likely to greed; be ready to punish

When taking Baron and things get hairy, best to stay on champs with dashes that can gtfo/turn more easily; do NOT start wandering around on your own
Sometimes ulting your anchor's target gets them killed; e.g. it's often much better to proc passive on Karthus and shield ally, than to immediately ult him
In teamfights, focus more on your OWN positioning; which side you hop off on to proc passsive can make an enormous difference for avoiding CC
If your ADC ints once, chances are high they will int again; be extra ready to ditch them

With Trist: ask her to ping before she all-ins, or rocket jumps in general; helps prevent getting left behind
Against Jhin: easy to forget, if he roots you with W, you will probably just die
Dying early in lane is worse than just the initial effect; frequently ADCs will rage and int themselves later in the game...
When enemy places a yellow ward in lane bush, get into habit of (E+)AAx2 and pinging it for ADC; can insta-clear with good reflexes

Consider pinging objectives a bit harder if team is greeding/unfocused
Against Nami: if she's smart, she will send her bubble into your dash path, dangerous; her poke also stings quite a bit, don't underestimate
If there is an early skirmish, start E; it just gets way better value than Q outside of lane
When the game is a total fiesta, with no one really carrying, just sticking on the ADC seems best; they CS and survive better with you around

Get in the habit of checking the scoreboard EVERY time you back; quick scan over all champ levels/CS/items
Try not to panic when you or your anchors facechecks a bush and gets ambushed; mashing buttons (other than E) is never the best play there
With Lillia: she's a great anchor for roaming picks, but can be awkward to sit on in teamfights; squishy, and can be hard to reach teammates in need
Against Thresh: while his Flash-Flay is deadly, you should be able to bait his hook okay while in W range of ADC, as long as you're ready for it

Take more care with your ult angle; a few degrees can make a huge difference, especially in moving fights and around choke points
Basic: if you know there's a control ward in bush, don't place a yellow in unless you know you can clear it; otherwise just directly feeds gold/exp to enemy
Ideal lane skirmishing is complex: want to hit emp. Q and both summs on best targets, have ADC benefite from full passive+aery+E, all while weaving in AA's
When running heal, need to pay extra close attention during dense teamfights; be sure to use it at a good time

In lanes that feel awful, try to be more patient; just help your ADC farm and get through it
In crazy burst fiestas, you may get more mileage out of Mikael's than Redemption; instant heal and cleanse on carry is more consistent?
With Katarina: she can and will jump all over the place in strange ways; use ult more in the general direction of the enemy, can even zone with it
Important: really need to keep better track of whether current anchor has flash up; keep getting stranded when they use it unexpectedly

Against Soraka: watch out for the root at the end of her E, it is very dangerous; you can't really side-step her Q, must use W to dodge
Against Irelia: she likes to use her stun soon after she ults; it's not safe to get off until you're sure it's gone
Jumping off and repositioning while ulting can be good, but you can also just get CC'd and have the ult canceled entirely; be careful
Against Blitzcrank: in lane, his hook costs ~1/3 of his mana, on a ~20 sec CD; play around these numbers more consciously

Against Jhin: body-blocking his W on your ADC can be huge, always be ready to do so
When people are greeding, and backing out very slowly, try to avoid going back in to heal them; it often encourages them to int
Against Fiora: just don't hit her with summs until you see her blow parry; it's not worth having one blocked
Start thinking about toplaner TP flanks more, and set up a ward at mid bush at least if one is possible

With Kindred: you cannot heal allies who reach the 10% threshold inside her ult, which lasts 4 seconds; wait until after the ult's ending heal triggers
Against Kai'Sa: try to anticipate and body block her W missile in lane; she often uses it to try to poke/kill your ADC
Stop burning Exhaust when you are obviously already dead
Do not gamble your life by solo warding bushes that enemy champs could quite possibly be in

Reminder: stop spamming wards; you get 3 yellows up at once -- think consciously about the best places to put them; know where yours are
With Katarina and Leblanc: just hold space in fights; otherwise it is very easy to lose track of where you are
Reminder: it is very rarely ideal to use Exhaust on enemy support -- main exception is in lane when they are damage heavy
Against Thresh: watch out for his Flash-Flay combo; you can't really react, and it is very deadly; staying far away in a bush is your best bet

Against Maokai: even if you can't clear saplings with W, consider trying to block some of the damage onto your ADC with aery shield
Regardless of if you feel hype, you need to feel out enemy bot's playstyle before going too ham
I keep confusing small champs (e.g. Lulu vs. Fizz) in crucial moments; turn on champ names above HP bars; pay attention
Against Hecarim: need to ward further up the river; bush ward will be too late

Hopping off a CCed teammate to continue a moving ult can be huge; similarly, W'ing between allies while ulting can root more enemies
When you see CS going to waste in any free scenario, get into the habit of grabbing it with AAs or Q
Against Seraphine: keep track of her echo counter, and make sure not to get rooted by the 3rd ability
In weird chaotic games where different lanes are stomping on different teams, focus extra hard on the high priority target/s

