søndag 27. november 2016

German cars in winter.

The sound of a roaring engine cut the clear air and silence away. Snow fell from naked branches. Silently, a text came together.

Hello, dear reader.

I know I’ve been silent for quite some time now. There are reasons for that. Some of those reasons are not going to be fully, or even remotely, explored here.

I’d like to address the US election.

While not an American myself, I am part of the world at large. Shaken, to put it mildly. Scared, to be honest.

Having recently come across another one who dips into the practice of sharing words with strangers on the web at large, I’ll link the post that sums up why HRC is the better option.

Funny how you stumble across the most valuable information in strange and unexpected places, isn’t it?

  
He's suave and sophisticated with a deadly edge to him.

Behold, she who thought of
nothing but her own fleeting
pleasure,
shall by her own pleasure be/enslaved.

onsdag 2. november 2016

CS:GO - Ninkas vs. FaZe [Dust2] Map 1 - ESL One Cologne 2017 - Semifinals

- …and we are back here from Cologne for this year’s semi-finals of CS:GO. Lauren, we’ve seen a lot of interesting matches these last days and I’m surprised, actually, astounded, to say that we here face against an unlikely setup: Nomi8 and the newcomers Ninkas up versus the well-established FaZe Clan. Now, I can’t stress this enough – with Fnatic and EnVyUs both knocked out of the fight and with DruMz predicted the most likely to win their test against NiP, can Ninkas land a spot in the finals?
- Alex, you know better than to speculate on how this can go – Ninkas is still very new and they find themselves much like in the position where FaZe started out as, so at this point it could go either way. Besides, we have to leave something to the desk analytics once the match is finished.
- When you say that they find themselves in a similar position as FaZe, Lauren, you mean with being a dynamic and unpredictable, in fact, a complete unknown?
- Precisely, Alex. Now, we’ve seen N7 picking up the pace of the last games and we finally have a sniper who could possible rival even kennyS  - wingS have been holding her own for quite a few struggles.
- Yes, wingS is definitely ice cold when it comes down to it and a key player to keep an eye out for you folks watching the stream.

- …and Nomi8 takes the frag! My god, perfect scope from wingS there, just straight out in the open and aizy’s got nowhere left to run and Nomi just picks him apart. And here comes allu, trying to even it out but he can’t! He misses the shot, walks right back into the smoke and misses all of that spray – what a shame.
- Excellent lineup there from wingS, playing it right into the hands of Nomi8.
- And there goes allu – another wonderful shot from wingS and he’s taken completely by surprise!
- You can say that allu did bring a knife to that fight – such an unfortunate time to swap weapons.

- …lurking around CT spawn there, you can see N7 just waits for it but oh, did rain just run into that?
- Yes, he does and there’s jkaem, trying to back him up but it’s too late! Too late and N7 wastes them both! B is wide open and the bomb goes down, giving Ninkas the lead once more.
- Excellent spray from rain back there, but unfortunately it doesn’t pay off.

- …and now comes the AWPs into play.
- Yes, you can see that wingS have been saving for this, being quite the decent shot from T spawn in the past but can she yes she can and there goes aizy, pinned down. Opens up a lot of options for wait, that’s TWO kills in the first five seconds as allu tries to retaliate but he’s too slow starring down that smoke and wingS picks him off right off the bat!
- Wow, the CTs did not expect that. Two shots and this game is done – they have no chance trying to turn this around now.

- There goes Nokatoshi.
- Typical lurking around, trying to sneak past karrigan and get a peak.
- Oh, you have to give Nokatoshi some slack for having to play it careful here. We’ve seen what good lurkers can do on this map, and Nokatoshi has learned from the best. Besides, karrigan isn't one to fool easily.

 - Aggression on the T side here against B.
- There’s rain, playing the long-shot.
- Oh, nice nade there by leAn, blocking the path, forcing him to retreat.
And it is followed up by more mind games. I must say, I’m impressed – not a lot of people who’d be willingly to try to outwait rain like this and it’s working so beautifully as they cut him off from behind and there comes the kill. That’s six consecutive games for Ninkas in a row.
They’re tearing FaZe to shreds here: the CT side has nothing to stand up against them with a broken economy.

- Tactical pause - I think, yes, it is Ninkas. Skorch wants a word with the team.
- Most likely telling them not to get cocky.
- Well, FaZe haven't had that much of a comeback, but it pays to listen to your analyst.

Quick run towards A here. Nokatoshi taking the lead with leAn and Nomi8 on the tail, N7 poking B to keep FaZe from guessing where they’re going to strike while wingS stray towards the catwalk all by herself.
- It’s funny how Nomi8 always seems to anticipate what Nokatoshi’s going to do even before the move is there.
- Well, I guess it helps being siblings and playing on the same team.
- …wait, what?
- Oh, you didn’t know? Yes, Nomi8 and Nokatoshi have been playing against each other for years, and Nomi has seen a lot of Nokatoshi’s early career first hand, but it wasn’t until the younger went pro that Nomi actually found her team and when Nokatoshi finally left DruMz, his sister was already standing by with a team to take control of.
- Hang on, that sounds remarkable like what karrigan did for FaZe back in the day!
- But it doesn’t help him here as Nomi goes down but is instantly traded for karrigan by leAn, leaving Nokatoshi clear to sprint forward?!
leAn following up with cover spray, keeping the attention, can we see a – Nokatoshi goes for a bomb plant!
- This is unreal. They have no idea what’s going on and jkaem can’t cross over due to N7’s flash and smoke tactic. We see that allu tries to come around and again finds the cross hair of wingS!

- I think we can safely say that this match belongs to Ninkas. FaZe will have a really hard time trying to climb back up, but we have seen that before. However, the cursed 3/12 still stand against them. We will see if they can do it once we are back from the break.