Wake Up

Certain personal info taken out...for their own sake...

Email #1:
hey send me a fr at pro assasin## im a rape player good communication i can dub shot and bxr really good have a good br and im rape so send me a fr and well get along pretty well by the way i live in ------

Email #2:
wait wait im the best im in honduras stop the matches of halo... my name is gera---- GAYtan my email is --------@hotmail.com although i need the tickets to beat everybody up in that joint u guys have up in the north... everybody knows me in honduras because of my skills they call me EL GORDO, FRENTE DE PAPA, FRENTE DE RODILLA, ANIMAL, ZANGIEF, TOMBOLA FELIZ, TIBONBO CONTRERAS, PACIENCIA NUÑEZ etc....

My recommendation to gamers out there: learn spelling and basic grammar.

Email:
Hi
My name is ---- and i play halo 2 alot more than my parents would like me to lol but i do think iam pretty good and i play with some pros and i was woundereing what i would need to do to get sponsored?? So if you could please replay asap on what i need to do it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanx

Since Synide is unpacking his life, I figured I'd sub in for one day with my favorite email of the day:

Hi i am ------- am going around to different sit but i am so interrested that i would like to ask would thank about looking at my cln on halo 2 it is theolr bonedragons and we area luget clan we play for fun but i would like to ask would you consitder taking my clan and sponsering it for toraments or FFA games i am a vary well trannind player i just can't get to you games i just don't got the money so i hop you consutder it


thank you you can contat me at ------- or ------- and just ask for ricky thank you so veary much

Well, I'll slowly try to update my blogging...but obviously things are overwhelming in my life, so bare with me!

Anyways, I have the privilege of being around the wonder child that is Lil Poison more often than some others and this little kid is not only amazing at Halo, he says some funny things. The following are some quotes that I happened to catch from my time being around him...could the "little man" be showing signs of his future trash talking skills?

Quote #1
Me: Hey want a straw with your soda?
LP: No, straws are for babies.

Quote #2
LP: Ray you drive? But you look so young.

Quote #3
Me: Hey little man, how's it going?
LP: I'm not a little man...I'm a man.

All of you New Yorkers out there...come stop on by newly opened game center, VS: Harlem, this Friday, February 17th as MLG Pro Gamers, Lil Poison and Xena will be filming a documentary with BBC. The documentary will be aired in March and will discuss children and gaming. The filming will be done in the morning and afternoon and there may be the possibility of playing with them depending on what is needed for the BBC footage.

For those people wanting to stop by, here's the address to VS: Harlem
480 Lenox Ave.
New York, NY 10037
(Between 133rd and 134th St.)
You can take the 2 or 3 train to 135th St.

Here's <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/06/technology/06game.html?_r=2&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1139 354469-Jc1RMU3Z4jw9EvwpGcvwFQ&pagewanted=print&oref=slogi n">an interesting article from the NY Times</a> (found this through Joystiq).

Check it out, it talks about how original titles are doing extremely well and why gamers are just getting tired of all these sequels. Some of the most praised and succesful games recently have all been fresh products. Joystiq gave examples of Geometry Wars, Guitar Hero, and Nintendogs. Looking back a little furthur, games such as God of War and Lumines really stand out because of their originality. While sequels can be good, they really don't fall in the same league as the games that I just previously noted. I'll be honest and say that despite the decent reviews, I really couldn't get that interested in Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones, Need for Speed Most Wanted, and Tony Hawk American Wasteland (though Live kicks ass). An exception to all of this would be the 2005 game of the year, Resident Evil 4. However, this game was such a different step away from the traditional Resident Evil games that it really wasn't a sequel, but rather a recreation of the series.

Now moving forward, this really makes me wonder how successful sequel heavy series and games such as Tomb Raider: Legend, Splinter Cell: Double Agent and Mortal Kombat Armageddon will do. Unless there's a veryyyyyyyyyy drastic change I can't see myself getting as interested.

Praise originality.

I haven't blogged in almost a month. I blame many many reasons that add up to me being extremely busy. Anyways...

