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sole-cuore-amore-e-droga · 3 years

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Croatia brings no men in a hamster wheel to Rotterdam 2021

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Now could this be the teddy bear uprising invasion Muse has warned us about 12 years ago?

And LITERALLY, these review series make me feel like Croatia is openly taunting me - I watch the days go, I’m losing track of time, and when another day comes, I’m screaming “oh no I forgot to publish a review sooner than wanted!!”. Guess I’m for one glad there’s a time related song this year, hum?

ARTIST & ENTRY INFO

Repping the Adriatic coast nation that got all the sea instead of Bosnia & Herzegovina is some 22 year old Albina Grčić, who first popped up on X Factor Adria back when that was a thing, and got lumped into a girlgroup in later stages, but to that she said “hvala ne” and moved on with her life, getting eliminated just like that. Queen <3 She did get her second chance to compete as a soloist and make a more prominent mark on her career when she ended up on The Voice in Croatia. She did well, placing third overall in the season, but somehow, during the duel stage, her coach initially favoured her fellow Dora 2021 contestant Filip Rudan:

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Her Voice success landed her a record deal with the Croatian division of Universal Music, she released a debut single, sometime later ended up on Dora, and here she is now, on Eurovision.

“Tick-Tock” is the song, a standard upbeat pop song, and one of the ones that talks about a girl leaving a terrible relationship and being so well over it that she “found [her]self and [she’s] finally free”, and the “tick-tock” here is used to represent the time passing by, not the sound of her heart, unlike a fellow ESC entry of a similar title. The tune (or its lyrics only) is co-authored by some dude you might’ve heard of from France’s 2018 preselection Destination Eurovision, and that is Max Cinnamon - some half-English guy with a half English song about love (”Ailleurs”) that did moderately averagely in the final... I don’t even know if his influence shows, I just love how 2021 has sort of become revenge of the NF flops but they’re writing other entries instead (Suzi P, “Adrenalina”).

REVIEW

I often don’t really fully vibe with female bops in Eurovision as much as I want to, like, for the most part they’re overhyped, and I let the “yass queeeeen” audience gorge on the everything their favourite bops give them. But this year there are plenty of great ones to choose from, as I think that it’s safe to say that most, if not all, are tucked in somewhere inside my top 20, top 25 at the very minimum. Croatia managed to even do the impossible and land into my top 10.

Why?

Well, the answer is that the song is just so damn good.

I mean, what’s NOT to like about it? It’s a catchy and upbeat song that incorporates xylophones (or whatever is it that sounds like them), guitars and synths; has a good bassline in the chorus; and it’s just... a very good composition overall, like, all the instruments in it are just in their right place and uplift the song massively. I also like Albina’s performance on it, both live and studio, it clearly shows that she’s a very good singer (also shown on her cover of the scandalous Oscar award snubbery “Husavik”). Sounds like a song a common pop loving Eurofan could gear themselves towards. Besides, it also has possibly my favourite pre-chorus section of the 2021 year? Oh wait, there’s also Switzerland, scratch that. “Tick-Tock” has one of my favourite pre-chorus sections of 2021. It builds up so well instrumentally and the way Albina sings it is even better. I obviously like to believe Albina heard those voices from far away that helped her to escape, has found herself, and she’s finally free from her “partner’s” bad lovin’ and restraint. Yas queen go be free you didn’t deserve his tomfoolery anyway! 👏 (Also I admire a section that’s not quite the pre-chorus but is still before the 1st chorus, the one that goes “If you pull me down then I'll come around” - literally just a lot of the parts of the song are full of nice vocal performance and I don’t regret ranking this in my top 10 not a second.)

If it has any drawbacks, it’s just that it gets a tad too repetitive after the halfway mark... like, the pre-chorus before the second chorus is the one to be repeated once again, and no new verse, nothing - but it does launch itself into something extraordinary, and that is a chorus in Croatian, which I assume she would perform in Eurovision because there’s no Eurovision version on the song promo bundle, I suppose. Comparatively the Croatian chorus is not as complex in lyrics as the English language one, and flows slightly differently too. But the song still has a long chorus by the end, and song with too many choruses is never a good sign for those that look for a song that’s constructed well, but I guess it’s a good factor for those that value the song’s catchiness. I guess that’s what one of the two Eurovision 2005 hosts valued the most when writing the Ukrainian 2006 entry “Show Me Your Love”, which if you ask me, is straight up 75% chorus, lol.

So yeah my verdict is that almost everything about this song, I like. I’m just a little devastated that in a usually very easily gorged on category of female bops, this just tends to lag behind in love, like a fellow song I really like this year, Israel. Instead people tend to prioritize Cyprus (which I get because they’ve established themselves as a girlbanger nation since Fuego swept Eurovision) and... probably even Azerbaijan? (which I might also get because Eurovision rarely has this thing called an ethnobop anymore, and it has more ethno than “Cleopatra” did, but still unnecessarily underwhelming lol.) Well then, in a year of female bangers, I would just like Croatia to not be swept under the rug come semis I guess. Yeah “Tick-Tock” may not sound like it brings something totally never seen before in a Eurovision environment (foreign language lyrics, themes about a break up, hell even her dancers looked like they were wearing the same hats as Tamta’s dancers), but you got to have a lot in you to sell a worn out idea to the new heights, and Albina does exactly that in my eyes.

Approval factor: Yeah! There is a lot of it in here for me. Follow-up factor: A great follow-up, not so great in regards to panini but musically it’s just going up and up from what we had in the past few years. I’ve actually not minded “The Dream” for the most part but I knew it was a chanceless plodding ballad and Roko harboured heaps of wasted potential working with Jacques Houdek and having wings as part of his performance, uff. *_* And then there’s “Divlji vjetre” which I also like a lot - a much better male ballad winner choice! If the Dora re-up winners keep being decent imo just like this, I have a feeling I will follow it a lot more often than I did just this one time this year. I am just saying that panini-wise, it was a sucky move from HRT for not allowing their last year’s winner promote his new song with Tijana (from Serbia 2017) on the Dora night, so we sadly only heard a pre-recorded opening version of “Divlji vjetre” to start off with :( Otherwise I think it’s not Dora’s fault in itself that Damir himself chose not to even submit an entry this year because he hadn’t found a good one - much like with Diodato for Sanremo (he was NOT rejected, if you think he still was, shush). But aside that, musically, it just keeps going up for me. Well done Croatia, for you’ve used to be a Eurovision country I don’t necessarily care about, that you brought two pretty damn good entries in a row. Qualification factor: I can absolutely trust in Albina bringing in a little bit of her charisma and well-likedness, and on top of that, a great vocal performance, in Rotterdam. Don’t ask me why, I just do. She doesn’t really perform her song live on pre-parties as much as I’d like to hope she would, but you heard girlie on the national selection, she didn’t win for nothing. Yeah yeah there might as well be female uptempo songs hungrier for the last spot, but I’d like to think Albina is one of the ones ready to devour than to be devoured. Go girl! Take us all dancing!

NF CORNER

To be honest with you, “Tick-Tock” winning Dora caught me by surprise. Ever since its re-up, the last two editions were kind of won by male ballads, and maaaaybe the dancey females were doing moderately well enough for themselves, but not overall? But look, juries were very keen on Albina, probably because she can SANG and she creates one hell of a fancy presence on her performance. And somehow she ended up snatching a win out of the hands of 5G conspiracy theorist 2016 representative Nina Kraljić, who was at first too drunk to care, but too unexpectedly sober to yell all over the soc. media how she was robbed and how the contest was rigged against her with her being on first and all that. Which is a shame that she is one of THOSE people, because her NF entry “Rijeka” is kinda nice? We did have the Balkan-esque ballads coming from Croatia in recent memory, but we haven’t had a truly proudly folksy one at that from Croatia for a long while, if not ever. Nina could’ve very well brought that to Rotterdam (and another mismatched wardrobe choice oops). But instead she was the one screaming “oh no, oh no, oh no”.

Actually I regarded Nina as one of my faves pre-show, and Albina was on her way, though she didn’t really cement the personal fav status until after all performances, thus making Nina and Albina switch spots for me. But truly, the one song that was my top favourite, iiiiiiiiiiis

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GIMME AN OCEAN! OF LOVE!

2021 made me realize that damn, maybe anything that’s funky is my favourite music genre afterall. Up until then I vibed with entries like “Tonight Again” and “What’s the Pressure?” that had this sort of energetic flair and very rhythmic kinda sound to it, but 2021 just simply cemented it to me that my music world has probably been about nice and smooth and funky all along. I owe so much gratitude to ToMa first and foremost along the lines of more to have come in this year’s lineups - I just can’t not want to dance to “Ocean of Love”, and ToMa is quite alright at selling it live as well. There are small gripes with some instrument usages but that doesn’t detract from the fact that I love love LOVE funky guitar tunes.

Aside from that, I can give shout outs to Beta Sudar, whose song not only was underrated, but also had an underrated meme format throughout its performance:

My other props go to Bernarda, who not only competed in a national selection singing a song about seeing “Colors” while blind (and ironically there was a song called “Blind” in that same NF sung by a well-seeing guy!!), but also for finally putting this every country’s reject to rest. Seriously. That particular song was passed on to everyone in need of a competitive Eurovision bop, from Poli Genova to Helena Paparizou as of recently. Oh well, at least the song died a honourable death - well performed slice of good typical Eurovision pop (maybe even overperformed a little towards the end), that got a good rank with the regional juries, but somewhat murdered in televote, fellow Boris Milanov composition “Chameleon” style.

This one Mia Negovetić chick was promising too! Her song was written by the Debs and you might be tired of them trying to continue infiltrating Eurovision at this point, but a lot of their Eurovision songs are usually something I enjoy, “She’s Like a Dream” is no exception. Nothing but 3 minutes of pastel-dressed Croatian Ariana Grande doing what she does best <3

Oh and also some dudes tried to play chess on stage too I guess. But their song is not worth looking into, because one of the acts on it is apparently also a conspiracist, and maybe because oft this their entry is aptly titled “Sing, for the freedom has arrived!” lol I wonder what exactly is the kind of freedom you’re thinking of my guy

Was this the “better mood game” Laura was warning everyone about? Beats me

NF CORNER (NON-COMPETITIVE)

• It’s still hilarious to me as to how one of the acts this year, Brigita Vuco, was planning to bring in backing dancers, only for them to show a fake COVID test or something and outright BARRED from coming with her on stage. <3 Whatever she intended to do with them dancers, I have absolutely no idea, but at least she committed to her song being about drunken nights visually by having all these blurry shots

• Nina Kraljić’s greenroom shenanigans, from the “1-2-3, 1-2-3, drink” to numb the sadness over some results (and the 8 she got from the region Rijeka for the song “Rijeka” lmao), to whatever she saw on the phone that made her smile or go neutral

• Greenroom reactions in general. I swear, this year had cameramen in every single corner everywhere just to make sure something covers up for a human audience instead of severals of Zoom screens permitted to act as an audience. Random people in greenrooms were doing some sort of emotions after random acts, and also randomly they ended up pointing a camera towards an act that lost, but the act didn’t treat losing as if it were such a big deal <3

• All the other memes the Croatian Twitter might’ve noticed me for:

seriously Bernarda was locked in a bluelight mathematical dice contraption. how fucking cool is that

ANY LAST WORDS?

I just fucking hope that Albina shatters any doubts that people have had about her song come rehearsals, and somehow Croatia AND Israel slip through, because never too many female bangers I appreciate in the final, if they all are the bangers I appreciate, lol.

#eurovision #eurovision 2021 #rotterdam 2021 reviews #croatia #Albina Grčić #albina #tick-tock

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eurovosion · 5 years

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some thoughts on this year’s entries

or i guess just a ranking with comments tacked on

albania - this year’s nf season was a let down for me, partly because a lot of the winning songs weren’t the best on offer, and partly because albania picked first and nothing could live up to it. i love the depth this has, the dark, almost tribal vibes, and most of all i love how they didn’t fuck up the revamp like they usually do. if this is staged correctly, i think this could do really well. 10/10

greece - i feel like this has been overlooked in the wider fandom, which is odd because greek entries are usually pretty polarising, for better or for worse. regardless, i really like this. it’s atmospheric, powerful as hell, and katerine is more than capable of nailing it live. don’t count greece out just yet! 9.5/10

portugal - festival da canção was easily the best nf this year and the portuguese public picked wisely. telemóveis is such an intriguing song with a really curious sound, so traditional yet so modern at the same time. i’m not 100% on the staging, but they have time to figure it out. 9.5/10

spain - la venda wasn’t the song i was rooting for in the selection (rip todo bien, never forgotten) but i’m fully on board with it now. this works so well with a big audience, and you just know that the crowd will be on his side. if this doesn’t go top 10 at the very least i’ll be stunned. 9/10

cyprus - this is just as instant as fuego for me. not sure if tamta will do as well as eleni, but the cypriot delegation has definitely found their winning formula. 9/10

malta - malta is not fucking around this year. this is a verified banger, and their best entry in years, perhaps their best ever. take as many youtube ads as you want, michela, you deserve them. 8.5/10

azerbaijan - without a doubt, azerbaijan is back with a vengeance. you can tell they’re determined to set the record straight and prove that last year was just a blip, because this is great and hopefully the live performance reflects that. 8.5/10

denmark - i really should hate this, but i can’t. it’s so innocent and cheerily optimistic in a way that i can only be jealous of whilst humming along to the chorus. this deserves to do well. 8/10

italy - it took me a little while to warm up to soldi, but once i finally got there i really started to appreciate it. i don’t think it’s a winner, but it’s a very good song, and in the end that’s all that matters. 8/10

san marino - yes, serhat is in my top 10, and what of it? you only wish your fave could write a song in ten minutes and have it go off like this. and yes, if he doesn’t qualify you’ll catch me openly sobbing in the streets for weeks. 8/10

switzerland - an unabashed bop with some actual choreography, but lacking lyrically. then again, so was fuego and that popped off live. he’s also working with the same stage director as eleni, which can only be good news for him. 7.5/10

the netherlands - don’t get me wrong, it’s a very polished song and i’m sure duncan’s great but like... is that it? this is the big fan favourite? i’m very whelmed. 7.5/10

armenia - i was expecting something like yete karogh es from srbuk, so this came completely out of left field in the best way possible. i thought we’d lost our token edgy pop song when ukraine dropped out, but armenia saved us at the last minute. the only thing i’m worried about are her vocals, because, from what i’ve seen, she isn’t the most confident performer. 7/10

serbia - another respectable but ultimately pretty safe pick from serbia this year. nevena has a really strong voice and she sells the song well, so i think she’ll avoid another moje 3 style placement. 7/10

germany - first of all, aly ryan was robbed. secondly, thank god the surprise song didn’t win. thirdly, this is alright. nothing spectacular, but it’s cute and the spinning stage was a great stylistic choice. 7/10

latvia - thank you latvia for letting this win and rejecting markus riva’s basic ass for the sixth year in a row WHEW i really love the whole atmosphere that surrounds this. barring a miracle, however, i don’t think it’ll qualify, but it’s still a good attempt. 6.5/10

sweden - i don’t think it’s john’s most solid composition, but it’s a decent entry nevertheless and it’s nice to see sweden picking an entry that isn’t generic pop again. 6.5/10

united kingdom - my only faint glimmer of national pride so far this year is that we managed to pick the only good song from the flaming garbage pile that was our nf. yeah, the lyrics are redundant and it’s a ballad by numbers, but michael gives it his all and it really pays off. 6.5/10

ireland - this will absolutely not do well but who cares, it’s fun and harmless. super chill and easy to listen, and i think sarah’s a big eurovision fan already which is nice. also i’d just like to take this opportunity to thank her for ditching the ylva and linda song she originally applied with. 6.5/10

iceland - hm. this is one where you need to listen a few times to get a full impression of what the fuck you’re hearing/seeing. i really did not like this when i first heard it alongside all the other söngvakeppnin songs (and most of them sucked lbr), but now i’m kind of ambivalent towards it. i still don’t like the screaming or the key change, but it’s something different and i can admire that. 6/10

