If a money-back guarantee tips websites start losing bets, it will shut its shop down due to losses. It won’t be able to bear the losses hence it will have to stop the service and think of new ways to attract punters.
Kickoff with Drew McIntyre returning and making his way down to the ring. Drew says it feels good to back, and thanks all the fan for their get well wishes. He says he got so lucky with his symptoms, he was able to train by day four, and wants to dedicate his match this Sunday to everyone who is fighting this disease. Speaking of other things people are sick of, Bill Goldberg. Drew says he isn't going to look at Goldberg lightly, he destroyed Hogan, the Rock, and then came back years later to start a new streak which Drew vows to end this Sunday. Drew says he's pumped up when Miz and Morrison come out. Miz says Drew vs Goldberg will be the WWE equivalent of Kong vs Godzilla, but when there is a conflict of that magnitude, there are consequences. One or both of them could end up injured, and whoever wins will be a sitting duck for Miz and Morrison to beat the holy hell out of. Then Miz will cash in his Money in the Bank and be the new WWE Champion. Goldberg makes his way down to the ring, and simply tells Drew he's next. Miz and Morrison try to egg McIntyre and Goldberg on but the two of them grab Miz and Morrison throw them into the ring. Goldberg spears Miz, and Drew Claymores Morrison, before they go face to face again and Drew holds up the title.
Backstage Charlotte is interviewed about her upcoming match with Shayna Bazler, she says it's one thing to call yourself a queen it's another to be one. She says she'll be defending the tag titles, and entering the Rumble and is going to bet on herself to win the Rumble once again. She says her father hanging around with Lacey Evans is the darkest place Ric has ever been in.
After Charlotte is attacked by Nia Jax, Mandy Rose and Dana Brooke run down to give her some back up against Nia and Shayna. Mandy and Dana are able to distract them but Lacey comes out and attacks Charlotte.
Mustafa Ali says the greatest moment in Kofi's life happened because of the worst moment in Ali's, Kofi took his spot at Elimination Chamber and stole his Wrestlemania opportunity.
Xavier Woods tries to escape after beating Slapjack but is cut off by T-Bar and thrown back into the ring where he and Mace double chokeslam Woods. Mace and T-Bar hold a dazed Woods while Slapjack gets a chair for Ali, Ali is about to hit Woods but stops and sits down. He says he is the king and like any good king he will show mercy, but he wants Woods to send a message to Kofi that his Royal Rumble spot has been forfeited, and he has been replaced by Mustafa Ali.
Riddle runs into R-Truth who says the Hurt Business have a birthday surprise for him in the VIP Lounge. Truth says they're gonna give him 24 karats, but mixes them up with carrots.
It's time for the VIP lounge with The Hurt Business. MVP says Bobby has something important he needs to bring to their attention, but first he tells Cedric and Shelton to focus on Riddle tonight. Bobby says sometimes you have to believe in someone else's belief in you. The Hurt Business is loaded with gold and this is just the beginning. Shelton starts to speak but he's cut off by Cedric who says the Hurt Business is on a roll thanks to MVP. Bobby says they wanted to give MVP a token of their appreciation, since they all have gold, they'll give MVP some gold of his own. MVP opens a box with a necklace that looks like one of MVP's classic medallions, but with THB instead. Cedric takes credit for working with the designer but Shelton cuts him off. R-Truth comes out and MVP is irate, asking why R-Truth is out there. Truth says he is there for the surprise party but MVP says he isn't on the list. Cedric tells Truth this has nothing to do with him, but Truth says the "THB" stands for Truth Happy Birthday. Shelton says this isn't the time and Truth wants to start a dance party. Lashley says he actually has a gift but it's in the ring. Truth is about to enter when a horde of wrestlers rush down to try and win the 24/7 Championship. Lashley takes care of them but Riddle is able to sneak into the ring and hit the Final Flash on MVP.
Backstage R-Truth says he wants to show he deserves an opportunity of getting in the Money in the Bank ladder match. AJ Styles and Omos come by and say he'd gladly give R-Truth a chance to prove himself because he's so benevolent. Truth that's cool that AJ is benevolent, he's a Capricorn and asks if Omos is a Taurus. He then talks about the time he and Road Dogg broke down their taurus on the way to a show.
After Morrison is defeated, Miz challenges Sheamus to face both him and Morrison in a handicap match right now and Sheamus agrees.
Shayna says she is going to through out everyone in the Royal Rumble just like she did to Mandy Rose last week, even her own tag partner. Nia takes offense to this and says she carries their team.
Jeff Jarrett is at his home and gives us his prediction as to who will win between Goldberg and Drew McIntyre. He says we'll see a spear, a jackhammer, and 1, 2, 3 a new WWE Champion.
Shanya and Nia are arguing backstage when Charly stops by to interview them. They admit they've never gotten along even when they were champions. Shayna figures with Charlotte being distracted by her father, now would be the perfect time to get a rematch for the titles.
Charlotte is interviewed, she says she has been accused of living off her last name, and now a woman is literally wearing her dad's robes and taking advantage of her dad's name. Charlotte says Lacey can wear the robe but she'll never take her crown.
Adam Pearce tells Ricochet if he wins against AJ Styles tonight he could earn a spot in the Royal Rumble. AJ and Omos come by and wonders who in their right mind would take advise from a coward like Adam Pearce who ran away from his match with Roman. At least Ricochet will lose with some dignity tonight. Ricochet AJ is forgetting what happened at TLC and that AJ will need more than a 7 foot giant to stop him tonight. AJ says he doesn't think he likes Adam Pearce anymore, and if he doesn't like him them Omos doesn't like him.
Backstage Ric Flair is teaching Lacey how to reverse out of some holds when Charlotte walks in on them. She tells Lacey to leave. Ric says just because Charlotte is a big star doesn't mean there's no place for for him in the lockeroom. Charlotte says this is the Ric that would spend money on everyone but his family and that this isn't cute anymore, he isn't a legend, he's becoming an old man. She says she isn't the bad guy and wants him to know that. As she leave Lacey hits her with the Woman's Right and woos as she walks off with Ric.
Alexa Bliss is in the middle of the ring singing the "how does your garden grow?" nursery rhyme and says she had so much fun last week. She talks to the empty swing and watches her burning Randy's face on an old TV. She then says she just wanted to have some fun with Asuka in her playground, but she mentioned him. She rewatches her victory over Asuka from last week and her mid-match transformation. She asks if we liked her trick and says he taught her that, and that she can't wait to see him again so she can thank him. Tonight she has the opportunity to win a shiny new toy, and just like last week she doesn't feel like playing nice. Alexa starts creepily singing ring around the rosey, then stares into the camera as images of The Fiend flash over her face, and finishes with Bray's voice saying let me in.
After the gauntlet match Bobby Lashley attacks Riddle from behind and locks in the Hurt Lock.
Edge says 2020 has taught him that you can't sleep on tomorrow, if you have a dream you gotta fight for it everyday because tomorrow is not guaranteed. Sometimes you just have to stand up and dust yourself off so you can keep walking forward. Ten years ago he went to sleep as the World Heavyweight Championship, a week later he had to forfeit that title and his career. Edge says he never can forget when he told his mom he wanted to be a wrestler and she told him to go do it. Those words are what allowed him to fight for nine years to get his dream back. At Backlash Randy Orton killed his triceps, and reminded him that everything you hold dear can be ripped away in a moment. You can't live in that space though, you gotta fight. He remembered what his mom said, and with that in mind he is entering the Royal Rumble. He says it won't be last year because the stakes are higher, he knows his window is closing and he has to use this as an opportunity to win back the title he never lost. Edge says he will fight with every fiber of his being to make this dream a reality. He says a world without dreamers and fighters is a much less magical place, and brings up a Henry Ford quote, "if you think you can, or think you can't, you're right." Edge says he can.
During Alexa vs Asuka, Alexa's music starts to play and Alexa appear back in her original form, visibly afraid and confused. Asuka rushes her but Alexa sends her into the turnbuckle. The lights in the Thunderdome go out, and a creepy music box plays, causing Alexa to turn into her dark form from last week. She locks in the Mandible Claw on Asuka but Randy Orton appears behind her to hit her with an RKO before Asuka can pass-out.
I was away the last few days giving depositions to a different three-letter government agency--sorry about that. GME continues to be a Carollian experience. Through this looking-glass, there is a world where stock prices do not reflect the value of the underlying companies whose partial ownership is traded through common stock. To some, the market is, more or less, broken, for now. That's not a good or a bad thing. The market mechanism is not supposed to make an implicit judgment. There is information in price, but that information is difficult to divine and interpret. Markets aren't good, bad, rational or irrational: they just are. When one group takes action in a market to alter the playing field, the market is not a pure market anymore. It's lost 'integrity' and loses more with every modification. This typically only happens in moments of crisis or technological change: countries ban short-selling, for instance; exchanges will unwind clear 'fat-finger' trades, etc; speed bumps may make the market more 'fair' for the technologically behind. We're learning more about how markets can have what appear to be 'unintended' consequences (flash crashes, GME-style reverse crashes), or can be 'gamed' (spoofing, quant as a whole), but we're back to square one: markets don't have feelings. The rules are simple: post your price, the amount, and the rest is order-matching. All of the rest are modifications against the spirit of the laws of the jungle. So, like you, I'm disgusted by what happened the other day. My guess is the DTC and others required incremental collateral for clearing any GME trades--this required RH to raise capital. I actually don't think RH is to blame here! Every broker did the same thing, so there must be a root cause. I mentioned something like this may happen the other day, and I repeat my admonition to not trade on margin. I suspect GME long buying will require 100% margin at virtually any broker. Brokers have to protect themselves, but they can be influenced by the rest of the parties in their food chain, as we saw. GME is still worthless compared to its current price. Keep that in mind. You're buying a flower, a baseball card, a beanie baby, a photocopy of a Picasso, all for prices that you know are a lot more--not just a lot more, but insanely more--than anything close to what it could be worth. Those are the facts: GME is just a shitty retailer that will struggle to survive, let alone become a business worth 20 or 30 billion dollars. All of the Ryan Cohen transformation stuff is BS relative to the price change. A good team may be able to turn around GME to the point where it is worth $40, MAYBE. It'll never be worth $300, or at least, the probability that GME operations could support a reasonable price like that is about as small as my odds of becoming a MLB starting pitcher. That doesn't mean the stock can't go up. The world is conflating what a market is by trying to assign it implicit judgment. Traders have the right to buy and sell anything they'd like for any price that they'd like. One man's "bubble" is another man's "deep value." I bought a rap CD for millions of dollars. That's my right. Did I overpay? Well, that's really not a judgment anyone can make, is it? If I paid $10,000,000 for a baseball card which is well-known to trade for $5, then it seems clear I've overpaid, right? No. Speculators buy assets for many reasons. Sometimes its because they're making a value judgment: this is WORTH more than my purchase price. But what does that imply? What is worth or value? Most speculators (I suppose you can define that as a buyer who has an explicit intention to sell at a later date, probably soon) buy things because they are confident they can sell at a higher price soon. The value judgment is secondary, and sometimes not relevant at all. Speculators are the animating spirit of the market. If you curb the ability for speculators to act, you have a farcical excuse of a market. But, you can't blame a clearing broker for saying, "what happens if your client can't clear this trade?". The stock just went from 300 to 150--what if your client is broke? To me, the simple answer there is to require 100% margin. Limiting the ability for someone to buy a stock for 100% margin (literally the cash to cover the trade is set aside) smells awful. I wouldn't bother with conspiracies--they won't help you trade well. Many of you are brand new to the world of trading. I've traded my whole life--it is very, very hard. I am not very good at it, to be frank. I do think I'm a very good value investor, and in biotech, an extremely good binary-event trader. 99% of people, including in finance, are not good traders. 99% of people are not good 'value' investors, either. That doesn't mean you shouldn't want to become one or try. But it is inordinately difficult. There's nothing wrong with hobbies or 'side gigs', but I really think you should think about the market like a professional sport, or fighting/boxing league, where you are permitted to 'play with the pros'. It doesn't make too much sense to 'part time' fight Brock Lesnar or take LeBron 1-on-1. But this is what you're doing when you trade. Be careful. For those newish to trading, here is my advice on some reading materials: 1) Market Wizards series. This is one of the best series on great investors/traders, which takes you into the mind of the successful trader, in their words. It's always by the same author (JS), too, who is very experienced and knowledgable. 2) Trading to Win by Ari Kiev. Read it. Probably the best book on the theory of trading ever written. 3) AVOID most books on trading. Unless there is a reason to read them that you can really digest, they're probably empty wastes of time at best, or at worse, could mislead you into some terrible strategy. You can't go wrong reading the books by or about people who have made fortunes in the market. But always take everything as a grain of salt. AVOID the opinions of others in general. This sounds self-referential, but will make a little bit more sense after reading 1/2. When you read these books, you'll realize that my life of 'value investing' is basically irrelevant to the near-term of the stock market, especially in situations like GME or TSLA. GME will probably go down over time, as I mentioned, because it is wildly overvalued and, generally, wildly overvalued stocks tend to go down over time. That doesn't have to be true. That's why investors diversify and 'stop-loss' and do other things to protect themselves. You should do all of that, too. My style, and those of others, simply relate the price of something to the amount of cash it can generate. That's value investing in a nutshell, and it is what the entire industry of Private Equity (Blackstone, Apollo, Carlyle, etc.) is all about. Hedge Funds and Mutual Funds do a little of this as well, but to decide whether a stock will go up or down is this dark art called 'trading'. The "next" Steve Cohen might be being born right here, right now, in WallStreetBets. Who knows. I still think GME will trade at 1,000. Why? I am guessing, like all of you, and every other trader out there. No one knows anything. As I mentioned, the borrow interest rate is what I think is important to watch. You're at a disadvantage to other traders in that respect: hedge funds can pull up that information through phone calls, contacts, etc. which you are hopeless to compete against. It doesn't mean they're going to make money and you won't. It's just something to think about. I like 1,000: it's a big round number that is meaningful in the psychology of the markets, to a very small extent. It may trade there for 5 seconds, or it may trade there and keep going higher. For some reason, I think the stock has a bit of "destiny" to go there. I may be 100% wrong. As I said, to the extent I have any skill at all, it's generally in being able to predict the value of stocks of companies (and other assets) many years from now, and in biopharma, if anywhere. I hope everyone does well, and even is being entertained, by all of this. Just make sure that if you have a massive gain in GME, that you 'take something off the table'. Don't be greedy. Some of this money is life-changing. Even if it is 10% of your position, book some kind of gain. It will feel good. Be objective. Don't use margin--you may lose more than you can afford. I've been there. It sucks balls worse than you can imagine. Don't do it for GME, even if RH or anyone else lets you. Don't go too crazy with options, even if they let you. I hope you all are able to buy Wu-Tang albums, tendies, autism treatment and whatever else your hearts desire at the 'end' of this, whatever that means. Good luck WSB, I love you! (sent from martin, posted by mo)
r/WallStreetBets Dramawave: Megathread for Friday, Jan 29th. Post all WSB-related drama here!
