I want to buy a gaming prebuilt pc. I don't want to build it. I want a prebuilt. Budget: 1000$ full setup no desk no chair. Possibly 1200 but would prefer 1000$. Thank you and goodbye

I live in the UK and was thinking to get a prebuild as i dont really know how to build a pc and probably will mess it all up. But i would like to know the best website to buy one from i was thinking amazon but there is probably a better website so if anyone knows that would be great!

For those of us without the skills to build one, looking for the best deal/value.

The reason why i'm asking, is because i just got myself a new PC and some new equipment. It's a long time since i've played competitive, but now i'm considering to start out with some serious practicing again.
As said, it's along time since i've been on this platform, and alot have changed, with the consoles in the picture and stuff. So i've found a list of games that might be good for competitive gaming.. But i'm not really sure wich one i should focus on, and which of them that is best suited with the most potential for Esports .. maybe you can help me Gaming
Shootmania Storm. MW4. BF3. Black ops 2. Or maybe some other game?
Other than that, Do you know any good sites (that's not focused around consoles) for ladders and maybe some money prize tournaments?
Sorry for the bad grammar.
Thanks!

There have been some whispers through the grapevine in many internet communities about a sad, wrong, and mean practice that I can only describe as pure evil. Folks, today I learned that there are people out there that use software tools to derail eBay listings for scalped graphics cards. Yes, that's right... people are using software to give themselves an unfair advantage in the exchange of PC hardware from manufacturers to consumers! WHO WOULD DO SUCH A THING!? For example, see this well-known, already completed, eBay auction from days ago. Evil cyber criminals decimated this totally innocent and honest listing with dozens of fake bids. They bidded so rapidly, the lister couldn't even cancel them all - So sad!
Doing this isn't a good idea because it could get your account banned from eBay... unless you were to use, say, a VPN service to make a bunch of throwaway eBay accounts and stockpile their logins in a spreadsheet or something haha... IDK... or maybe everyone in the bid history is safe as long as the upper-most bid is fake? I don't entirely know how this dark underbelly criminal enterprise works, I'm just here to get the word out. So very shocking, all of this.
Again, do NOT do this. Scalpers are providing a valuable service to the PC gaming community when they pay $5 for bot scripts that snap up entire shipments of hardware from etailers and then automatically create auctions on other websites, pulling a 10x turnaround before the hardware even hits the first warehouse's shelves. It would be wrong to use bot scripts to deprive them of their right to trade graphics cards - just put yourselves in their shoes. They would never use technology maliciously to deprive you of a graphics card trade, would they? No. Never.
Also - do not create, share, and use bot scripts or other software tools designed to derail these auctions with said throwaway eBay accounts (fully automated, or machine-assisted via URL scraping, doesn't matter). It's simply a very immoral and reprehensible thing to do. This should go without saying, but it's also very wrong to create and share public anti-scalper Telegram channels and Discord servers with the sole purpose of sharing eBay listings with each other for you, or your bid-bombing bots, to... well... bid-bomb. Very bad - do not do.
Again - Please do not do any of these things. They will only get the account, and its hundreds (possibly thousands, if you bot) of dirty bids, banned from eBay (unless, again, the account merely drove up the bid price but wasn't the winner of the auction - they'd just be able to claim "Oh, I bought something else because I didn't win. If only you had told me 5 minutes sooner. Darn!").
Just imagining the distraught and panicked look on this poor scalper's face when they're forced to stay up late into the night doing real, actual work, cancelling bids for hours on end as new stock trickles back onto the shelf should be enough to motivate you to not do it. They'd miss out on so many interactions with their loving friends and family that definitely exist. It just breaks my heart! What kind of awful person would use bot software to turn the tides of online sales in their own favor and deprive PC users of hardware? So very sad... to think, with each passing week, the shelf price falls further and further below what the scalpers paid on launch day... sometimes to the point that they might begin to wonder if their main source of income being "owning someone else's graphics cards" was a smart long-term idea...
So, anyways... thanks for reading.

I want to preface that the contents of this post is for informational purposes. I do not condone or approve of any harassments or witch-hunting or the attacking of anybody.
 