slovenia - fine, but forgettable. she has a nice voice, but there’s a distinct lack of stage presence from the two of them and i fear that this might get lost in the semi final. 6/10

israel - i’m conflicted here. i definitely don’t think home is as bad as the fan polls and reviews imply, but it’s not great either. a verse or two in hebrew would have really elevated this and i’m a little baffled as to why the writers didn’t include even a little bit considering the contest is on home turf this year. still, kobi’s a very convincing performer and israel probably didn’t want to win again anyway. 6/10

poland - this is an odd one, which isn’t a bad thing at all in a year full of safe entries. not sure if using the bilingual version was the best shout, but it’s clearly still very polish and i’m glad to hear that they’ll be wearing the traditional clothing on stage in tel aviv. 6/10

czech republic - the chorus absolutely slaps, and if i was judging by music alone this’d probably be in my top ten. unfortunately, though, the rest of the song exists. the lyrics are truly abysmal, with some of the lines ending awkwardly and without proper rhymes where they’re needed, and the spoken-word section is genuinely unbearable. 5.5/10

austria - i honestly don’t know where to place this one. very underwhelming when it was first released, but now i feel like there’s potential here. most of austria’s recent entries have been very under the radar only to end up doing quite well. i’m not as optimistic about this as some of those, but only time will tell. 5.5/10

hungary - not a patch on his previous entry, but pleasant enough. he’s a good performer and unless the staging really sucks, he’ll do fine. 5.5/10

north macedonia - it’s a nice ballad? i guess? and, unlike a lot of their recent entrants, tamara is an established singer who we all know can sing live. there are also rumours that the delegation has been planning the performance for a while, so who knows, perhaps this’ll qualify. 5/10

georgia - this has been growing on me lately. the song itself is a bit of a bust, although the revamp helped, but oto really brings it to life on stage. even if you don’t understand what he’s saying, you can tell by the emotion in his voice that he really means it. 5/10

russia - the nightmare dream team hasn’t produced a good song in over a decade at this point, this included. kirkorov needs to quit fooling himself and let someone else have a go. 4.5/10

belgium - belgium’s had quite the glow up since 2014, but i fear they’ve gone for style over substance this year. wake up is very polished, but it doesn’t go anywhere and eliot’s live performances haven’t been convincing as of yet. 4/10

lithuania - i don’t know what was more shocking, him winning the selection or me finding out that he was lolita zero’s real voice in 2017. this isn’t awful, just very repetitive and strangely put together. 3.5/10

norway - sue me, i don’t like this. the bald guy feels out of place and out of tune, it sounds like it was written by a child, and oh my god it’s so unbearably cheap. 3/10

estonia - eesti laul was such a let down this year. usually there’s a good mix of mainstream and alternative genres, but the new producer doesn’t seem to give a shit about variety, which is a real shame. anyway, victor’s performance is slick, but he can barely sing and the song itself is nothing to write home about. 3/10

romania - when this was first selected i didn’t mind it, probably because i just really didn’t want laura bretan to win, but as the season drags on i’ve really soured to it. it feels like it lasts for a minute longer than it actually does, and the whole ay-ay-ay part was not a good choice. 2.5/10

australia - as someone who was a big fan of estonia last year, this is honestly the furthest thing from that. it comes across as quite cheap (even without the questionable staging), and the chorus really grates on me. 2.5/10

belarus - i didn’t watch the entirety of the belarusian auditions for them to reject the potato monks in favour of lidl’s own brand zara larsson. 2/10

france - this is why delegations should be wary of selecting social media stars for their national selections. yes, they might get the viewing figures up a little, but they’ll probably win and the song will be Bad. i respect his message, but holy shit is this hamfisted as hell. 1/10

finland - if anyone was wondering how darude only ever had one hit two decades ago, here is your answer. 1/10

moldova - they really don’t want to qualify this year, huh. could’ve had ca adriano celentano, but nope. basic tune, painfully simple lyrics, but i guess her voice is nice enough 1/10

croatia - this... is awful. upsettingly so. at least jacques’ last entry had a novelty factor, but he’s doomed this poor kid to failure. 0.5/10

montenegro - i have absolutely nothing positive to say here. honest to god one of the worst songs i’ve ever heard, and no amount of clumsily shoehorned in folk instrumentation was ever going to save this. i can only pray that they’re spending their preparation time wisely and taking singing lessons, but considering that they probably blew half the budget on the music video, it’s unlikely. 0/10

as for potential winners, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

a lot of the big fan favourites don’t have a winning vibe about them, so we might be in for a shock this year. please let it be albania or greece

also feel free to drop me an ask if you want to chat about last year’s entries since i kind of ditched tumblr for a year or two lmao

#god that's a straight up wall of text i'm sorry #i tried to format it as best i could i promise #but i am Very rusty #eurovision

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gameingnow · 3 years

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Civilization IV review

Sometimes I care about those who are older than me. Because they have a word that is chewing gum in their mouth: "Aah ahh! I can't find the taste of my Commodore 64 or Amiga in new games,” he said. I've never had a Commodore, or an Amiga. Although I've played a few games, such as Sensible Soccer. Of course, it was an incredible pleasure at the time to get together with friends and play Sensible (I was, like, 10 at the time). My introduction to games occurred in 1996-1997. Of course, the first machine I bought was a PC. I had a floppy disk at the time. Every day I'd almost go there, pick out the ones I liked out of the thousands of games that were filed, give them my empty floppy disks and have them installed. They usually didn't hold me up for more than 5-10 minutes, but it was a hope and a big thrill for me to get the game from there. I don't like phrases with the word “history” in them, just like I don't like history class. It's always been repulsive and boring. A lot of research can be because it is a topic that needs to be studied. I'm usually a lazy and easygoing person, so I want to get something right away. That's why I get tired of historical strategy games. and because of this prejudice, I haven't played “Age of Empires III”yet. But when it's called “Civilization,” the water stops flowing. If we go to the history of the Civilization series in 1991, I can say that I didn't even know how to read or write. My introduction to the game was with Civilization II. At my age, I never enjoyed the game. I didn't understand anything that would happen because I couldn't solve the game or just started learning English. The first Sid Meier game I really played was Civilization III. Uncle Sid had turned the strategy, which I didn't like very much, into a “management strategy” in itself, instead of sleight of hand and rote buildings, soldiers. I think the game was extremely difficult. At least for a person who didn't know the game, it could become boring very quickly. Although I was bored at first, I became addicted to the game when I started to solve the game a little bit and develop strategies. And I start my article with a slight nostalgia and a mention of Sid Meier. Sid Meier.. For Sid Meier, we can't call him “the best game programmer in the world.” We've never needed a state-of-the-art computer to play a game made with a 3d engine that he wrote. His strategy for the game is : “keep the game fast and fluid, don't reduce the fun.”. Sid Meier's plays are games worth wasting time on, even for people who are irrelevant to the subject. If you've played one of the Civilization games, we owe it to Bill Stealey as much as Sid Meier. In the early 1980s, Sid and Bill, a former soldier and pilot, play a combat aircraft simulation. Sid constantly scores higher than Bill. Because artificial intelligence is so weak, Sid can predict how the opposite plane will react to all the movements, and on top of that, he says, “I can do better!” der. Bill and Sid set up”MicroProse “and released his first game,”Solo Flight", in 1984. In 1987, he released “Pirates!"and in 1990,” Railroad Tycoon" announced the name Sid Meier to the world. And “Civilization”, released in 1991, is a pioneer of the turn-based strategy genre. (1991) Civilization I... The Legend is born... It all started with a 2.6 MB DOS game. The game was not originally intended as turn-based strategy (STS). It was originally planned as a game in the style of” SimCity“, but later Sid Meier's genius came into play and” Civilization " was born. M.He. In the Year 3000, the story begins, and throughout history, people were struggling to dominate the world. We could use our armies as a force, reveal everything we have to achieve diplomatic superiority with other countries, and as we developed our technology, we could even send a spaceship to Alpha Centauri, showing them off. Of course, in doing so, we were trying to make our nation happy, taking care not to cause internal riots. At the same time, we managed our economy and could create world wonders (Pyramids, United Nations, etc.). (1997) Civilization II... More details... we had a chance to fight our friends. M.He. In 4000, when we started with only one settler (City Builder), we began to explore when we had no knowledge of our surroundings. Next to wild animals and barbarians, we were again fighting other races. We could make deals with the races we interviewed, even form a military alliance. Of course, we were trying to make our people happy again, and we were also trying to be a scientifically developed race. There were also different forms of Management in the game. Despotism, monarchy, fundamentalism, Republic, Communism and democracy. Of course, each form of management had different effects and returns. For example, communism made our republican people happy while maximizing our labor force. Sid Meier also presented short but impressive videos when we built the wonders of the world. (2001) Civilization III... No longer a legend... Civilization III was a game where artificial intelligence went through the roof. Events that developed if you no longer wanted to force you into some agreements, almost testing your intelligence. Trade routes, Natural Resources had become even more important. Now the “great people” of the era were born in our cities. It's kind of a lottery, like 20.century.it's like a lottery in Turkey. Another factor that increased the realism of the game is that we no longer had to bring them to the path of a stone stick to defeat my enemies. With our culture and technology, we could bring them on track. Of course, race numbers and our buildings also increased. No doubt Civilization III was the high point of in-Game artificial intelligence for that time. And year 2005... Civilization IV... Civilization is one of the most successful games in the history of the game. Aside from being a pioneer of the turn-based strategy genre, he has also pioneered many different genres with artificial intelligence. The sequel to the Civilization series, which sold 6 million copies worldwide, should also be worthy of Fame. The higher the expectations, the harder it is to please the players. "I wonder if Sid Meier can handle this burden."I think the answer to his question was obvious from the start, but I have to admit that it was a better answer than I expected. I can safely say that Sid Meier, instead of marketing his game using the name of old games, as some game makers do, has introduced a new game in its own right by jumping back to the top. Civilization IV is ready to experience a game experience and pleasure that you have never experienced before. Uncle Sid, what is this??... The first thing that caught my attention when I first entered the game was the episode “Tutorial”. Although I said I had experience in the game, it would be a shame not to go into this section. As we enter the Tutorial section, we are greeted by a surprise: Sid Meier himself. Sid Meier is the one who taught us the game. This section teaches us how to play the simplest game, build a city, build our buildings and our army, and cultural and scientific developments. According to the official website of the game, the game's interface is designed for action lovers to learn more quickly and easily from RTS'ciler (real-time strategy) and those new to the series. Another thing taught in the Tutorial is the conditions for winning the game. We don't have to attack them with a stick to defeat our enemy. You are able to sub them with 6 ways: Diplomatic Victory: by making ourselves strong friends, we can become the most powerful state in the world. Finally, we achieve a peaceful victory by establishing the United Nations. Domination Victory (with spread): another peaceful method is to expand our world population and borders. If 70% of the world's surface and 25% of the world's population belong to our race, the victory is ours. Cultural Victory: if 3 of our cities have a legendary culture (this costs 50000 cultural points), we get a cultural victory. Space Victory: this form of victory can also be called technological victory. If we can develop technologically faster than other countries and be the country that sends the first spacecraft to Alpha Centauri, we will achieve technological victory. Conquest Victory: if we capture other countries on earth and become the only state, we achieve military victory. Score Victory: if no state can reach one of the above victory paths by 2050, the state with the highest score becomes the winner of the game. And races... Before I start talking about the game, I want to talk about races. In the game, there are 18 races in which there are no Turks or Ottomans. 18 races have 25 leaders in total. Each leader has his own bonuses. American leaders, for example, were indeed very advantageous in the industrial age, while the Aztecs seemed very technological in the early ages. The races in the game are as follows: the Americas, Aztecs, Greeks, Japanese, Persians, Arabs, Chinese, Egyptians, British, French, Germans, Incas, Indians, Malians, Mongols, Romans, Russians and Spaniards. Civil or civil... One of the biggest innovations in the game is the camera system, which I think is flawless. Now we can browse our 3d world any way we want. As a bird's eye view, as in Civilization I, if we want, as isometrically as in Civilization II, and if we want, we can go down to the city level and see our city up close. You can zoom in and out of the city map and switch between these cameras and enjoy your game in any way you want. The biggest feature that distinguishes Civilization IV from other Civs is certainly the graphics. The game is now livelier than ever. Rivers, resources, environment are fully animated and our map is now fully 3d. In addition, in our 3d map, we can see the buildings we have built in our city on our map. For example, we can see the wonders of the world that we have built directly through the Home screen. Another news that will please those who follow the series closely: if you miss the videos of the wonders of the world in the Civil, you will get them again in the Civil. There are about 70 videos in the game. Resources are natural... It's very important where we build our cities. Each floor has its own returns. For example, a city built on a hill is very easy to defend, while a city built on the water's edge is healthy and happy. Building a city near natural resources can make you rich in the future. Of course, natural resources can be opened as time progresses. For example, while uranium was useless at one time bc, it may be your biggest source of income in the future. The most important resources change with time. For example, in the early ages, iron and copper were important, while resources such as oil and uranium can be very important to you as time progresses. In our cities, boring events like the old civilisations are now reduced. Constantly in trouble, riots, pollution, etc. instead, our city has a level of happiness. In unhappy cities, production and income are falling. In order to increase the happiness of our city, we need to bring natural resources to that city. For example, a city established by the water's edge and opened to natural resources will certainly not cause you problems. To develop your city, you must build military, cultural and technological buildings. Military buildings increase your city's defenses and troop production, while technological buildings can bring you extra income. Cultural buildings, on the other hand, make your people happy, as well as expand the boundaries of your city. When your city's culture score is 10, 100, 1000 and 10000, the boundaries of your city expand. If the cultural level of your city is 50000, your city (legendary) becomes a great cultural city. I'm amazing, falalaaaa... As I said at the beginning of the article, Civilization IV is a new game in itself. New military units have been added, and in addition, the game has been given the chance to develop these characters. As our military units gain experience, the class jumps, and every time the class jumps, we are given the chance to choose a new feature. These features give your soldier extra power, bonus strike power on some floors, defensive power on some floors, extra strike power against some other military forces. Some features, on the other hand, can offer more special abilities, such as attacking the city, using enemy paths. In the old Civ games there were only 4 levels of soldiers: concscript, regular, veteran and elite. In Civilization IV, you can develop your soldiers the way you want with more than 40 options. The game also has great people (great person), as in Civilization III. The chances of these people getting out in your city are related to the cultural level of your city. For example, every wonder of the world you do to your city increases the likelihood that there will be a great person in your city. Great people can seriously affect the development and progress of your country. Great people are classified as follows: artist, architect, seer (more like clergyman), engineer and scientist. Great people can bring very special things to your country. For example, a seer can build special buildings in a religiously sacred city, or he can offer you free technology and move you ahead of the era, if you want, he can add cultural points to your city. By sacrificing 2 or 3 great people, you can bring your race into a golden age. In this way, your production and income increase. Of course, you have to sacrifice this wonderful person in doing so. Another remedy is to include a great person in your city and constantly earn cultural points and extra income from it. My dear people... The way you manage your people can also have a lot of influence on the game. Just as every form of management has returns, of course, some have “lump sums.” For example, you can make your people slaves, of course, even if your production increases, your people will not be very happy. Your administration is grouped under 5 main headings: administrative, official, labor, economy and religion. Among them, you are free to create the combination you want. Several administrations are as follows: environmentalism, slavery, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, patriotism, conscription, etc. Happy holiday, George... Now we can choose the religions of our races. Of course, in order for our race to choose a religion, it must first discover a religion. As technology expands our tree, new religions are coming before us. As religions spread to our city, our city's happiness and production increase. The religions in the play are: Buddhism, Christianity, Judaism, Confucianism, Taoism, Islam and Hinduism. Religions are spreading around the world from the holy cities where they were first found. You can raise missionaries from your cities and send them to other cities to spread your religion faster. And as your religion spreads, your chances of great people increase. Religions can influence your city in several ways. For example, thanks to religions, you can build mosques, monasteries, cathedrals in your city. These buildings have a direct impact on your technological development and the happiness of your city. Or you can enter into good relations with another race in the same religion as you, or invite them to your own religion. Cook it yourself, eat it yourself... In civilization, you will now be able to customize your game to the smallest detail, or even make your own Civ game if you have a little coding knowledge. There are 4 ways to do this. The easiest is “World Builder”in the game. With World Builder, you can design maps for yourself or to play with your friends over the internet. Another way to customize the game is to play with the XML files of the game. If you want, you can change the parameters of the game using Notepad or XML compiler. A third way is more difficult. By playing with the game's “phyton” decodes, you can change the game's map creator, events in the game, or even its interface. If you have coding knowledge, there is the fourth and most informative method. With the Civilization IV SDK (software developers kit), the game's artificial intelligence, game rules, etc. you can change everything. Multiplayer... Although it has always been available, Civilization games have not been the standout multiplayer game. But they intend to change that this year. Apart from the Standard Online Game methods, we will also be able to play Civiv via email. In this way, we will develop strategies against Real intelligence instead of artificial intelligence. In addition, with the newly added team game (Team play), we will be allies throughout the game. That way we can even have world wars. States that form an alliance will share all kinds of information with each other. Field of view, Technologies, military forces, borders, and even the gains of World Wonders will be shared for friendly races. Let's finish... The biggest feature that distinguishes Civilization IV from other games in the series is its improved graphics. Fully 3D designed world map, cities, wonders, soldiers, rivers, mountains, etc. it's proof that the game has really improved when it all comes together. Also, the world in the game is a fully living world. Flowing rivers, choppy seas, movement of troops, the appearance of the city is impressive, at least for a strategy game. In addition, the graphics vary according to the height and angle of the camera. For example, when you look at the camera from a bird's eye view, you can see the clouds passing under you, hear their voice, or you can easily see the rivers and seas flowing as you approach the Earth. City graphics are also improved. Now we can easily see the buildings in our city from our home screen. The sounds of the game are very successful. ” Ethnic-vein " menu music puts you in the mood as if you have jumped out of history. In addition, the sound changes depending on the height of the camera in the game. For example, if your camera is high, you can hear the sound of the airflow, or as you approach sea level, you can hear the sound of water, the sound of animals. In addition, each race makes its own unique sounds, speaks using its own language. Of course, as you can imagine, the crucial point of the game is its playability. Every game in the series takes a long time to learn, most people would get tired of the game after a while. In civiv, you can learn much easier. Especially the” Tutorial " part is very useful for beginners or those who forget the series. Now we can give most orders from the Home screen, not from the complex city screen. Whether you're a fan of the Civilization series or have never played it, not playing this game is a loss for a solid player. At least take the Civii in your hand, play it first, and then the Civii. And see the development. Civilization IV is a game that is recommended to everyone. Happy Holidays to you all... gameingnow.com Read the full article