The market is open and there is a new thread to collect today's events. You can read the Background section to get info on past events, and skip to the Today's Events section if you're already caught up. This thread will be updating live. Want to contribute? PM this account with links to drama. If we use your links we will credit you WSB USERS! PLEASE DON'T SPAM! This is a subreddit for the general reddit audience to discuss drama, so please don't clog up the thread. If you want to participate, make sure to follow our rules to avoid having your comments removed. Background WallStreetBets is a subreddit that treats "retail investing" (ie, amateur investing and amateur stock trades) like a casino. It's been featured here a few times in the past. (Examples: 1, 2, 3) WSB users will sometimes pick a stock for silly or shitposty reasons to place their bets on. Gamestop stock (ticker name: GME) has been one of them. (We would appreciate some links to older examples WSB hyping GME stock if anyone has them). EDIT: Christopher-Nolan has provided us this example from a month ago Our layman's explanation of a short squeeze is if someone "shorts" a stock, they have essentially made a bet its value will drop. But if their bet goes wrong, they will be forced to buy the stock they shorted at painfully high prices. Newspaper's explanation here. Another simple way of summarizing it is that some hedge funds got into a pissing contest with an internet forum, except millions of dollars are on the line, and the hedge funds shorting GME were in a very vulnerable position, and their competitors in this match pride themselves on alleged mental deficiency. As the short squeeze doomsday scenario for these hedge funds has seemed more likely, the drama and excitement have overwhelmed social media, and a few WSB users are in a position to become millionaires. Another reason this is making the national news is that it's unprecedented. Although short squeezes have happened, it's never been seemingly spurred by retail investors on social media. Now that the drama has hit the main stream it's starting lots of arguments around the internet about the stock market in general and what it really means to "manipulate" it, and what the role of the SEC and other regulators should be. WSB was featured on SRD this week first for drama about a mod-sponsored twitter account, and then for making international news for the upcoming GME short squeeze. Wednesday WallStreetBets went private briefly on Jan 27, and is now back open. The closure seems to have been triggered by Discord's ban of the WSB server. Meanwhile on twitter, the mod-sponsored accountwent back online trying to call out WSB mod impersonators Thursday On the morning of Thurs, Jan 28, the retail trading platform Robinhood no longer allowed its users to purchase GME and other stocks popular on WSB, causing a huge uproar against Robinhood on wallstreetbets (examples 1, 2, 3) and twitter (examples 1, 2, 3, 4) WSB began posting about Robinhood selling users' shares without their consent. According to the commenters, if you buy stock with borrowed money ("on margin"), your brokerage can force you to sell when the share price drops. WSB users congratulate DeepFuckingValue, who owns about 50,000 shares, for still holding. Posts relating to the short squeeze crowded the front page of reddit all day. Reuters is estimating the short sellers have taken over 70 billion in losses so far. AOC hosted a twitch stream in which former reddit CEO Alexis Ohanian appeared as a guest Friday Today is a much hyped-day as some of the hedge funds that shorted GME will now have to pay out. WSB is predicting that the "short squeeze" event will start today. At the time of posting, the European markets have been open for several hours and the US market has just opened. More updates coming. 9 AM A thread accusing news network CNBC of doxxing DeepFuckingValue was massively upvoted. Some users in the comments debate what counts as "doxxing", seeing as DFV gave an interview to the Wall Street Journal. The user who made the post seems to have deleted both the post and their own account.
2021 Australian Open Men's & Women's Round 4 Writeup 🐢
TENNIS IS GETTIN GOOOOOOOD, and that kinda means more hedging and squinting from me. These are some really high quality affairs with real tour implications for some of the underdogs if they're able to win. Hard to predict, and from a betting standpoint the tournament should probably be almost over for you. Once players have won a couple rounds, oddsmakers are pricing things very well, and since everyone is playing near their peak margins are very thing. Ladies first today. Barty Rogers : Well, I owe Ash Barty an apology of sorts. The lack of aggression that I thought would be her poison against Alexandrova was adjusted well, and while she didn’t go for winners she did keep the ball extremely low over the net for the entire match in a much contrasting style to the loopy forehands that she’d employed against some of her previous opponents. She went almost exclusively crosscourt with her forehand and used the backhand slice to draw Alexandrova into the court and challenge the big hitters footwork. It worked, as Alexandrova got locked into long rallies and, despite bright points, found herself making a ton of simple errors. Her backhand left her, she was unable to convert her forehand down the line despite it being her best shot heading into this match, and her first serve all but disappeared. She was up a break and leading in both sets, but it never looked like she had a chance. When she did attempt to play a slice or an off-speed ball, Barty hit a winner every single time. Rogers is lucky that she had the time to realize she was going to win her match. She struggled with comfort in the rallies early and when she had simple balls to end rallies she made some anxious errors, but there was plenty of time in this. Kontaveit was not sharp in this event and Rogers is playing her best. On the tour, form is most of who wins and Rogers has had a great end to 2020 and a good start to 2021. Where Alexandrova made errors, I think since Rogers plays a more conservative approach she’ll be ok. Barty is still a ridiculously difficult defensive test though, and the same extra balls she made Alexandrova play to earn errors will give Shelby trouble since this is new territory for her as far as the round of play. It’s easy to just pick Barty, but that is what I think I have to do. It was evident early in the match that although Alexandrova had the bigger offense, the amount of work she’d have to do with it would require an amazing performance. I expect Rogers to hang more in rallies, but struggle to find her way out of them. Barty in 2 close sets. Mertens Muchova : Mertens continues to roll, dispatching Bencic in two pretty comfortable sets. Muchova had a really close match with Pliskova despite winning in straights. She was up and down a break in the first set, finding a hold late to close out. In the second Pliskova found a better gear in the rallies and went up 5-0, and then, something happened. It’s hard to say what, but outwardly it was double faults. Muchova simply hits the ball too solid and to too many open spaces for Pliskova to deal with, and as a result Pliskova never felt safe hitting normal rally balls. She went bigger than she had to, and established no rhythm. Muchova then managed to save some break points at 4-5, and from there it just seemed like Pliskova was mentally defeated. Matches between compatriots can often have funky results, and this definitely was one. In previous rounds Muchova’s ability in the rally made her a clear favorite. Ostapenko, Pliskova, Barthel are all offensive talents, and Muchova’s defense and power just made it simple for her to win points and difficult for them to manufacture them without errors. Against Mertens, the equation changes. Mertens is very good at redirecting the ball, and won’t make really any of the errors Muchova’s previous opponents did. Muchova made some errors on her backhand wing in the last round, and struggled to hold serve. I think that will continue here, and Mertens will get one step closer returning serves as the match goes on earning her some break point chances. Mertens in 2. Vekic Brady : Sneaky sneaky. Down and out of this one, Vekic found her best game. Vekic and Kanepi played a really high level offensive contest, with a lot of rallies being played from deep behind the baseline and with both players on the run constantly. Kanepi’s serve was a big weapon for cheap points, but Vekic’s earned her more simple balls to hit. Her power has really dragged her through this draw, and for a former title winner who has struggled to find that form again she becomes a dangerous player at this point in the tournament. Brady had a pretty easy match, but handled it the way you need to when this is the case. Vekic is going to be the sharper player coming in. Playing Pliskova, Kanepi, and Podoroska really involves a lot of big hitting and defending. As a result, there’s a good chance that she is a bit more resilient in rallies than Brady will expect. It’s easy to get frustrated and cough up errors when your opponent is returning the ball with depth when you expect them to float up an easy one. Beating Kanepi means Vekic can win this match as well, even though Brady’s offensive ability on the forehand side and defensive ability at the baseline mean it won’t be easy. Brady is a clear favorite here for the simple reason that Vekic is not “supposed” to be here, but deep in an event it is easy to forget the past and focus on the task on court. I’m really not sure who will be more able to earn errors here, but I suspect Brady will close it out where Kanepi faltered, as she’s been improving all of last year and seems very sharp here despite having not really played a tough test. What scares me, and I’m aware I’m going back and forth, is the simple way Li ended Brady’s run the previous week. I wouldn’t feel comfortable backing Brady, but I think she should win. Brady in 3. Pegula Svitolina : There just are no easy matches at this point, and the way I felt trepidatious about picking a winner in the last match is similar here. Pegula beat Mladenovic from start to finish. She’s really consistent from the baseline right now and continues to serve great. Svitolina had a similarly dominant win against a tough defensive test in Putintseva. Putintseva started early with the moonballs and pushmode and never got out of it. Svitolina hit her backhand clean and in a very measured fashion in this one, working the points patiently. It was a testament to her quality, but more so to her dominance against Putintseva. When you know you’re going to outlast your opponent, playing long rallies almost becomes a joy. You’re thinking while the other person is working. Pegula almost has the offense to beat Svitolina. She almost has the defense too. I don’t see a lot to separate these two, and their recent match in Abu Dhabi was won by Svitolina but in two single break sets so it’s tough to say the upset isn’t possible. Pegula seems better this week than in Abu Dhabi, with many players just kinda getting matches in at that event and not really pressing yet. I think she reverses some portion of the result, and after playing Putintseva Svitolina will take some time to adjust to someone playing actual offense. If Pegula is able to serve well, she may cause an upset, but it would be a monumental win since Svitolina is so fast, so consistent, and just won the matchup. Svitolina in 3. I’m aware even as I write these things that it seems unfair to play both sides. “SHE MIGHT WIN, BUT ALSO SHE MIGHT LOSE!” is not a hot take, but I generally think it’s better to be honest about uncertainty and at this stage in the tournament everyone is playing so well that the margins are extra thin unless you’re Ash Barty who is the golden potato of success and shall never be doubted again long may she reign also did she get taller somehow? Hsieh Voundrousova : Finally, the Hsieh Errani match is over. These two traded 7 straight breaks to open the match, and did not stop there. Hsieh had little to no way to end rallies against Sara’s speed, and Errani’s serve completely left her. After being up 5-2 in the final set, Errani didn’t win another game. It was a bittersweet result after being on the court for so many grinding rallies, but the better player won as far as the tournament goes. Hsieh will be better recovered for this next round against Voundrousova, and will have a better chance ot not simply being run senseless by the talented lefty. Voundrousova placed Cirstea immediately into her own personal jail cell in their match. Cirstea was in control of every rally, but Voundrousova kept the ball within a foot of the baseline on so many offerings. It looked like Cirstea would find her resolve in the second set, but all she found were more forehand errors down the line and more backhands into the net. It is a real phenomenon in tennis that when one players establishes they’re intent on hanging in the rallies forever, the other starts making mistakes. With the edges being so small, it seems that often (sadly) the player trying to play offense ends up losing. Cirstea will be back, but for now, she simply was unwilling to believe that she could tolerate the long rallies and still win the match. Voundrousova is a much better Errani. Hsieh has great defense, and her variety will certainly make her an equal proposition against Voudrousova’s dropshot heavy offense, but I think that Voundrousova’s defending is a cut above Errani and Hsieh’s serve really faltered last round. This could close as Hsieh just beat her in Abu Dhabi, but Voundrousova is playing significantly better here and Hsieh has already been through some emotional wars. Voundrousova in 2. Muguruza Osaka : Yay! Muguruza has been at her best here. Consistent and ultra-focused on defensive play. Diyas had not much chance. Similarly, Jabeur didn’t really have enough offense to hit through Osaka. Plot twist: no one does. Osaka has been winning majors because her mobility and defending on the baseline are something that creates no easy way to win points. She cuts off angles and plays the ball heavy and flat down the middle of the court and honestly it takes multiple shots from there to even produce the opportunity to hit the shot that got you pinned by Osaka’s return in the first place. It’s a difficult cycle, and the best path to beating Osaka right now is something that Muguruza will do, which is slowing things down and making it a shot-for-shot affair, rather than a frenzied trade at the baseline. Muguruza will look to construct points intelligently and to take time between them. The only chance (barring a blowup) that players have to beat Osaka in a major seems to be building pressure. Naomi still is prone to strings of errors when she misses a shot. There’s a general “I’d better go safe I just missed” reflex in most athletes and going safe generally means unintended deceleration on your swing which creates the next error. This is storytime though, and I don’t expect random strings of errors to net Muguruza more than a set. She’s playing her best, but I don’t expect it to beat Osaka’s best. Osaka in 2. Sabalenka Williams : Match of the day! Sabalenka beat Li in such an impressive fashion, and I’m starting to get my hopes up that this is the year she breaks through in a major. She hits the hardest of anyone on tour, and has one of the best serves seen in a long time. The backhand down the line is a beautiful controlled swing, and the best thing about Sabalenka is that her movement doesn’t at all match her height. She covers the court beautifully, and her belief in herself isn’t deluded at all, but rooted more in a desire to compete and win. That’ll get you real far on tour, as her opponent can attest to. Serena is one of the first players on tour to wear a catsuit, and Feliciano Lopez has been spotted in the stands eyeing the attire and stroking his nonexistent beard. Things to come, Catsuit Feli? Possibly. Serena looked her best coming into this event, and then the Potapova match happened. The same defensive struggles that she’d exhibited post-pregnancy were back, and it made me think I may have put too much emphasis on her slight bit of extra weight being tied to her errors. She’s lost the weight, but that first set was rough. On the bright side, when she had to fight at the end of the first set, she really was amazing. When she competes she gets such a singular focus it really is great to watch. The second set was better quality, as it always is when she plays. The question is, how does she neutralize Sabalenka’s offense. Serena can serve aces. She can put balls away when she has control, and she can attack second serves and break. Can she defend though? Ann Li is quick. Ann Li redirects the ball well, and attacks second serves. Ann Li is not Serena, but she was soundly beaten for two sets. In sport sometimes (all the time) I get fooled. Sometimes Nadal looks sloppy and then comes out and rolls Novak in the French. Sometimes Federer goes 5 in the first round with the world #140 and then doesn’t drop a set the rest of the way. It’s possible that Serena was not really concerned about Potapova winning the match, and had a gameplan, and also that she will play excellent today. This is necessary though as much as it is a possibility. She’s making great strides back to her best form, but the tour has been improving during this period as well. Having a full crowd would be a huge boost to Serena as well, and it may be hard to rattle Aryna without that noise. Sabalenka in 2. Swiatek Halep : Swiatek is just great to watch, and this is a contest that makes me happy. The WTA really is in great shape right now because honestly most of the players left in the event could win the tournament. Halep struggled against Tomljanovic but the next round she cleaned up those errors. She was aggressive and played her usual overwhelming game against Kudermetova. Kudermetova struggled in this one, and was pretty awful in the first set. She found more range in the second, but it seemed like she really was in a nightmare of errors and Halep’s pressure never allowed her to really have a moment to put things back together. Iga and Halep is