Reminder: wait out the initial shitstorm in full 5v5's before ally hopping; you will just get caught by random CC and explode
One Q can make the difference on a gank, which can swing the game; if jungler is coming, pay extra close attention to mana, CDs, and ideal target
Against Soraka: to win the poke war, try very hard to avoid giving her free Q's
Against Ezreal: body blocking either his W or Q is quite helpful for your ADC

Try not to fire ult from super inflexible positions; if enemies respond quickly, it may just get wasted
In games that are getting away, try harder to save ult for enemy shutdown
Reminder: greedy ward clearing loses games
Against Nautilus: his ult is worse than it seems; the knockup will often catch you while it travels to someone else, be very careful

When a gank is imminent, try NOT to hop off, so as to preserve CD on W
Tacking ALL enemy CDs in lane is too hard for now; just focus harder on those that CC you
Keep forgetting I can't proc my passive during R; be more careful about that
If an anchor does something that seems questionable/greedy, give one caution ping at least before just going with it

W off for a little extra distance, ward, then W back on
Don't lose focus or play scared just because you get chunked once in lane; stay proactive and stick to the plan
With Hecarim: his E and R often put him behind the enemy target: careful not to fire your ult in the wrong direction
Against Rakan: watch out for his snappy engage from long distance, easy to get caught off guard

If an enemy tank appears caught out, but enemy carries are missing, do not hard commit to killing the tank; doing so may throw the ensuing teamfight
Keep better track of which enemies are a real threat vs non-threat; don't blow ult and summs on non-threats (very impactful)
Keep track of GA's on own team, and play around them more intelligently

When W is not on CD (especially post level 11) and teammate is running for their life, consider helping shield them with aery procs; it can make the difference
If someone is getting turbo-focused by entire enemy team, dashing to them is probably unsafe...
Don't back when fight may be about to break out, even if you need items/mana
Q's continuing to miss in lane; teamfight awareness needs further improvement

Put indicator-aimed Q on an easier key, for long-range solo snipes; helps clean up random CS, tag dragon while approaching, etc.
Reminder: usually passive is easiesafer to proc on ADC, since they are more focused on last-hitting
Enlarge map, and spend 5 games where overarching goal is to keep track of enemy jungler+mid through laning phase, warding and rotating accordingly

Be aggressive as hell around levels 1/2 if you think you can get away with it; may confuse enemies and inspire own ADC
If you need to jump around to proc Moonstone in grouped chaos, use W on hero icons; VERY useful under certain circumstances
Treat pre-level 11 W as a majorly important CD; getting stuck off an anchor during an early skirmish can be game-losing
If team is overextending and not heeding caution pings, just start backing on your own, and see if they get the message

Weird: consider hopping off and moving around a bit when there's clear downtime in lane, to avoid tilting unstable ADCs for being "afk"
Try to keep track of whether anchor has hourglass/zhonyas; don't get off if you think they are about to use it
Pay closer attention to when enemy ADC is about to last hit; that's usually a safer time to proc passive
If safe, consider helping hit minions after procing passive at level 1; level 2 comes after 6th melee minion

Still having some issues with proper ability buffering and ally hopping during intense skirmishes; make sure you at least always know WHO you are on
Don't get impatient under turret; look for rotation plays when possible, but try to move more intelligently
Reminder: once again, hit by hard CC in lane = death = deserved loss

Be more intentional with warding spots; don't just slam wards for the hell of it; first think about where enemy is most likely to go
If things are falling apart / desperate, don't even bother trying to heal squishy non-carries in chaotic fights; just make sure the carry survives
Try harder to stay oriented and aware of surroundings during skirmishes; choose and commit to Q and R targets properly
Reminder: NEED to not get hit by hard CC in early laning phase; it is very, very bad

Refocus on not missing Q's in lane; while steering it, shaking cursor back and forth slightly seems to help counter enemy jukes
Against Maokai, be very careful of his W (dash) -> Q (shockwave) combo; it comes out fast, and if you get hit by either part, your W goes on CD
Against Varus, avoid healing ADC while they are inside the GW zone from his E (arrow volley), unless absolutely necessary
In mid-game, look harder for reset opportunities when you are out of wards and have some time until next objective

Never get knocked up by dragon, herald, or baron
In loading screen, try making a mental checklist of every enemy ability that will put your W on CD
Be more conservative with pink wards; try not to waste them in indefensible places while laning
Don't try to fire off Q when surrounded by enemy minions; it will just get blocked

Don't underestimate the strength of top laners who have just been farming all game as potential anchors
Refocus on optimizing ward placements, at the very edge of bushes using green dot indicator
Look for chances to hop between allies while ulting / Q'ing; remain aware of best time to E while channeling Q/R
Try to keep moonstone renewer and ardent censer procs in back of mind once owned

Get better at quickly warding across the thick wall into the red side botlane river bush
Try to be consciously aware of key abilities you should be ready to body block, like Ashe W, Cait R, Nidalee spear, etc.
Try not to bait teammates into sketchy situations with low impact Q poke in mid-late game
Be more cautious about upgrading Dark Seal into Mejai's if things are still volatile