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eurosong · 7 years

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My grand final review

Hey there, folks! It’s exhilaratingly close to the big moment, the beginning of this year’s grand final! Here's my rundown of the Eurovision grand final songs, in running order. I call this a "lights and shadows" list, as, for the sake of nuance, I've added something positive and some criticism for every song on the list. For those who missed it, this is the semi-skimmed version of this full-bodied critique of all the songs. Let's go!

Israel + If the hosts' robotic intro has put people to sleep, this will wake them up. - The lyrics make less sense than your average Edward Lear poëm. Rank: 24

Poland + Kasia has a good voice and sings with passion and conviction. - The song is an absolute dirge with no real sense of direction, and those rhymes are ridic. Rank: 17

Belarus: + Instant cute happiness, this is just so squeeeee - They could have fit another verse in to make the song less repetitive. Rank: 3

Austria: + He put a lót of work into promoting himself and his song, which is admirable. His covers of former ESC songs made him seem like a fan of the contest, which puts you in good steed with fellow fans. I think he got in the final by sheer force of personality. - Saccharine, plim-plom song. Those "hey naaaww" repetitions annoy the hell out of me! And I always mistrust someone so perma-cheerful. It comes across as forced, not quite right and makes me feel he's got human heads in his fridge at home. Rank: 21

Armenia: + Majestic. This song soars like the eagle of Artsvik's name. This kind of song is precisely why I love Armenia, a perfect mélange of traditional and modern that sounds like nothing else in the contest. Artsvik herself has got a special, almost regal poise. Feels like this song dropped out of outer space, love it. - She could have made it even better by including more dancers to closer emulate the surreal video. Rank: 4

Netherlands: + Their live vocals are impeccable. And as for the song topic, losing a beloved relative after seeing them battle a disease something, unfortunately, to which so many of us can relate, so it does pull on my heartstrings. - If they were a less popular country amongst eurofans, would folk consider the girls to be using their mother's sickness for sympathy rather than sympathising with them? My internal jury is out on that one. As for the music, it is derivative and dated - their voices deserve something a few decades closer to "contemporary." Rank: 8

Moldova + They perform this song with verve and do their best to bring the party. - This band's continued success goes to show how far getting adopted as a meme by confused American non-viewers of Eurovision can get you in the competition. Rank: 15

Hungary + Perhaps the contest's best example of how one can use dance to make the story of a song understood beyond linguistic boundaries. One of the most original songs in the contest, performed with passion, emotion and defiance, and certainly some of the strongest lyrics. - Many folk have an automatic dislike to rap at the contest and may get the wrong idea of his bars, seeing them as angry rather than as the deep and moving lyrics that they are. Rank: 2

Italy + Francesco embodies easy-going charm, and his satirical lyrics are amongst the contest's best. - The Eurovision version of the song has much less impact than the San Remo one; it slipped down by rankings because most of those biting and ironic lyrics were removed, leaving only half a verse where there had been two. Rank: 7

Denmark + What Anja does very well indeed is connecting with the audience. It's a song about intimacy, so the number of long close ups communicate that well - it feels as though she's singing right in front of us. - Musically generic, and the aforementioned intimacy is undermined by vox that are beyond the border of shouty. Rank: 13

Portugal + Magnificently moving, ethereal song that has the timeless quality of an instant classic. Sang beautifully in a way that shows nuance trumps power. I never thought a song from this decade's ESC could challenge to be my favourite ever Eurovision song, but this does. - Whilst his interpretation of the song through movement is a key part of its appeal to me, it distracts some folks. My own biggest problem is that I'd rather see Salvador (and Luísa) up on the stage for hours rather than three minutes. Rank: 1

Azerbaijan + Best Azeri entry ever. Something genuinely stylish, mysterious and modern. - The staging seems a bit "GCSE Drama" and gimmicky. Rank: 9

Croatia + It's impressive to be able to sing a duet with yourself in two completely different vocal styles. It's bloody hilarious, too. - This is the ultimate example of the saying: just because you cán, doesn't mean you shóúld. This is more cheese than a tower made of Camembert and his fake smiles are creepy. Rank: 14

Australia + As a piece of music, I quite like the style. With another singer, I might well enjoy this a fair bit. - He sings as though his nose has never been blown, and his forlorn looks to the camera that seem like that of a puppy dog who fears he's going to end up served in a dish of bosintang seem fake and are very disconcerting. Rank: 18

Greece + Only lasts three minutes. Demy must be a generous soul, given the way she allows the backing vocalists to sing more audibly than she. - It takes me about 20 minutes to walk from my home to my workplace or vice versa. In that time, I reckon I could write 4-5 songs of higher quality than this. Utterly generic and disposable pop with lyrics which are just a stream of thought-terminating clichés. Rank: 26

Spain + The song has brought me hours of amusement, because my kids have made a game of making mocking references to it whenever they can. Before a pronunciation face-to-face challenge, one lad psyched another out by saying "are you ready to do it... for your lover?" - Wasted money voting on other songs only for a jury of the "winner's" friends to overrule the public vote. So that they could force this masterpiece in which "do it for your lover" or "just do it" is said, on average, every four seconds. Grim. Rank: 25

Norway + I listened to the acoustic version of this and they sing it well, and it sounds much better acoustic. They seem like nice lads. - Cold, soulless, robotic, and with silly rhyming dictionary lyrics. Rank: 18

UK + The BBC has finally upped its game and tried to create an impressive show. Well done. - Shame the song itself is part sleeping pill, part excruciatingly annoying. "This maaadnnesss..." Rank: 23

Cyprus + For us linguaphiles and/or Armenophiles, there was a great moment in a video where Hovig and Artsvik spoke at the same time, he in Western Armenian, she in Eastern Armenian. That was cool. - Pales in comparison to Rag and Bone Man's "Human" from which the music was ripped off without mercy. Also, physicists across Europe are weeping as Hoving considers gravity to be something that lifts you up ánd halts your fall. Rank: 22

Romania + The second dose of "adorable couple" tonight. This shouldn't work, this unholy blend of rap and yodel, but for me, it so does. Mostly on how happy they are and how that transfers to me in the audience. They're just full on adorable. And you know, as much as it's great that Eurovision has a great many serious acts, I love that something so wild and just plain carefree can get so far too. There's a really good message of living for the moment in this, too. - Ilinca's vocals are powerhouse; Alex' are more underwhelming and that might see them penalised by the juries. Rank: 6

Germany + When she was in the final of that ridiculous national final, duelling against herself, it seems obvious Levina wanted the other, marginally less terribad Wildfire, and felt lumbered by the public's pick of Perfect Life. Despite that, she's done a great job of wholeheartedly promoting the song and has travelled far and wide. I respect the work ethic. She had by far and away the best vocals of the national final, too (shame she got this song which doesn't play to her strengths.) - Usually, I cannot look past the ripped-off Titanium intro. When I can, the lyrics blow my mind in the worst possible. Almost a sinner, nearly a saint, people... Rank: 16

Ukraine + I love a good rock song. This is not so great, but is like a mirage in a desert - giving sóme hope of refreshment, even if it ultimately doesn't deliver. - Runs out of steam after the first minute and becomes a bit of a sludge after a few repeated listens. Rank: 12

Belgium + Absolutely spellbinding studio version. 50-60 years ahead of last year's throwback from Belgium. Minimalist and moving. I hold out hope in a really good final performance. - Poor Blanche has looked as though someone was molesting her dead pet dog in front of her during the semi final. More traumatised than vulnerable. Rank: 5

Sweden + The music, whilst nothing special, is quite catchy. Especially the instrumental parts with the synth-based flourishes. - I find it hard to look past the ugly and forceful "rapey rhyme" style lyrics, or the cringeworthy stage show aptly and succintly referred to by a friend of mine as "fuckboys on treadmills." Rank: 20

Bulgaria + Polished and contemporary song, sung with confidence. - As anything other than background music, it leaves me cold. I really find the performer to be highly offputting, too. Rank: 11

France + Not as good or half as charming as Amir and his song, but not a bad effort. Very French, which from me can only be a compliment. - Feels quite inconsequential after they removed the most meaningful lines and replaced them with a cliché English chorus. Rank: 10

My pre-final top 10, thus: 1 - 🇵🇹 - Portugal 2 - 🇭🇺️ - Hungary 3 - 🇧🇾️ - Belarus 4 - 🇦🇲️ - Armenia 5 - 🇧🇪 - Belgium 6 - 🇷🇴️ - Romania 7 - 🇮🇹️ - Italy 8 - 🇳🇱️ - Netherlands 9 - 🇦🇿 ️- Azerbaijan X - 🇨🇵 - France

#eurovision #esc 2017 #eurovision 2017 #eurovision song contest #review

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placetobenation · 5 years

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SmackDown on Fox Episode #2 SmackDown Episode # 1,051 Las Vegas, NV – T-Mobile Arena 10/11/19 Before I get into the review for the show I just want to say how happy I was to finally see something that I wrote actually published on a website that is highly visited. I have always wanted to share my takes on pro wrestling with the public and whether they agree or disagree with my opinions is irrelevant because them just taking the time to read what I wrote is enough for me. I want to thank Andy Atherton, JT Rozzerro, Scott Criscuolo, and the rest of the Place to Be Nation staff for allowing me this platform to share my thoughts once a week on this awesome website. As the show opens we immediately go to our first match of the night which will set the tone for the rest of the show which will be centered around night 1 of the WWE Draft. Roman Reigns vs Seth Rollins – Winner’s brand gets the first draft pick There is a fist bump between the Shield buddies before they lock up. Rollins gets control with a headlock until Reigns pushes him off and takes Rollins down with a shoulder block. They lock up again and now the aggression is starting to build up as they struggle into the corner before the referee breaks them apart. Reigns charges at Rollins which ends up unsuccessful as Rollins sidesteps him and throws him out of the ring and then hits a wrecking ball dropkick through the ropes to stun Reigns. Rollins goes for a suicide dive, but Reigns sees it coming and delivers a forearm shot as Rollins sticks his head through the ropes. Reigns goes for the Drive-By but Rollins moves causing Reigns to land on the apron, Rollins goes for a slingshot foot stomp but Reigns moves in time. Rollins goes for a flying knee off the apron but once again Reigns is able to move out of the way. Rollins is pissed now as he slides back in the ring and goes nose to nose with his best friend, Reigns shoves Rollins and then we get an exchange of strikes which Rollins looks to be winning until Reigns takes him down with a jumping clothesline and then tosses Rollins over the top rope to the outside as we go to commercial. We come back from commercial to Reigns working his way out of a headlock. Both men attempt to lift the other for a vertical suplex and just as Reigns gets Rollins up he gets kneed in the head and then Rollins attempts a Curb Stomp, but Reigns evades it and tries for a roll-up that gets 2 and then transitions into a sit-out powerbomb for another 2 count. Reigns goes for the Superman Punch but Rollins catches him and sends him face-first into the turnbuckle. Rollins clotheslines Reigns over the top and this time is able to hit two suicide dives to the outside before rolling Reigns back in and connecting with a springboard knee which he immediately follows up with a big frog splash that only gets a 2 count much to Rollins surprise. Rollins once again tries for the Curb Stomp but Reigns is able to avoid it and deliver an uppercut, Rollins delivers an enziguri which stuns Reigns momentarily before he delivers another uppercut which Rollins answers with a kick and then he hits Reigns with a Buckle Bomb after struggling a bit to get him up for it. Reigns no-sells the Buckle Bomb as he explodes out of the corner with a Superman Punch for a 2 count. Both men are slow to get up but Reigns is on his feet first and he goes to hit the Spear, but Rollins catches him in mid-air and slams him to the mat (I believe was supposed to be a Pedigree, but Rollins didn’t have Reigns arms hooked) and surprisingly Reigns is still able to get a shoulder up at 2. Rollins goes over to the corner and it seems that he wants to put Reigns away with a Curb Stomp, but before he gets a chance the lights go out as The Fiend has made his arrival. The Fiend pops up through a hole in the ring and lock the Mandible Claw on Rollins before pulling him down into the ring momentarily before Rollins is able to escape from the hole and then The Fiend plays peek a boo as he sticks his head out of the hole and then right back down before the lights go out again and then we see that The Fiend has made his way to the top of the ramp and is looking back at the ring. It would be announced after the commercial break that Rollins won that match via disqualification which means Raw gets the first pick in tonight’s draft.