a close match, because while Iga is likely to be the future, her best results have been on clay. She had a great run on hardcourt in the AO a few years back, but that was prior to her injury and she has struggled since then. Halep is hard to predict. The bookmakers have lent a helping hand here by making this match a pickem. Normally I’d say that points towards Swiatek but she’s such a recent major winner that her name is a big market. I would say that in this case, the pickem line is a real indicator of the tightness of this contest. Swiatek should start winning this match at some point in the future, but is it now? Halep was sharp against Kudermetova but had trouble when Kudermetova started to keep the ball in the court. I think it’ll be tough for Iga to score, and her errors will keep this close. I stil like her upside, and think Halep will play her into form at some point even if she struggles early. Swiatek in 3. Djokovic Raonic : What in the fudge was that Fritz Novak match. After acquitting himself nicely in the first two sets, Fritz seemed on his way to a respectable L. I began to think that maybe Novak bought some stock in the USTA as he’d spent two rounds playing friendly with Tiafoe and Fritz. The the weirdness happened. Novak suddenly couldn’t hit the court. Simple balls, he hit almost predictably into the net. He had slow volleys into the open court and hit the net. He began guessing on all of Fritz shots and chose wrong on all of them. He double faulted. Something was wrong after a fall in the third set, and he spent a lot of time twisting and flexing, which made me think it was some residual neck or back stiffness. He would later tell the media he tore a muscle on his right side, but he’s struggled with back and neck issues in the past. Down 2 sets to 1 against Novak Djokovic, Taylor Fritz was listed as even odds to win the match. You will never see anyone down 2 sets to 1 and even to win the match against a market like Djokovic, except Nadal at the French possibly. For a random 250 level guy like Fritz to be so was a clear indication that Novak’s physical hinderance was a nail in the coffin. Then the magic happened. The match was suspended while they asked the crowd to leave the stadium. Sure they warned the players they’d be taking a pause to clear everyone out. Sure they kinda made sense by sending them off-court so the crowd would know they weren’t going to continue play until they left. But wow did Novak return to the court almost completely recovered as far as his play and movement. They said Novak was not allowed to receive any medical treatment during the break. So what happened? Did whatever painkillers he took kick in? It is unlikely that he’d be able to compete as well as he did with a serious back/muscle issue even with painkillers. The stiffness and sharpness of pain generally remains. Did the muscle relaxers kick in? That’s a possibility. Did he stretch and miraculously recover? Unlikely, as he wasn’t really working on any stretching or rehabilitation work during changeovers and breaks. I’m not complaining, but the break came as he was pretty much completely finished, and benefitted him greatly as he was able to physically compete when they came back. What was great to see actual as Novak went crippled godmode and roped the ball down both lines over and over on every shot was Fritz competing so hard and playing such good defense. He is a mush and it was great to see him finally fight his way to his best level. Both him and Tiafoe benefitted greatly from their time on the court with one of the best players of all time. The question now, and there are nothing but questions, is how will he recover to play Raonic. The odds have opened at -190 +160 for Novak/Milos, and this is a pretty clear indication that they either don’t expect the match to happen, or expect it to happen with Novak in a pretty hampered form. Within the match, I can see how Novak might want to play through and see what treatment was available. If it’s the same story going in though, and with many rounds left to play, I don’t see his team allowing him to play and risking furthering the injury. This is likely going to be a Raonic win, and the only caveat is that Djokovic has been injured, completely finished, and obviously going to lose in many situations and tournaments already. He has found miraculous 3rd set comebacks and as many pointed out in the 4th set while he looked sunk “he’s always like this, haven’t you learned?” I’ve learned that I cannot learn. Raonic, who is currently dressed like a guy who stole an old lady’s clothes off her clothesline because he wound up trapped outside naked in a bad comedy movie, by forfeit. Lajovic Zverev : Hmm. Lajovic was struggling to gain control of points against Martinez, and eventually decided on outlasting him as a strategy. It worked, as Martinez played a number of lovely points but couldn’t find his way out of rallies. A great result for him, and since clay is his best surface this is just a super bonus that allows him to stay on tour all year. Zverev never really struggled against Mannarino. Mannarino was laughing to his team about the height of Zverev’s serve, and he was wholly overwhelmed by the power. It’s hard to say it, but Zverev is starting to look dominant against a lot of the tour in these 3/5 situations. He also won back to back tournaments towards the end of last year, and made the finals of a major. He is a spindly dillhole, but he’s good at the tennis. Lajovic is a step up from Mannarino in terms of ballstriking, but is a similar level of ineffective at hitting outright winners. I’m underthinking this, but Lajovic doesn’t have a clear way to win other than “hang in rallies and hope for errors or fatigue.” Zverev in 3. Thiem Dimitrov : Well shoot. Thiem and Kyrgios was a classic. The crowd was almost exhausted themselves by the 5th set, and the announcers were excited as well. Thiem looked rattled by the crowd for at least half of this match, and didn’t hit the ball well for those portions. The crowd was loud, and Kyrgios was solid. There is something aggravating about imploring the crowd to make noise and celebrate, and then employing the best friend tactics by saying “too good” to the guy you are actively trying to mess with. The fake underhand serve directly into the normal service motion is one of those things that, while not illegal, is a grimey move. Kyrgios is a classic attention-seeker though, so he can’t help trying to play both sides. “I need them to like me, but I also want you to like me” is the vibe regarding the crowd/box and his opponent. That aside, and his usual immediate non-sequitur bitching to the umpire whenever the tennis doesn’t go his way, he played a good match. He lost because, well, he doesn’t often play good matches. The same way Kokkinakis lost because he couldn’t physically compete by the 5th set, Kyrgios lost because he hasn’t played enough serious tennis to believe that he could hang in rallies. Fatigue is obviously a factor as well, but for a guy who moves as well as he does, training can eclipse that kind of fatigue. He could have won majors if he took it seriously, but he’ll still be a great entertainer and I’ll admit he does cringey things but I do enjoy watching a bit of drama. As it stands these guys have passed him by, and Thiem’s silent comeback was well deserved as he dealt with nonstop cheering of his errors and faults and heckling and Kyrgios even did his own passive-aggressive brand of trash-talking. I would point to the same premature celebration that Tiafoe had as an issue here with Kyrgios as well. There were so many big points for him that it seemed at times he was emotionally drained and looking to drum up crowd support or things to take issue with so he could compete. You gotta manage your physical reserves as well as your emotional ones, and he was in it for a sprint not for a marathon. Dimitrov was scary good for a set against PCB, who had to retire with an abdominal issue. I really have not seen anything from Dimitrov so far that says he can’t win this match. He’s serving incredibly well, smoking his backhand, and he seems focused. The problem is now that he’s playing a guy who’s very similar but with more experience winning at this stage, a better backhand, and more power in general. This is a shootout that Dimitrov will need Thiem to start slow in to have a chance. Thiem’s defending is just as good if not better than Dimitrov’s, and while people think both are cute, Thiem’s instagram comments include significantly more marriage proposals and demands to “treat me like a baby otter and hold me while i sleep” (I counted two of these it must be a thing). Dimitrov’s serving is a bit better than Thiem’s right now. Thiem’s 5 setter makes him significantly more fatigued than Dimitrov, but his training is such that he’ll likely be at his best for some large chunk of this. Thiem can often be a slow starter, which gives the Dimitrov we saw early against PCB a shot, but producing that sort of winning tennis across a match will be Dimitrov’s biggest challenge in quite some time. I’m not comfortable backing Thiem to achieve any specific result here, but it’s hard to say he shouldn’t win. Thiem in 4-5. Auger-Aliassime Karatsev : Auger-Aliassime got a nice gift from Shapo, who found errors late in sets over and over. Shapovalov was feeling pressure, and the look on his face made it seem like he always was fighting the “WHAT IF YOU LOST” thoughts that had to have been flying through his spacious head at a rapid rate. That brings up a very interesting clash against a guy who played the best match of offensive tennis I have seen since watching the tour. If you can find a replay, watch the Karatsev Schwartzman match. Aslan Karatsev hit 50 winners in 3 sets, and there was not a single point when he did not simply outclass Diego. He faced break points and served ace after ace, and when he had a ball to hit or the open court, he smoked it right past Diego. It is extremely rare that Schwartzman doesn’t get his racquet on the ball, and the offense Karatsev produced was surprising even after watching him produce it. I can’t say enough about how well he’s playing, and Gerasimov’s relative surrender makes a lot more sense now. FAA is a different test than Diego, but wow have the odds for this one plummeted. After opening at -274, FAA now sits at -180. This means huge amounts of money are pouring in on Karatsev. So can he win? Sure, and in a 2/3 structure I think he is a favorite, but the 3/5 and FAA’s current form and coming off an easy win against Shapo makes this interesting. Karatsev’s level against Diego can beat anyone. I really mean that. There is a level of offense where the opponent does not matter. The issue here is that FAA brings his own offense in, and since Diego was unable to really get deep into rallies with Karatsev, We haven’t really seen his stamina tested. If FAA is able to win a set, that’s an extra set of offense Karatsev needs. If FAA is able to return serve well, these are extra balls that Karatsev has to play. He is in no way suspect, and it isn’t likely after 3 rounds of immaculate play that his offense will just disappear, but we haven’t seen the errors that have populated his play in the past yet. FAA is fast and deals well with power. This is a completely even match in my head, which says a ton about Karatsev. FAA struggling with Gerasimov last week is a similar thing to what might happen here. For bettors though, after a line move like that, you’re kinda getting in late if you’re backing Karatsev to win outright, and major line movements don’t always mean you’re right. Often the public is quick to jump on a “LOCK!” and everyone floods their money in as if they know something the book doesn’t. I actually felt that FAA opening at the same price as Diego was somewhat interesting, and I don’t often see that with a surging underdog on tour. Generally you’ll see a -274 +224, -200 +170, -160 +140 gradual type regression. Still, interesting numbers aside, this is a close match because Karatsev is relatively fresh, and Schwartzman is the best outside the big 3 at deflating offensive talents. I think he gets the job done here unless we see a huge regression to the mean. The problem will really be breaking FAA’s serve, since lower ranked player tend not to be the most adept returners and FAA is a wayyyyyy better server and offensive player than Diego. Karatsev in 5 if his stamina holds up. Rublev Ruud : Rublev just keeps rolling. Lopez’ serve was negated, and with a very winnable match here against Ruud, the Rublev Medvedev clash seems likely. Ruud struggled but found the win against Albot. It took a really long time and a ton of rallies. Rallies that Rublev will end. Rublev in 3. McDonald Medvedev : Great run for McDonald. It’s gotta end sometime though, and this will be a fun contest since he’s so solid and aggressive from the baseline, but Medvedev is just a defender you can’t hit through. I thought Krajinovic had a chance after watching the early parts of the first set, because simply put, the guy trains with Djokovic and is one of the best counterpunchers on the baseline that the tour has. He’s perfect to play against Medvedev. Medvedev blinked too, but his serve is just too big a weapon for him to lose these difficult matches. As it gets late, he gets the easier holds. He will against Mackie also. Medvedev in 3. Tsitsipas Berretini : Cover me I’m going in. Tsitsipas backed up his struggle against Kokkinakis with a sound dispatching of Ymer. It reminded me of the Mutombo “uh uh uh” finger wagging. Just because the guy struggles at times under pressure doesn’t mean he’s prone to upsets. A great win to get back on track, and he’ll need it as Berretini is playing great ball. There were two weapons in the Khachanov Berretini match. Berretini’s forehand, and Berretini’s dropshots. This combo makes it so incredibly difficult to defend once Berretini gets inside the baseline. He doesn’t hit the bailout “I want the rally to end” dropshots that others on tour do, they are really well done and generally go untouched. The forehand is crazy. He hits the ball so fast that Khachanov who is a great defender really looked in desperation mode. He spent a lot of time just redirecting the ball and it was a good strategy but he didn’t end up with clear ways to win points. When it came time for tiebreakers, Berretini just played better. Khachanov had netcords fly past him when he was in positon for a volley, and just really everything that could go bad did. Still, Berretini’s play was backed up even better by how well he served at times. When he had a set point, he served an ace. Simple, effective. I liked what I saw from Berretini enough that I disagree with the -380 price tag of Tsitsipas. I’m not sure how Tsitsipas will fare against a significant offensive talent, and although Berretini’s backhand is a huge liability, his ability to get it low may give Tsitsipas ample opportunity to make backhand errors. What I think the trouble here for Tsitsipas may prove to be is the same as Khachanov faced. As the sets get deep, it starts to be clear that Berretini is going to play his offense on all the big points, and it can take the racquet out of your hands. It’s rare on tour for such a great server to also have a huge forehand, and Berretini is not really going to be uncomfortable with his opponent or with the situation. These two have played a number of times, with Tsitsipas dominating their past matches and Berretini winning the most recent one (although it was a UTR exhibition). Tsitsipas has had similar clashes against servers wind up deep, and although he has a bright future, and can play a perfect set of tennis, this is not a dominant matchup, but a shootout. Picture Berretini getting to the same 5th set against Tsitsipas. Do you see Tsitsipas pulling it off? Will Berretini be exhausted? Will he struggle to win rallies once he gets control? I’ve overestimated his chances before against guys like Federer and Nadal, but I don’t think Tsitsipas is there just yet. If, on the other hand, Tsitsipas is able to dispatch Berretini in a simple manner, then he has a real chance to defeat Fognini in the next round. I’m leaning into the upset. Berretini in 4. Fognini Nadal : I wanna say it and so do you. This is not the guy who you want to see playing Nadal. De Minaur was in full “I wanna go fast!” mode against Fognini. He kept playing the ball back quickly and down the middle and he kept waiting to get rewarded by Fognini errors. They came, but not on the break points, and Fognini proved that his wins against Caruso and Herbert were not flukes and that when he’s focused he can win. Although bookmakers lines are prices for expected investment, not lines, De Minaur was sat at -500 against Fognini and Nadal is only -600. Nadal is the largest market in tennis year after year. People feel extremely comfortable in backing him at absurd prices because, simply put, he is a machine. He plays every single point well, and he gets better as a match goes on without starting it at a mediocre level. Fognini may not be a winner here, but he has earned some significant respect by only sitting at +450 (or whatever the devilish books have gouged +600 down to on your site). There is a good reason for the somewhat careful price. Fognini is rarely motivated, but has turned in some of his best performances against Nadal. Nadal is probably the greatest competitor we have seen (RIP my inbox), but these are very fast courts and he did have some woes against Norrie. If you’ve read my articles in the past, you know I very admittedly fall for Nadal’s slumps and Federer’s, and bet against them once per event. Is this that round? Fognini hitting through De Minaur means, despite his early errors, that he is cranking the ball at a solid pace, and defending well. His backhand is solid, and his forehand is easy power. He is supremely skillful, and he can make a game of it with Nadal. Downsides are clear. Nadal happens to be Nadal. Fognini is a child inside a conceited man’s body, and gives up when things don’t go his way. He is inconsistent, and his carefree play means he will make errors in spots where he shouldn’t. I’d be wary of backing Nadal here, but he should still win. Nadal in 4-5 (RIP my second super secret inbox).