Keep better track of cursor and anchor during chaotic teamfights; hold space more if attached to someone "blinky" like Katarina
Basic: be sure you have actually started attaching before buffering E
Be more careful with W cooldowns before level 6; do not attach/detach for no reason; be intentional; default state is attached
Identify the key Exhaust+Ignite target/s ahead of time

Be careful not to run out of mana at critical times by throwing out low impact Q's
Try not to jump off of champions with dashes that might be about to dash
Don't just throw out R to engage with no warning; ping intentions a couple seconds ahead of time
Use the "quick cast with indicator" green highlighted ward option to ward in edges of bushes; try to ward more quickly and usefully

Hope at least some of these are useful to fellow Yuumi fans!

Playboy going public: Porn, Gambling, and Cannabis

NEW INFO 5 Results from share redemption are posted. Less than .2% redeemed. Very bullish as investors are showing extreme confidence in the future of PLBY.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/playboy-mountain-crest-acquisition-corp-120000721.html
NEW INFO 4 Definitive Agreement to purchase 100% of Lovers brand stores announced 2/1.
https://www.streetinsider.com/Corporate+News/Playboy+%28MCAC%29+Confirms+Deal+to+Acquire+Lovers/17892359.html
NEW INFO 3 I bought more on the dip today. 5081 total. Price rose AH to $12.38 (2.15%)
NEW INFO 2 Here is the full webinar.
https://icrinc.zoom.us/rec/play/9GWKdmOYumjWfZuufW3QXpe_FW_g--qeNbg6PnTjTMbnNTgLmCbWjeRFpQga1iPc-elpGap8dnDv8Zww.yD7DjUwuPmapeEdP?continueMode=true&tk=lEYc4F_FkKlgsmCIs6w0gtGHT2kbgVGbUju3cIRBSjk.DQIAAAAV8NK49xZWdldRM2xNSFNQcTBmcE00UzM3bXh3AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA&uuid=WN_GKWqbHkeSyuWetJmLFkj4g&_x_zm_rtaid=kR45-uuqRE-L65AxLjpbQw.1611967079119.2c054e3d3f8d8e63339273d9175939ed&_x_zm_rhtaid=866
NEW INFO 1 Live merger webinar with PLBY and MCAC on Friday January 29, 2021 at 12:00 NOON EST link below
https://mcacquisition.com/investor-relations/press-release-details/2021/Playboy-Enterprises-Inc.-and-Mountain-Crest-Acquisition-Corp-Participate-in-SPACInsider-ICR-Webinar-on-January-29th-at-12pm-ET/default.aspx
Playboy going public: Porn, Gambling, and Cannabis
!!!WARNING READING AHEAD!!! TL;DR at the end. It will take some time to sort through all the links and read/watch everything, but you should.
In the next couple weeks, Mountain Crest Acquisition Corp is taking Playboy public. The existing ticker MCAC will become PLBY. Special purpose acquisition companies have taken private companies public in recent months with great success. I believe this will be no exception. Notably, Playboy is profitable and has skyrocketing revenue going into a transformational growth phase.
Porn - First and foremost, let's talk about porn. I know what you guys are thinking. “Porno mags are dead. Why would I want to invest in something like that? I can get porn for free online.” Guess what? You are absolutely right. And that’s exactly why Playboy doesn’t do that anymore. That’s right, they eliminated their print division. And yet they somehow STILL make money from porn that people (see: boomers) pay for on their website through PlayboyTV, Playboy Plus, and iPlayboy. Here’s the thing: Playboy has international, multi-generational name recognition from porn. They have content available in 180 countries. It will be the only publicly traded adult entertainment (porn) company. But that is not where this company is going. It will help support them along the way. You can see every Playboy magazine through iPlayboy if you’re interested. NSFW links below:
https://www.playboy.com/
https://www.playboytv.com/
https://www.playboyplus.com/
https://www.iplayboy.com/
Gambling - Some of you might recognize the Playboy brand from gambling trips to places like Las Vegas, Atlantic City, Cancun, London or Macau. They’ve been in the gambling biz for decades through their casinos, clubs, and licensed gaming products. They see the writing on the wall. COVID is accelerating the transition to digital, application based GAMBLING. That’s right. What we are doing on Robinhood with risky options is gambling, and the only reason regulators might give a shit anymore is because we are making too much money. There may be some restrictions put in place, but gambling from your phone on your couch is not going anywhere. More and more states are allowing things like Draftkings, poker, state ‘lottery” apps, hell - even political betting. Michigan and Virginia just ok’d gambling apps. They won’t be the last. This is all from your couch and any 18 year old with a cracked iphone can access it. Wouldn’t it be cool if Playboy was going to do something like that? They’re already working on it. As per CEO Ben Kohn who we will get to later, “...the company’s casino-style digital gaming products with Scientific Games and Microgaming continue to see significant global growth.” Honestly, I stopped researching Scientific Games' sports betting segment when I saw the word ‘omni-channel’. That told me all I needed to know about it’s success.
“Our SG Sports™ platform is an enhanced, omni-channel solution for online, self-service and retail fixed odds sports betting – from soccer to tennis, basketball, football, baseball, hockey, motor sports, racing and more.”
https://www.scientificgames.com/
https://www.microgaming.co.uk/
“This latter segment has become increasingly enticing for Playboy, and it said last week that it is considering new tie-ups that could include gaming operators like PointsBet and 888Holdings.”
https://calvinayre.com/2020/10/05/business/playboys-gaming-ops-could-get-a-boost-from-spac-purchase/
As per their SEC filing:
“Significant consumer engagement and spend with Playboy-branded gaming properties around the world, including with leading partners such as Microgaming, Scientific Games, and Caesar’s Entertainment, steers our investment in digital gaming, sports betting and other digital offerings to further support our commercial strategy to expand consumer spend with minimal marginal cost, and gain consumer data to inform go-to-market plans across categories.”
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgadata/1803914/000110465921005986/tm2034213-12_defm14a.htm#tMDAA1