Winner: Roman Reigns via DQ Match Rating: ***1/4 This was a great way to open the show as these two put on one hell of a match it’s just a shame we didn’t get a clear winner, but that’s what happens when you book a match between two guys that have to be kept strong so the best solution would’ve been not to have these face each other. I have no clue how Michael Cole can say that the match was a disqualification win for Reigns when the referee never actually rang the bell thus the decision should’ve been a no-contest over a DQ. I wish WWE could find a new trick for their scary characters other than popping out from under the ring as that spot is so old and doesn’t have the same shock factor that it did back in the 90s. We come back from break and take a look inside the Fox war room where the Fox “executives” are strategizing about who to pick in the draft since Raw will get the first pick. We will go back and forth to the Fox and USA war rooms throughout the night and to be honest this was a waste of the 15-20 seconds they used to show these as it brought nothing to the show and it was painfully obvious these people were the furthest thing from actual executives as I believe one had face paint on and in the Fox war room they had the giant Fox sports robot. These war room shots made what was a cool concept of having the networks battling each other into a complete joke. We then go over the rules of the draft with the new twists this year of there only being certain superstars eligible on each night and any undrafted superstars are free agents and have the right to choose which brand they show up on. Stephanie McMahon makes her way to the top of the ramp as she will be making the draft announcements on behalf of Fox and USA. The draft picks for this first round are: Becky Lynch (Raw Women’s Champion) to Raw Roman Reigns to SmackDown The OC (AJ Styles (US Champion), Karl Anderson & Luke Gallows) to Raw Bray Wyatt to SmackDown Drew McIntyre to Raw In the first round, I was surprised to see Becky stay on Raw as she has been all over the advertisements for the move to Fox and you would think they would want their top female superstar on the show that they want to be the A brand. I was also really shocked to see Bray go to SmackDown as I thought he was a sure-fire lock for Raw so he and Heyman could work together on the character to make it really great, perhaps this was a personal request from Fox as I’m sure they had some say as to who was on their network’s show. We cut to a shot of Renee Young, Booker T, Beth Phoenix, & Samoa Joe who we will go to a few times during the show for their takes on some of the draft picks. Nothing much of substance for this first round other than Samoa Joe making a joke that was a bit of a dig at Jon Moxley as he said that he is happy Renee Young is keeping the lights on at her family’s house. King Corbin makes his way to the ring for the next match and on his way, he cuts a promo that was a generic “I’m king and you all are below me” promo that generates some easy but mild heat from the Vegas crowd. We come back from commercial and cut to a video of Troy Aikman and Joe Buck who talk about nothing that has to do with what is happening tonight and instead discusses when Aikman got drafted to the Cowboys in the number one spot and then talk about piledrivers. There would be several of these Fox sports announcers spots talking about something draft related, but none of them were really relevant to what was happening on this night so I will skip over these just to save time. They show footage from previous bouts between Corbin and Gable including when Gable beat Corbin at Hell in a Cell but was attacked backstage later that night. Match #2: King Corbin vs Chad Gable Gable runs at Corbin but Corbin grabs him and throws him into the corner and then delivers a corner clothesline followed by a biel that sends Gable out of the ring. Corbin sends Gable into the barricade and then looks to send him face-first into the ring post, but Gable slides out the back and pushes Corbin face-first into the ring post. Corbin rolls back in the ring and Gable takes him down with a chop block and then goes to work on the leg of the King. Corbin rakes the eyes to momentarily get back in control until Gable hits a nice looking arm drag but then Corbin flattens Gable with a big boot which gets him a 2 count. Corbin plays to the crowd and turns his attention away from Gable, he tries to clothesline Gable in the corner again but this time Gable moves so Corbin slides under the bottom rope and tries to come back in but is hit with a baseball slide Gable tries to get some momentum on the outside but Corbin cuts him off and sends him over the top of the announce table. Gable tries for an ax handle off the announce table but Corbin catches him and chokeslams him onto the announce table as we go to break. Back from commercial and Corbin has Gable up on the top rope looking for a back suplex but Gable rolls off the back of Corbin and goes to the ropes but is caught in the Deep Six, however Gable is able to bulldog out of it. Gable hits a couple of rolling capo kick and then goes for a third but Corbin rolls to the outside, so Gable hits him with a running dropkick that sends Corbin into the timekeeper’s area. Gable rolls Corbin back in the ring and hits a diving moonsault that only gets a 2 count. Gable goes for the Chaos Theory but Corbin hangs onto the top rope and then he lifts Gable into the air and hits some kind of move that I’ve never seen before that causes Gable to spin to the mat and that gets Corbin a 2 count. Corbin goes for the End of Days but Gable flips out of it and then slides under the legs of Corbin which allows him to hit the Chaos Theory, but that only gets a 2 count. Gable hits a deadlift German suplex and goes for a second but his back gives out, Corbin tries for his chokeslam backbreaker but Gable turns it into a roll-up for 2. Gable immediately transitions into an Ankle Lock which Corbin looks to kick out of but Gable turns that into a roll-up for 2 and then Gable gets to his feet and turns right into the End of Days that gets the job done for Corbin. Winner: King Corbin via Pinfall Match Rating: **1/4 First off I refuse to call Chad Gable by the name Shorty as it completely dumb and juvenile to pick on someone because of their height, the fact that a joke about Corbin changing Gable’s name to Shorty is something that has now become apart of Gable’s gimmick is dumb and I hope this feud ends after this draft. With that being said I do enjoy the matches between Gable and Corbin as they always find a way to get the crowd into by the end. It may not be a stretch to say that Gable has been the one to bring the best out of Corbin in the ring. Stephanie is back out to the stage to announce the draft picks for the second round and here they are: Randy Orton to Raw Sasha Banks to SmackDown Ricochet to Raw Braun Strowman to SmackDown Bobby Lashley to Raw Not much of a shocker here as these picks make sense and are pretty much the same moves I would make. We go back to our draft discussion panel and again nothing to really note other than I feel Joe is the star of these panels as he gives the best insight into the most recent draft picks. We cut to a video package highlighting the Braun Strowman vs Tyson Fury feud before going to commercial. We are back from commercial and see the video package for the Brock Lesnar and Cain Velasquez feud. Lesnar and Heyman make their way to the ring. Heyman talks about how Lesnar fears to have to relive the defeat that he took at the hands of Cain Velazquez and that Brock has never made an excuse about losing to Velasquez because that is how good Velasquez is. Heyman says that Lesnar will embrace and conquer his fear of Cain Velasquez at Crown Jewel. Rey Mysterio and Cain Velasquez come out and show still pics of the fight between Lesnar and Velasquez at UFC 121, Velasquez says he will beat Lesnar once again and this time he will leave a scar on the other side of his face. As expected really great work by Heyman to sell the match, however the Mysterio and Velasquez part of this wasn’t as great as it feels like Velasquez keeps forgetting his lines which is expected when you give someone a script to remember who isn’t used to having to remember words to cut a promo. This was ok but nothing too special, but what is special was what I saw of Cain Velasquez in the few clips I watched from his matches down in AAA as he was busting out moves you would never expect from someone from his size or experience level. Just seeing those few clips gives me hope that he is going to succeed in the WWE, he just needs to get better at cutting promos. We see The New Day getting ready to come out for their match. Before the match, we get a segment where The New Day present women’s titles to a breast cancer survivor and her twin sister whom they claim is a co-survivor even though she didn’t even have cancer, so that was a bit strange. I honestly couldn’t concentrate on this segment because I was pretty pissed that Kofi is over there just smiling and as happy as can be after losing the title in 5 seconds last week, I get them having to be uplifting and positive for this cancer segment but they really should’ve had someone else do this segment or at least maybe wait and do it next week, it just didn’t need to be the week right after Kofi lost his title. Match #3: The New Day vs The OC Gallows and Woods start the match and right off the bat Gallows takes Woods down with a big boot and then knocks Kofi off the apron, while Gallows is doing that Styles and Anderson attack Woods on the outside as we go to break. Back from the break and both Anderson and Woods are down on the mat before they both make hot tags. Kofi comes in with a springboard clothesline to Styles as he is a house of fire. Kofi hits the Boom Drop on Styles and sets up for the Trouble in Paradise but Gallows provides a brief distraction, but it barely bothers Kofi as he goes up top and hits a crossbody on Styles for a 2 count before Anderson breaks the over. Big E hits a belly to belly on Anderson only to turn around into a big kick from Gallows. Woods hits a rope-assisted tornado DDT on Gallows before hitting a tope con Hilo onto Styles and Anderson. Styles goes for the Phenomenal Forearm but Kofi moves out of the way and tries to hit the SOS on Styles, but Styles counters and tries for a Styles Clash but Kofi gets out of it and hits Styles with a dropkick sending Styles into the ropes. Styles tries for the Calf Crusher but Kofi blocks it, Styles looks for the Ushigoroshi but Kofi lands on his feet and is able to hit a Trouble in Paradise out of nowhere to get the win. Winner: The New Day via Pinfall Match Rating: **1/2 This was a fun match but it was way too short and Big E barely got any time to shine, if they gave these 6 men some time to put on a match they could tear the house down. This match was made to get Kofi a win after his title loss last week and was fine for what it was, but I still wish Kofi wasn’t so damn happy about losing his title.

Stephanie is back at the podium and it’s time for round 3: Alexa Bliss to Raw Lacey Evans to SmackDown Kevin Owens to Raw The Revival (SmackDown Tag Team Champions) to SmackDown Natalya to Raw It’s about time that Alexa was drafted not sure why it took until the 11th pick for her to get drafted lol. I was actually surprised she went to Raw as I feel they would want her on the A show since she is probably the fifth most popular female after the Horsewomen and I feel she has a look and personality that appeals a lot more to the mainstream fanbase that is going to be watching on Fox. The rest of the picks in this round were pretty predictable other than KO who I could’ve easily seen going to either brand. We cut to the back and see Charlotte stretching for her upcoming main event match against Bayley as we go to commercial. It’s announced that Becky Lynch will face Sasha Banks on Raw for the right to pick the first draft pick of that night. We go back up to Stephanie for our 4th and final round of the evening and those picks went as follows: Viking Raiders to Raw Lucha House Party to SmackDown Nikki Cross to Raw Heavy Machinery to SmackDown Street Profits to Raw If Raw was gonna end up drafting both Alexa and Nikki Cross anyway why didn’t they just pick them as a team and then they would’ve been able to pick someone else in the spot where they drafted Nikki. Hopefully, now that the Street Profits are drafted to Raw officially they can start having matches on Raw and not just narrating the show as that has gotten old really quick. We get some quick final thoughts from the panel on tonight’s draft picks with Booker putting over Ricochet.

Charlotte makes her way to the ring as we go to commercial. Back from the break and Bayley makes her entrance, but she is wearing a hoodie for some reason. Bayley stops at the top of the ramp and reveals she has a new haircut and no longer has the side ponytail. Bayley starts to back up as it looks like she doesn’t want this match, however, she goes over and grabs a long pointy stick thing and then she proceeds to murder the Bayley Buddies as she rips them apart with the pointy stick. Bayley has officially gone full heel and children around the world are in tears. Match #4: Charlotte (c) vs Bayley (SmackDown Women’s Championship) Bayley goes right after Charlotte as soon as she enters the ring, they trade slaps and punches in the corner until Charlotte is able to hit a neckbreaker out of the corner as Bayley rolls to the outside. Charlotte sends Bayley into the barricade and then throws her over the barricade on the other side. Bayley makes a comeback slamming Charlotte to the floor by her hair and then slams her head against the steel steps. We go to our final commercial of the night.

We come back from the break with Bayley in control as she has Charlotte in a side headlock. Bayley chokes Charlotte across the middle rope and then kicks the rope before covering her for a 2 count. Bayley goes back to the side headlock for a while until Charlotte pushes her off into the corner, but Bayley is able to recover quickly and get out to the apron where she tries to hit her signature stunner across the middle rope spot, but Charlotte pushes her off the apron to the floor.

Charlotte dives out onto Bayley with a Pescado to the floor. Charlotte rolls Bayley back into the ring and lights up Bayley’s chest with a series of chops. Charlotte his her snap fall away slam and charges at Bayley in the corner with a forearm despite Bayley trying to block it. Charlotte starts to work on the leg of Bayley before Bayley rolls out to the apron where Charlotte delivers a big boot sending Bayley to the floor. At this point, we can see that Charlotte got busted open somehow. Charlotte climbs on top of the barricade and jumps off with a moonsault to Bayley, but this only gets Charlotte a 2 count.

Bayley makes a comeback and tries to go for the leg of Charlotte but it gets blocked and then Charlotte tries for a backslide on Bayley, but Bayley kicks off the turnbuckle and flips over Charlotte and then delivers a Bayley to Belly that surprisingly only gets a 2 count. Bayley does a lot of arguing with the referee to play off her having a temper tantrum last week. Bayley charges at Charlotte but is caught with a backbreaker and then Charlotte sends Bayley face-first into the turnbuckle. Charlotte goes for another moonsault off the top but Bayley gets her knees up which Charlotte is able to see coming and she grabs Bayley and locks her in a Boston crab. Charlotte is trying to reposition Bayley so she can’t get to the ropes and in doing so allows Bayley to kick off and send Charlotte into the corner. Bayley attempts another pin this time she uses the ropes for leverage but this only gets a 2 count.

Bayley hits a back suplex on Charlotte and then hits her with a running knee strike in the corner, Bayley goes up and hits the top rope elbow for yet another near fall. At this point, Bayley is nearly having a temper tantrum on the level of Christian back in 2002. The temper tantrum takes her focus of Charlotte and Charlotte uses this to hit Bayley with the Natural Selection which gets a 2 count for Charlotte. Charlotte goes to lock in Figure Eight, but Bayley catches her in a small package and this is enough to get the win and we have a new SmackDown Women’s Champion. Winner: Bayley via Pinfall Match Rating: ***1/2 I thought this was a really good match as you would expect any time any of the Horsewomen are in the ring together. I thought it did a good job of putting over the new heelish side of Bayley as she was more aggressive in this match and did whatever it took to come out as the champion. Bayley goes over and grabs her title and does a victory lap around the ring, while this is happening it sounds like Bayley has new music that seems like a very generic theme. Bayley gets the mic and says something about bitches but the audio didn’t catch the entire thing, but then she says screw you to the fans as SmackDown ends with Bayley walking up the ramp. I thought this was a really good episode of SmackDown that had some really good in-ring action that was bookended by two great matches. I think the draft was fine although there were some questionable choices of why certain people went where they did, I’m gonna see where things go before I praise or criticize too harshly these picks. I thought the only miss on this show was the whole war room concept that was clearly not authentic as well as the videos with the Fox sports broadcasters as none of those added anything to the show and took off seconds that could’ve been given to the matches. I’m interested to see who goes where and where the free agents that were in the SmackDown draft pool end up.

#IFTTT #Place to Be Nation

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candyciangaming · 6 years

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Convention Review: 8-Bit Coference

https://8bitconference.com/

I had the pleasure of attending my first video game convention this weekend, and I'm happy to report it was a fantastic experience from start to finish.

8-Bit Gaming Conference took place on the 28th and 29th of July 2018 at Griffith College, Dublin. This is the second year of the conference and the organizers should give themselves a pat on the back for a job well done. I only managed to get to the Saturday event, but I soaked up enough throughout the day to come back satisfied, but it left me wanting more!

8-Bit is the brainchild of Graeme Moore, and with the help from dedicated volunteers and the staff of Griffith College, the event went extremely smoothly and was great fun for all ages. On site were security personnel, a fire marshal, along with first aid attendants. The event was backed by a multitude of sponsors, such as AllCast Irish Gamers, The National Computer & Video Game Museum, The R.A.G.E, Four Star Pizza, The Guild of Nerds and Republic of Gaming, to name but a few. The entire list can be found on the events Facebook page (link at bottom). Many of these partners set up as vendors or donated to the conference in one way or another. 8-Bit conference 2018 was in aid of Inner City Helping Homeless.

General admission started at 10am, but early entry was granted to people with special needs at 9am, and there was also a quiet room on-site for people who needed it. Beanbag chairs were kindly donated by the crowd at Beanbags.ie.

My first trip in (after a coffee in Arthurs Cafe), was to the room set up by the National Computer and Video Game Museum. The room was filled with arcade machines supplied by Mini Arcade Systems, and the Museum had a choice selection of video game memorabilia and retro video games. I was more than over the moon to see boxed copies of Final Fantasy IV, Super Mario 3, and Sonic The Hedgehog.