A Long and Extensive Look at the Next Saga (Ch. 135 Manga Spoiler)
I was considering making multiple threads, but I think it would make more sense to compile all the things I want to say in one. It's probably better to write after Shibuya really ends, giving proper plot hints, but postponing this writing will only gloat it even more. It's super long, Take your time reading it. TL;DR Brain wants to shamanize people, and Yuki Tsukumo may or may not join him due to her goal. I also talk about Brain's true goal, method, and characterization.
PART 1 : Brain wanted to backstab Mahito all along?
If you think about it, anyone who have read the prequel would at least consider the possibility of Brain exploiting the disaster curses all the while they read the main story up until Shibuya. He's a curse manipulator, so of course he will not pass up on the chance to control four special grade curse. However, there are many very subtle writing by Gege that made it seem like Brain won't backstab the disaster curses. I for one never considered the possibility at all, right until he actually did it. First, We only know the disaster curses motive right when Jogo tells it to Brain, as if the alliance was made not long ago. Jogo also made it a point that he was asking Brain for help. Brainplanningto capture the disaster curses would only make sense if Brain was the one who approached the disaster curses. https://preview.redd.it/qdcl7bcg2vc61.png?width=1000&format=png&auto=webp&s=c2a52a42257389f54e1c5dfbe1f3c55e14b9e1ed We also took for granted that Brain was simply humoring the disaster curses, because he's a villain in the prequel. There was no need to account a backstabbing since a villain teaming up with another villain feels right and Age of Curses still somewhat aligns with original Geto's goal. Note: In Ch. 114, Geto's subordinate was the one who said the lines Second, The disaster curses were not known by the Jujutsu tech. If Brain wants to collect them, it would make more sense for them to be common knowledge. The story presented the disaster curses as if literally no one knows their existence and that they are just coming out after all this time. So did Brain just strike gold when Jogo ask him for help out of nowhere? I guess, but seeing how manipulative Brain is, I doubt that's the case https://preview.redd.it/wsa5dbms2vc61.png?width=1000&format=png&auto=webp&s=4c2f752ada16562530d92bbe35ade49ffe0cab19 Third, the disaster curses were crazy strong. It was very unlikely that Brain wanted to backstab a group of four special grade curses. As we've seen in the story until now, all four of them have the potential to heavily injure Brain. One Domain expansion from any of them, especially Mahito's and Jogo's, can harm Brain significantly. Fourth, The alliance was presented as very friendly to one another. They play games and always trade banter. Even when Brain showed his dislike to curses, it seemed very natural since he is a human after all. He also humored Jogo's and Mahito's ego all the time. If Brain wanted to collect Jogo, he wouldn't let Jogo fight Gojo at that one time so easily. Brain also didn't really mind Hanami dying in Goodwill event. He also let Mahito do what he wants in Shibuya. From those instances alone, it's easy to conclude that he won't backstab the quartet. https://preview.redd.it/nu3b84ax2vc61.png?width=1000&format=png&auto=webp&s=650e9c5a579624723e50f9aaf0e1dd8a78eda0c4 Fifth, Brain never acted as if he closely monitored any of the disaster curses. In Shibuya, every move the alliance made was very scattered, and Brain doesn't seem to care about that. https://preview.redd.it/qrj6y5q33vc61.png?width=1000&format=png&auto=webp&s=891a31625a63159c26d1d33eb2e3748b8825094a Brain also fought Mei Mei which made it seem like he will be too occupied in a fight to care about other curses, added to the fact that he must guard cubed Gojo. https://preview.redd.it/fytuapf83vc61.png?width=1000&format=png&auto=webp&s=1d88e7cd0d859dab2056c4480a7b8b19c0e186bd These subtle storytelling really made it seem like Brain would not or could not backstab the disaster curses. However, As we've seen in the latest chapter, Brain backstabbed Mahito. Was he just being opportunistic, or was he planning to backstab Mahito all along? There are some clues that probably indicate him planning the deed all along. First, during Mahito vs Mechamaru fight, Brain contemplated capturing Mahito if things go south as probably implied by this panel below. The possibility of Mahito losing made Brain reconsider his next move, that's a big hint since he only cared that much about Mahito, but not Jogo or Hanami. https://preview.redd.it/oxzaa8hb3vc61.png?width=1000&format=png&auto=webp&s=b387990dd37294b0e40b95b28650cc1e45bb1259 Second, Mahito was already suspicious of Brain when they were discussing how they should move after sealing Gojo as indicated by the panel below. At the time we didn't know what this tiny panel indicates, but it seems like Mahito not trusting Brain even from this point was confirmed when he got captured by Geto. https://preview.redd.it/kfe0m3lh3vc61.png?width=1000&format=png&auto=webp&s=8aaa1c2e2765e97dffba563759650caa2a12e50d Third, Right after Geto captured Mahito, he started discussing his goal to Itadori. He mentioned his 'world to come' and Uzumaki's power to extract a cursed technique in the same narrative, as if he wants to use Mahito to execute his plan. This guy who carefully made sure that he stays unreadable to anyone suddenly reveals his goal as if he already won. It's easy to think that Mahito was also his goal all along in Shibuya aside from sealing Gojo. https://preview.redd.it/62ljt8cn3vc61.png?width=1000&format=png&auto=webp&s=9557a2f77c787a4fc12c554defd1de33dd16e389 Fourth, There is a possibility that Braindid knowabout the disaster curses. Although it was stated early in the series that the disaster curses went into hiding for a long time, Jogo said that curses have a rebirth cycle every 100 years. It is still a mystery why Jujutsu tech is so ignorant about the disaster curses or at least their potential manifestation, but if there was anyone who would know them beforehand, it would be someone who lived across centuries and across many bodies, like Brain. If Brain knows about the quartet, then he can actually incorporate capturing Mahito to his ultimate goal accordingly. He can also make it seem like Jogo planned the alliance when in reality it was Brain who planned the alliance. I mean, how did Jogo find Brain in the first place anyway? https://preview.redd.it/7oldrawp3vc61.png?width=1000&format=png&auto=webp&s=0205602f9e8833dd9c8df8b1704e3b78c430653f He captured Mahito. Why? Mahito is extremely valuable. I'm sure that Brain can do many atrocious thing with it, and be virtually unbeatable against the current lineup of good guys. There is no need to think too deeply about why he did it. Mahito is extremely useful as a weapon, and that's it. However, there are some specific things aside from its killing potency that can be exploited, and we ought to explore it. For now, let's assume that Brain did have a specific plan with Mahito in his hands.
PART 2 : Brain's Brand as a Villain
Now that we've established that he needed Mahito and his cursed technique for whatever plan he has, let's delve into Brain's own cursed technique, which I'm going to call as [Bodysnatch]. [Bodysnatch] is a very intricate power. One could say that this power is very fitting for a villain, or even shape what kind of villain Brain is. I'm going to explore two possible villain troupe that can accompany such power based on how Brain look at his power: The Mastermind and The Mad Scientist. man that sounds cheesy as hell but please bear with me The Mastermind This branch of thinking comes from how Brain might be a villain not because of the technique, but because his own person. He has an agenda, and this technique simply provides him the necessary resource to do the job very effectively. Technically speaking, [Bodysnatch] provides him (1) Cover, (2) Knowledge, (3) Time, and (4) Power. If he needed to make manuevers secretly, [Bodysnatch] gives him anonimity. If he needed certain informations from various source and exclusivity, [Bodysnatch] could allow him to hop into prominent figures of dead sorcerers and gain access to exclusive informations (also doubly beneficial assumming that he also gains the memory of the person he snatch, not just their cursed technique). If his plan cannot be done in a short time, and if he couldnt procure some resources in time, [Bodysnatch] will allow him to be patient and calculated. if he needs to defeat certain strong sorcerers in any era, [Bodysnatch] can provide him power from strong curse users and even study his enemies weakness. The bottomline is, if there ever was a grandplan that can only be done by centuries of planning, [Bodysnatch] is the perfect technique for it. Now, after all that said, it is very plausible that everythinghe did so far are for the sake ofonegrand plan, hence the termThe Mastermind. This is including Death Painting, Trapping Gojo, Reviving Sukuna, even creating Sukuna Vessel (I found a youtube comment hinting on the possibility in Ch. 133), and many more. I'll delve into what the grand plan might be later. https://preview.redd.it/v1wgpyew3vc61.png?width=687&format=png&auto=webp&s=716da2aa4a1634a0136b5b5a47e7d52da1198e79 The Mad Scientist Aside from the four points I mentioned above, [Bodysnatch] also providesEnjoyment. This is the only aspect that isn't technical in nature. Cursed technique, depending on how it works, can shape a persons personality or their behaviour. Gojo is cocky as hell because he's the strongest. Geto must remain calm and always iron his conviction when swallowing cursed spirits. Inumaki decided to limit his speech to avoid accidents. I think, [Bodysnatch] shaped Brain's approach as a shaman as well. Instead of [Bodysnatch] providing a tool to his villainy, [Bodysnatch] is what makes Brain a villain. There are surely some struggle that comes with [Bodysnatch] if Brain was a good person. He can only be useful by snatching others' body. He also must live someone's life, completely abandoning his identity even around his peers. Many things can go wrong with such a technique, it sure is harder to staygood than any other technique shown currently in the story. Note his expression when he said he no longer knows what regret feels, since he can escape regretful death again and again. https://preview.redd.it/9uefxgk04vc61.png?width=1000&format=png&auto=webp&s=c5c2ab09d3009b7a84a872011655dc03c6105120 Embracing the technique is his only saving grace, I presume. He can't help but embrace all kinds of emotions that comes with snatching bodies, includingEnjoyment. This is like playing a game over and over again trying all kinds of character and builds. He can experience all kinds of technique across eras. Some cursed technique are strong as hell, he can feel the elation that comes with it. Some cursed technique are fun in nature, like [Boogiewoogie]. Some cursed technique holds hidden potential, like [Blood Manipulation], which he used in Death Painting experiment. He can do all kinds of plans over and over again since he's kinda immortal. He can also do crazy experiments without claiming responsibility since he can use others identity. With that line of thinking, Braindoesn't needto have some kind of grand plan, he only has several plans independent from each other, hence the term Mad Scientist. Death painting was only an experiment he did long ago. Trapping Gojo was only a way to secure his safety for years to come. Reviving Sukuna was a way to create chaos. Brain never intended to fully revive Sukuna. Brain already predicted that Sukuna will make a contract with Itadori as well as predicting the existence of a 'bomb' amongst the student (Megumi), I think Brain would know that Sukuna will refuse Jogo's offer. As Brain himself said, he wanted to revive Sukuna temporarily when it can create the most chaos to the battlefield, never has he mentioned reviving Sukuna fully for the sake of Age of Curses (which is something only Jogo strongly wanted). Even though Brain never intended reviving Sukuna, Sukuna can still fully revive in the future and ruin Brain's plan (Honestly, Sukuna would ruin everybody's plan). However, Brain doesn't have to worry about Sukunafully revivingin the near future, because it's easily preventable. He only need to hide one finger from everyone and Sukuna will not revive, assuming that Sukuna needs every single finger to revive completely (regardless of his method for revival). Brain can also assume that Itadori containing 15 fingers will be executed, which will weaken Sukuna if he were to revive. Brain didn't consider Okkotsu Yuta as a threat, the next in line that can potentially fight Brain. After crossing out three potential threat (Gojo, Sukuna, Yuta), Brain can safely execute his plan as a Mad Scientist, which as I said involves Mahito. If he didn't want to revive Sukuna, then why is he working with Uraume? At this point in the story, lets just assume Brain has a critical component that Uraume cannot obtain for her 'preparation' unless she worked with Brain. One interesting thing is how Uraume didn't mind Itadori going back to Jujutsu Tech, even though she can probably outright kidnap Itadori to prevent him from dying in his missions (or get executed) and lose 15 fingers in the process. I don't know what this implicates, but it sure is interesting.
PART 3 : The Full Extent of Idle Transfiguration
Now the question comes to this: What would Mastermind Brain or Mad Scientist Brain do with Mahito's cursed technique? What kind of 'world to come' do they envision? As a preface, I want to say that Gege is the kind of writer that really tried to show every potential that a certain power got. [Boogiewoogie] is one of the prime example, look at how many unique development that has happened just by clapping and switching places. [Ten Shadows] is also a good example of this. Fushiguro can combine shikigami, and he even utilize one shikigami in many ways. His [Gama] has been used for rescue, restrain, attack, and escape even though it's just a toad with a long tongue. His [Max Elephant] was used not only as a water attack, but also a heavyweight attack. We've pretty much seen everything that can be done with Idle Transfiguration. It can transform people into tools and all kinds of shaped weapon. It can outright turn people into a puddle of blood. It can terror people psychologically. It can fuse a number of souls into one. It can heal defective body to perfect shape. And last but not least, it can shamanize people with potential. Shamanizing people is something that was done to accelerate Junpei's downfall. There was no need to think too much about Idle Transfiguration shamanizing people because it served its purpose. However, I want to entertain the idea that Gege actually wants to revisit something that has been sidelined, and turn it into a game changing plot. Method At this point, Brain already took hold of Mahito's cursed technique. It seems impossible for him to go around touching people to shamanize them. However, we do know that Idle Transfiguration has an area of effect form: Self Embodiment of Perfection The biggest limiting factor is range and cursed energy. There are several possible ways to go around these problems:
Make a very restricting binding vow on Self Embodiment of Perfection akin to Sukuna's Malevolent Shrine, which increase its effective range. I discussed this possibility in detail in my other post
Combine Mahito with other cursed spirits via Maximum: Uzumaki, which can possibly 'level up' Mahito. Raising Mahito's quality surely will made its cursed energy consumption efficient and also achieve Domain Expansion mastery. This is assuming that (1) that Uzumaki Mahito *chuckles* is upgradeable after its initial use, that (2) Brain can make Mahito as the base for Uzumaki thus retaining its cursed technique, (3) that he can keep on adding up curses to Uzumaki as much as he can over time to up its cursed energy quantity.
Make use of external source of cursed energy, like Mechamaru's robot which still has 9 years worth of cursed energy, assuming no one from Jujutsu bothered collecting it. This is also assuming said cursed energy is useable by anyone aside from Mechamaru.