They are expanding into more areas of gaming/gambling, working with international players in the digital gaming/gambling arena, and a Playboy sportsbook is on the horizon.
https://www.playboy.com/read/the-pleasure-of-playing-with-yourself-mobile-gaming-in-the-covid-era
Cannabis - If you’ve ever read through a Playboy magazine, you know they’ve had a positive relationship with cannabis for many years. As of September 2020, Playboy has made a major shift into the cannabis space. Too good to be true you say? Check their website. Playboy currently sells a range of CBD products. This is a good sign. Federal hemp products, which these most likely are, can be mailed across state lines and most importantly for a company like Playboy, can operate through a traditional banking institution. CBD products are usually the first step towards the cannabis space for large companies. Playboy didn’t make these products themselves meaning they are working with a processor in the cannabis industry. Another good sign for future expansion. What else do they have for sale? Pipes, grinders, ashtrays, rolling trays, joint holders. Hmm. Ok. So it looks like they want to sell some shit. They probably don’t have an active interest in cannabis right? Think again:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/javierhasse/2020/09/24/playboy-gets-serious-about-cannabis-law-reform-advocacy-with-new-partnership-grants/?sh=62f044a65cea
“Taking yet another step into the cannabis space, Playboy will be announcing later on Thursday (September, 2020) that it is launching a cannabis law reform and advocacy campaign in partnership with National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), Last Prisoner Project, Marijuana Policy Project, the Veterans Cannabis Project, and the Eaze Momentum Program.”
“According to information procured exclusively, the three-pronged campaign will focus on calling for federal legalization. The program also includes the creation of a mentorship plan, through which the Playboy Foundation will support entrepreneurs from groups that are underrepresented in the industry.” Remember that CEO Kohn from earlier? He wrote this recently:
https://medium.com/naked-open-letters-from-playboy/congress-must-pass-the-more-act-c867c35239ae
Seems like he really wants weed to be legal? Hmm wonder why? The writing's on the wall my friends. Playboy wants into the cannabis industry, they are making steps towards this end, and we have favorable conditions for legislative progress.
Don’t think branding your own cannabis line is profitable or worthwhile? Tell me why these 41 celebrity millionaires and billionaires are dummies. I’ll wait.
https://www.celebstoner.com/news/celebstoner-news/2019/07/12/top-celebrity-cannabis-brands/
Confirmation: I hear you. “This all seems pretty speculative. It would be wildly profitable if they pull this shift off. But how do we really know?” Watch this whole video:
https://finance.yahoo.com/video/playboy-ceo-telling-story-female-154907068.html
Man - this interview just gets my juices flowing. And highlights one of my favorite reasons for this play. They have so many different business avenues from which a catalyst could appear. I think paying attention, holding shares, and options on these staggered announcements over the next year is the way I am going to go about it. "There's definitely been a shift to direct-to-consumer," he (Kohn) said. "About 50 percent of our revenue today is direct-to-consumer, and that will continue to grow going forward.” “Kohn touted Playboy's portfolio of both digital and consumer products, with casino-style gaming, in particular, serving a crucial role under the company's new business model. Playboy also has its sights on the emerging cannabis market, from CBD products to marijuana products geared toward sexual health and pleasure.” "If THC does become legal in the United States, we have developed certain strains to enhance your sex life that we will launch," Kohn said. https://cheddar.com/media/playboy-goes-public-health-gaming-lifestyle-focus Oh? The CEO actually said it? Ok then. “We have developed certain strains…” They’re already working with growers on strains and genetics? Ok. There are several legal cannabis markets for those products right now, international and stateside. I expect Playboy licensed hemp and THC pre-rolls by EOY. Something like this: https://www.etsy.com/listing/842996758/10-playboy-pre-roll-tubes-limited?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=pre+roll+playboy&ref=sr_gallery-1-2&organic_search_click=1 Maintaining cannabis operations can be costly and a regulatory headache. Playboy’s licensing strategy allows them to pick successful, established partners and sidestep traditional barriers to entry. You know what I like about these new markets? They’re expanding. Worldwide. And they are going to be a bigger deal than they already are with or without Playboy. Who thinks weed and gambling are going away? Too many people like that stuff. These are easy markets. And Playboy is early enough to carve out their spot in each. Fuck it, read this too: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jimosman/2020/10/20/playboy-could-be-the-king-of-spacs-here-are-three-picks/?sh=2e13dcaa3e05
Numbers: You want numbers? I got numbers. As per the company’s most recent SEC filing:
“For the year ended December 31, 2019, and the nine months ended September 30, 2020, Playboy’s historical consolidated revenue was $78.1 million and $101.3 million, respectively, historical consolidated net income (loss) was $(23.6) million and $(4.8) million, respectively, and Adjusted EBITDA was $13.1 million and $21.8 million, respectively.”
“In the nine months ended September 30, 2020, Playboy’s Licensing segment contributed $44.2 million in revenue and $31.1 million in net income.”
“In the ninth months ended September 30, 2020, Playboy’s Direct-to-Consumer segment contributed $40.2 million in revenue and net income of $0.1 million.”
“In the nine months ended September 30, 2020, Playboy’s Digital Subscriptions and Content segment contributed $15.4 million in revenue and net income of $7.4 million.”
They are profitable across all three of their current business segments.