Richard Lewis recently did a stream talking about the terrible state of CS esports and I thought it was an important stream anyone who cares about the CS community should listen to.
Vod Link here: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/830415547
I realize it is 3 hours long so I took it upon myself to create a list of interesting points from the stream so you don't have to listen to the whole thing, although I still encourage you to do so if you can.
I know this post is still long but probably easier to digest, especially in parts.
Here is a link to my raw notes if you for some reason want to read through this which includes some omitted stuff. It's in chronological order of things said in the stream and has some time stamps. https://pastebin.com/6QWTLr8T

Intro

• "The last month has convinced me, that we are going to be heading into a dark place for Counter-Strike esports in 2021."
  • "I think I've seen the scene essentially kill itself."
• "For the past 5 to 6 years, we've basically been in a holding pattern of people coming into our game wanting to run it, wanting to run all of the esports and wanting to profiteer and its been sort of a concerted effort to drive them off and push them away."
  • "We're spread way too thin."
• "If Riot don't get involved and stop the scumbags that have moved over to Valorant from getting their feet under the table, Valorant is going to have real problems."
• RL thinks too much has happened all at once for us to do anything except watch it play out, like:
  • Recent CSPPA strike against BLAST
  • ESIC failures and them not being supported enough
  • Teams cheating i.e. coaches/bugs
  • Widespread match fixing
  • The Pandemic
    • "People who try to hold bubble events are so incompetent and fuck up and people get the 'rona and its their fault."
    • "People who say Flashpoint is a bubble is full of shit and is a lie and people are now suffering for that lie."
      • "To save money they let people go home and break the bubble for a week."
      • "Not just Flashpoint peoples decision, they have a partner that handles the production." (hinting FACEIT)
      • "People are trapped in hotels essentially under house arrest because of COVID restrictions and has fucked peoples lives up."
• "It's all too much, all of this incompetence, all of this greed, maybe we ride it out."
  • RL says he has talked to the Riot devs (the ones working on Valorant) and says, "They are so cognizant of all the fuck ups and all the problems we have in Counter-Strike."
    • He continues to say that this is factored into their business plan and that we never had a competitor, but just so happens to have one coincide, when we are at our worst.

CSPPA - Counter-Strike Professional Players' Association

"Who does this union really fucking serve?"

• RL believes that the CSPPA is a mockery.
  
  • He points out the hypocrisy that they wouldn't strike for the pros who were kicked out of ESL Pro League, or for Jamppi or dream3r.
    • He also says ESL paid CSPPA and are racketeering and many other TOs have to pay them to get their "seal of approval"
      • He says they would strong-arm TOs saying "well if you don't give us the money, these guys are so we'll just have to commit to playing their event."
    • Also points out that they will strike against a competitor they are not in agreement with (Flashpoint)
    • RL: "It's what it says about every other time you haven't done it and it's about every time you don't do it now moving forward." "The issues they've chosen to ignore this year alone are embarrassing."
    • Then he points out that there was no strike for Valve qualifiers even if we have no major but Jamppi and dream3r can't play in them.
      • "and Valve have said 'Oh yeah we know actually their stories are accurate, Jamppi didn't cheat, now in a legally binding document. Yep dream3r did have his account hacked in a LAN café', but they still can't play. Where is the fucking solidarity? Gone. Doesn't exist. It's not important [because] it doesn't affect you." "That's what the union does right now, it looks after all the tier 1 people."
• He says the CSPPA doesn't represent all players all the time and has driven a divide where you have the haves and have-nots
  
  • "We have a tier of players that operate with impunity and do not help their tier 2 or tier 3 players out at all." "If you are not a tier 1 player you do not matter, they don't event ask your opinion."
  • He tells chrisJ to admit and own the fact that the reason he didn't speak up during the ESL Pro League debacle is because it didn't affect him
  • "They are looking after some players at the expense of other players. How the fuck is that a union?"
• He says the BLAST situation is a reasonable dispute and supports the players but is not the right time for a strike and have not even identified the correct enemy
  