We've talked about Method, but we still haven't discussed why would he do it. Again, I deliberately discuss about the two villain troupe that Brain might fall into because it could determine his true goal when he shamanize everyone. As a Mastermind If you have seen Kimetsu no Yaiba, the Main villain spread his blood and turn folks into demons because he wants to 'give birth' to a certain kind of demon that possess a unique ability, absorb said demon, and gain its ability Now back to JJK, we know that the story has established very clearly that someone could be born with an extremely strong cursed technique even though they are born from a nonshaman family. Geto & Todo are the best example for this. Yuta is one too but to a lesser extent since he is a descendant of an infamous vengeful spirit. There even exist a cursed tool that can negate cursed technique, which I personally believe originate from an actual shaman. All kinds of busted cursed technique exist, and I believe Brain is seeking one particular cursed technique. By shamanizing everyone, the chance of finding it will dramatically increase. Another option for our Mastermind would be by connecting everything we've known. Maybe Brain will use Idle Transfiguration to Choso and/or Sukuna someway or another, since they currently possess human quality. Choso is half human, while Sukuna resides in a human body. Maybe he wants to fuse all of Choso's remaining brother into one (but they are in Jujutsu tech so idk). Maybe he wants to visit Sukuna in his innate domain by touching Itadori. Maybe he will put everything he learned from past experiments and do somekind of curse & human manipulation that will threaten the world at large. God knows what he planned. Maybe we have another Aizen right here. As a Mad Scientist What else can a curious mind need more than a wider playing ground and stimulation? If Brain is a Mad Scientist type, the 'world to come' in which everyone is a shaman,ishis goal. He can continue enjoying all kinds of cursed technique, and hop around as if he's a fish in the water. There exist no more agenda beyond this. The main difference between the two type is this: Mastermind wants to be on top of everything and be unbeatable, even against Gojo & Sukuna. Mad Scientist wants to be 'himself' as much as he can while avoiding potential threats like Gojo & Sukuna. Brain can have the mix of both to be honest, and anything is possible when writing a prediction/theory with little to no actual context and evidence. I hope Gege flesh out Brain in a manner like Hidden Inventory.
PART 4 : The Weak Flocks Together
Doesn't matter what kind of villain Brain is, shamanizing everyone will benefit him greatly. However, there is someone else that benefit from it too: Tsukumo Yuki. Although she doesn't necessarily benefit directly from it, it's still her original and only motive we know of her. https://preview.redd.it/47f4puh87vc61.png?width=1000&format=png&auto=webp&s=bf8eb5dbd8c9dcabde1a99d41d5364e41c8b9864 For now, let's assume that Yuki has her own method of shamanizing people. I think the key to understanding her method lies in Simple Domain's existence in the story. The Mystery of Simple Domain and Yuki Tsukumo's Power. Gege introduced this technique by doing a very intricate info-drip throughout the story. Long story short, Gege introduced 5 person who can use it: Miwa, Kusakabe, Mechamaru, Ui Ui, and Todo. The problem with these 5 is that we don't know their common ground for using Simple Domain. https://preview.redd.it/d8eitbz15vc61.png?width=1000&format=png&auto=webp&s=1d40c2f0b37d3cf898fbafd1a94068c6cee85149 Let's look at two of those five. Miwa & Kusakabe have two similarities between them: (1)They seem to have a very mundane outlook in life a.k.a not that crazy (2) They also uses katana as their fighting tool, and has once used Batto-sword drawing, another repertoire of Shinkage Style. Now look at the other three. Mechamaru, Ui Ui, and Todo are for sure (1) shamans that are crazy in the head, (2) They also have their own cursed technique while still using Simple Domain, a technique that is dubbed as one of Shinkage's move. What I'm saying is that the two group gained Simple Domain through 2 different methods. I know that above justifications are weak (no one said that Shinkage descendant cannot have a non-shikage technique), but I still believe they have some merit to be remembered. https://preview.redd.it/ie6ziq8d5vc61.png?width=1000&format=png&auto=webp&s=96c366bdf26194e7f7a796efcc38210bceb10a1b From the above information, I conclude that Miwa learned Shinkage from a different person from Yuki Tsukumo. I assume that Miwa is a descendant of Shinkage user and by extrapolation Kusakabe is also one & learned it from the same person, while Ui Ui learned Simple Domain from Yuki Tsukumo. But sure, the question is: "Can't they be the same person though? The foremost figure of the Shinkage is Yuki Tsukumo!". Yes, that's likely to be the case too, but let me entertain another Idea. Mechamaru posed a new possibility. Simple domain is passed down with a binding vow in place, preventing its spread to outsider. Mechamaru somehow bypassed this rule by his own, implied from the fight with Mahito.
He Observed Miwa and Mahito's fight in a flashback sequence, implying that he concluded that simple domain is useful to counterattack Mahito. There was no need to have those flashback if he's already capable of using Simple Domain from the start.
He isolated the technique into a tube and loaded it into his machine & bullet, bypassing its activation requirements (standing inside a perimeter). To be honest I don't understand how it works exactly but to me it seems like Mechamaru used Simple Domain unconventionally.
Maybe Mechamaru is a descendant of Ashiya Sadatsuna, but his technology have so much utility that it doesn't feel farfetched that he bypassed the binding vow by using his technology. He somehow extracted simple domain from someone and then isolate it in a tube, ignoring the clause 'spreading' because he didn't 'spread' the technique to anyone technically. What this means is that Yuki probably did the same thing, Yuki bypassed the binding vow someway or another, if at least she or Todo is not Ashiya Sadatsuna's descendant. This possibility takes me back to her status in Jujutsu world; She's a special grade. This is in the realm of 'everything-can-be-anything', but Special Grades hold such significant power that maybe she can either:
Evade a binding bow penalty after teaching Simple domain to an outsider, assuming she's a descendant of Ashiya Sadatsuna,
Pass down simple domain even though her and her recipient is not a descendant of Ashiya Sadatsuna
The first option is pretty overpowered that I personally think it's unlikely (straight up violating a binding vow without repercussions feels cheap to me), so I lean towards the second one. To tie the second option with her motive (shamanizing people), her cursed technique/ability of giving a person a cursed technique is what makes her a special grade. That's right, I believe Yuki's ability to do just that is what validates her motive to shamanize people, since she can see the possibility in her own ability/cursed technique. One more crazy thing I'd like to talk is how exactly she bypassed the Shinkage binding vow. If she's not a descendant in the first place, then how did she learn it? I did say that maybe she has an ability to give a person a cursed technique. Maybe she can also take a person's cursed technique. This is two things of opposite nature, and we know that cursed technique reversal exists. As an analogy, imagine 'forced stoppage' being reversed to 'forced activation' assuming this is a technique of an actual shaman No matter which one is her base technique, reversal will complement it, making a cursed technique transfer possible. First she take simple domain from someone who learned it from the appropriate method, keep the technique in her shikigami/familiar, and then inject the technique to someone else. If she can easily do a cursed technique transfer, why didn't she shamanize people after all this time? my guess is that she's (1) in the middle of doing it, but is constrained by her resources (2) Cursed technique transfer is not the same as shamanizing people. I'll explain this later. Waiit, that's a lot of reaching, man! Stop talking nonsense without any basis! Moving on.. The Necessity of Yuki & Brain as the Director of The Next Saga If we ignore her method, she has a good end goal. Thus, we can prematurely conclude that Yuki Tsukumo is on the good side since she wants to do it because it will erase curses permanently. On the other hand, Brain is on the evil side because his deeds are too unforgiveable to justify its end. Yuki and Brain are in opposition with a similar goal, so it makes sense for them to exist within the same story bubble. However, there are some problem with Yuki and Brain opposing each other If Brain is ahead of Yuki in shamanizing everyone , wouldn't that undermine Yuki's character? Imagine searching so far and wide for so long just to have an enemy did it for you. Story wise this is very unlikely to happen. If Yuki is ahead of Brain in shamanizing everyone, wouldn't that also undermine Brains character? Yuki shouldn't turn everyone into shaman ahead of Brain because that would give Brain, a villain, too much advantage. Yuki's not that dumb to do that I presume. Brain needs to die first, but since it seems like Brain isn't going to die anytime soon, it's very unlikely and problematic for the story if Yuki made her move only after Brain died. I'll explain why that's the case later on As of Ch. 135, it seems to be apparent that Brain and Yuki weren't working together for Shibuya Incident and its prior preparations. However, that doesn't mean they can't be in cahoot for the upcoming Saga. There are some implied merit for the two of them working together, and I should say that they synergize pretty well, if we consider what I said about Brain and Yuki's method of shamanizing people as true. Potential and Evolution As a preface, Mahito seems to be able to (1) turn Junpei into shaman because Junpei already has the potential since he can see Mahito from the very beginning, and (2) give people a cursed energy signature. Right now, Brain has Mahito so he can do both of them. https://preview.redd.it/go61ebcf6vc61.png?width=1000&format=png&auto=webp&s=ca580c74e3be571ff3477dc8cbbaefd79664a8a6 Brain straightup giving normal people both cursed energy and cursed technique is too convenient or too hard of a task imo, so I assume he will welcome Yuki's ability to do a cursed technique transfer while Brain with Self-Embodiment of Perfection will temper people's brain in an area of effect, giving them curse perception. Yuki give those affected a cursed technique to work with. This is what I mean by Yuki is constrained by resources and that cursed technique transfer is not the same as shamanization; she need her recipient to be shaman to begin with because I assume you can't do a cursed technique transfer if the recipient doesn't have the sufficient cursed energy to use it. Yuki only needs to do half the work. However, there's another possibility. Brain can possibly give people cursed technique without Yuki's help at all. All he need is to have another way to give normal people a shaman-level of cursed energy: Evolution. https://preview.redd.it/kot29ak69vc61.png?width=1000&format=png&auto=webp&s=3d9abea06d62934f90bbf3fd193be0c76e114d44 Gojo's birth tipped the balance scale; students in Jujutsu tech rises in power in recent years and; Yuki Tsukumo also said that it's possible for normal people to evolve into shamans when pressured by Geto's genocide. If Brain can emulate a state of terror probably like a Hyakki Yakou for a long period of time right after Shibuya Incident (which probably makes the regular folks aware or wary of supernatural force given its scale), people will eventually adapt and gain curse perception, a minimum requirement for shamans. This way, all he need to do is awaken those evolved people's cursed technique. https://preview.redd.it/imt3d2lb9vc61.png?width=1000&format=png&auto=webp&s=bd28033ffdbbd70f8ee1d104cf8854974257ada5 Brain and Yuki sounds like a match made in heaven huh, but that doesn't have to be the case. We do know that 'in cahoot' doesn't necessarily mean they are allies to the end. Brain or Yuki also doesn't have to help each other that much. There exist great incentive for the both of them to work together even if they are only using each other:
Brain can cross out another potential threat from a special grade by offering her a plan that is beneficial for her. Take note on how at the very end of Ch. 135, Brain seems to be hostile or at least surprised about Yuki's arrival. Aside from Gojo, Yuta, and Sukuna, she's one last wild card he could not cross out because she's probably was overseas. Brain can monitor Yuki closely and kill her if the chance ever come up too (after the binding vow ends of course).
Yuki can achieve her goal and at the same time find out Brain's true goal for shamanizing everyone. She can do damage control just like how Mechamaru planned a whole contingency strategy when Gojo is sealed. Fighting Brain without any information is fatal, so any intel gathering is needed. Out of anyone, Yuki seems to be the best bet to do just that and come back alive. If what I said about cursed technique transfer is true, she can also probably take Brain's Idle Transfiguration after weakening him, and then shamanize people without any evil agenda getting in her way.
Yuki's 'Gray' Her being Todo's mentor and having a generally friendly vibe should mean that she's on the good side. She even casually saves the day at the end of Ch. 135. All I said about her having a cursed technique transfer as an ability also doesn't automatically make her an evil person. However, the panel below honestly is the thing that makes it hard to judge her alignment personally speaking. https://preview.redd.it/2dqqv9517vc61.png?width=1000&format=png&auto=webp&s=b73619057b658a340c915a80a081d9e3ca3e1dfa I know it sounds crazy, but I can see her consider accepting Brain's offer to join his side just to eliminate all curses once and for all. Don't get me wrong, Yuki doesn't have to immediately switch side in Ch. 136. At the latest, I can see her being helpful and give a much needed training to everyone in Jujutsu tech and then switches side right when a climax arc like Shibuya Incident happens in the next saga. That way, even if Brain shamanize everyone first and took Yuki's supposed role, it wouldn't undermine Yuki's character, and Yuki joining his side to practically play a role like Mechamaru seems like an interesting narrative to follow too. She once mentioned how removing cursed energy from every single person is one of the method to erase cursed spirits. She dropped this option because she no longer has a test subject. What if after years from the moment she talked to Geto, she actually found a way to do it (aside from her technique), especially now that Maki (another test subject although inferior, somewhat) is available? As a damage control, Yuki would erase everyone's cursed energywhen 'shaman society' proves itself as too harmful at large. It's perfectly logical for her to do this as a last resort since losing your cursed energy completely eliminates any future endeavor. Making everyone completely cursed-energy-less also seems like a harder thing to do. Even though I made it a point that Yuki is on the gray side, alignment-wise, I wouldn't be disappointed if she's actually good all the way through. I just find it more interesting for her to be another main obstacle alongside Brain in the upcoming arc. Brain's 'Facade' One thing I'd like to brought up too is how some notable characters in the story put some kind of facade. Itadori talks smack and showed a lot of confidence against Mahito until Nobara falls, where it was revealed that Itadori has reached his limit a long time ago. Nobara acts tough when Itadori is dead but we know she were affected by his death. Megumi acts like he hates her sister's guts but deep down he wants the best for her even from a young age. Honestly, if you ask me, every character seems to have more than they let on. The most recent example for a villain is Mahito's pathetic showing in his dying breath. He talk a lot about nihilism, but he ran with his tail between his legs in the end. There exist cowardice behind his arrogance, since he's virtually invinsible against many character. I'd say someone with [Bodysnatch] would fall into such characteristic as easily. [Bodysnatch] never actually give the user immortality. Between his bodyhopping, there should be an instance where he could die for good. It's not like he is all powerful all the time too. It's a very skillful feat to hop around successfully for so long. You can say that he is extremely careful, but maybe he's just a coward who didn't want to die deep down. What makes me say that Brain is putting up a front (despite his excellent fighting prowess) is because at this point in the storyBrain has done no wrong move, a.k.a perfect. There should be some kind of weakness and vulnerability within this villain. Gege is a fan of bleach and he should be aware that Aizen is the definition of too perfect. I know Gege can pull off another character writing as good as Geto's, a villain with imperfections but charismatic nonetheless. Cowardice sounds like the perfect weakness for someone who has [Bodysnatch] as a power. Other weakness that can bring Brain to his downfall would be his arrogance as a know-it-all. It would be poetic if his downfall is caused by something he can't predict at all, like Itadori's Memory Insert, for example (assuming he really doesn't know about it) What if Yuki made her move after Brain is defeated? This is the one thing I left unexplained before. As of latest chapter, Brain made his big move first. His proclaimed 'world to come' doesn't have to be 'shaman society'. Yuki can have that after Brain is defeated, and there will be no problem at all. Yuki might even oppose Brain in the upcoming arc, and then execute shamanizing everyone. This however would make the story divided into four (1) Disaster Curse Saga, (2) World to come/Brain Saga (3) Shaman Society/Yuki Saga, and (4) Sukuna Saga. I assume Brain's 'world to come' (whatever that means) will took an entire saga to complete due to its scope, 'the world'. He planned the thing for 100+ chapters and for centuries, his 'world to come' better last for a whole saga. Yuki shamanizing everyone doesn't sound like a short arc either. So many repercussions can take place with Shamans popping up everywhere. Sukuna could very well be a final villain without his own saga, but I can't just disrespect the king by not giving him a saga of his own. Please take note that this is all just an assumption. So what's the problem with those four saga? That story beat doesn't follow the three parter story which has been rumoured quite strongly. It's not fixed, but I'm sure everyone feel like the three parter story perfect for JJK. In order to keep the story three segmented, Yuki's story must either merge into Brain's (which is currently starting) or into Sukuna's (which is unknown). The latter doesn't feel mergeable to me, so I prefer the former because-- this is a very personal preference-- having two major enemy in one saga before Sukuna feels perfect Think about it this way if Yuki and Brain performed in the same saga, doesn't matter whether or not they work together:
Two prominent figure from two different eras works together or clash to change the world for evil (Brain's goal whatever it is) and good (Yuki's goal to eradicate curses) through a very intricate plans of both sides.