“Playboy’s return to the public markets presents a transformed, streamlined and high-growth business. The Company has over $400 million in cash flows contracted through 2029, sexual wellness products available for sale online and in over 10,000 major retail stores in the US, and a growing variety of clothing and branded lifestyle and digital gaming products.”
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgadata/1803914/000110465921005986/tm2034213-12_defm14a.htm#tSHCF
Growth: Playboy has massive growth in China and massive growth potential in India. “In China, where Playboy has spent more than 25 years building its business, our licensees have an enormous footprint of nearly 2,500 brick and mortar stores and 1,000 ecommerce stores selling high quality, Playboy-branded men’s casual wear, shoes/footwear, sleepwear, swimwear, formal suits, leather & non-leather goods, sweaters, active wear, and accessories. We have achieved significant growth in China licensing revenues over the past several years in partnership with strong licensees and high-quality manufacturers, and we are planning for increased growth through updates to our men’s fashion lines and expansion into adjacent categories in men’s skincare and grooming, sexual wellness, and women’s fashion, a category where recent launches have been well received.” The men’s market in China is about the same size as the entire population of the United States and European Union combined. Playboy is a leading brand in this market. They are expanding into the women’s market too. Did you know CBD toothpaste is huge in China? China loves CBD products and has hemp fields that dwarf those in the US. If Playboy expands their CBD line China it will be huge. Did you know the gambling money in Macau absolutely puts Las Vegas to shame? Technically, it's illegal on the mainland, but in reality, there is a lot of gambling going on in China. https://www.forbes.com/sites/javierhasse/2020/10/19/magic-johnson-and-uncle-buds-cbd-brand-enter-china-via-tmall-partnership/?sh=271776ca411e “In India, Playboy today has a presence through select apparel licensees and hospitality establishments. Consumer research suggests significant growth opportunities in the territory with Playboy’s brand and categories of focus.” “Playboy Enterprises has announced the expansion of its global consumer products business into India as part of a partnership with Jay Jay Iconic Brands, a leading fashion and lifestyle Company in India.” “The Indian market today is dominated by consumers under the age of 35, who represent more than 65 percent of the country’s total population and are driving India’s significant online shopping growth. The Playboy brand’s core values of playfulness and exploration resonate strongly with the expressed desires of today’s younger millennial consumers. For us, Playboy was the perfect fit.” “The Playboy international portfolio has been flourishing for more than 25 years in several South Asian markets such as China and Japan. In particular, it has strategically targeted the millennial and gen-Z audiences across categories such as apparel, footwear, home textiles, eyewear and watches.” https://www.licenseglobal.com/industry-news/playboy-expands-global-footprint-india It looks like they gave COVID the heisman in terms of net damage sustained: “Although Playboy has not suffered any material adverse consequences to date from the COVID-19 pandemic, the business has been impacted both negatively and positively. The remote working and stay-at-home orders resulted in the closure of the London Playboy Club and retail stores of Playboy’s licensees, decreasing licensing revenues in the second quarter, as well as causing supply chain disruption and less efficient product development thereby slowing the launch of new products. However, these negative impacts were offset by an increase in Yandy’s direct-to-consumer sales, which have benefited in part from overall increases in online retail sales so far during the pandemic.” Looks like the positives are long term (Yandy acquisition) and the negatives are temporary (stay-at-home orders).
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgadata/1803914/000110465921006093/tm213766-1_defa14a.htm
This speaks to their ability to maintain a financially solvent company throughout the transition phase to the aforementioned areas. They’d say some fancy shit like “expanded business model to encompass four key revenue streams: Sexual Wellness, Style & Apparel, Gaming & Lifestyle, and Beauty & Grooming.” I hear “we’re just biding our time with these trinkets until those dollar dollar bill y’all markets are fully up and running.” But the truth is these existing revenue streams are profitable, scalable, and rapidly expanding Playboy’s e-commerce segment around the world.
"Even in the face of COVID this year, we've been able to grow EBITDA over 100 percent and revenue over 68 percent, and I expect that to accelerate going into 2021," he said. “Playboy is accelerating its growth in company-owned and branded consumer products in attractive and expanding markets in which it has a proven history of brand affinity and consumer spend.”
Also in the SEC filing, the Time Frame:
“As we detailed in the definitive proxy statement, the SPAC stockholder meeting to vote on the transaction has been set for February 9th, and, subject to stockholder approval and satisfaction of the other closing conditions, we expect to complete the merger and begin trading on NASDAQ under ticker PLBY shortly thereafter,” concluded Kohn.