  • He thinks players are lashing out now due to previous incidents and are upset that BLAST are working with ESIC
    • He stated that CSPPA shouldn't beefing with ESIC and they should be working in harmony
  • He says what they need to do is talk with the teams/organizations that have sold that right to BLAST
    • RL: "Your employers, the people who pay you that massive exorbitant salaries, when you don't stream and you don't do interviews and you offer no value beyond your ability to click heads and you get 25k dollars a month." "Why don't you talk to them about it? Oh right. You're happy to take away BLAST's paper, but you don't want to risk your own."
  • "I am seeing such unbelievable cowardice from the players here with the battles you choose."
  • "Where was the strike action when in the qualifiers for the world championship, there were teams and players engaged in huge conflicts of interest?" "Where was the strike action when your image rights were taken and sold to every league you've ever been in every union type organization you've ever been associated with like, WESA, to your org every time you sign a contract, to the leagues you play in."
    • "Your image rights are essentially worthless now, there's about 10 fucking separate parties that have them, and how many of them are giving you anything for it? Not much pretty much your org by the way."
    • "That's a big issue. Your image is you, your image is your brand. What are you doing about that? Nothing."
• He is also angry at SirScoots who is "popping off" at people on Twitter who all want the same thing, which is 'A unified Counter-Strike scene for everybody, that works for everybody, that has a sustained ecosystem that nourishes everybody.' "We don't have that now."
  
• He also says their rankings are a joke
  
  • "Just so happened, oh look TACO, that very important prominent member of the board, we pushed his team artificially up when they weren't even in the fucking top 20, not by a long shot."
• He also says the ineptitude of the CSPPA cost Flashpoint a monitor sponsor
  
• "Is it really a player association or is it like a fucking agency at this point"
  

ESIC - Esports Integrity Commission

"They have been put in an impossible position."

• RL says that Ian Smith, the founder of ESIC and who was done work in mainstream sports, is a good and honorable man who has dedicated his life to integrity and sports. He takes on both sides, ensuring match fixers are punished, but also doing appeals and ensuring those punishments were fair.
• "ESIC is a tiny organization" and are in need of money, "They didn't run a grift like the CSPPA did."
  • "Saying 'you want our support and you want the players to turn up you better pay us.' They don't do that."
  • "Had startup seed money from MTG and since then they've been pecking shit with the hens."
    • Ian Smith made sure that the money given by MTG (Modern Times Group, parent company of ESL, ESEA, DreamHack) was nothing more than startup money and wouldn't be in debt to them
      • Ian Smith sat down with other TO's not part of MTG and wanted to partner with them. They declined and called ESIC "ESL spies and we will never align ourselves with you"
  • "They only were just able to afford, hiring a PR guy on a full time salary to deal with the press and send out those releases you've seen, this year."
    • "They have a tiny group of staff investigating these things and they have taken on the biggest problems in our scene: the cheating, the match fixing."
• ESIC have had "unprecedented levels of cheating to deal with, because there's something wrong with our scene ever since we went online. There's something wrong with it, everyone's lost their fucking pride and self-respect and they got no passion for it anymore, so they think fuck it, what's in it for me?"
  • He calls out coaches who are talking about players rights when they would rob and steal from them.
    • Also says more coaches being banned are coming
    • He also points out flaws in community's reaction to the punishments to coaches bans: "Half of the cunts still have jobs and some of the cunts got new jobs. We didn't even shun the cheating coaches."
• ESIC have "found I think another 2 or 3 exploits like that one and they are investigating them all right now, it's going on right now."
  
  • "I know that there are going to be more names getting banned, again."
  • "So they're doing that on a skeleton crew while, investigating 3 continents worth of match fixing in MDL and semi-pro level CS." "They're doing this with half a dozen people." "They don't have any money or any help. People barely even fucking cooperate with them, they are treated like pariahs. It's ridiculous."
    • "Why are the CSPPA popping off at ESIC on my Twitter timeline, when you should be working together." "because its all about what's in it in for me." "2020, the online era of CS: 'What is in it for me?' How can I cheat, how can I get my paper, how can I bleed this scene one last time before I fuck off and play shooty shooty bang bang Riot Games babys first fps."
• RL says that in the CIS region, teams have gone to tournaments and have been eliminated multiple times by the same team. We found out they were cheating and those players who lost, have been cut from their roster, careers ended because of cheaters.
  