Their saga then ended as they should, it didn't matter whether or not they succeeded. Why? because it pales in comparison to the upcoming threat: The final saga.
Sukuna is reborn. Unlike Yuki or Brain, He did everything for himself. He has no plan to change the world or anything. He tramples on curses and humans alike, and those with white, black, or gray agendas.
From these two short synopsis, a certain quote feels much more hype than usual:
Throughout the heavens and earth, he alone is the honored one. Only his pleasure and displeasure exist.
I don't think Sukuna care about how many shaman there are in the world, nor the fate of curses around him. If anything, he would scoff at whatever Brain or Yuki did. They both cared too much about their sorroundings (the world), which is something Sukuna doesn't vibe with. I think it's just perfect for Sukuna's terror to overwhelm not only one, but two person's worth of agenda. This kind of set up is a perfect callback to Satozakura High Incident, where he scoffed at both good (Itadori) and evil (Mahito). It was also the arc where the quote originated.
CLOSING THOUGHTS
As you can tell, many part of the above exploration lacks explicit evidences. All I did was try to navigate the next story beat where it would make the most entertainment to me, and not necessarily make the most sense (well I did try to make them at least sound sensible). I pressed so hard about the shamanizing people thing, forgive me, but I really want to discuss the possibility. I really believe Brain and Yuki should perform in the same saga as the stage directors of the same script, at the very least. I can't wait to see how wrong everything I just write up above, and see how many days I wasted just to write this thing.. Thanks for reading.
Hello everyone! I apologise sincerely for the delay in predictions this week, I had a lot happening, Blood tests for glucose levels and such, a Job interview, overall not feeling super well, but I didn't want to let you guys down. This is a fun card, not an amazingly stacked card, but a fun one, and an end to the question "Can two team mates destroy each other in the Octagon?". (c) - Champ (D) - Debut FLS - Fight Lose Streak FWS - Fight Win Streak NS - No Streak (#x) - Rank in Division Lets go! Prelims Women’s Flyweight Gillian Robertson (#13) (9-5-0, NS) v Miranda Maverick (8-2-0, 6 FWS) - This is an incredible match up. Robertson is a savage, one of the most underrated and dangerous submission artists in the division who hasn’t really gotten a strong hold on climbing the ranks. Regardless of her record, she has an excellent ground game, she works incredibly hard to get the fight to the ground, and when she does, she instantly works for a submission position, and most of the time, that works and her opponents succumb to pressure and present their neck or limb. Now, a lot of her opponents are aware of the threats on the ground and now work to avoid and defend takedowns, and thus keep the fight on the feet. This is key for Maverick, and I firmly believe that Maverick can quickly outpower Robertson, she’s an incredibly physically strong fighter who has great power in her hands, and being so young in her career. She has made great strides in her career since her debut in Invicta in which she dominated most of her fights. She has pretty effective striking, and she throws leather when needed, but most of her best work is done on the ground, she’s a very good submission artist and even though she’s probably not going to force the fight to the ground against a great grappler like Robertson, she would know how to get out of submission positions and work back to the feet. I love Robertson, she’s an animal, but she’s relatively one dimensional, and I love what I see in Miranda. So, another hype train i'm gonna ride for a little longer… Maverick via KO R2 Welterweight Gabe Green (9-3-0, NS) v Philip Rowe (D) (7-2-0, 7 FWS) - This is a great fight between two newcomers, Green had a fantastic debut against Rodriguez, and even though he did lose, he did manage to put on an incredible performance, he even came in as a late replacement so this wasn’t a full camp performance and yet he still landed 120 plus strikes, and he ate shots from Daniel Rodrigeuz for 15 minutes, it was a beautiful, violent fight. I love how Green fights, he has an interesting defensive shell and he gives off a lot of different looks that allowed him to land a few decent shots on Rodriguez. Green will no doubt look a little bit different this time around because he has had a full camp and is more prepared for this fight. Rowe has turned around his career since his two back to back losses at the start of his professional career. Nothing but submissions and knockouts on his record, but in regards to this fight, he has one major advantage and that’s his reach, he’s very long, and has a 7.5 inch reach advantage, if he can avoid the pressure of Green (and Green is the type of fighter to push forward nonstop), and maybe take the fight to the ground, I can see Rowe getting a slick submission in, because from what I can see when it comes to Green’s chin, it’s pretty damn solid. So the best bet for Rowe in my opinion is to take it to the ground, and slip in a choke. Rowe via Sub R2 Featherweight Ricky Simon (17-3-0, 2 FWS) v Brian Kelleher (22-11-0, NS) - Any fight that has Ricky Simon in it, sign me up to watch it end to end because Simon is a specimen. I could easily copy and paste what i wrote about Simon when he fought Pirrello, but this time it’s a little bit different, it’s at featherweight and he will no doubt be carrying more mass, exuding more energy when he throws punches, or slams opponents, and that’s a bit dangerous when coming against someone who has fought in Featherweight beforehand in Kelleher, but the skillset and the power will still be there, i’m just weary about his cardio, Simon has excellent cardio at Bantamweight, but at Featherweight that’s a whole different question. Simon is incredible at creating pressure and throwing everything he has into every round, wild striking, vicious wrestling and a non-stop pace that is as exhausting for us as it is for his opponent, and that’s a good thing. Simon is facing a very durable and experienced, well rounded fighter in Kelleher though. Kelleher has an interesting array of techniques, with his signature, most mastered technique being a guillotine, but his stance (a somewhat blocky wrestling/striking hybrid) allows him to stand firm, defend any takedowns and throw hard, and with Kellehers proclivity to takedown and wrestle, his stance also allows him to dip and level change effortlessly, he’s a very good wrestler as well so he has a huge variety of weapons he can use to defeat Simon, but honestly, i’m still riding a Simon hype train, and I feel like by the time Kelleher throws something, Simon would be somewhere else, out of view and attacking, Simon is fast, durable, exceptionally well rounded and always entertains. Lets go Simon! Simon via UD Catchweight (140) Andre Ewell (17-6-0, 2 FWS) v Chris Gutierrez (15-3-2, NS) - This is an interesting match up. Ewell is someone who a lot of people kinda overlook because of how talent rich the division is, but if there’s one thing you need to keep an eye out for with Ewell, it’s his volume, he just throws, and throws, and throws. He is a kickboxer at heart, and his length and range allow him to adjust his style of attacking to fit the situation. He can keep at bay aggressive fighters by hitting then evading, he can push forward relatively aggressively, but he’s somewhat smart about his range whenever he strikes. His left straight is by far his best weapon, but he does have one flaw, and that is he looks maybe too loose on the feet at times, if you look at the Jonathan Martinez fight, you’ll notice that he was milliseconds away from being cleanly hit by Martinez’s super fast kicks, you can’t take that risk when you fight someone like Gutierrez. Gutierrez is a powerful striker, everything he throws is just… dangerous, and sharp, and has the shortest travel time from Point A to B, it’s pretty awesome to watch him get loose in the octagon, landing heavy leg kicks, body kicks, combo’s, anything really, The way he methodically dismantled Morales was beautiful, those leg kicks were powerful, landing in the same spot over and over again. Gutierrez landed 36 leg kicks in that fight I believe. He had a gameplan and he followed it through. He will need to do the same to disable the aggression from Ewell, chop at those legs, bring Ewells hands lower than they sometimes already are, then target the head. That’s what I feel like will happen. Gutierrez via KO R3 Women’s Strawweight Polyana Viana (11-4-0, NS) v Mallory Martin (7-3-0, NS) - Odd little tidbit I noticed, this is the second Strawweight fight of 2021, both the Bantamweight and Flyweight divisions have way more fights, so i’m glad Strawweight is getting a little bit of love. Viana is a great submission artist, she’s always looking for the fight to go to the ground so she can work her magic, Viana is like a snake on the ground, always finding the better positions to fire off a few submission attempts, and whilst her striking isn’t exactly clean or effective, that threat of being knocked out is always going to be there. Martin has a solid stand up game, she’s got decent striking and mixes her attacks very well, and I strongly feel that she will want to keep this fight standing otherwise she’s going to get outworked on the ground. I’m not too sure about who is going to win this fight though, if it goes to the ground Viana has a solid chance of getting the win, but Mallory is a tough striker to beat, and I’m not too sure if Viana will want to risk a striking exchange. This could be a methodical, boring fight, i’m not too hype about this fight, but overall i’ll be leaning on Martin to win. Martin via UD Welterweight Dhiego Lima (15-7-0, 3 FWS) v Belal Muhammad (#15) (17-3-0, 3 FWS) - An incredible match up to start this event. Lima is a super tough fighter, and whilst he hasn’t had a finish in quite a while, he still puts on pretty decent performances. Recently his performances haven’t been super good, throwing but not landing, grappling seems to be his main weapon, but with how inactive Lima has been, and how sporadic his fighting timeline has been, it’s pretty hard to see too many positives in comparison to the rise that Belal Muhammad has had in recent years. Muhammad is an animal at the moment, his style makes it very difficult to take him on, or even read him. He has two major threats for most of his opponents, his wrestling and his powerful, crashing right hand. He typically dips to level change but then launches that right hand. His wrestling is incredible and he is quite controlling when it comes to the ground game. Everything about Belal is something I like to see in a developing fighter. I can see Lima getting hit brutally over and over with those power right hands, then taken down and eventually submitted. Muhammad via Sub R3 Middleweight Rodolfo Vieira (7-0-0, 7 FWS) v Anthony Hernandez (7-2-0, NS) - A very interesting fight, and it’s always good to see an undefeated heavy favourite put his streak on the line. Vieira is a submission specialist, not a submission artist, a specialist, that’s a whole different level of whoa. Over 100 grappling bouts, multiple gold medals and tournament wins, Vieira is one of the most accredited grapplers that the UFC has at the moment, that’s still young and still has a chance to show off his striking, but holy crap he’s a solid grappler… he won 5 championships in 3 years, that’s not only impressive, but on a whole different level of skill. He’s called the Black Belt Hunter for a reason and well, Hernandez is going to go to sleep if he’s not careful. Hernandez has had a rough time in the UFC, and i’m hoping they’re giving him this fight not to beef up Vieira, but to give Hernandez an excuse to stay in the UFC. Hernandez has had some decent wins in his career, but most of those wins were in LFA. In the UFC he hasn’t been too successful, his recent loss against Holland kinda showed me that he isn’t great at being pressured, and if Vieira pushes forward, works hard for a takedown and absolutely dominates from there, I don’t see Hernandez getting the upper hand on the ground, he has a punchers chance but I mean… Vieira is a phenom at the moment, a rare addition to the UFC and i’m on the train, first class tickets! Vieira via Sub R1 Main Card Middleweight Julian Marquez (7-2-0, NS) v Maki Pitolo (13-7-0, 2 FLS) - It’s a shame that 2020 was a horrible year for Pitolo. Marquez is coming back from a 2 year hiatus, after suffering a heavy loss at the hands of Alessio Di Chirico, or as we now probably call him, the Hype Train Derailer. Marquez is a powerhouse, he explodes and lands incredibly hard, he has insane power in his hands and everything he does has that extra oomph that you can probably hear in a full arena. Marquez however is somewhat one dimensional with his style, he loves to strike, he loves chaos and hates order, and that’s going to be dangerous for Pitolo because numerous times we’ve seen Pitolo succumb to pressure. Pitolo is a mad man, don’t get me wrong, he has insane striking, he’s wild, a showman and someone who you really want to see fight for a while, but he can’t go one on one against Marquez and think “i’ll just go wild”, he needs to keep Marquez pushing him for the first round, see where the cardio holds up (I don’t think Marquez has much cardio because of how explosive he is), and then start attacking him in the second or third, but again, it’s hard for me to tell how good a returning fighter is cardio wise, so this is a very rough prediction. I’m leaning on the Cuban Missile Crisis to win this one though. Marquez via KO R1 Lightweight Bobby Green (27-11-1, NS) v Jim Miller (32-15-0, NS) - Green is lowkey one of my most favourite fighters, the amount of work he does in the octagon is pretty impressive, especially when you watch his fight against Vannata, that fight will go down as a classic I can assure you. Green has gorgeous boxing, he’s incredibly crisp and fast with his punches, and he has his wrestling to add even more frustration and drain his opponents of their gas. Green had one set back during 2020 and that was against the incredibly talented Thiago Moises. Green has every skill that one would need to succeed in the UFC, especially with his crisp boxing and head movement, he’s