Last year, I spent three days with Frost Giant, who are trying to build the next great RTS — a successor to genre greats like Warcraft and StarCraft.
My last story for Launcher, and Launcher's last story.
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ℳikhail Klimentov
@LeaderGrev
• Foreign desk evening editor
• Dean of Columbia College at Columbia University (exiled)
• He/him
ℳikhail Klimentov’s Tweets
Can you build a successful esports program that's all brand voice (and in a lane already occupied by G2 and, more convincingly, C9)? I'm not really sure.
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If SEN loses its star talent, it'll still have fans because that old talent onboarded so many people. But there has been so much public acrimony between management and former top players/staff that I'm not sure the brand can coast on goodwill if it also isn't winning.
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Trying to think of a single person who has left Sentinels Valorant happy with the org. or better off than they were before. Can't think of one!
Feels like SEN is on a collision course with the realization that it is the sum of its parts (read: talent) and not much else.
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I was a coward and I deleted a “they could make playoffs” tweet from before their game with LOUD but it is the funniest thing that could happen and thereby ordained by God
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Why did they use this graphic for the tweet 😭🫣
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Do I even have to say it?
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EG Valorant stocks are priced historically low for the value they're bringing. BUY BUY BUY.
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I keep being right.
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Since I am a hopeless underdog enjoyer, here is my sincere EG take:
1) EG has all the right parts, mostly in the right place, to be good
2) The 13-0 is the funnier thing from today’s match, but also probably the outlier
3) I think the map 1 win and close map 2 are NOT outliers
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Karn moment
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We're going to start seeing Syril Karn avis popping up like weeds, replacing the Gosling 2049 ones. Count on it.
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This guy is so close to entering rotation as a Ryan Gosling Drive Patrick Bateman Travis Bickle Joker guy. He's one slay queen moment away.
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If all of 2023's shuttered games websites could've just held on a few months longer for Tears of the Kingdom...
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💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀
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Lovely Zelda piece in the @nytimes, with a very smart comment from a reader named Saul nytimes.com/interactive/20
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As Patricia points out, leak coverage is pretty normal and was widely done around GTA VI
It's also true that an outlet that isn't NDA'd winds up able to report things others can't. See this one from 2015, which, hilariously, did massive traffic for us kotaku.com/fallout-4-revi
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anyway bizarre that reporting the news is being read as retaliatory vs literally par for the course. when gta6 leaked there was an entire news cycle around it and its contents. one example out many
likely reason you’re not seeing the same now? your fave pub signed an NDA
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[calling over the discourse sommelier] not really into today's specials, have you got something more, uh, flavorful?
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What started as a preview for Tears of the Kingdom became a full interactive documentary about the Legend of Zelda series, now on the homepage of . Here's a little breakdown on what we found...
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A mass shooting on Wednesday, where eight students and a security guard were killed at a school in Serbia, was a reminder that such attacks are far less common outside the U.S.
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The thing is that writing is actually work. We romanticize it, and it is a wonderful thing to get to do professionally, but it is work that makes a lot of money for a lot of people -- just not the people who actually do the work.
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It's easy to think of Italy as nothing more than spaghetti, garlic bread, and parmesan cheese. But a quick look at their history reveals they invented fascism
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Happy “watching people figure out who Brad Troemel is” day to all who celebrate
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I think I speak for everyone in the creative community when I say that greedy writers' profits aren't worth as much as the joy superheroes bring to people all over the world. So WGA, end your strike now and give the MCU back to its rightful owners: the fans. #enduniongreed
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Every person I've ever mentioned this idea to has made the mr. yuk face but I think a profile of Jake Lucky would be a very good read!
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Waypoint was the only outlet that would ever consider my pitch about how Destiny reminded me of the lead-up to the war in Iraq.
Now it's gone.
open.substack.com/pub/leadergrev
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We are slated for some absolutely UNLISTENABLE music if true
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Excellent piece from Rich and DF here on the facts behind those cloud gaming claims from the CMA and (probably) Sony:
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Interest rates? Yeah, my interest rate in this funny money numbers bull crap is 0.
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I really liked this essay!
I'm also generally of the opinion that unless you're making a purchasing decision (of an Xbox console or MSFT stock) the question of "how is the Xbox brand faring?" should basically not matter.
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I’m here from the future with a message: four patches from now, after months of labor and soul-searching, someone will say “Redfall is actually sort of ok now!”
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It’s just kind of silly to go: “I know about this, everyone knows about this, every forum, subreddit, Twitch channel and YouTube guy is talking about this, but we can’t have it reflected on the record on a news website(?)”
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People love to hate on Kotaku, but this is news! Do you want journalism where the outlet is your friend and it gives you warm fuzzies, or do you want to read the news? Should outlets just… ignore the thing that everyone is talking about and pretend it doesn’t exist?
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Hey everyone, just want to issue a huge apology. I’m the guy who has been forcing the people in the replies to read this article, Clockwork Orange style. Just a few more and I’m going to stop.
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He is such a baby lol
In an unprompted Tuesday email, Musk wrote: "So is NPR going to start posting on Twitter again, or should we reassign @ NPR to another company?"
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One more thing: If you've subscribed, you may see an option to pledge support.
If you think you'd be interested in paying for my work, consider pledging! It'll help me plan for the future — and support further gaming and esports writing:
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