Mini Arcade Systems supply a retro bartop console arcade, complete with tonnes of old 8 and 16bit titles. I had a go playing the original Shinobi game, which was an absolute blast. I would have stayed longer, but I knew I'd never get to leave.

The next room was a mixture of retro consoles, featuring a Dreamcast, Playstation1, SNES, and more. It was like a trip through time. Most impressive of all was a Gameboy hooked up to a massive LCD TV. Playing Tetris in HD never felt so good. The Gameboy was also modified to be used with an SNES controller. It definitely made for a great gaming experience. Super Smash Bro's was also on the go on GameCube, along with House of The Dead on Dreamcast.

Unfortunately, the PS1 didn't feel like working which was a let down. I'm a huge Playstation fan and it was a shame this particular Playstation wasn't working. There were other Playstations on-site, but it's a shame how one faulty system managed to make it's way through.

After a quick go of Street Fighter II on the SNES, I went upstairs to the main conference room. As I ascended, I was greeted by some familiar 8-Bit music playing through a PA system, along with a huge Mario Kart flag draped around the stairway.

When I entered the main room, I didn't know where to look first, it was my idea of heaven. Game Vendors as far as the eye could see. People gaming, people dressed up in Cosplay, and it was only 11am at this point.

After doing a lap of the floor, I seen a few familiar faces. The Guild of Nerds were hosting a Cosplay competition later on in the day, and had prints of different Cosplayers for sale. The Irish Chapter of the 501st Star Wars club were out in Force (pun definitely intended), and the RAGE (Record Art Game Emporium) had also set up a stall in the room, along with generously setting up a SNES for people to come along and play some games. The Ghostbusters were also on call for any ghostly problems that might occur throughout the day, just to be on the safe side!

A row of tables had been set up for some casual gaming, Destruction Derby 2 and Rayman 2 were on PS1, an emulation of Streets of Rage was on the Wii, Ninja Gaiden was being played on Xbox. Tekken 5 matches were taking place on PS2, and Legend of Zelda: Orcarina of Time was on Gamecube. People were also on the Dreamcast having a few games of Crazy Taxi. A couple of Laptops were also set up with Wolfenstein 3D for those old school FPS fans, Quake 2, and Worms. It wasn't just games of yore however, Gamevan.ie had set up a few consoles with Fortnite on the go, along with having a vendors booth. I had my fair share of games at the retro table before heading off to do a little bit of shopping.

Rewind Retro Gaming and Retro Ralph sorted me out with some fantastic PS1 titles to ad to my collection. The games were all in fantastic quality along with being extremely cheap in price. I helped myself to a few games (and came back for seconds). Word of advice for people interested in coming to 8-Bit, I couldn't find an ATM machine on campus so come prepared.

I wandered over to Like The Bog Flower Designs and Beanies Art Mart who both had a fantastic selection of homemade figurines, stickers, badges, T-shirts and prints.

As the day went on, I took part in the Tekken 3 tournament, after days and days of training, I got my ass absolutely handed to me by Eddy Gordo, not the most graceful of losses, but it was a great bit of fun for all involved. Other tournaments were Mario Kart, Street Fighter, and Super Smash Bros.

One of the spectacles of the day was a 10-player Bomberman game being played up on the big screen in the main room. This was headed up by the lads at AllCast Irish Gamers, who were also the MC for most of the events throughout the conference. These lads know how to work a crowd and kept everyone entertained until the end.

I was in attendance for a few events on the main stage, the first of which being a panel of gamers discussing all things retro. It was interesting to hear other people's ideas about the way retro games are perceived by a modern audience, and do they still hold up as much today as they did when they were first released. They also held a relatively retro quiz which was a good laugh to see go down.

Ansonix was on the music side of entertainment for the day and kicked things off by performing his cover of the Streets of Rage theme song, before playing some of his own original works. I really dig this kind of 8-Bit style and I think Ansonix is someone we're going to be hearing a lot more of in the future. You can check out his music for free over at https://ansonix.bandcamp.com/.

I grabbed a Slushee from the Candy Pop Man and took a seat in time for the cosplay competition, headed up by the Guild of Nerds. Nate ó Cadhla was the MC for the competition, and there was a panel of cosplaying judges; Jichiie, Shonarrrrrgh, and Twin Tails Cosplay. Some of the Cosplayers really put in a lot of love and effort to both their costumes and their cosplay persona. A particual favourite of mine was Deadpool, who I tried to wind up by calling him Deathstroke (he wasn't too happy about that)…. The Cosplay competition was short and sweet, with the victor being Totoro (from the Studio Ghibli film My Neighbour Totoro).

The day wound down with the tournament winners competing on the big screen.

My only regret about 8-Bit Conference 2018 was not being able to hang around long enough to enjoy the entire weekend. I feel like I missed out on so much even though I was there for most of the Saturday. Next year I'll make sure to be in attendance for the whole weekend so I don't miss out on the fun. Graeme, and all of team 8-Bit should be really proud that they put on such a fantastic event that catered to the retro needs of veteran gamers, but was also a fun and insightful look for the younger generation.

My advice for people who would like to attend the conference in future:

Plan your route, Griffith college is located just outside of Dublin City and isn't a central location

Bring money, as there is no ATM on-campus

Most importantly, take part and have fun, you can sit here and read this review all you like, but trust me when I say, you need to be there to get the best out of it.

https://8bitconference.com/

Photos Courteousy of 8-Bit Conference

Partners associated with 8-Bit Conference

Griffith College Dublin

Trust Gaming

Ti.to

Beanbags.ie

Ansonix

The Pulse Group

Emergency Services Training Institute

Buyndplay/Video Games And Consoles Ireland

Republic of Gaming

Inner City Helping Homeless

AllCast Irish Gamers

National Computer & Videogame Museum

Mini Arcade Systems

The R.A.G.E.

LudoSport Ireland - Sporting Light Saber Combat Academy

Loud Room Studios

Bear Sporting Events Limited

Four Star Pizza

RetroGaming.ie

GameVan.ie

CCS Fitouts

Candy Pop Man

Facepainters Dublin

Retro Ralph Gaming

Rewind Retro Gaming

8-Bit Creations

Game Freeze

Like the Bog Flower Designs

Beanie's Art Mart

Guild of Nerds

The 501st Legion

Ghostbusters Ireland

Fierce Fun

Jairo Lopes

Altero-game

Dublin Games Festival

#8bitconference #8bitcon #griffith college #dublin #video game #retro games #review #review blog #gamer

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investmart007 · 6 years

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MOSCOW | The Latest: Pogba pokes 2-1 lead v Australia

New Post has been published on https://is.gd/Rc0tnj

MOSCOW | The Latest: Pogba pokes 2-1 lead v Australia

MOSCOW — The Latest on Saturday at the World Cup (all times local):

2:38 p.m.

France has taken a 2-1 lead against Australia with less than 10 minutes left to play in the World Cup Group C game. Paul Pogba scored following a fine one-two with substitute Olivier Giroud after his shot took a deflection, hit the bar and crossed the goal line.

___

2:20 p.m.

France has been awarded a penalty following a VAR review and scored to take the lead against Australia. After checking images of a tackle from behind from Joshua Risdon on Antoine Griezmann, referee Andres Cunha pointed to the penalty spot. Griezmann sent a powerful strike into the net that left ‘keeper Mat Ryan stranded to give France a 1-0 lead.

Australia equalized within minutes with captain Mile Jedinak converting from the penalty spot after Samuel Umtiti handled the ball in the box. Jedinak took the kick and sent France ‘keeper Hugo Lloris the wrong way

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1:55 p.m.

Germany coach Joachim Loew says goalkeeper Manuel Neuer is looking confident ahead of the team’s World Cup opener against Mexico, despite missing most of the season with injury.

Neuer, a star of Germany’s World Cup-winning team in 2014, played just four times this season for Bayern Munich because of a fracture in his left foot.

Loew says “he looks self-confident in training, the Manuel Neuer that we’ve always known.”

Loew adds that Neuer has been “very calm, stable and he’s in a very good mood. You could see that in the weeks and month before that he was working to strengthen his stamina.”

Ahead of Sunday’s game against Mexico, Loew revealed Germany spent Friday concentrating on corners, free kicks and penalties to deal with a perception that set-pieces might be a weak point for the 2014 champions.

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1:46 p.m.

It’s 0-0 at halftime between France and Australia in their World Cup Group C opener in Kazan.

The French have been dominating in the early stages and had the best chances before Australia settled in.

Australia defenders Trent Sainsbury and Joshua Risdon have been doing a fine job in making sure Antoine Griezmann and Kylian Mbappe did not get too many balls.

Applying coach Bert Van Marwijk’s orders, the Socceroos are putting on a composed but aggressive display that has been working well so far.

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12:55 p.m.

Julian Draxler says it’s “not true” that his Germany teammates Mesut Ozil and Ilkay Gundogan are feeling isolated in the squad following controversy over their photo with Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Arsenal’s Ozil and Manchester City’s Gundogan, who are both of Turkish descent, posed with Erdogan during the Turkish president’s visit to Britain last month.

Gundogan, who gave Erdogan a shirt with a message “to my revered president,” was jeered by fans during last week’s friendly win over Saudi Arabia.

Draxler says reports “that Mesut Ozil was not up to his best or that Ilkay Gundogan was a bit subdued, that’s not true.” He’s praised Ozil as “probably our most creative player on the pitch and so I’m sure that Mesut oezil will be there when we need him.”

Germany starts its title defense against Mexico in Moscow on Sunday.

____

12:05 p.m.

France coach Didier Deschamps has opted for a three-pronged attack of Kylian Mbappe, Antoine Griezmann and Ousmane Dembele to face Australia in the World Cup Group C opener.

Paul Pogba, N’Golo Kante and Corentin Tolisso have been selected in a three-man midfield, with Benjamin Pavard, Samuel Umtiti, Raphael Varane and Lucas Hernández making up the back four.

Australia captain Mile Jedinak has been confirmed as a starter in place of Massimo Luongo, who started as screening midfielder in recent friendlies. Striker Andrew Nabbout will assume the scoring duties for the Socceroos.

Lineups:

France: Hugo Lloris, Benjamin Pavard, Raphael Varane, Samuel Umtiti, Lucas Hernandez, Corentin Tolisso, N’Golo Kante, Paul Pogba, Antoine Griezmann, Ousmane Dembele, Kylian Mbappe.

Australia: Mat Ryan, Josh Risdon, Trent Sainsbury, Mark Milligan, Aziz Behich, Mile Jedinak, Aaron Mooy, Mathew Leckie, Tom Rogic, Robbie Kruse, Andrew Nabbout.

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ENGLISH HOPES

Though teams of the recent past may have had more high-profile names, Southgate has potentially more options at his disposal. The squad, one of the youngest in Russia, is versatile, meaning that Southgate can adjust the way his team plays.

As things stand, it appears that against Tunisia, he will play with three at the back — John Stones, Kyle Walker and Harry Maguire — and another line of three, including two wing-backs, in front.

It’s the four furthest forward that has excited fans.

Kane, who has yet to score in tournament football, will spearhead the attack, that’s clear. What’s more interesting is the combination Southgate opts for around the striker — three from Jesse Lingard, Dele Alli, Raheem Sterling and Marcus Rashford. Opting for Rashford, who returned to training on Friday following a minor knee complaint, will give more pace and thrust; opting for Alli will yield dinky runs. Whatever Southgate decides, that trident will be primed to sow confusion among the Tunisian ranks especially as the game gets stretched in the latter stages.

Quite an attacking brew then and that’s why England is widely expected to beat The Carthage Eagles. Just as England did almost 20 years to the day when the two sides, again, played their first group match in the World Cup in France.

In these more realistic times, another 2-0 victory would no doubt be greeted positively, paving the way for the team to quickly make it out of Group G if it then beats Panama. The expectation is that England’s final group match against Belgium will be the main event and determine which side comes out on top.

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TUNISIA’S LONG WAIT

Tunisia, back in the World Cup after a 12-year absence, has a lot to prove too.

The team, after all, blazed a trail in 1978 by becoming the first African team from the continent to win a match at the World Cup. In its three tournaments since from 1998 to 2006, it has yet to notch a second.

Though England is favorite, Tunisia is likely to present a challenge, especially if conditions remain hot and muggy. Tunisia, under Nabil Maaloul, is well-organized, particularly in defense. Spain can bear witness to that, requiring a late winner in their final friendly game before the World Cup.

The team may have lost arguably its best creative player, Youssef Msakni, to injury, but it has others who can trouble England, not least the now fit-again forward Wahbi Khazri, who has turned in strong performances for French side Rennes while there on loan. Also, Ali Maaloul is a marauding left-back who could take advantage of any leaden-footed defending.

Still, Panama, in their final group match, is the more likely proposition for Tunisia to record a second World Cup victory.

11:35 a.m.

Laurent Ciman has left Belgium’s World Cup squad, the team says on its official Twitter account, although it has not said if the defender’s departure means that center back Vincent Kompany is fit again after injuring his groin in a warmup match two weeks ago.

Coach Roberto Martinez took Los Angeles FC defender Ciman to Russia as a stand-by player in case Kompany was not fit for Belgium’s opening Group G match against Panama on Sunday.

The team says that despite returning to Belgium, Ciman will remain on stand-by until Sunday evening.

Kompany and Barcelona defender Thomas Vermaelen have not been training with the Belgium team in recent days.

In the Saturday morning tweet, Martinez thanks Ciman “for his professionalism and contribution to the team” during its World Cup preparations.

___

11:10 a.m.

French president Emmanuel Macron will travel to the World Cup only if Les Bleus make it to the semifinals.

But the French players will have the support of a former French president during their opening match against Australia in Group C.

FIFA says Nicolas Sarkozy, an avid football fan who served as president from 2007-12, is among the guests at Kazan Arena.

___

10:30 a.m.

Some soccer fans will follow their team anywhere to see it play in the World Cup. For five friends from Croatia that meant cycling 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) all the way from Zagreb to Kaliningrad in Russia.

The epic trek took them 15 days, cycling for 10 hours a day as they pedaled through Slovenia, Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Poland.

On the way they encountered a number of challenges including a broken bridge. As they reached their final destination, the group collapsed into a bar and celebrated with a well-earned drink.

They’re now looking forward to Saturday’s game between Croatia and Nigeria.

Frane Lukovic, a 46-year-old lawyer from Zagreb, insisted it was nothing out of the ordinary for long-distance cyclists such as himself.

For Lukovic, the trip represented a personal comeback, having been diagnosed with skin cancer six years ago.

____

10 a.m.

While fans from around the world are singing and celebrating the World Cup on Moscow’s streets, they can’t go to the most famous place in the Russian capital — Red Square.

Barriers staffed by police officers have blocked off the square for several days, with authorities citing the need to build and dismantle stages for a national holiday and a World Cup-themed opera performance last Tuesday and Wednesday.

Mexico supporter Cesar Reyes, peering past the barriers, says “it’s a real shame it’s closed because it’s one of the best places to visit when you’re in Moscow. It’s a real shame that people will miss it because it’s closed for special event and there’s no opportunity to appreciate this building.”

Russian police have closed off a number of roads and other areas for security reasons over recent days. It’s unclear when the square will be reopened.

By Associated Press

___

#2-1 lead v Australia #Moscow #Pogba pokes #TodayNews #World Cup Group C game

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worldcupnews2018 · 6 years

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Honduras Accuse Australia Of Drone ‘Espionage’

Honduras accused Australia of utilizing a drone for “espionage” on Tuesday, giving an additional edge to their winner-takes-all playoff to achieve subsequent 12 months’s FIFA World Cup. Coach Jorge Luis Pinto referred to as it “embarrassing” after a drone was noticed hovering close to an official coaching session — although Australian reviews stated it was being flown by kids. Pinto has additionally reportedly claimed that Honduran media leaked data to Australia, and recommended the Socceroos swept for hidden cameras forward of Friday’s Zero-Zero first-leg attract San Pedro Sula.