going to be a dangerous fighter for Miller who has a more grapple heavy approach. Miller has had some significant wins over his very extensive career, recently submitting Clay Guida, Roosevelt Roberts and Jason Gonzalez to name a few, Miller is a dangerous, dangerous grappler, he can strike though but not to great efficiency, he mostly uses his striking to set up a takedown, where he does his most effective work. Miller is on a rough run at the moment, ever since losing to Anthony Pettis, or even prior to that against Poirier, he hasn’t really strung together any major streaks, a win here and there, but nothing to great significance, and since this is the Lightweight division we’re talking about, significance is important. I have Green in this fight, he can keep this fight on the feet, keep at a distance and keep striking, he’ll win this one. Green via UD Middleweight Kelvin Gastelum (#11) (16-6-0, 3 FLS) v Ian Heinisch (#15) (14-3-0, NS) - This is going to be beautiful. Gastelum has incredible boxing, he’s the only one that gave Israel Adesanya trouble on the feet by using his beautiful pressure and interesting hopping technique that got him into range. Gastelum is on a losing streak but he has faced incredibly tough challenges. He went to war with Adesanya, he fought a highly technical bout against Till and has now lost to the submission artist in Hermansson. He is now facing the wild and explosive Ian Heinisch, which is going to be a brutally tough fight because Heinisch is pretty damn aggressive and has explosive takedowns that come with his explosive strikes, overall, Heinisch is an explosive dude and a perfect matchup for a methodical and tactical boxer like Gastelum. Heinisch is someone who is always improving, so there’s no doubt that what you saw in 2020 will be what you get in 2021 and more. That makes me wonder what his game plan will be, whether he will come in with a wrestling heavy approach to negate the power that Gastelum has on his feet, or if he’ll be incredibly aggressive and keep Gastelums back glued to the fence. Either way, Heinisch is going to be unpredictable, and I think it will be a true test of what Gastelum can accomplish if he can handle Heinisch. This is a great fight, one that I don’t want to overtalk this fight because well, it’s hard predicting a fighter on a losing streak, to win, i’ve done that one too many times (Michael Johnson being the most recent one) and it didn’t turn out how I expected… So this is a risky prediction, but War Gastelum! Gastelum via KO R2 Co-Main Event Women’s Flyweight Maycee Barber (#9) (8-1-0, NS) v Alexa Grasso (12-3-0, NS) - An interesting fight to say the least. Barber is coming off a heavy loss and a horrible injury to her knee, so there’s a lot of variables coming into this fight. Barber has always been an incredibly aggressive and tough fighter, she pushes forward, launching punch after punch that can overwhelm her opponents, she put away Robertson very effectively, bloodied up Cifers and destroyed Aldrich. She’s no doubt still a prospect and if she can get past Grasso then that certifies her prospect status in the Flyweight division. The one thing i'm worried about is her knee… It was probably her first ever injury and that would hang on your mind for quite a while. Barber is going to have to get past the excellent boxing of Grasso if she is to win this one though, and that’s going to be pretty tough. Grasso has made her rounds in the UFC before, facing pretty much every up and comer that the UFC threw at her, Grasso is yet to get a solid winning streak going and her main weakness seems to be her ground game, She doesn’t have the best takedown defence, nor the best defensive submissions, her main style is her boxing, and if she can avoid the ground with Barber and keep the fight on the feet, I can see Grasso getting the upper hand. But Barber is a solid, solid prospect and one minor setback isn’t going to hurt her. Barber is still a very promising fighter and i’m gonna lean on her a little bit longer. Barber via UD Main Event Welterweight Championship bout Kamaru Usman (c) (17-1-0, 16 FWS) v Gilbert Burns (#4) (19-3-0, 6 FWS) - A fight that we all needed to see. Every match up has happened but this one. Usman is an athletic freak, he’s one of the most durable and strongest welterweights in the division right now, his wrestling is incredible, his striking is somewhat great, his cardio is neverending, and he has defeated the best the welterweight division has to offer, all but one. So many people think Usman is boring, the whole footstomp meme is everywhere this week and whilst it’s a good chuckle, I feel like some people are sleeping on the potential that this guy has. There is so much story behind this fight, training partners, Usman leaving his own gym to train with Wittman (which is a pretty great substitute), we might see a change in style from Usman, because I highly doubt he will wrestle with Burns considering Burns is one of the best BJJ practitioners in the welterweight division. I feel like Usman will try to trade hands with Burns, or at least grapple against the fence but not on the ground. Burns is one of the most improved fighters of the division, he was mostly a submission artist but in the last year or two, we have seen him become far more comfortable on the feet, and that throws off a lot of his opponents. His ability to change and adapt, and include striking to his skillset is second to none the best change I have seen in a fighter. It’s kinda like when Gaethje finally learnt to become patient and we saw an upgrade to Gaethje’s skill set. This is what is happening to Burns at the moment, we are seeing a newborn striker who carries significant power and isn’t afraid to show it. This is a super tough fight to predict. Both fighters have a solid chance of winning… but I feel like Usman will be holding onto that gold a little longer. I’m feeling a little ballsy with this prediction. Usman via KO R4 And that's it! Again, sorry for the late predictions, been a stupid crazy week. f you wish to support me please message me and i can provide details on how you can do so. If you would like to follow me on twitter, you can find me @Slayer_Tip or if you want, add me on discord and we can have a super friendly chat about all things MMA: Slayertip#7013 Lets have a fun discussion down below, let me know if you agree/disagree with my picks :) But for now, have a beautiful week, take care of yourselves :)
Note: Made an edit 12 hours after posting here. I didn't like where Rondale was ranked so I did move him up two spots to more closely match his athletic profile to other players. To make someone upset, looking at these rankings and having spent more time thinking about it I may also move Smith down to 9. I'll leave it for now. 2020 series:
Yes, an inconsistent title, it’s scouting the 2020 school year, but technically it’s 2021 prospects exclusively.
Quick note: I am not going to be providing a formula change relative to last year, and I'll be citing past work in this post rather than bringing in new concepts. To that point I suppose we will talk more about rankings today. I'm going to avoid tiering in this case but will certainly enter discussions below; I intend to describe more of my takes in the comments rather than the body of the post. Contents:
2020 Season Recap
Draft Capital Expectations
Positional Rankings
Top 12 Rankings
2020 Season Recap
Like every year, the sands shift under our feet every couple of weeks. We had players opt out, we had players lose the season due to injury, we had players lose their careers due to medical events. We see this frequently, Mike Williams and DK Metcalf having their careers threatened by neck injuries, Ahmonn Richards losing his career due to a neck injury. This year we nearly lost Justyn Ross due to a birth defect (and given Clemson’s history may be likely to return to school) and lost Journey Brown (my pre-season RB3) to a career ending heart defect. Throw in Ja’Marr Chase’s opt out--which gave Terrace Marshall the lead spot at LSU, Javonte Williams usurping Michael Carter and thundering into the top RB conversation, Kylin Hill opting out; the sands shifted. For all that sand shifting, I do not feel my rankings in this iteration are changing much. There were some stand out performances that re-organized my WR rankings, and my uncertainty around Hubbard has only grown, but the complexion of the rankings are fairly solid now 8 months later.
Draft Expectations
I reference my thought process around this in the 2020 Let's Talk under the heading "Setting Draft Capital Expectations." The cliff notes version is I currently use historical precedent to determine just how many players we can expect to go in rounds 1-3 each year. This was born out of countering the idiocy of takes like "30 wide receivers are going to go in the first 3 rounds" when there have never been more than 17 taken. Generally, we know that draft capital is a large portion of opportunity and the wide body of top ranked prospects any given year will come out of day 1 and day 2. This doesn't mean we disregard everyone that falls out of that conversation--this year there are a number of players I am intrigued with that I currently don't project to have day 1 or day 2 draft capital--but it gives us a place to start. Since 2013, we know on average 5 QBs, 7 RBs, 12 WRs, and 6 TEs go Day 1-2. Over that course of time we have not seen more than 8 RBs or 16 WRs go in the first two days of the draft and from past examination since 2002 it was only in 2007 that 17 WRs went in the first two days. The general thought here, like we observed in 2019, you may get a record 13 receivers go in the first 2 rounds but then you are only going to get 2 in round 3..on average. Any year can be an outlier, but we don't set expectations on outliers. Having said all of this my current expectation for the coming class is:
Round
QB
RB
WR
1
3
0-1*
4-6*
2
1-2*
3-4*
4-6*
3
1-2*
3
2-3*
Total Taken
6
7
12
* My current read is there is a player(s) between rounds. One quick note, every year there tends to be a small school guy that creeps into the day 2 conversation. This year, I wouldn't bet against 13-15 receivers being taken, however I believe there is value in being measured and conservative in these numbers as we must thin the herd and think about who deserves to be in the conversation instead of assuming every player that is ever mentioned is just in the conversation. That's how you get Equanimeous St. Brown Round 1 lock. PS: Dang I did a pretty good job ballparking players last year. Maybe I should have spent more time on it this year to make sure I do just as well.
Positional Rankings
First, no, I don't talk about tight ends until after the draft. It's outside of my wheel house. A lot of people I respect LOVE Pitts though. As I've spoken in the past, draft capital is a good guide, and often times out performs ADP in straight rankings, especially early in a players career (opportunity > talent, but talent eventually brings the opportunity). However, if we are looking at success rates, or the probability of finding success by draft position, we find there isn't a significant difference in rate of success between a runner taken 65th overall and a runner taken 90th overall. A receiver taken 25th overall or a receiver taken 65th overall. More succinctly, if you know DK Metcalf is a hard worker, comes from a football family, has a production profile that mirrors hall of famers when extrapolated out and has gone to a good team--you ignore what people are saying and take the 9th drafted WR as your WR1. Take the 6th drafted WR (Michael Thomas) as your WR1. It may fail, the best odds in fantasy predictions are a coin flip, the BEST odds, so don't haggle between the difference of 20% and 15% odds. Quarterback
Trevor Lawrence, Clemson (Top 3)
Justin Fields, Ohio State (Top 5)
Zach Wilson, BYU (Round 1)
Mac Jones, Alabama (Round 2)
Trey Lance, North Dakota State (Round 2)
Kyle Trask, Florida (Round 2-3)
Haven't fallen in love with a specific QB yet, but I think there is a lot of noise around each player. Find your favorite and cling to him. Running Back
Najee Harris, Alabama (Round 2)
Travis Etienne, Clemson (Round 2)
Javonte Williams, North Carolina (Round 2)
Jermar Jefferson, Oregon State (Round 3)
Michael Carter, North Carolina (Round 3)
Chuba Hubbard, Oklahoma State (Round 2)
Kenneth Gainwell, Memphis (Round 3)
Honorable Mentions:
Trey Sermon, Ohio State
Kylin Hill, Mississippi State
Brian Robinson, Alabama
Javian Hawkins, Lousville
I'm not saying there won't be first round runners, but if there are, I think they seep into the 20s or 30-32 like last year. Wide Receiver
Ja'Marr Chase, LSU (Top 15)
Terrace Marshall, LSU (Top 40)
Justyn Ross, Clemson (Round 2)
Rashod Bateman, Minnesota (Top 40)
Jaylen Waddle, Alabama (Top 20)
DeVonta Smith, Alabama (Top 30)
Seth Williams, Auburn (Round 3)
Elijah Moore, Ole Miss (Round 2)
Rondale Moore, Purdue (Top 40) [+2]
Chris Olave, Ohio State (Round 2)
Tylan Wallace, Oklahoma State (Round 2-3)
Dyami Brown, North Carolina (Round 3)
Honorable Mentions:
Amon-Ra St. Brown
Dazz Newsome
Let it all burn. Before everyone goes thermonuclear in the comments, 5-11 are a fairly large tier for me. I think Rondale Moore is roughly where Tyreek was coming out of college, more game tape being used as an extension of the ground game than as a true wide receiver. I think in the right situation (with the reading I've done on Rondale Moore) gives him a similar career arc to Tyreek. But if you are asking me to give up someone like the more technically savvy players ahead of him for Rondale and I need to hit on that pick? It's scary so far out from the start of the season.
Top 12 Rankings (Superflex)
Trevor Lawrence, QB, Clemson
Ja'Marr Chase, WR, LSU
Najee Harris, RB, Alabama
Justin Fields, QB, Ohio State
Travis Etienne, RB, Clemson
Javonte Williams, RB, North Carolina
Terrace Marshall, WR, LSU
Rashod Bateman, WR, Minnesota
Justyn Ross, WR, Clemson
Zach Wilson, QB, BYU
Jaylen Waddle, WR, Alabama
Rondale Moore, WR, Purdue
I always do my top 12 rankings a little differently than my positional rankings because here I think player value has to come into play. I may not be as high on some people on Rashod Bateman, Rondale Moore--but at some point you are taking him in a draft because of the value and the potential trade outs late in the summer and early in the season. It quickly becomes situational and an examination of upside. Let's talk.