The Players: Suhail “The Whale” Rizvi (HMFIC), Ben “The Bridge” Kohn (CEO), “lil” Suying Liu & “Big” Dong Liu (Young-gun China gang). I encourage you to look these folks up. The real OG here is Suhail Rizvi. He’s from India originally and Chairman of the Board for the new PLBY company. He was an early investor in Twitter, Square, Facebook and others. His firm, Rizvi Traverse, currently invests in Instacart, Pinterest, Snapchat, Playboy, and SpaceX. Maybe you’ve heard of them. “Rizvi, who owns a sprawling three-home compound in Greenwich, Connecticut, and a 1.65-acre estate in Palm Beach, Florida, near Bill Gates and Michael Bloomberg, moved to Iowa Falls when he was five. His father was a professor of psychology at Iowa. Along with his older brother Ashraf, a hedge fund manager, Rizvi graduated from Wharton business school.” “Suhail Rizvi: the 47-year-old 'unsocial' social media baron: When Twitter goes public in the coming weeks (2013), one of the biggest winners will be a 47-year-old financier who guards his secrecy so zealously that he employs a person to take down his Wikipedia entry and scrub his photos from the internet. In IPO, Twitter seeks to be 'anti-FB'” “Prince Alwaleed bin Talal of Saudi Arabia looks like a big Twitter winner. So do the moneyed clients of Jamie Dimon. But as you’ve-got-to-be-joking wealth washed over Twitter on Thursday — a company that didn’t exist eight years ago was worth $31.7 billion after its first day on the stock market — the non-boldface name of the moment is Suhail R. Rizvi. Mr. Rizvi, 47, runs a private investment company that is the largest outside investor in Twitter with a 15.6 percent stake worth $3.8 billion at the end of trading on Thursday (November, 2013). Using a web of connections in the tech industry and in finance, as well as a hearty dose of good timing, he brought many prominent names in at the ground floor, including the Saudi prince and some of JPMorgan’s wealthiest clients.” https://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/08/technology/at-twitter-working-behind-the-scenes-toward-a-billion-dollar-payday.html Y’all like that Arab money? How about a dude that can call up Saudi Princes and convince them to spend? Funniest shit about I read about him: “Rizvi was able to buy only $100 million in Facebook shortly before its IPO, thus limiting his returns, according to people with knowledge of the matter.” Poor guy :(
He should be fine with the 16 million PLBY shares he's going to have though :)
Shuhail also has experience in the entertainment industry. He’s invested in companies like SESAC, ICM, and Summit Entertainment. He’s got Hollywood connections to blast this stuff post-merger. And he’s at least partially responsible for that whole Twilight thing. I’m team Edward btw.
I really like what Suhail has done so far. He’s lurked in the shadows while Kohn is consolidating the company, trimming the fat, making Playboy profitable, and aiming the ship at modern growing markets.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-twitter-ipo-rizvi-insight/insight-little-known-hollywood-investor-poised-to-score-with-twitter-ipo-idUSBRE9920VW20131003
Ben “The Bridge” Kohn is an interesting guy. He’s the connection between Rizvi Traverse and Playboy. He’s both CEO of Playboy and was previously Managing Partner at Rizvi Traverse. Ben seems to be the voice of the Playboy-Rizvi partnership, which makes sense with Suhail’s privacy concerns. Kohn said this:
“Today is a very big day for all of us at Playboy and for all our partners globally. I stepped into the CEO role at Playboy in 2017 because I saw the biggest opportunity of my career. Playboy is a brand and platform that could not be replicated today. It has massive global reach, with more than $3B of global consumer spend and products sold in over 180 countries. Our mission – to create a culture where all people can pursue pleasure – is rooted in our 67-year history and creates a clear focus for our business and role we play in people’s lives, providing them with the products, services and experiences that create a lifestyle of pleasure. We are taking this step into the public markets because the committed capital will enable us to accelerate our product development and go-to-market strategies and to more rapidly build our direct to consumer capabilities,” said Ben Kohn, CEO of Playboy.
“Playboy today is a highly profitable commerce business with a total addressable market projected in the trillions of dollars,” Mr. Kohn continued, “We are actively selling into the Sexual Wellness consumer category, projected to be approximately $400 billion in size by 2024, where our recently launched intimacy products have rolled out to more than 10,000 stores at major US retailers in the United States. Combined with our owned & operated ecommerce Sexual Wellness initiatives, the category will contribute more than 40% of our revenue this year. In our Apparel and Beauty categories, our collaborations with high-end fashion brands including Missguided and PacSun are projected to achieve over $50M in retail sales across the US and UK this year, our leading men’s apparel lines in China expanded to nearly 2500 brick and mortar stores and almost 1000 digital stores, and our new men’s and women’s fragrance line recently launched in Europe. In Gaming, our casino-style digital gaming products with Scientific Games and Microgaming continue to see significant global growth. Our product strategy is informed by years of consumer data as we actively expand from a purely licensing model into owning and operating key high-growth product lines focused on driving profitability and consumer lifetime value. We are thrilled about the future of Playboy. Our foundation has been set to drive further growth and margin, and with the committed capital from this transaction and our more than $180M in NOLs, we will take advantage of the opportunity in front of us, building to our goal of $100M of adjusted EBITDA in 2025.”
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20201001005404/en/Playboy-to-Become-a-Public-Company
Also, according to their Form 4s, “Big” Dong Liu and “lil” Suying Liu just loaded up with shares last week. These guys are brothers and seem like the Chinese market connection. They are only 32 & 35 years old. I don’t even know what that means, but it's provocative.
https://www.secform4.com/insider-trading/1832415.htm
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/mountain-crest-acquisition-corp-ii-002600994.html
Y’all like that China money?
“Mr. Liu has been the Chief Financial Officer of Dongguan Zhishang Photoelectric Technology Co., Ltd., a regional designer, manufacturer and distributor of LED lights serving commercial customers throughout Southern China since November 2016, at which time he led a syndicate of investments into the firm. Mr. Liu has since overseen the financials of Dongguan Zhishang as well as provided strategic guidance to its board of directors, advising on operational efficiency and cash flow performance. From March 2010 to October 2016, Mr. Liu was the Head of Finance at Feidiao Electrical Group Co., Ltd., a leading Chinese manufacturer of electrical outlets headquartered in Shanghai and with businesses in the greater China region as well as Europe.”