“I think the incident is embarrassing for such an advanced country. I think it’s a pity,” Pinto stated, when requested in regards to the drone.

“(When Australia came to Honduras) they checked every bathroom of the stadium to see if we had cameras. What a shame, in a country with this culture and level, asking to do that.”

He added: “Let’s not be naive. It’s espionage in soccer that begins to occur with this expertise. It must be managed.

“Like (the video assistant referee) made its way into football, drones have made their way into espionage.”

Australia coach Ange Postecoglou earlier dismissed the declare of an data leak, saying he was “not really concerned about it to be honest”.

“We are flat-out focusing on ourselves. There was a fair bit of drama around before the first game, again we stayed right out of it,” he stated.

Postecoglou, whose future is unclear after he refused to dismiss reviews he is about to stop, has been given a lift for Wednesday’s recreation with talisman Tim Cahill saying he is able to play after an ankle harm.

Mathew Leckie and Mark Milligan return from suspension, whereas Robbie Kruse additionally seems to have recovered from harm.

Longest marketing campaign

Both groups made the lengthy journey to Sydney for the return recreation however the Australians arrived 24 hours earlier, incomes additional restoration time, by forking out round Aus 1 million (USD 760,000) on a chartered flight.

“This has been the longest World Cup campaign taken by any nation in the amount of games played and the kilometres travelled, so you don’t want that to all mean nothing,” Postecoglou stated.

Australia haven’t misplaced at house within the present qualifying marketing campaign, and 12 years in the past they gained a playoff in opposition to Uruguay on penalties to achieve their first World Cup finals in 32 years.

They are actually focusing on their fourth straight World Cup, whereas Honduras can attain their third in a row with a shock victory in Sydney.

Cahill, 37, who scored twice as Australia edged Syria to achieve the intercontinental playoff, stated he was not fascinated with the harm that stored him out of the primary leg.

“Once I’m available for selection I don’t think about my ankle or anything like that,” the Socceroos’ report goal-scorer stated.

“I simply take into consideration the top results of contributing to attending to a fourth consecutive World Cup.

“After this game all of us have plenty of time to put our bodies back together, it’s a small sacrifice for such a big return.”

The post Honduras Accuse Australia Of Drone ‘Espionage’ appeared first on World Cup News| Qualifiers | Fixtures | Schedule | Venue in 2018.

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sole-cuore-amore-e-droga · 5 years

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Tel Aviv 2019: Straight outta Germany to Eurovision with two total strangers turned friends overnight

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First, S!sters, let me tell you how it works, hey!

I am never too sure why but German national finals just almost NEVER work in my exact favour. Granted, I have forgiven them for Roman Lob because I have had literally no other reason to hate him other than “eww he’s winning every single Unser Star für Baku show bar one he’s such an easy winner”; and maybe Michael too because my only vitriol towards him was that he’s such a great soul... but only on his non-ESC stuff? If I had anyone else at the time, it would have obviously been the energy of Xavier Darcy and his song too! But at the same time Xavier would have placed worse than Michael so I’ll assume that Michael was actually the best possible choice for Germany at the time? Sorry, voXXclub, Ryk and Ivy Quainoo fans.

But god damn Germany, you could have given us just at least SOME ounce of competitiveness this year, couldn’t you??? And you'll know exactly why do I feel this certain way about this next target of my reviewing. Meet Carlotta Truman and Laurita Spinelli that were assembled specially for the German national final (which hopefully gives you a bit of a heads-up of where are the things going) and have a song written especially for them to pretend to be something they are actually not looking like to be, without their involvement... this songwriting camp experience has turned them into S!sters. Got that? Even the exclamation point part? Good, because you'll probably never hear of neither them, nor their song "Sister", ever again. Just like it is accepted for a German entry as of lately, I suppose.

It starts off innocently enough, with the music-box-y sound, and then quickly escalates into the singing on top of a different set of instruments. If there’s one thing I can’t fault this song for, it’s the instant relatability levels this song hits you with: “I’m tired”, “I’m tired of competing”, “I’m sorry for the drama”, “I tried to steal your thunder”... if these aren’t moods. Now what does this message tie into? Of course one of the songwriters (Laurell Barker) talked about the message of it being somewhat related to women who get aggressive with one another for things and I think I remember that the choruses represent their unity or so. However, I’d like to interpret it a little differently. If I consult myself of the meaning of this song for myself, it is somewhat indeed about two sisters that find it hard to get along a LOT (e.g.: me and my sister irl), but the chorus represents that in the end of the day, they’re still sisters, therefore, they’re each other’s family parts and the “fire” burning in between of them is the sign of the by-default sisterly bond and that it can be strong. If I listen to Laurell, however (and I should because it’s HER song and HER interpretations should be official), it’s two women who probably compete for a man’s attention and get angry at each other when they either receive something from that man (”how dare you get more flowers from him than me!”) or they don’t (”it’s your fault he didn’t look at either of us today!”). At the end they’re just “tired of competing” and “tired of always losing” and secretly accept the fact that they should just get the man notice them both equally so he can hang out with two chick of one’s price, all at once. ^^

But what about how the song sounds? Well, that’s the problem. It’s just your standard average pop tune that doesn’t offer anything fun nor exciting. It uses simple instruments (guitars, music box), simple melodies (the main leitmotif progression on this song is C - E - lower B - C), even the simple stage presentation (the girls were dressed in black for this song on the NF). Simplicity is key, but for a country like Germany, they often tend to wander off into a painfully average or just plain ‘misunderstood-idea’ category. Cascada had a good tune but in a rapidly evolving Eurovision their act just looked completely uninspired - just some chick with a mediocre dress dancing on stairs with random camera shots to the backings. While the others were even more fun and intriguing (or diaspora overvoted them). Elaiza for some reason was uninteresting for most songwise, to say the least. Ann Sophie wasn't so bad but the German staging director did not get the gist that turning your ass against Europe is a no way points magnetiser, not even from the thirsty guys looking for attractive Eurowomen. Jamie-Lee was so-so but she refused to let her otaku look go away for her Eurovision performance, therefore everything looked so confusing and there was no absolute point in anything, not even in those laser trees. And Levina was... ehhhhh... and like someone said on Twitter few days ago, this was a song with no staging. It's sad to see Germany sending something cookie-cutter but it's even more awful when they send something remotely decent but their staging sucks at the end. Even the one for "Sister" is not gonna feature the spinning platform they had in the NF originally for Tel Aviv, that's a shame.

Well if there’s something I can admire the song for is that the girls kind of sound good when they do the song live? Unlike San Marino 2018 (which is also two girls only paired for a national final that never knew each other in their lives but having to pretend to be besties after winning the NF they sang on), they truly sell the thing nicely without making it out to be a mess. The spinning platform might have helped a bit more and with it being gone so is the magic I guess, but I guess the ladies might make it work some more at SOME point (at least with their singing)... Also the structuring of the song is pretty smeared out but interesting. I'd expect them to go "oOoOo SISTER! WahOoO SISTE-ER!" after the whole chorus but Carlotta and Laurita are rebels - they use it after half a full chorus, omitting the second chorus line. And they manage to somehow bring that chorus back, so they can end it with proclaiming once more that something "[shines] like city lights, torches in the skYYY". Then they go all like "don't you try to hiiiiide iiiit, dON'T YOU TRY TO HIIIIIDE IIIIIT... SISTER!" and the music box closes everything. Bookends. And its simplicity is nice enough to not bother me, and the instrument touches (again, guitar, and they even tried to make the chorus slightly majestic, with strings I suppose, and thise backings that repeat the song's leitmotif melody) are quite delightful in itself, so that it wouldn't be boring, melred out vanilla with maple syrup - instead it's a bit more 'orchestral' vanilla. It's vanilla that's at least accompanied with some vocal strenght. I do imagine playing just that "oOoOo SISTER" part alone in a background of a fancy ball, with red carpet, punch bowl, silver sparkly dresses and chandelier lights. Everything of there filmed from top view until camera pabs to someone that looks like Anne Hathaway.

In the end I actually kinda like this, and I even liked Levina to some degree 2 years ago (but wasn’t fond of Jamie Lee and Ann Sophie, the better of the average German entries). It stands its ground out more than them - it has more going on for itself without needing to sound like a ripoff of another song or an anime fangirl staging. It has some nicer things going on for itself that I could care about (like the ‘orchestrale’). I have a feeling I might not like the girls' chemistry on stage and that it won't transmit to the viewing audience’s TV screens though, but more on that on the below résumée:

Approval factor: It’s... approvable, nothing much of complete approvable, but the feeling of liking this is there, so go ahead with it Germany...

Follow-up factor: Do I need to say more on this? You know what, these last two years for Germany proved that they decided to not improve on their result, Michael Schulte was just a fluke and if the Germans were more cloudcuckoolanding on last year’s German NF, they would’ve sent that only vanilla NF song they had in there...

Big 5 factor: If (emphasis on “if”) S!sters are staged nicely - decent vocals (no voicecracks like Levina), a bit better staging, “believable” chemistry - they maaaay escape bottom 2 at best, maybe even explore some more beyond the bottom 5... if anything else fails, bottom 5 is locked. I mean, they have plenty of places to fuck up in, like, making the girls look way too fake happy at each other at the end, or just let them scream “SISTEEEER” at each other with no mutual emotions exchanged at each other. Just like Italy was feared to look like last year - two men yelling angrily/passively-aggresively at each other. So can be S!sters, but the catch is that they’re’nt the fan faves. And they’re singing in English. And barely anyone of the “locals” would care about them anyway, just like the Eurofans don’t. (Also can S!sters get better stage clothes for Eurovision? Please? That’s just my flop suggestion, idk if it will give them better points but I would dress Laurita in a white suit (white crop top, white coat, white pants, even the stilettos white). Just because... they could play ying-yang with each other. Laurita can still have red lipstick on if she wants btw)

NATIONAL FINAL BONUS

Soooooo, Unser Lied für Israel. To be honest with y’all, this wasn’t a very favourable edition for me because, for one, I have never heard of any of those final NF acts. Wish they admitted Kasalla to the lineup, so then I could’ve had another clear favourite next to the first one down below that I’ll be talking about in this bonus. Second of all that... like I said, I wasn’t very hyped about this NF much unlike last year, where even some “who is she where did you find her” people tried their asses off to be appealing, and hey, a mediocre German NF filler-declared-winner did not win for once! (instead she went for judging talents in her actual home country and even danced a bit to that country NF’s winner song while it was performed as a competitor) This year, not only don’t I have an act that I would actively mourn of its NF loss, but also aside from my apparent favourite, the songs weren’t even that likeable by me. Yes, a lot of them were nice and Germany certainly upped their game, but I feel the same way I felt with Dora - only one good song, then another decent favourite that I have I guess, but that’s it. Let’s find out who won this NF for me and some other things:

• Look Germany, I found you your saviour you seemingly rejected! Well yeah fine, she didn’t do well with the international jury and S!sters did (only because the biased German juror pushed them into 1st), but let’s all agree her song would be a-bangin’. Meet Aly Ryan and her stylish synthpop tune “Wear Your Love”, complimented with a cool stage show, with projected stripes and everything! The expert jury rewarded it with 12 points rightfully, I’d say. Germany should’ve followed suit :) (also the trumpets remind me of a British NF fan flop from last year, “Legends” by Asanda. Is it just me???)

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(this might as well just not matter anymore now that Aly’s management thought that it’s the best idea to block the fans that go to her DMs... granted that some artists could really use some privacy Instagram-wise, but that’s what disabling DMs is for. At least Aly still has fans though, unlike most other ULfI candidates. She should have enjoyed her attention, no? ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) UPDATE: despite this people still would’ve wanted to see Aly win, and I agree. Some minor things are forgotten anyway and the artists are loved still if anything.)

• Not necessarily my favourite now but there was this cool chick going by the moniker Lilly Among Clouds. Nothing particular in her song “Surprise” sounds like there’s a happy sky with few clouds - it’s very much so a cloudy sky with a slightly dramatic storm coming out of them, complemented with Lilly’s bold vocals and the tone in her voice, and those orchestrals were something (and this song has an orchestral-based music video if anything). The song dragged in between a lot of the parts (verses felt like a passenger in a vast desert and the choruses were like a big oasis) but maybe those in-between song parts were to signify the calm before the storm, the warning before the “surpriiiiiiise”. Would have been a bold choice for Germany, this chick. Oh and I didn’t put a video down below (instead it’s linked somewhere) because I still have this screenshot on my phone. I love it.

• Besides those two, there also were two other remarkable ladies, and they they have a lot of things in common, besides their dark skin and that they’re ladies - BB Thomaz and Makeda. Two powerful ballads and two powerful vocals! Granted they were not my faves (I like 1,5 of both those songs combined though) but I admire their singingwork. It was magical. Not to mention are their songs themselves - BB Thomaz sang “Demons”, a quite personal song about overcoming one’s fears, bullying, naysayers, depression and everything like that, and also spawned this iconic line I am probably going to use on my T-shirt someday: “my demons can go and *dramatic thump* themselves!”. But I would’ve liked it more if the whole song sounded just like the verses - granted, it makes sense for her to go all showtune-y happy when she declares that her demons can go and *you know* themselves as she’s no longer dependent on them, but I found the choruses cheesy either way. Whereas Makeda, the sweet lil lovely gal, decided to go for a romantic ballad about not hating a guy after he breaks her heart. Her song “The Day I Loved You Most” is one big role model of mine now when it will come to my future relationships: I will never have to worry about the days when my non-existent future BF is a dick to me - instead I will rather cherish the good ole’ days in my heart without whining big time about our broken-off relationship! Yeah that’ll do I suppose. It was a nice ballad to me. Makeda also nailed one damn big great highnote live and that’s how I understood why International Jury and Eurovision Expert Jury loved it so much. Televote dares sink Makeda and uproot S!sters? For shame. Inb4 y’all ask me “but what about the other two?!?” - lol they’re not worth your attention. They’re just twink songs. I like one of them enough to be my 2nd of ULfI, but lbr, no one and absolutely no one, cared about them. That’s all.

• This NF started off with the hosts collectively attempting to make “You Let Me Walk Alone” sound somewhat funny? idk? and then Michael came back to save his own goddamn song out of the entrance door from the audience and right onto the stage <3 amazing.

• Yet again, I commend the hosting of this show that has, and how much does it try to make a knock-off Eurovision, ever since last year ❤ Starting with the logo, continuing off with live commentary during the ending and the beginning of performances, including interval acts, and a sequenced voting ❤ One of the few complaints I have is that the postcards seemed waaaaay longer than each individual competing entries? I know I tl;dr with my reviews a lot here but some NF shows just get out the stories of singers' lives rather quickly and painlessly...

• ULfI decided that it'd be a good idea to outrival Festivali i Këngës in terms of ridiculously unnecessary interval acts. Yeah. There was this cowboy guy with glasses doing his own tunes, then him again on another interval act (I forgot but wasn’t his name Udo?), then Lena at some point (one of the better interval acts actually), then Michael Schulte, then this one dude from a band Revolverhed (who later voted as part of the International Jury as the German juror and... 12′d S!sters out of his The Voice mentor bias for one of his ladies. Yeah yeah, rigging...)... there were just a little too many, that’s what I’m saying.

• Now how exactly did we all know of the victory of the S!sters? Why, with voting sequences, of course! At first we have had this international jury made up of random specific people, usually giving 12s to S!sters, Makeda or some other twink. S!sters won it, then came the Eurovision panel whose votes were co-read by ... GASP! WILLIAM FROM WIWIBLOGGS!!! ;O don’t worry though he did not dun goof anything this time - the 12 from the Eurovision panel went to Aly Ryan. Sounds hopeful enough, right?? Well, hell no, as then came the televoting results, announced by Mr. Jon Ola Sand and he announced the 12 to S!sters! Oh German televoting, why did you allow yourselves to be THIS brainwashed and decline the good progress since Michael???? I will never forgive Germany for pushing S!sters this far. Putting them up together last minute and also last-minute adding them to the lineup, giving them the pimpslot, making a person who knows one of the S!sters more personally a German 'representative' of the International Jury... unacceptable.