New? Start here! https://preview.redd.it/2zar1m85xjf61.png?width=1600&format=png&auto=webp&s=45361941276c90a28a2cf665851c61ea32993b14 “So,” Eve started as she led her companions through the broad thoroughfares of Pyrindel, “how much did you bet on me?” “Not much,” Wes replied, disappointment in his voice. “Odds were eighteen to one against you, and the bookies only carry a hundred silver in these earlier. Only let me wager five.” He grinned. “Still cleaned him out, though.” Eve shook her head. “Shame. Doubt I’ll ever get odds that good again.” Preston snorted. “You beat a tournament favorite so bad the Archbishop herself had to intervene. If you’re not predicted to win every match until the finals those bookies are drunk.” Wes exhaled. “I’m still disappointed none of you bet on me.” “I bet against you,” Eve said, “but that was with Preston. None of the bookies were close enough when you stepped up.” “And I’m glad they weren’t,” Preston added. “You technically lost, remember?” “Only technically,” Wes replied. “And now I don’t have to fight through a whole tournament to make an impression. I’d count that as a win.” “That’s exactly what a loser would say,” Eve teased. “No, I’m pretty sure losers say ‘ramtshit, I demand a rematch!’” Wes gave his best Roric impression. “What even is a ramt?” Preston asked. Eve shrugged. “Hells if I know. And I actually feel a bit sorry for him.” Preston raised an eyebrow. “Sorry for him, or sorry for his muscles?” Eve ignored him. “I mean, imagine traveling all this way, grinding up to level sixty-three, and being named one of the tournament favorites, just to be paired against me in round one. It’s really not fair.” “Feeling humble tonight, are we?” Wes chuckled. Eve flashed a grin. “It’s not my fault I’m so great.” Preston rolled his eyes. “I’m just curious what they’re gonna do for your next match. There’s a reason we had to wait an hour for the bout after yours. Divine Intervention isn’t cheap.” “Really? It looked an awful lot like a fancy version of your Ayla’s Ward.” The healer nodded. “That’s because it pretty much is. Divine Intervention is a tier 5 upgrade to Ayla’s Bulwark, which is a tier 4 upgrade to Ayla’s Ward. Get me to level a hundred and I can start doing it too. That doesn’t answer the question though. Archbishop Callandria can’t keep using it every time you fight, both for Mana reasons and because if she casts it too soon it’d end the bout unfairly and if she casts it too late your opponent dies. Roric’s lucky she was as quick as she was today.” “Maybe they’ll schedule me for the end of the day? At least that way the next match won’t be delayed while the Archbishop recovers her Mana.” Preston continued, “That still leaves her with the task of deciding your matches before you even land a blow. You saw how pissed Roric was today, and even if it’s the only way to keep your opponents alive, if you fight through the whole tournament like this, there will always be a question of whether you truly deserved to win.” “So what am I supposed to do?” Eve asked. “Just kill ‘em in the ring?” “Well, no,” the Caretaker answered. “But you might consider toning down the Mana Rush a bit. You just need enough Strength to trigger Cheat Death; you don’t need to wipe out their entire bloodline from the annals of history.” “That doesn’t seem quite fair,” she argued. “How am I supposed to know how much Strength is enough? What if Roric had a defensive skill I didn’t know about? Too little Strength and I could just outright lose the match.” Wes snorted. “Mana Rush isn’t fair. Asking you to rein it in is absolutely reasonable.” Preston nodded. “Would you rather your opponents wind up dead? Or maybe the tournament officials will disqualify you like they did Wes.” “I doubt that,” Eve said. “The competitors knew Cheat Death wasn’t perfect when they signed up, and I’m not a threat to the spectators, the coliseum, and Pyrindel itself.” “Hey,” Wes protested, “I only burned the enchantments a little.” “Oh, you mean the enchantments put there to stop wayward spells from murdering audience members? The ones specifically stopping your fire from burning the arena to a crisp? Those enchantments?” Eve laughed. “Well as long as it was only a little.” When can I try? Art, who’d been thus far quietly reading the thoughts of passersby, joined the conversion. I wanna fight! Preston patted him on his feathered head. “The tournament is for humans, Art. I don’t think it’d be fair to let a Trellac enter.” But Eve’s not human! Art insisted. And Wes is only half human. Wes rubbed his temples. “Do… do I want to know what the other half is?” Half idiot! The hatchling cheerfully sent. Wes frowned. Preston snorted. Eve cackled. After several moments of belly-shaking, tear-welling laughter, the Defiant finally managed to collect herself enough to address Wes and Preston’s questioning looks. “What? You’re not the only one who can teach him things.” “And you went with ‘half human, half idiot’?” “Hey,” Preston said with a slight smile of his own, “at least you’re not a full idiot.” Eve affectionately ruffed the feathers atop Art’s head. “Flawless timing, kid. Excellent work.” The Trellac replied with a simple wave of pure emotional pride, not enough to actually influence anyone else’s own state of mind, but plenty to understand his meaning. “Now let’s get you back to the suite,” Preston said as the palace gates came into view. “I’m sure Reginald will want to hear all about today’s fights.” “And while we’re at it—” Eve paused to flag down a passing page to request a cask of ale and a few plates of food as they stepped into the lavish hall— “I think a celebration is in order.” Preston raised an eyebrow. “A celebration? It’s only round one.” “Sure, but there’s still a few days before round two, and we have one decisive win and one… whatever Wes did to celebrate.” The fire mage shrugged. “Good enough for me. And mine was definitely a win. I just won so hard the arena couldn’t handle it.” Eve patronizingly patted him on the back. “Whatever you tell yourself so you don’t go crying into your massive signing bonus with Hard Company.” “I’ve already told you, I’m not signing with Hard Com…” Wes exhaled. “You know what? Maybe a celebration is in order. Just so I have an excuse to drink enough ale to forget your Hard Company jokes.” “Now that’s more like it.” Eve opened the door to her suite, leading the way into the luxurious bedchamber. “The night is young, the food is free, and the ale will flow just like the bad jokes.” “I hope not,” Preston said. “The ale’s supposed to go into your mouth, not out from it.” “Yeah,” Wes agreed, “let’s not have one of those nights.” Eve opened her mouth to reply, but was cut off when a knock rang out at the chamber door. But a moment later, a procession of liveried servants marched in with several trays of roast meats, hearty stews, and buttery fish, as well as the all-important small keg. Eve didn’t even wait for them to leave before pouring herself a tankard. “A toast,” she called, “to beating the tournament itself.” Wes fetched himself a glass, raising it to the air. “Cheers to that. It’s absolute ramtshit, but cheers to that.” “To ramtshit!” Preston added. Eve grinned, taking a swig before echoing the sentiment. “To ramtshit!” —— Eve awoke the next morning feeling like ramtshit. The trouble, she’d learned, with being a Manaheart, is that in order to experience any level of intoxication, she had to completely overwhelm her body’s ability to convert the alcohol into Mana. The process, however, left her needing to drink a truly unreasonable amount of water to stave off the morning after, a task she’d failed miserably the prior night. At least with a bit of food and water her Ethereal Metabolism would have her right as rain sooner rather than later. After a moment spent rubbing her aching temples, the reason for her abrupt awakening reasserted itself. Eve! Art’s sending overshadowed the polite yet unceasing knocking at her door. The silly man wants to talk with you. Grumbling something about waking her up being anything but silly, Eve forced herself to her feet and crossed the bedchamber, caring little for the wrinkled state of the clothes she’d slept in. She yanked open the door to reveal Art accompanied by Wes, Preston standing in the antechamber, both looking far too alert given last night’s festivities. No doubt Preston had a few Lesser Healing-sized holes in his Mana pool. In front of them all stood Charles, his fist poised to knock yet again at the wooden door. “What do you want?” Eve half spoke half grunted. The Steward dropped into his customary, unnecessarily extravagant bow. “Your excellency,” he greeted. “Lord Traft, military advisor to her majesty Queen Elric, has requested I arrange a meeting with you. I believe he wishes to discuss a potential defensive alliance with the people of New Burendia. What time might I let his lordship know you’re available?” Eve froze. “I um…” She dragged the syllable out, her sluggish mind racing to summon any excuse to avoid negotiating treaties for her nonexistent kingdom. From behind the still-bowing Steward, Wes and Preston glared at her. It was only as her belly began to loudly rumble that Eve’s pounding head managed to form some semblance of an idea. “I’m sorry,” she said in the haughtiest voice she could conjure her tired state, “but I simply cannot make plans on an empty stomach. Would you be so kind as to fetch me a loaf of bread to break my fast?” “A loaf of bread.” The Steward nodded. “Of course, your excellency. I am at your service.” With that, he turned on his heel and swung open the front door, vanishing into the ostentatious hallway. Eve grinned. “That oughta keep him busy for a while.” “That was cruel,” Preston said flatly. “You’re gonna get him killed.” “Nah, more likely he finds out the oven’s broken so he has to go into town, buys the bread, then finds the queen herself also wants bread this morning so he gives it to her, and she loves it so much she gives him a promotion and he forgets all about Lord Traft and his meeting with me.” Wes stared at her. “That’s… an oddly specific prediction.” Eve shrugged. “That or something else equally ridiculous but ultimately harmless. Even the bakeries I’ve burned down didn’t actually hurt anybody. Charles’ll be fine.” “Alright,” Preston backed down, “but you’d better tip the poor man in gold when he inevitably comes back empty-handed after scouring every oven in Pyrindel for your bread.” “Sounds fair.” Eve nodded. “He deserves it too, if only for dealing with nobles all day.” “Nobles and you,” Wes added. “You’re high on his list of headaches too, you know.” “Sure am,” Eve chimed, “but I’m number one on your list of headaches.” “That you are, Eve.” Wes patted her on the back. “That you are.” “Speaking of headaches…” “Yeah, yeah.” She didn’t even need to finish her sentence for Preston to understand her meaning, lifting a hand to channel golden radiance across the room. Eve shuddered under Ayla’s invasive judgement, both of the self-inflicted damage she’d done in the name of last night’s celebration, and of the fool’s errand she’d just gifted the hapless Steward. Even as her hangover vanished and the goddess’s light faded, a shadow of guilt remained. She shrugged it away. Her life’s quest really hadn’t hurt anybody so far, she thought. Why should it start now? It wasn’t as if she’d sent the defenseless Steward into a dungeon, or anything. He might return a bit scraped up, a bit exhausted from chasing shadows all over town, but otherwise, Eve was sure that Charles would come out unharmed. Probably. PreviousNext Leave a Review! | Discord | Patreon | Map | Mailing List I'm trying out including the cover at the start of chapter posts. Let me know what you think!
https://wherearetheshares.com/ These hedge funds (Melvin and others) were predicting that GameStop would eventually run out of business. A struggling kiosk video game retailer will little to no prospect for growth wasn't hard to bet against. The pandemic's peak on Q4 2020 was the perfect time to take out FTDs to drive the price to zero and end this company. They needed bankruptcy for this retailer to hide any investigation into FTDs they sold while making money off of stock that doesn't even exist.
An American Call Option is a contract that allows an investor to purchase a certain amount of shares (normally in sets of 100) up to or on a specific date. The investor makes money if the strike price plus the premium is less than the market price when they execute the option. In other words, DFV bought tens of thousands of shares by executing Jan 15th$10, $15, and $20 call options. Guess what the price was on that day: https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/GME/history?p=GME He made at least a 100% profit on every Call Option he executed. But he didn't sell. Was he greedy? What else did he know?
Enter FINRA
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_Industry_Regulatory_Authority "The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) is a private American corporation that acts as a self-regulatory organization (SRO) which regulates member brokerage firms and exchange markets. [FINRA] is the largest independent regulator for all securities firms doing business in the United States. FINRA's mission is to protect investors by making sure the United States securities industry operates fairly and honestly." Yeah, right.
FINRA Short Interest Reporting Dates
https://www.finra.org/filing-reporting/regulatory-filing-systems/short-interest DFV purchased most of his calls to execute by January 15th. That was the first Settlement Date of Q1 2021. Why is this important? The Settlement Date is simply the latest date that FINRA asks for short interest reporting data. For example: let's use Jan 29th as the Settlement Date. That means FINRA wants short interest reports from Jan 18th to Jan 29th. The Due Date for firms to send FINRA this data is Feb 2nd at 6pm. The final reports are released to the public on the Exchange Receipt Date on Feb 9th. But what about the Settlement Date on Jan 15th? Was that reflected in prices leading up to the Exchange Receipt Date? And what does this mean for the trading day after i.e. Feb 1st? Settlement Date: Jan 15th Open: $38.49 | Volume: 46,752,200 Due Date: Jan 20th Open: $37.37 | Volume: 33,471,800 Highest Volume: Jan 22th Open: $42.59 | Volume: 196,784,300 Exchange Receipt Date: Jan 27th Open: $354.83 | Volume: 93,396,700 Highest Open: Jan 29th Open: $379.71 | Volume: 50,259,200 Feb 1st is important for two reasons. The first is naked short selling, which is just HFs selling FTDs to drive the price down, was done to close at a -29% loss. The only issue for HFs during this sell off was that volume never matched the massive amount traded from Jan 22-27th, as compared to Feb 2-5th. Feb 1st is also a day after the following Settlement Date: Jan 29th.
Waiting Game
Many people were waiting for data from FINRA's short interest reports on Feb 9th. The issue with this data is that it doesn't cover the new shorts that were opened on Feb 1st when that round of naked short sells were executed. Genius. The HFs didn't short at the all time high on Jan 28th because that would reveal their hand, so they waited during pre-market on Feb 1st to open new short positions. This gives them until Feb 24th to cover those positions. Settlement Date is Feb 12th. The Due Date is Feb 17th. The House Financial Services Committee hearing is on Feb 18th. Guess when the next pump is going to happen? When the financial news HAS to report on $GME, Melvin, Citadel, and Robinhood. This is far from over. tl;dr: Look towards the next settlement date. Until then, 💎🙌. LET'S GOOOO 🦍🦍🦍!!!!!
Disclaimer
This post is based on my personal opinion and experience, and should not be considered professional financial investment advice. The ideas and strategies should never be used without first assessing your own personal and financial situation, or without consulting a financial professional. All information and data provided is for informational purposes only, and I am not liable for any errors, omissions, or any losses, injuries, or damages arising from its display or use. My thoughts and opinions will also change from time to time as I learn and accumulate more knowledge. P.S. Shout out to DookieDimez (https://www.twitch.tv/dookiedimez), Galactic Finance (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9yWuF1fm1BT6AJr9gjMPag), and all the other 💎🙌🦍s on /GME , YouTube , Twitch and everywhere we roam.
The sure bet tips and prediction for this match is an way win for Levante. Asteras Tripolis vs Olympiakos Sure Bet Prediction. Our last sure prediction comes form the Greek Super League. The match between Asteras Tripolis and Olympiakos is expected to end wih an away win. This is a sure bet tips whose accuracy is great. We are an online football prediction site that provides free real football predictions and, sports betting tips to its users. Here we believe victory is better guaranteed, so we give you an edge by providing well researched football match forecasts that are properly categorized, and include the most recent odds offered by bookmakers. Xpress VIP sure soccer prediction Day: Saturday Date: 06.02.2021. League: NETHERLANDS Eerste Divisie Match: Den Bosch – Graafschap Tip: Over 2.5 Goals Odds: 1.50 Result: ?:? [email protected] How tipsters make fixed-match betting tips? You might have a lot of question in mind when it come to match fixing. We will try to answer some of them in The following are sure bet predictions and sure bet tips for March 2019. They are from trusted sources and the winning rate is perfect. The have 100% winning rate because they are the best football predictions or soccer betting tips in the world. You can visit our sure bet tips page for today's sure bet tips. Remember Here we bring you our upcoming sure bet predictions for today. By sure bets, we mean games where we are at least 85% confident that wins will be as we've predicted for each of the teams. While we class the football predictions shown here as safe bets or sure wins, they don't guarantee success. A soccer field from above. Surebet Prediction predictions for many sports, specializing on soccer and esports Predictions for todays matches. Go visit our surebet prediction for todays matches. We provide you with the newest surebets for all matches commencing today. Up to a profit of 1.2% our surebets are for free. If any or both teams fail to score in the match then the result is No-Goal or NG. You can get these predictions daily as part of the sure bet prediction package after you register. One advantage with this GG/NG prediction market is that like Over/under predictions, there are always only 2 possible Win Draw Win is one of sure bet prediction sites with a very good reputation of offering reliable surebet prediction. It offers sure bets from all major leagues in Europe. They also offer daily Sure bet accumulator tips. They also post sure bet tips 7 days in advance giving punters equally enough time to do their research. 5. Forebet Welcome to sure bet predictions where winning soccer bets is our only goal. It’s that simple! Betting can be really frustrating when nothing works for you. Moody lifestyle sets in when you lose recklessly. But not anymore because if you’re reading this, you are at the right soccer prediction page that will change that loosing mentality for you. Volyn Lutsk vs Karpaty Lviv - Sure bet prediction & Mega Jackpot prediction.VOLYN LUTSK VS KARPATY LVIV (1X2) PREDICTION Probability of
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![[This Quest is Bullshit] - Chapter 75: Headaches](https://a.thumbs.redditmedia.com/_x93MiHq_0JmYD3BamQkylZL1tKg3r7mPTCy6CCNGT4.jpg "[This Quest is Bullshit] - Chapter 75: Headaches")