We're all gearing up for the National Championships in NY and I'm extremely excited to get back to tournaments after the haitus since Chicago. I can't wait for the top teams to duke it out and the All-Star Classic to take place. I can't wait to see who is the Individual Champion and how the teams will place (this is includes the Smashers). I also can't wait to get the new season started. The MLG office since Chicago has been working at a feverish pitch to get things accomplished. Some really good things are in the works and the 2006 season is looking to really explode. Sundance and Ted Steel are always flying to different cities for meetings...things are starting to shape up rather nicely. Hopefully a number of annoucements can be made sooner rather than later so you can all see some of the happenings.

And now, since I've had an extended time in the office, I've been able to learn some bits of little known trivia about some of the staff members I deal with on a daily basis.

Sundance: loves sour starbursts.
Sepso: thinks hybrid cars are for old hippies.
Ted Steel: will occassionaly do a twirl in the middle of the office after a good business conversation.
Joel: can check his email, drive on a highway, and make my life flash before my eyes at the same time.
Clap: prefers a bag of tuna over real food.
I: pat the Master Chief statue's head everytime before I sit down at my desk.

Because the ringleader said he wanted to see this:
The end of day game in the office today.

FFA Lockout
Sundance: 25
Me: 19
Sepso: 19

Office Highlight of the Day: I lynch myself.

Well I played a lot of Dead or Alive 4 last night trying to unlock the Spartan-458. After over five hours of gaming here are my impressions and opinions on the game:

- Solid fighting game...
- ...but nothing groundbreaking, it's still a Dead or Alive game which, to me is less enjoyable than Soul Calibur.
- Graphics are not next gen. Except for maybe the background scenary, this game could have passed for a normal Xbox game.
- Everyone needs to play through Hitomi story just to see how laughably dumb her cut scenes are. Spoiler alert...she gets mad at someone taking her lettuce and gets mad at someone for beating up a dinosaur. Silly.
- The Spartan-458...it's great to control a spartan in a fighting game. She plays like one of the strong/slow type characters instead of quick one. I normally like to play with Ayane and Ryu Hayabusa for their speed, so even though I like the Spartan-458, I'd actually prefer using someone else.
- The Halo level is pretty sweet, slamming someone against a Warthog is something you couldn't do in an FPS.
- Tecmo sure makes you work for the Spartan-458, you need to complete the entire story modes for all characters before she is unlocked. I guess they're forcing all Halo players to be good at DOA now...
- The Alpha 152 boss is *&amp;^%$*# cheap. Or maybe it's because I'm so bad at the game.
- That's it, Happy New Years to all!...and now back to Soul Calibur III....

Merry Christmas to everyone, hope you all had a good one. I didn’t have much of a Christmas this year, but on the bright side, I was able to get some gaming in this past weekend. I few gaming thoughts from these last few days…

1. I CAN NOT play Halo 2 on the Xbox 360 controller. I tried getting used to it, but I just can’t. My skill drops tremendously when making the switch. I don’t know why specifically this is, but hopefully I won’t have this problem with Halo 3.
2. PGR3 is NOT a 10/10 game (sorry 1up).
3. Resident Evil 4 is still amazing, my 2005 game of the year.
4. With only a few missions into it, I totally love the Xbox Live Arcade game Outpost Kaloki X, highly recommended.
5. While it’s great watching the Fight Night Round 3 videos, I’d love for that sort of graphical technology to be implement on a true fighting game like Soul Calibur or Tekken. Having no health bar because you can actually SEE the damage and their condition…hell yes.
6. How the hell do people score over a million in Geometry Wars?
7. Splinter Cell: Double Agent has 3 on 3 multiplayer finally. This is probably the game I’m most excited about for the 1st half of next year.
8. While I absolutely loath the NYC MTA, I’m glad the subways are back so I can play my PSP and I don’t need to walk 50 blocks a day.
9. “Black” looks awesome, if you haven’t seen a trailer or video of this, please do.
10. Dead or Alive 4…Dead or Alive 4…Dead or Alive 4…

Office Highlight of last Friday: Even though it didn't come out of my pocket, feeling like Santa by placing 100+ prize checks into a mailbox.