• IDK where to find this but there was this part of the winner reprise where the blonde S!ster (that’s Carlotta) was so overwhelmed with joy that she struggled to open her song straightforwardly and instead let all the tears and laughs(???) take over her. It’s obvious this happens during all those winner reprises that the winner cannot really contain their emotions for what joyballs the victories have rendered them to, but that moment still sticks out to me. The other S!ster (Laurita) was much more collected and later on both of them carried on the right track and sang the rest of this whole thing decently!

For now I’d just wish them viel Glück in Tel Aviv and I hope that their friendship last longer than Jessika’s and Jenifer’s from last year! (probably not because like these two, S!sters are bound to flop, and separate as immediately as the unfortunately-formed class group project participants, just like Jenifer from Jessika)

#eurovision 2019 #tel aviv 2019 reviews #germany 2019 #s!sters #sister #germany

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sole-cuore-amore-e-droga · 5 years

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Tel Aviv 2019: Straight outta Lithuania to Eurovision with a rampaging mess that gave a lukewarm conclusion

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Oh dear.

When it comes to my country to choose, they’re often chosen to be overlooked by the Eurofan community, especially because of our insanely long procedure of choosing, that would often cause everyone to hear the songs live more times than they’re supposed to. And it seemed to be a similar case this year because while not as long as usual, we still had 7 shows + an additional week break (that allowed me to watch some more Destination Eurovision! Woo!), and a big pile to songs to swim through, usually submitted by all ranges of songwriters who’re willing just to get their names known to the world creditswise (looking at you Ashley Hicklin and co.) and often are paired with our talent show rejects that fade away as soon as they come in if their song and their chances crash out before the final (see Germantė Kinderytė - she didn’t make it to the lives of The Voice Lithuania, had a killer song though that didn’t make it to the semis thanks for the jury annihilating her pointswise TWICE and only ended up lucky the televoters’ 10 was enough to get her through. Another example: Benas Malakauskas, who got lucky to be on the selection for two years in a row, but did not go beyond the AUDITIONS in said talent show! Yet progressed to the second round at farthest both of his years). And even then, you’re never sure if these songs ARE even on the lineup. Last year we had angry Erica Jennings pulling her song out of the comp just because of having to hear the juries critique others so abrasively (at least abrasively I guess?) one show in, but then it suddenly re-emerged back, but instead sung by Monika Marija - fresh off her The Voice Lithuania victory. This year we had some names pulling off for no reason, some names pulling for A reason (like Sasha Song who couldn’t turn up for the live recording of Heat 4 because of his song not sounding the best way possible, and was fined for it lol), and some names being added last minute or even changed unexpectedly (Tomas Sinickis, you heard of him? Now he underwent by Tommy Modric... yes the footballer Modric). Which is as crazy as MIIIIHAAAAIIIII deciding not to compete in the Romanian NF because “it’s all rigged and me a tryhard won’t feel too safe enough to finally win on this one” oh boo-hoo, think of the kids who never liked your sorry ass anyway. And think of the kids in general before showcasing your half-naked or mostly-naked body in front of them.

Excuse me for my long ass paragraph number 1, BUT we were actually so dang dramatic this year that I cannot contain myself without letting y'all know why this NF deserved a much better winner to come out of it rather than THAT that actually came to be. I'm a native so I know every single detail. So if ya wanna know why exactly I'm underwhelmed, read 'em up. If you wanna know that I'm just underwhelmed, just skip ahead to the review, idc. Did you make your choice? Well then. Let's delve into the details:

• The first clear competitor, Monika Marija, releases a song that people really want to see in the selection but she assures everyone it’s not THE song. Then she shows her other one, and people honestly want the first one back, but grow to adapt to it.

• Lineup reveal happens with her in it, wbk. Along with some other interesting names like Jurgis Didžiulis (off InCulto), Jurgis Brūzga and etc.

• First show is filmed and broadcasted as normal. But, after the broadcast, a pissed-off parent is mad at his son’s result on Facebook (and the result seemed fair enough to me actually despite liking the song because it’s such a second-hand NF tier entry that isn’t meant to last that I’d even see fizzle out in... A Dal for example).

• Also a minor lulz related to one contestant’s song lyrics sounding like Russian swearwords (you know the ones the kids are yelling on CS:GO) but that was fixed

• Lineup changes that include Sasha Song, the second-most-recent X Factor Lithuania season winners at the time 120 (yep that’s the band’s name) and some other guy who came and went last minute without a word from him back as to why lol. (As well as one of the lost starlets of 2018, Emilija Valiukevičiūtė, was initially announced in the first lineup reveal but fizzled out by Heat 4 as well.)

• And it turns out Monika Marija chose both of her latest releases (including the first one she said she won’t enter) to participate because her fans want it so and she felt like it, although fans were more attached to the 1st one she entered.

• Jurgis Didžiulis brings Erica Jennings with him - yep, the same lady who withdrew because of the jury has grew some thick skin over a year and joined the lineup too. Among other things.

• Second show had a major televoting issue that affected the scores massively (basically only a few hundred votes were missing lol), and had the issue affected any of the nonqualifiers enough for them to qualify, they’d be added to the semis as a wildcard. So naturally, someone of the NQs complained about it BUT it turned out it did not affect anyone anyway. Another act got pissed for being mistreated by juries too by the way.

• Sasha Song withdraws last minute for reasons above, and his fine is 2000 euros. Well, now you have to know that if you, fellow Lithuanian, want into Eurovizijos, you need to be a bit rich to accept circumstances like these, otherwise you’re totally fucked.

• Heat 3 happens as normal BUT Heat 4 brings in some fire as it turns out that one of the contestants’ stepfather was offering his company’s services (like, those outside children play parks’ assets) for televotes to her dear stepdaughter’s song, with her EVEN NOT SEEING ANYTHING WRONG WITH IT. LRT, as clever as they are, decide to null her televotes in protest. Shame tho as the song was good, and way better Laurell Barker submission than the ones she got on ESC this year.

• One contestant, Alen Chicco (also from X Factor Lithuania, may or may not even be from the same season that was won by 120), causes a bit of controversy by having a black man on his performance

• During the semi stage, Monika Marija asks her fans not to vote for the 1st song she submitted to the selection, but rather support her 2nd song that won the semi comfortably, way after the folks were attached to her 1st song already and claiming it’s better for Eurovision (no it’s not), but it backfires spectacularly when the jury has enough guts to make her qualify with it, even if the televote for it was rather low.

• But before semi 2 happened and Monika Marija sang her weaker song, a contestant with the name of Migloko resorts to middle-finger the audience during her performance for no reason in semi 1.

• Monika Marija succesfully goes on to withdraw one of her songs (the one from semi 2) just to not split her fanbase even further when it comes to the final, therefore not lose. Also has to pay a fine of 2000 perhaps.

• Jurijus Veklenko, which was one of the front-runners along Monika Marija, was accused of having his song published on Soundcloud a year too early, but as a demo version, therefore not commercially viable enough for ESC rules. Later he was let off easy by LRT, but decided that EBU should investigate and report if they think it’s not fine, but if he was allowed to compete with that, he was possibly not in danger afterall.

• And since Monika Marija has got only 1 song, her final spot she got with that other song was given up for the aforementioned Alen Chicco.

• Finally, Monika Marija was still THE front runner of all this, having a sizeable amount of a fanbase enough to support her, even more so than the eventual winner... yes, she did happen not to win in the end. U mad?

And even if Monika Marija would have honestly been an anticlimactic winner, this next guy is even more so, because although shocking, his song is pretty much by-the-numbers Eurovision NF pop you’re gonna get, although not as cheap as the one written by constant NF failures that submit their stuff for countries like Moldova, Belarus, Romania and Malta (that until Malta ditched their NF). And the one that ended up winning is the said person whose song was uploaded a year too early as a demo - Jurijus Veklenko, but for now, he’s pretty much needed to be addressed as Jurijus. No wait, he’s back to being Jurijus Veklenko, but he dropped the “us” from his name, that’s odd. (By the way, he’s the only ounce of Ukraine you’ll ever have this year - his father is of that nationality, hence why the ever-so-Slavic Veklenko surname)

“Run with the Lions” is the song name, and for a title as anthemic as this, the song... not so much. Like I said, it’s pop, and it’s good that it’s pop, but it’s just pop. I doubt that Jurijus’s songwriter team did anything to distinguish the demo from its final product, hence why it was so easily autodetected somehow. Like, the structure is there, the lyrics are there (but what even ARE they? “if you wanna see, just open your eyes”?? “if you want a voice, just open your mouth”????), but where’s the depth, man? I really felt like I needed more of this song, especially in the choruses. Like, some additional background instruments like strings wouldn’t have hurt? In fact, this song has a slight revamp (I’m saying “slight” because no marginal changes had been done) that adds up some acoustics in the background of the 2nd verse and only changes one line (”there’s no need to be afraid” now is “you don’t have to be afraid”. Wow, revolutionary. What about “You don’t got to hide away”?? Why repeating “You don’t” twice in the prechorus???!!!... ooh I’ll be here all day if I only talked about nitpicks)... and it yet still feels too little. Thankfully the choruses have someone shouting something like “huh huh hoo” synthetically to liven it up somehow.

Yet somehow, out of nowhere, I admit liking this? Our boi is capable of singing live - both high and low; his voice and the song fit in delightfully with each other; and while basic, the melody is pleasant, non-offensive, non-ear-grating... perhaps the problem of it all is that it’s too inoffensive? Something that flows away in the wind and passes you by without you knowing. Something that you’re told that it’s not background filler and you were just not paying attention to the actual music that was playing. Something so algorithmic, you’re easily able to make your ears cancel it out as it were just some sort of white noise!

Yeah, I don't think I want to describe us all that much. It's a pretty okay pop song, it's nothing groundbreaking (bar the message of being free to do all you can do), I enjoy the sound of it, it doesn't annoy me, I can fully be down to supporting Jurijus and his voice. Too bad it's in a year AND a semi where MoR pop songs DON'T dominate - we're way past those ages. To stand out, it needs to be anthemic, it needs to have a stage presence, it truly needs some X factor, and our staging nor our song offers it. And guess what, various other people are still mourning over the loss of Monika Marija, which I find perfectly reasonable, but who would have to lend us their final spot instead if she won? Armenia? Romania? Denmark? So many questions, so little time left to answer them all.

Right now I will just conclude with me saying that I like this. It's inoffensiveness is pleasant, and in any other year we'd be the perfect filler songs for the final, like we were in the past. Cool cool.

Approval factor: Anything that will make me forget how much of my nerves did I waste over stanning someone in our selection while knowing that Ieva will win is a good noodle in my book. Jurijus wasn’t exactly one of my favourites (you’ll see why when you hit the unfortunately long NF corner section), but that’s perfectly fine, seeing that I can finally be a proud supporter of my own country’s song.

Follow-up factor: we're a completely and utterly random nation, sending anything our juries found amusing the most at the time. So don't bother about follow up consistency every being good or bad. We're just going with our own flow and... that's basically it. Though we could, on an occasion, do better with picking songs, that's for sure. And maybe finally we will not have a song that's littered with "oh oh oh, yeah yeah yeah" kind of sounds... like seriously, "Run with the Lions" has a bridge that mostly consists of "ooooooohhhhhhh" and then one actually non-interjective line at the end. (At least in Tel Aviv you'll be hearing the backings murmuring "run with the, run with the, run with the lions" during it, and that's something.) I love it that we never change in our random tactics, I'd just love it more to see some actual change in the song quality, y'know? THEN will it be a good follow-up.

Qualification factor: I’m so devastated at saying this, but foreigners say that we’re probably going down to deat meat levels this year. But I still have hope in us qualifying. Believe it or not, the people out there still don’t buy into the Lithuanian diaspora power, and genuinely believe that our harmless tune is chanceless. I only understand that it cannot work its magic when we send something risqué and incredibly opinion dividing (but most people dislike it anyway), but just look at our results on the years when we were generally received bad when we were just boring. “C’est ma vie” qualified. “Something” qualified. Back when Donny Montell was such an unknown in the Eurovision lore because 2012 was his first year and his song was considered “dated”, he still qualified. See something here? We still can, and WILL, be able to pull through possibly, and I don’t doubt it that diaspora will lap up our mediocre song because Lithuania. Patriotism strong! (Oh and a handful of votes for Jurijus for being so hot.)

NATIONAL FINAL BONUS

I already discussed the Eurovizijos drama in lenghty detail, so expect me not to re-iterate everything down here shortly, but what you need to know off it is that it had every single drama aspect you’d ever want - faulty line-ups, voting frauds, televoting malfunctions, forced plagiarism accusations, too-early-published-song accusations, late entry withdrawals, qualifier replacements, technical difficulties allowing to repeat a performance and some contestants being visibly pissed off by the jury (and to some extent, the overall) results. A total jumble <3 Never change, Lithuania. (except for the godawfully smug-ass HoD, I started to get tired of him AND his bald head doing this to us. It's been 10 years, retire already.)

So it’s better to talk about all the non-dramatic things I liked about our NF this year! From songs to performances, from shits and giggles to something serious - I’m taking you for a hefty ride.

• First and foremost, I actually didn’t mind one of the Monika Marija’s songs? Yeah, “Light On” was a good and polished pop track that has THAT power to get you good, with them strong sublime female vocals. Even if it kind of sounded like an Ikea store version of "Stay with Me" by Sam Smith. Not that there's anything bad with it, but any kind of plagiarism cases have and will always be barred from Eurovision if noticed by the organizers. This is not 100% dead-on ripoff, but there are shades of knock-offery here and there. And it's even a better "Stay with Me", and with a better message - Monika Marija reminisces of that one time she was almost dying herself, but she's here, she's survived, and you musn't hang her off the lifeline. At least it's "Light On" that got all the love in the NF in the end and not the painfully mediocre "Undo" ripoff wailfest "Criminal". It was so slow and plodding and I never got why so many people loved it. If "Undo" was a product, "Criminal" would have been its "made in China" counterpart. Anyway, here's "Light On". And please don't spam me messages with how much this would have been a contender for top 10 over Jurijus. :P In Eurovision it's an added bonus if your faves do well - the fact that they were in Eurovision is the most important thing, and I perfectly understand why do you miss it here on ESC grounds. Just... I'm tired of "MM top 10, Jurijus bottom 3 in semi", okay? Monika Marija can try our NF again. She’s very talented, and there’s a possibility that we’ll see her in ESC in the end anyway. Pave the way for our Polyglot Queen, Eurovision 20xx! ^^

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• Now here's for once a cool Lithuanian artist that didn't come from a TV talent show! Antikvariniai Kašpirovskio Dantys ("antiquarian teeth of Kashpirovsky") is probably one of the coolest Lithuanian bands that I know - doing absolutely any kind of genre they're pleased with - from folk to rock to ska to acoustic pieces - I admire them for being so diversive! Too bad they entered with one of my lesser favourite tracks in their entire discography - "Mažulė" (one of the many ways to say "baby", as in, trying to call your lover cute, female gender case. Can also mean "baby girl" in this context). I have nothing against this kind of track they thrown in the selection, ska music and Eastern musical elements are gooooooood, plus I finally got to know what is a "forró" that doesn't mean "hot" in Hungarian - it's a music style popular in Brazil! However, the chorus could have at least sounded more "party"-ier. It doesn't really excite me to dance the window-cleaning dance to it. (Oh yeah and do you remember that this song is about a car, not an actual lover? They're basically confessing their love to an automobile. How they're protecting it from vandals, how did they dream of getting the car since young age, how wouldn't they change their car for any other. Romantic, I'd say.) However I am happy for the over 30 year olds that find this song completely and totally amusing when I can't quite seem to. I do say that I like those elements, the brass and all that. It was the only Lithuanian song in the sea of English ones in the final (just like A Dal was, but inverse - almost all songs in Hungarian but one English (and a bit Russian), and that's an achievement. AKD should be proud of themselves for impacting both our nation AND the international viewers which found fun in this! Respect. Maybe they'll win our NF soon if they keep on winning the audiences, or they'll probably GTFO forever. IDK, the latter is more plausible, sadly. They're so unique that they cannot be just a thing for more editions - just one for a try out, and that's enough.