Stream Sniping

"They're all at it in the online era, they're all at it, they're all cheating, they're all using exploits, probably that see through smoke bug got used a bunch of times"

• RL talks about how there is no integrity from dead (the player), always denying when caught doing something
  • On the topic of 'BLAST never said we couldn't stream snipe': "Lies, BLAST never said you could do that, they had to sort of retcon it." "because what happened after that they fucking started snitching and squealing"
    • "Suddenly you had like, 10 of the top 15 teams in the world, staring into the abyss of being banned for 6-12 months in line with ESIC recommendations."
      • He says that ESIC was put in a tough situation and couldn't enforce the bans because it would have resulted in killing CS. What resulted was, BLAST, ESIC, and teams came together and gave them a warning and told them, in RL's words "don't do this again or you're gonna get got."
        • He then says the top teams brushed this off and didn't give a fuck
        • The new MiBR team playing Flashpoint, that wasn't involved in the previous incidents are doing it again (stream sniping). He gave credit to Flashpoint for the quick resolution and punishment and respect for cogu's response to the situation.
        • "ESIC came out and said, once more, 'Guys, zero tolerance from now on.'" RL then got upset at community's reaction calling ESIC "pussies" for their non enforcement and said if we want competitive CS we cant ban the top 10 teams.
• He points out how players have no integrity and will do anything for an edge as long as they won't get detected or banned or it's within a grey area.
• "All of this shit was mad avoidable, even in the pandemic era."
  • He talks about why aren't we filming them. Why aren't there representatives for leagues and tournaments making sure players aren't cheating?

Match Fixing

"How many years have we let our scene be fucking pillaged by these greedy cunts?" "We just let it happen."

• RL says that gambling and skins betting which existed in moderation was "accelerated and blown up by the Call of Duty greedy fucks."
  • "Never forget TmarTn was on the board of EnVyUs." "His website, CSGOLotto, they had a bunch of off-the-books sponsorships." "NBK promoted them. People forget."
• "Those people who had access to the skins, go to the players" "Even people like s1mple, best player in the world, even he scammed knives and skins off fucking fans."
• Owners of skin casino sites would approach pros and lend them skins to use in tournaments and possibly keep them after reaching a deal
  • Players would tip off inside info about matches and teams in exchange for skins. Info such as: roster changes, how they played in scrims
    • They would use this info to bet and subvert the odds on their sites. "That happened religiously, I can't even tell you how many times it happened."
      • "I had access to the biggest database of information, from an inside betting circle in NA, and it would take information and screenshots from other pro players, who were feeding them info in exchange for money or skins."
        • "Some of these players are still playing." "Incredibly, there are players still in the CSPPA today, complaining about the BLAST recordings, that were embroiled in this murky shit back then."
• RL also says that there were tournaments where teams contrived with each other, who should throw, who should win.
• "There's a handful of people that are trying to fucking clean it up, and you think you get something over the line and you see something like the CSPPA and it's run by corrupt fucking chuckle heads, and now you've got another corrupt body you have to fight on a fucking daily basis, it's demoralizing."
  • "It's too far gone. Our entire semi-professional scene is compromised."
• "It's rife guys, I'm not going to lie any more. It's not just China, it's not just Russia, it's here, it's NA, it's Europe, it's Australia, so much more than you think, so much more than we can prove."
  • "I get sent chat logs all the time […] and they're morons, these players, short-sighted, amateur, morons and they're doing it on WhatsApp." People would get cut from the bets because they want to make more money, then they leak the logs. He says, from the chat logs, they spread "little" bets across every site they can (400 to 1k dollars) to prevent shifting odds
• He says the scumbags who've fucked off to Valorant will do the same there if Riot doesn't do something and says Valorant "is an esports scene heading for a very early fall based on the sheer volume of scumbags that are already there."
• "That's tier 2 CS in a nutshell these days. They know they're never going to play in a major, so what's the punishment?"
  • "All of these tier 2 fucks that are fixing games now they are like the fucking mafia compared to iBuyPower" "These guys are working with organized criminals to fix entire seasons worth of games. That's what's going on in your tier 2 CS."
• "I'm literally being told that there are players fixing games at all levels of Chinese esports and motherfuckers with guns are turning up to team houses and stuff."