My Xbox 360 has been freezing during every game like I noted in my previous blog, so I had to send it in for repairs. While my Xbox 360 obviously should have been working, I’m actually applauding Microsoft for their great customer service in terms of getting my console repaired. After I called their hotline, they overnighted me a box to ship my console it. I received it and sent it out the next day overnight (which they paid for.) I give them a call on Thursday to see if they received my console and the customer service rep said, “Yeah we shipped out your new Xbox 360 today, it was in the repair center for a total of 30 minutes, I think they just replaced it with a new one.”

So Microsoft must be getting a lot of returned 360s since they’re not even taking the time to try to repair them. I come home from work yesterday to a brand-new working 360. So I am actually applauding Microsoft, shipped my console to them on Tuesday, got a working one back on Friday. Sure they may have rushed the consoles out, possibly leading to faulty ones, but they sure as hell made the repair process a breeze. And it looks like they’ll be bringing this exceptional service <a href=”http://www.gamespot.com/news/6141027.html”>over to Japan</a> for their launch.

And the MLG Office Highlight for today (well yesterday) : I saw about 20 tampon ads while searching through Teen People and Nylon magazines for the articles of Xena and Sophitia to scan in.

Chicago in less than a week…see you there.

I was going to write a nice piece on my very first true competitive gaming experience for this blog. However once I started writing, I ended up having 2 full Word pages and saying &quot;Wtf, I barely started&quot;. So scratch that, maybe some other day you will all know about how I used to be the #1 Yahoo! Towers player in the world. (Like I said...long story, don't ask.)

So in exchange, it's time for me to b*tch about my Xbox 360. It loves to tease me by allowing me to play a certain amount of minutes before crashing/freezing. So I've never been able to finish a game of Madden...though I've played about 15 games of 2.5 quarters each. I've never been able to get past Mission 0 of PDZ...even though my Spider-Bot kill count has probably reached the 100,000s. And Kameo just seems to purposely freeze at fairy upskirt moments…though I don’t know if that’s good or bad.

So here are my reviews of my experiences so far, with 10-15 minutes max on select Xbox 360 games. Btw, the Arcade games don’t freeze so take my comprehensive and complete reviews of those games with value…thank you.

Hexic HD – Simple, fun, but I can definitely see myself losing interest quick.

Geometry Wars – Whoa colors.

Now real games…

Madden 06 – Despite the amazing graphics, this game is very bare-bones with just a simple Franchise mode to play. The Kansas City Chiefs are not good when they let Brooks Bollinger throw for 200 yards in the first half….10 times.

Perfect Dark Zero – I like what I’ve played…half of a multiplayer game and killing simple Spider-Bots in Mission 0…over and over and over. I’d like to play this a lot more to see what else it has.

Kameo – I totally dig the start of this game. I think the graphics are amazing and the idea of changing characters is fun and fresh.

Call of Duty 2 – Still looks pretty in shrinkwrap.

Project Gotham Racing 3 – God damn I don’t know how to turn corners.

Goodbye 360 for 2 weeks...off you go for repairs...

And to end of…since people are so curious about the MLG office.

Today’s MLG Office Highlight: Sundance gave me a loaf of bread. But deemed I was unworthy and took it back. =(
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This past weekend has been extremely hectic for me but really fun as well. It started off Friday where I helped my friend open up his game center in Harlem, NetPlay Cafe (Lenox Ave btw 119 and 120th). It was pretty significant because it's the first ever game center created in Harlem. Good luck to them!

Immediately after that, I went to Eugene's, a hip-hop club, in the city to promote True Crime: New York City.

<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/capt_sparrow/truegirls.jpg" alt="GG">
Games and gaming? As KillaOr would say. GG.

The night went well, but that was immediately followed by an NJhalo tournament the next morning where I stopped by to promote Call of Duty 2: BRO. Activision needs to pay me more.

<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/capt_sparrow/njhalo.jpg" alt="Winners">
Above were the winners of the Halo tournament. Left to right..Fatal, Baretta, Joe, and Boo. Looks like Boo got screwed with the payout.

That led up to Sunday, the day of the debut of True Life: I'm a Pro Gamer. With NetPlay Cafe, I held a pre-show event where KillaOr stopped by and played some games with some fans. Unfortunately it was on a laggy 42" plasma tv, it was still fun.