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• So, Alen Chicco. What’s so special to have him in the final instead of Monika Marija's weaker entry? Well, he's just a fantabulous persona, unique in every step he takes. And surely I was excited to see him preparing something for Eurovizijos after I read his name on the participants list. And then his entry did come. I wasn't quite sure what to think of "Your Cure" at first but the chorus is a pop beauty I hold up to myself somehow <3 now I find the song nice as a whole, the theatrical-like verses peak my curiousity though the prechoruses feel too drawn out a bit and could have had some big pauses be shortened or removed... yeah. But the most interesting thing is HIS LOOKS <33 his wardrobe and level of expressiveness is vast, I love it how eveything here was different each and every time he performed, and it all was always presented incredibly differently. I admire ONE (1) chameleon

which Alen Chicco are you today? ✨

• And that's almost basically it I have to show you concerning my faves? Yeah, I definitely had enough of our NF having this many songs too, I almost had no good favourites that made it to the semis and people would care about slightly if they'd be willing to. Nothing I could be excited over, nothing I could be passionate about as I was last year about my fave. Well I did like some qualifiers to semis but I don’t think they are THAT worth y’all’s attention all THAT much... However, I will definitely let you in on two of my personal non-finalist faves. Allow me to introduce the first band whose song is a guilty pleasure of mine only - it's Laimingu Būti Lengva ("it's easy being happy") with "Pasaulio vidury" ("in the middle of the world"). Now, it's not very competitive or anything, in fact the guys looked like hobos on their live performance and one of them was randomly shouting "heeeeyyyyy" a LOT of times, like a random heckler that's supposedly livening(??? is that a word???) up the performance, and they sang disappointingly... but the studio version, man. I dare you to not get hypnotized by the slow electric guitar feel. (You probably won't but idc.) I love it, I love the beats and how trappy but cool they sound on those verses, I love the slow soft rhythm, I definitely love the whole melodic execution, and the vocals actually sound alright on there (mainly thanks to autotune but yeah whatever). I have problems though - with a band like this, I barely see how can I get genuine enjoyment out of this song myself without having to slap myself in the back for admitting to actually like this. So I call it my "guilty pleasure" quite a lot of times. The song's structure is quite interesting, but it's mainly the repetitive verses and choruses smeared across the whole song at random. I get the song's point so much that I hate the band for hammering it into my head all this whole time - the song's protagonist met a red-haired and blue-eyed girl named Isabel in Portugal (the supposed "middle of the world"), they fell in love, that's it. But they emphasize it a lot that the girl was blue-eyed... not even I would if I had to write this song, and *I* have a blue-eyed people bias. The whole package was completely unappealing and with how they showed it it didn’t really look like something that even needs a staging or Eurovision at all, but I still keep this song to myself, and will definitely replay it a lot this summer. Just as much as the song that you'll actually get to watch the performance of down below - it's "Song of My Life" by Soliaris & ForeignSouls. It's cool, funky, catchy, vibey, laidback and summer-fun-infested. I cannot really describe separate parts all that much because all flows in so well. It's a good song to chill out and have a cocktail too. And it features a rap part that doesn't bother me at all! Good one, Soliaris. I didn't like your music back when you did mediocre 00s R'n'B, but you positively surprised me, both by returning to our NFs after like 9 years of absence AND bringing this gem. It didn't need an extreme staging - just some dudes having fun and that's it. And they brought it. It saddens me that these kind of songs don't stand a chance to qualify to the very final in our NF anymore, as they kind of would have in 2012 or so, but I'm still happy they exist. I only have had some issues with the lyrics laying out the words in sentences ("spend with me this beautiful night" bothered me a bit because if you translate it to Lithuanian in the exact same sentencing way, it'd make even more sense than it does to me now), but other than that, I fucking loved "Song of My Life". It might as well be my overall NF winner, haha.

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• Oh and how could I forget Tiramisu??? That's perhaps my biggest discovery of this year. They moved on from utter unknowns to... still unknowns, but more known for the Eurovision fandom that does care about Lithuanian NFs. Here you have an oddly titled song, "The Smell of Your Eyes" (and you thought Safura smelling lipstick was extreme - but to her credit, lipstick DOES have a faint odor, doesn't it?), which is both insane AND original, and insane original is obviously encouraged. And the whole song sounds pretty damn good for a band that no one heard of and that used to do jazzy-ish and inoffensive musical flairs before. Here we have slight influences of folk even! And the violins, too. A generally charming piece that draws you into a pagan forest. Too bad the staging was completely misunderstood - they definitely had to put on some guy with a cheap Iron Man mask to pretend to give the band some intensity... lousy move. It could've looked way better if it were more mysterious and forest-like and had a more enchanting camerawork. And a little more colors than emerald and forest greens, too. The video clip looked way better and more high-budget than the staging came to be. Observe:

Felt like everything beautiful was stripped of it because the music video could not be repeated on stage. Ah well. The televoters gave them love but the jury did not let them to improve, and down the Bermuda triangle of fallen female violinists from the 2019 season went a lady of the name Rima Tamo, together with Gabriella Laberge and Tilla Török (who did not even appear on stage at that time of need!). Here's a spooky fact for all these 3: female violinists that all featured on songs in E minor, performed 1st in their respective heats/semis, were really loved by televote but hated by the juries, missed out on the next stage of the NF by 1 place. Coincidence? A curse? Tiramisu were obviously disgusted by the jury trashing their staging so they talked about hating them on Facebook. What's worse that they could have actually qualified if they've gotten at least 9 more telepoints that could've pushed them to get 10 televote points in general rather than 8, all thanks to a televote count error that removed large portions of votes. And that way they could have been wildcard qualifiers instead because they would have still gotten 8 televote points with the actual televote numbers, but the organizers of the NF said that if the televote failure would have hurt anyone's place in the final, they would have wildcard-qualified instead. No one did not, so screw it. At least "The Smell of Your Eyes" remains THAT song - lots of folk, lots of violins, lots of effort put into it, and the people actually loved it for that. Just that it's so sad that the jury didn't let them improve overtime... just like Hungarian jury didn't let Leander Kills go further... a shame, really.

• And now, onto the non-entry-events and stuff that happened, besides some actual good jury shade (like the one time at least one juror says that “you wouldn’t win even if all the contestants got sick”, technical errors in the production (thanks to one of them, one of the semifinal acts actually got to perform again... but the televote didn’t give her votes anyway lmao) and the constant reminder of one of our charities which gives tickets to Eurovision for the best disabled person story.. I don’t know where that is but our NF somehow acquired a skit from an Austrian man that’s been exploring stuff in Israel (I think) because of Eurovision this year... and man did I think that this skit was rather... hmmm... middle-ground funny? Slightly too annoying but still kind of alright to look at? It was fun, but certainly odd to find out about that it even exists.

• After feeling so disappointed with Hungarian juries's decisions on the night of February 22nd, I left my room to watch our NF's final on our living room TV, hoping for everything just to end already because I did not expect anything good happening on this final. I haven't even decided to go back to watch A Dal and see AWS reprise their song a little less louder than when they competed last year. And then our NF gave me a complete and utter surprise - The Roop reprising THEIR Eurovizijos 2018 entry. If you've been long enough here on Tumblr to know me, you would probably guess that I'm a big fan of "Yes, I Do" by The Roop, which I wanted to see winning our NF so badly last year, but in the end... you finish the quote so I don't have to. And it's odd because this year I felt the exact similar way with Hungary as with Lithuania last year - I have clear favourites I root for in both of those but deep inside I knew there was gonna be a different winner I only find okay and nothing else. (The difference is that "Az én apám" has grown on me since, "When We're Old" did not at all.) So back to discussing the interval act instead. For this one guest number of the NF's, the song began on a piano, "pretend" played by The Roop's lead singer, and then he got his butt off from the piano chair (unlike Duncan in Tel Aviv), to the microphone stand, and the song continued off sounding like its original version that was sung in last year's NF. I still love this song and even loved that version with piano at the beginning, but why did it not take over the whole song though? Just to not let the audience fall asleep before the Carousel would've? (Yes by the way, we got guest acts from other countries performing on our NF as well! But Carousel were the only ones to have a guest appearance, the other acts were either unchosen or perhaps busy doing Tel Aviv preparations, lol.) Well, good for them. I may or may not still would love The Roop entering and winning our selection someday, if they ever decide to participate again. They could've this year but they did not return, so maybe in 2021? Let this girl dare to dream for once, Lithuania ^_^

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• I love when our NF has postcards, no matter at which stage of introduction they are on. In 2016 the postcards were present in every show (the ones for the final were the best), in 2017 they were only introduced in the round 3 of heats (sometime before the semis), in 2018 - from the 2nd round of heats onwards, in 2019 though they were only for the final... what’s the punchline for this paragraph? Oh, there IS none. I just confessed my love for our NF postcards. Just keep scrolling :)

• Okay so I know no one really pays attention to our heats because we have too many of them AND we have too many songs in them, and the eliminated ones always stop mattering to everyone right away. But I'm here to bring you a favourite meme of mine that hailed just from the heats alone: miss RÙTA, who could have done much better during her performance if she didn't constantly look like she's incredibly constipated. I don't know what makes her look like that - the lipstick? the grin? her over-dramatic entry about wordly disasters, "Paradox"? I may never know, but I will let you have a good look at it if you don't want to watch the whole video I linked. Personally, I liked the red staging this song had, and the song wasn't bad, but the singer felt agonizingly nervous and never got the chance to do better, sadly. Oh and look at that sleek tattoo, mmm.

• Oh and our NF featured a metal song but it’s so formulaic and by the numbers dad metal that I didn’t even support it all that much.... however I’ll let you listen to it if you’d really like. And there's this best alternative song of this year's NF that I've heard that also ended in the semis, and it's way better than Fusedmarc's alternative (despite having some ugly beatboxing skills). Check it out too if you will.

And thankfully, that’s that for another year. I’m getting so awfully tired to compress my own NF even further more, especially with my enthusiasm for the actual quality of this NF going down the shithole with every single heat show coming after each other just like that, with more mediocre songs after more mediocre songs. I’m also openly declaring that I have barely any energy left with continuting these writeups, seeing that there’s too many to go and most of them are STILL undercooked drafts. But I’m tryna pull through. I have another completely completed review underway afterwards - just a few edits here and there on it and I’m done with it, m8s! And then I’m piling up new paragraphs after new paragraphs on other reviews.

So I hope I let you know why do I think that the end result of ours is lukewarm - from a dramatic NF there should have been a slightly dramatic winner tbh, but in the end we got a pop song that only a few people like. Brutal. And with the biggest hopes in my eyes for our success I’d like to finish this off with two words. Sėkmės, Jurijau!

#eurovision 2019 #tel aviv 2019 reviews #lithuania 2019 #jurij veklenko #run with the lions #lithuania

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investmart007 · 6 years

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MOSCOW | The Latest: VAR review gives France lead; Aussies equalize

New Post has been published on https://is.gd/0509hV

MOSCOW | The Latest: VAR review gives France lead; Aussies equalize

MOSCOW — The Latest on Saturday at the World Cup (all times local):

2:20 p.m.

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1:55 p.m.

Germany coach Joachim Loew says goalkeeper Manuel Neuer is looking confident ahead of the team’s World Cup opener against Mexico, despite missing most of the season with injury.

Neuer, a star of Germany’s World Cup-winning team in 2014, played just four times this season for Bayern Munich because of a fracture in his left foot.

Loew says “he looks self-confident in training, the Manuel Neuer that we’ve always known.”

Loew adds that Neuer has been “very calm, stable and he’s in a very good mood. You could see that in the weeks and month before that he was working to strengthen his stamina.”

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1:46 p.m.

It’s 0-0 at halftime between France and Australia in their World Cup Group C opener in Kazan.

The French have been dominating in the early stages and had the best chances before Australia settled in.

Australia defenders Trent Sainsbury and Joshua Risdon have been doing a fine job in making sure Antoine Griezmann and Kylian Mbappe did not get too many balls.

Applying coach Bert Van Marwijk’s orders, the Socceroos are putting on a composed but aggressive display that has been working well so far.

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12:55 p.m.

Arsenal’s Ozil and Manchester City’s Gundogan, who are both of Turkish descent, posed with Erdogan during the Turkish president’s visit to Britain last month.

Gundogan, who gave Erdogan a shirt with a message “to my revered president,” was jeered by fans during last week’s friendly win over Saudi Arabia.

Germany starts its title defense against Mexico in Moscow on Sunday.

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12:05 p.m.

France coach Didier Deschamps has opted for a three-pronged attack of Kylian Mbappe, Antoine Griezmann and Ousmane Dembele to face Australia in the World Cup Group C opener.

Paul Pogba, N’Golo Kante and Corentin Tolisso have been selected in a three-man midfield, with Benjamin Pavard, Samuel Umtiti, Raphael Varane and Lucas Hernández making up the back four.

Lineups:

France: Hugo Lloris, Benjamin Pavard, Raphael Varane, Samuel Umtiti, Lucas Hernandez, Corentin Tolisso, N’Golo Kante, Paul Pogba, Antoine Griezmann, Ousmane Dembele, Kylian Mbappe.

Australia: Mat Ryan, Josh Risdon, Trent Sainsbury, Mark Milligan, Aziz Behich, Mile Jedinak, Aaron Mooy, Mathew Leckie, Tom Rogic, Robbie Kruse, Andrew Nabbout.

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ENGLISH HOPES

As things stand, it appears that against Tunisia, he will play with three at the back — John Stones, Kyle Walker and Harry Maguire — and another line of three, including two wing-backs, in front.

It’s the four furthest forward that has excited fans.

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TUNISIA’S LONG WAIT

Tunisia, back in the World Cup after a 12-year absence, has a lot to prove too.

Still, Panama, in their final group match, is the more likely proposition for Tunisia to record a second World Cup victory.

11:35 a.m.

Coach Roberto Martinez took Los Angeles FC defender Ciman to Russia as a stand-by player in case Kompany was not fit for Belgium’s opening Group G match against Panama on Sunday.

The team says that despite returning to Belgium, Ciman will remain on stand-by until Sunday evening.

Kompany and Barcelona defender Thomas Vermaelen have not been training with the Belgium team in recent days.

In the Saturday morning tweet, Martinez thanks Ciman “for his professionalism and contribution to the team” during its World Cup preparations.

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11:10 a.m.

French president Emmanuel Macron will travel to the World Cup only if Les Bleus make it to the semifinals.

But the French players will have the support of a former French president during their opening match against Australia in Group C.

FIFA says Nicolas Sarkozy, an avid football fan who served as president from 2007-12, is among the guests at Kazan Arena.

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10:30 a.m.

The epic trek took them 15 days, cycling for 10 hours a day as they pedaled through Slovenia, Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Poland.

On the way they encountered a number of challenges including a broken bridge. As they reached their final destination, the group collapsed into a bar and celebrated with a well-earned drink.

They’re now looking forward to Saturday’s game between Croatia and Nigeria.

Frane Lukovic, a 46-year-old lawyer from Zagreb, insisted it was nothing out of the ordinary for long-distance cyclists such as himself.

For Lukovic, the trip represented a personal comeback, having been diagnosed with skin cancer six years ago.

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10 a.m.

While fans from around the world are singing and celebrating the World Cup on Moscow’s streets, they can’t go to the most famous place in the Russian capital — Red Square.

Russian police have closed off a number of roads and other areas for security reasons over recent days. It’s unclear when the square will be reopened.

By Associated Press

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#Aussies equalize #Moscow #powerful strike #TodayNews #VAR review gives France lead

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