Dr. Suying Liu, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Mountain Crest Acquisition Corp., commented, “Playboy is a unique and compelling investment opportunity, with one of the world’s largest and most recognized brands, its proven consumer affinity and spend, and its enormous future growth potential in its four product segments and new and existing geographic regions. I am thrilled to be partnering with Ben and his exceptional team to bring his vision to fruition.”
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20201001005404/en/Playboy-to-Become-a-Public-Company
These guys are good. They have a proven track record of success across multiple industries. Connections and money run deep with all of these guys. I don’t think they’re in the game to lose.
I was going to write a couple more paragraphs about why you should have a look at this but really the best thing you can do is read this SEC filing from a couple days ago. It explains the situation in far better detail. Specifically, look to page 137 and read through their strategy. Also, look at their ownership percentages and compensation plans including the stock options and their prices. The financials look great, revenue is up 90% Q3, and it looks like a bright future.
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgadata/1803914/000110465921005986/tm2034213-12_defm14a.htm#tSHCF
I’m hesitant to attach this because his position seems short term, but I’m going to with a warning because he does hit on some good points (two are below his link) and he’s got a sizable position in this thing (500k+ on margin, I think). I don’t know this guy but he did look at the same publicly available info and make roughly the same prediction, albeit without the in depth gambling or cannabis mention. You can also search reddit for ‘MCAC’ and very few relevant results come up and none of them even come close to really looking at this thing.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gOvAd6lebs452hFlWWbxVjQ3VMsjGBkbJeXRwDwIJfM/edit?usp=sharing
“Also, before you people start making claims that Playboy is a “boomer” company, STOP RIGHT THERE. This is not a good argument. Simply put. The only thing that matters is Playboy’s name recognition, not their archaic business model which doesn’t even exist anymore as they have completely repurposed their business.”
“Imagine not buying $MCAC at a 400M valuation lol. Streetwear department is worth 1B alone imo.”
Considering the ridiculous Chinese growth as a lifestyle brand, he’s not wrong.
Current Cultural Significance and Meme Value: A year ago I wouldn’t have included this section but the events from the last several weeks (even going back to tsla) have proven that a company’s ability to meme and/or gain social network popularity can have an effect. Tik-tok, Snapchat, Twitch, Reddit, Youtube, Facebook, Twitter. They all have Playboy stuff on them. Kids in middle and highschool know what Playboy is but will likely never see or touch one of the magazines in person. They’ll have a Playboy hoodie though. Crazy huh? A lot like GME, PLBY would hugely benefit from meme-value stock interest to drive engagement towards their new business model while also building strategic coffers. This interest may not directly and/or significantly move the stock price but can generate significant interest from larger players who will.
Bull Case: The year is 2025. Playboy is now the world leader pleasure brand. They began by offering Playboy licensed gaming products, including gambling products, direct to consumers through existing names. By 2022, demand has skyrocketed and Playboy has designed and released their own gambling platforms. In 2025, they are also a leading cannabis brand in the United States and Canada with proprietary strains and products geared towards sexual wellness. Cannabis was legalized in the US in 2023 when President Biden got glaucoma but had success with cannabis treatment. He personally pushes for cannabis legalization as he steps out of office after his first term. Playboy has also grown their brand in China and India to multi-billion per year markets. The stock goes up from 11ish to 100ish and everyone makes big gains buying somewhere along the way.
Bear Case: The United States does a complete 180 on marijuana and gambling. President Biden overdoses on marijuana in the Lincoln bedroom when his FDs go tits up and he loses a ton of money in his sports book app after the Fighting Blue Hens narrowly lose the National Championship to Bama. Playboy is unable to expand their cannabis and gambling brands but still does well with their worldwide lifestyle brand. They gain and lose some interest in China and India but the markets are too large to ignore them completely. The stock goes up from 11ish to 13ish and everyone makes 15-20% gains.
TL;DR: Successful technology/e-commerce investment firm took over Playboy to turn it into a porn, online gambling/gaming, sports book, cannabis company, worldwide lifestyle brand that promotes sexual wellness, vetern access, women-ownership, minority-ownership, and “pleasure for all”. Does a successful online team reinventing an antiquated physical copy giant sound familiar? No options yet, shares only for now. $11.38 per share at time of writing. My guess? $20 by the end of February. $50 by EOY. This is not financial advice. I am not qualified to give financial advice. I’m just sayin’ I would personally use a Playboy sports book app while smoking a Playboy strain specific joint and it would be cool if they did that. Do your own research. You’d probably want to start here:
WARNING - POTENTIALLY NSFW - SEXY MODELS AHEAD - no actual nudity though
https://s26.q4cdn.com/895475556/files/doc_presentations/Playboy-Craig-Hallum-Conference-Investor-Presentation-11_17_20-compressed.pdf
Or here:
https://www.mcacquisition.com/investor-relations/default.aspx
Jimmy Chill: “Get into any SPAC at $10 or $11 and you are going to make money.”
STL;DR: Buy MCAC. MCAC > PLBY couple weeks. Rocketship. Moon.
Position: 5000 shares. I will buy short, medium, and long-dated calls once available.