<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/capt_sparrow/gaming.jpg" alt="Gaming with Fans">
Above is KillaOr playing a few games as onlookers wonder..."Seriously..Jigglypuff?"

We were going to watch the show at the game center, but the cable wasn't working so my friend Shawn and I took everyone out to Caliente's in the city to watch it. Here's a few pictures from that...

<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/capt_sparrow/watch.jpg" alt="True Life">
Watching True Life at Caliente's on 33rd.

<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/capt_sparrow/tv.jpg" alt="KillaOr">
KillaOr watching himself on TV. Doesn't get better than that. (He was watching the TV on the opposite end.)

<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/capt_sparrow/calls.jpg" alt="Calls">
This is KillaOr during the first commercial break. Countless calls, 50+ IMs at once...it didn't stop. Even after an hour after the show it still kept going. A quote from KillaOr..."So when you IM someone, type 8 lines and get no response...do you keep typing?"

In all seriousness though, it was great to see so many fans responding to the show. Clueless friends of mine finally get it.

Monday was obviously the 360 launch, I still haven't gotten my 360 yet, but it is in the mail as we speak (and no I didn't pay $1000 for it on eBay). I will be getting 360 by the time I get back to NY on Monday! And to replace the love lost from these last to days without the 360, and to reward myself...I bought a <a href="http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Samsung-23-LCD-HDTV-Monitor-LNR238W-/sem/rpsm/oid/118721/catOid/-12869/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do">23" Samsung HD LCD TV</a>.

And Thanksgiving will be spent writing a paper all day since this weekend is Atlanta. See you all there!

OUT

Alright time for the finale. Before I continue where I left off, I’d like to note that most of the MLG staff members are pretty good or at least decent in Halo. Anakin and Puckett are awesome, and Dyslexia, Dolbex, and Synide can all hold their own. And Clap thinks he’s good, especially when he has Puckett play under his name.

Moving on…Some things I’d like to point out: In a typical three player FFA match, it all depends on who can steal the most kills, or get the double kill when the other two are battling. Also, in a match with players worse than yourself (sorry guys,) you usually stoop down to their level and develop poor tactics. You use poor tactics because you know your opponent still can’t do anything against you. Why use cover when you know they can’t four-shot you? Why dominate a given area when you know you can kill even more just running out into open fire? You begin doing things such as charging, thinking you can do montage quality tricks, such as no scoping everything or BXB-ing a player with the sword. And yes, in the office we use the sword in an FFA custom. Ironic.

And in addition to Midship, the office Xboxs generally see FFAs on Lockout, Turf, Warlock. Here’s a breakdown of why certain guys like certain maps.

Sundance likes playing on Lockout because Sepso falls off the map all the time.
Sepso likes playing on Warlock because you can’t fall off the map.
Ted Steel likes playing on Turf because it’s a bad map and his lack of skill is disguised.
Joel likes to play Galaga.

So back to this battle of the Halo titans...(as a reminder, Sundance and Ted Steel are in this game with me) the game starts off relatively normally, usually with one of the players jumping off the map accidentally making it 0, 0, -1. I’d say a typical match on Lockout to 25 consists of an average of 3 or 4 suicides…per player. (This has to be contagious!)

At first, I didn’t know what to expect out of Ted Steel having never played with him, or seen him play. He goes ahead and grabs the Needler (not even dual wielding two of them,) and proceeds to charge at me. My initial thought was, “Wow he must be good thinking he can take me down with a single Needler,” until I realized he actually wasn’t at all. As all the Needler shots miss me, I shoot erratically with my single SMG (ugh) and Sundance swoops in for a double kill. Laughing as he walks away, trash talking thus ensues. Note: Sundance laughs when he kills you, when you kill him, when he kills himself, and when he gets mail…and probably when he wakes up in the morning.

Ted Steel doesn’t get to trash talk much, since he doesn’t kill much anyways, but this gives him plenty of opportunities to yell profanities at the TV. However, if you are ever one of his 6 kills…beware.

Ted Steel after his first kill: “HAHAHAHAH…..I’M HUGE!!!!”

