Category: Uncategorized

The London Spitfire & the Near-Uselessness of Having A Regular Season

~ mellopanther

Many things can matter in sports, but few matter more than championships, and what matters to the Overwatch League’s London Spitfire is that they won the inaugural championship, beating the Philadelphia Fusion in what looked like a walkover. The story of the Spitfire’s season seems straightforward: after winning the first of OWL’s four stages and finishing strong in the second, London went a pedestrian 9-11, finishing tied for fifth in a league where only 6 teams make the playoffs. However, once the regular season ended they demolished their opponents, dropping only 5 of the 24 maps they competed in, and finished playing literally their best Overwatch of the season.

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The Shanghai Dragons Are Bad But May Not Be *That* Bad?

~ mellopanther

I love math. I regularly post stories from FiveThirtyEight on my Facebook page, and Bill Barnwell was a frequent read back in the days of Grantland. Games and statistics are passions of mine. That’s why even though I find video game culture to be lacking, I get excited for things like e-sports, because it means a wider population can enjoy the fun and thrill of sport while being disassociated from the various stigma surrounding traditional athletics. It’s even more fun to see the concept evolve and embrace old cliches like they’re new.

So when I see stuff like the Shanghai Dragons of Overwatch League be so horribly bad, the wheels get turning. I had lamented that I no longer have a platform to be analytical on otaku culture, but then I realized: this is my site. I can do whatever I want. So let’s get dangerous and do the math.

Continue reading “The Shanghai Dragons Are Bad But May Not Be *That* Bad?” →

A Really Big Day

~ mellopanther

As I’m writing this, the doors for Sunday programming at Anime Expo are just starting to open. I am not with them (for multiple reasons, most of them logistics-related) but it would be certainly fun to get there once. That being said, I have news that is just as important: As spoiled by the countdown clock in the right-hand corner of this site: I am presenting at Otakon. When I first joined fandom around 1998—even when I started going to conventions in 2005—I couldn’t imagine running a panel at something of this magnitude, let alone even attending. For Otakon’s final bow in Baltimore I have been selected to present a panel that I don’t do very often, but it’s about a topic that I love: “Satoshi Kon & The Mystery of Me,” in which I break down the works of my all-time favorite director of media and examine how what he had to say about the culture of Japan and its relation with individuality. It’s a little academic, but it’s a ton of fun to present, so if you’re of age, I hope you will join me.

As is custom, I will be helping out Megaroad Toys when I’m not presenting or being awestruck at 30,000 people in one convention space, so there will be ample time to say hi and comment. Presenting at Otakon has been a culmination of over 10 years of work and dedication. I want to thank everyone who has helped me get to this point, and if you want me to go even further, feel free to spread a good word or two to your local show.

How I Spent My Summer Vacation, Part 1

~ mellopanther

Today’s the “last day” of “summer”, so I might as well post a recap of what’s been going on in my life related to MP.

  • Cleaned up the side bar to make it all button-tastic.  I dunno, I kinda like it.  Looks fancy.
  • Increase my role over at Otaku Drive Time, which has eaten up a lot of my time and creative input (and that doesn’t include the numerous FB updates I do).
    • Since OTDT is a good chunk of my free time, I figure I should add them to the side bar.
  • Continue on with Writebet and although I mentioned this earlier, What I didn’t mention was that on one of the days, I went on at length about my feelings on MP.  I’ll re-post it past a cut (or you could just read the Tumblr post)  but this is why I want to do what I do, and why I’ll continue to do it.

Continue reading “How I Spent My Summer Vacation, Part 1” →

In Other News

~ mellopanther ~ 1 Comment

Aside from being busy with OTDT, I’ve been involved with a Writebet, which is a big fancy way of saying “Write something every day for 100 straight days.”  If you’re interested in some of my work, you can hop on the #twotommyolivers hashtag and browse.  I’ve only mentioned game shows twice in the first week.  I’m proud of myself.

Speaking of proud, how nutso was this?

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfZFuw7a13E?rel=0]

I posted this on my personal Tumblr and have over 18,000 notes!  Holy crap!

Anyway, being in the writing mood might have a positive effect on here.  I certainly have a lot of free time on my hands, too, so who knows?

Bunnies! Bunnies everywhere!

~ mellopanther

We’ll have some fun stuff on how our Puzzle Strike tournament came out soon, but first I want to welcome MP’s first official sponsor, the drawing, cosplaying, figure-loving, tea sipping, internet bon vivant Bunnychan!  Like yours truly, she’s all over the tubes. She has her UTAU/Figure blog Bunny Chai, but when she’s not working on that, she showcases her whimsical art on the usual sites and will even draw for you as long you ask nicely.

Bunny has donated a metric ton of prizes for our game shows, and will also help the site out with some other projects, so you’re going to run into Bunnychan’s work whether you want to or not, but you should totally want to.  After all, Gary would be sad if you don’t support her.

Hello Again, World!

~ mellopanther

Hopefully, you’ve come here from our tumblr page.  This spot is going to be for more formal, infrastructural things, like my portfolio, taking donations, and some long-form musing.  The tumblr page will be for videos, pictures, quick bits, and anything else that I feel like sharing.  There will be some overlap, so don’t worry.  You’ll get all the meaty bits no matter which page you follow.