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If you wish to stay at some nice casino hotels in Georgia, visit the Georgia casino hotels page. We actually have 0 Georgia hotels you can book directly from World Casino Directory. Click here to see a list of all Georgia hotels available. There is poker in Georgia! You will find over 6 live poker tables to play at. You don’t have to worry about being charged for being on one of these types of cruises. Anyone with enough capital to buy a cruise ship, fill it with slot machines and gaming tables, and staff it properly can offer to gamble in international waters. You can tell there are no other casinos so there is no motivation to make people feel welcomed at all. If you wish to gamble go somewhere else. This was my third time going and the second since they re-opened, it will be my last. - Laws1973. Great place. Harrah's Cherokee Hotel. In most states you have to be either 18 or 21 to gamble for real money.Today there are 22 states where 18-year olds can legally gamble and 35 which only allow 21+. If you’re not familiar with these, a casino cruise leaves shore for international waters, which is outside U.S. and state gaming law regulations. The cruises only last for a few hours, and because you’re outside the jurisdiction of United States and Georgia law, you only have to be 18 years old to gamble on these floating casinos. Using online sports betting, you can gamble from the comfort of your home and enjoy some of your favorite sports at the same time. To begin with, online betting is a great way to bet on your favorite sports. If you enjoy watching a game like college football, you can place a bet on the spread or on an outcome such as who’s going to win at halftime. Is Gambling Legal In Ga it comes to making a deposit and playing your favorite real money games. It is still not illegal for players to gamble online, but depending on where you live it may be difficult to find a lot of available options. Some Is Gambling Legal In Ga individual states have passed online Is Gambling Legal In Ga Minimum Age to Gamble in United States of America Below you will find the minimum legal age to gamble in various locations around the U.S., Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. In the 50 American states, some times you'll see a variance, this usually is due to Indian casinos having different age requirements in their casinos than state regulated casinos. The explanation that seems most acceptable to Gamblers Anonymous members is that compulsive gambling is an illness, progressive in its nature, which can never be cured, but can be arrested. Before coming to Gamblers Anonymous, many compulsive gamblers thought of themselves as morally weak, or at times just plain 'no good'. Right now, you can gamble online in the US in a select number of states where online gambling has been made legal. The types of online gambling that are legal in the US include casino games, online poker, online lottery and online sports betting. See the next question for details on exactly where and how you can gamble online in the United States.

US Gambling Ages by State » Minimum Age to Visit Casinos

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