Sundance takes the game something like 25 to 19 to 8 and I start to begin contemplating quitting Halo. Having a hope of redeeming myself, I challenge Sundance to one match of 1v1 before I leave for my night class. He accepts my begging, and I create the 1v1 Warlock MLG style match (carbine start, covenant weapons on map) and start it. I take the 15-10 and feel somewhat satisfied. At the end Sundance says:

Sundance: You only won by 5, why should you be proud? But that was a fun mode, I’ve never played that before.

I’d like to end on a note that Sundance is really a young kid trapped in 30-ish year old body. As seen with his new Xbox 360 Dev Kit, included in the package were steps on setting up the system and updating it. There were roughly about 12 various steps needed, but Sundance’s eagerness to play exceeded anything else and had him completing the first step and then trying to see if it’ll work. Doesn’t work? Ok try step two…how about now? “Trust me Ray, it’s going to work now.” Nope…ok step 3…you get the idea.

Ok, so I didn’t get fired, it was just my way of sucking you all in with a dramatic cliffhanger. And apparently it worked since I some how managed to jump 7000 page views (or was it one EXTREMELY impatient viewer refreshing my page?) And now to: A Day at the MLG Office…Pt 2.

Lunch usually starts with someone saying, “Is anyone else starving?” around 11am in the morning after everyone has just eaten breakfast around 10am. This is followed by Sespo saying something like, “Who ordered my food?” around noon, which is followed by Sespo ordering the food at 12:15pm.

Now those of you out there that have been to the MLG events, and especially the judges that have volunteered at one, may have wondered, “Why are they so addicted to pizza?” Well, we only eat it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, which isn’t that much. There is some variety. I mean for brunch, Dyslexia likes to sit down and chat over some tea. And eat vegetables.

Anyways, I figured the variety of food would be slightly different at the office, seeing as how we have some local shops nearby. But to my surprise, my diet at the office has been restricted to pizza with sausage, pizza with pepperoni, cheese pizza, and a meatball sub that for some reason, tasted like pizza.

After a quick lunch, it’s back to work. In the office, there are periods of time that consist of long silences. Everyone seems to keep to themselves while they are concentrated with their work. Surprisingly, there also seems to not be any phone calls during these periods, offering an ideal time to focus.

But of course, it wouldn’t be the MLG Office without something out of the ordinary. After an extended time of complete silence, it is broken by, not a phone call, not an email alert, but rather Sundance yelling from the other side of the office, “HOW ARE YOU RAY!?!”

Me: Huh?
Sundance: Just wondering.
(complete silence)
Me: Umm…I’m fine.
Sundance: THAT’S GREAT RAY
(complete silence)

And yes, that’s how that conversation ends.

As the day finally winds down, a Halo break is taken by a few of the staff members. For this one, I hop on to play against Sundance and Ted Steel in a FFA in Lockout. If anyone ever decided on making a montage of how not to play Halo, it would be in a game like this.

^^^^^^^^^^^^
How’s that for a cliffhanger? Now patiently wait for Part 3 when I get detailed and analyze this EPIC match.

Well I’ve been going to the MLG office during the weekdays for the past couple of months and it is definitely an interesting experience. I’m very grateful for the opportunity, and I’m sure a lot of people would want to be in my shoes to find out all the mysteries involved with MLG. At first I was worried about coming in to the office to work…I mean, with all the craziness that occurs during the events with the French Vegetarian, Drunk T-Bagger, and Nistic Assaulter (just to name a few), now I had to embrace this in between events?

Well I’m here to write about my experience, as I present to you…A Day in the MLG Office Part 1. What does the office look like? Is there really a Red Bull waterfall? Are the MLG staff members all Gods? Who is the better Halo player…Sundance, Sepso, Ted Steel, or me blindfold playing with my feet? I will attempt to provide answers for all these questions with my personal experience at the MLG office.

A normal day starts around 10:00AM, and as a settle in to my desk, the Joel, SVP of Communications & Marketing busily toils away telling me what he needs done for today. Speaking a mile a minute, I conclude that coffee and Red Bull this early in the morning is probably not the best combination. Though it probably is unavoidable since the staff is greeted with hundreds of cans of Red Bull the moment you step into the office. Ah the benefits of having a great sponsor…

On a side note, I have a friend that works at Major League Baseball and it is relatively the same deal: he receives however much Pepsi as he wants…though he’s hardly half as wired as I am for class. Red Bull…good for gaming, bad for grades.

As I finish up checking my email and eating my bagel, I glance around the office. A BioWare staff signed Jade Empire poster hangs nearby right next to one of those thousand dollar Master Chief statue eBay gems. Games are littered around the TV, couch and shelf. Oddly, a Karaoke Revolution Party bundle with microphone sits by Sundance’s desk.

As I wonder what the hell Sundance does during his free time, Ted Steel drops an unopened package on my desk. “Keep it, um I think there’s a game in there or something,” he says and walks away. Surprised, I open the envelope and see a copy of Kingdom Under Fire: Heroes.

Me :“Wait, I get to keep this for free?”
Ted Steel: “Well yeah, I don’t want it.”
Me: “You didn’t even know what game was inside.”
Ted Steel: “I wasn’t going to play it anyways.”

So I accept his reasoning and hope that next time it’s a 360 game or Halo 3 in there...you know, something that he “wasn’t going to play anyways.”

Then, the behemoth laser printer, the one I nicknamed “Lucifer’s Reincarnate,” makes a few noises and then does nothing…leading to a quick discussion with Sepso:

Sepso: Ray, what does it say on the printer there?
Me: Umm…Error 4N19502.45
Sepso: Umm…yeah…fix that.

Well, his instructions were simple and to the point, though not much assistance to me. So, I embark on a mission to try to fix the printer by opening and closing the trays, pressing various buttons, unplugging and replugging, and kicking it. In between all of this, I answered a call of simply just “YOOO!!” as a greeting. Trying to distinguish between Tsquared and Clap’s “YOOO!!” is one of my daily important tasks that I’d like to think will make or break my career.

Me: Mike, it’s Adam on the line for you.
Sepso: Ok.
(after a conversation) That was T2.
Me: Oh, sorry.
Sepso: You’re fired.
Me: Aw, crap.

To be continued….

[b]
Alright ladies and gents, your friend here is worn the hell out. How? Here was my past week...

Monday: Class 9am-9pm, Entrepreneurship Midterm @ 6pm-9
Tuesday: MLG office 10am-5pm, Financial Mgmt Midterm @ 6pm-9
Wednesday: Class 12pm-2pm, GUN themed Poker Tournament to run @ 5pm-9
Thursday: Class 3pm-6pm, Neil Pilson lecture 6-8pm, friend's Birthday afterwards
Friday: MLG office 10am - 4:30pm, Tony Hawk: AW &amp;amp;amp; Halo CE/2 Tournament 5:30pm - midnight

Basically a plethora of 9am-9pm days and events. After Friday it felt like I just did an MLG tournament, except instead of going upstairs to my hotel room...I had to take a 2 hour subway ride back home (goddamn local late night service).

More Red Bull please.

[b]Ok, so however much the video game industry grows, there's always a few things that make me realize "Halo does not quite rule the world yet." I use the same profile image for my MLG blog as well as for my facebook image, and today received a comment from my friend Anita on facebook... <br />
<br />
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<br />
What a comparison. Poor Master Chief. <br />
<br />

For those who don't know, I'm really not much of a message board type of guy. You all can probably tell from my 4 posts since I joined MLG...and those 4 weren't even done by me (if anyone knows the Philly incident.) While I browse the boards and still read a lot of it, I'm definitely better and more comfortable writing something like this. And now...a few quick points before Soul Calibur III gets some more love from me... <br />
<br />
I'll probably get criticized for this...I can feel it, but can someone tell me who's above and below me in that &quot;Player Profiles&quot; collage? I can't make it out. <br />
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All the New Yorkers keep an eye out on the left toolbar for events that I'll be running...including a huge tournament this Friday. <br />
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By the way...I am a HUGE New Jersey Nets fan and the season starts tomorrow...2005-06 NBA Champs. It's possible! I need to &quot;See the Bookie&quot; for this one.. <br />
<br />
OUT <br />

v3 or study? Perfect timing to launch the site right before a midterm...