North America

"Everyone in NA has left we've lost a continents worth of support during this pandemic and Valve haven't said a fucking word."

• RL says the Call of Duty "goblins" that destroyed CS for years are the same people who are now trying to leave CS. "The nerve to treat a game where the fans, and the community, and the TO's were nothing but good to you." "To just kick the players out now and go and leave and say 'It just doesn't make financial sense.' Oh you'll slither back when we have a major though for them stickers won't you."
• There's a cascading effect in NA where people don't bother with CS anymore and people like Chaos suffer.
• He says NA team owners are incompetent for always wanting it easy and always wanting a guarantee on their investment without skill or nuance.
  • RL says he would be able to market a team correctly and would have a good ROI and also points out how TSM wouldn't even be bothered to tweet that their team, which was one of the best in the world, was playing at the Major.
  • He also says not all NA owners are like that, compliments and respects Jason Lake who nearly lost everything to keep Complexity going.
• He then calls out the incompetence in Infinite Esports when they acquired OpTic Gaming and bought an Indian CS team.
  • He says HECZ is not to blame here and that they couldn't tell forsaken was cheating when it was so obvious.
    • They measured his reaction time to the likes of dev1ce and s1mple
    • When an enemy showed up on his screen he won that duel something like 44% of the time
    • "was like the number 1 player in the world statistically"
    • He brought a laptop to their bootcamp and refused to use the high end PCs that hey provided
• He respects Andy Miller (NRG CEO) and HECZ but says that the attitude of not being able to easily monetize their teams is "piss weak" and there needs to be a risk.
  • He says Chaos EC shouldn't be cutting their roster and should be competent enough to be able to figure out how to make money off their team.
• He says there are still opportunities in NA and people are panicking and pulling out, and says Valorant will be the same if not worse.
  • He also says "bums" who couldn't even get out of groups in NA competitions, are making crazy money in Valorant and says it will continue to inflate.
• He also said that he heard rumors that EG (Evil Geniuses) are done.
• He also thinks that the rumors of a Valve franchised league from before was sparked up from "these lazy fabled weak NA fucking team owners basically trying to see if Valve would bite at the hook if it was dangled and they didn't"
  • Slasher says NA team owners are really in favor of franchised leagues because they want to make more money. "Most of the powerful team owners right now are on board with ditching this third party organization structure, or they are trying to play this power politics with all the TOs, and that is contributing to a lot of the problems there"
• RL says that Riot has proved they can run a franchised league (LCS) and will be profitable in 2021 which is what a lot of team owners care about and says the competition will only serve to snatch people away from CS.
• RL continues to say, "I am so sick and tired of what we have done to this scene, I am just exhausted with it." "I think we have legitimately fucked it, I really think we have. I think we're staring into almost like a CGS (Championship Gaming Series) wasteland in NA." "Counter-Strike esports is a fucking joke."

Talent

"TO's have treated CS talent like absolute human garbage for years now."

• RL says that people like Sean Gares and ddk switching over to Valorant isn't for financial reasons because they are making less over there.
• He points out that TO's can't even give talent a 3 month in advance calendar.
• Because of the pandemic TO's won't hire certain people and some people are working more hours for the same money.
• He says we as a community don't respect journalists enough which is why we don't have good journalists.
  • He also says DeKay is leaving the scene soon and that Thorin is close to leaving also
• He says he had to talk a caster down from quitting and was struggling to find reasons.
• He says that DreamHack told Vince they would hire him but not if he wants to stick with dusT and says that this is the norm in esports. "Constant leveraging of people against each other." and says this is why we don't have a talent union.
• New gen casters are getting put into shit situations and the community's reaction to them is adding fuel to the fire
• He says the reason Moses left was because of the terrible conditions
• He says that Anders had to constantly leave his family and kid because someone fucked up or broke promises and had to constantly tell his kid to their face that "daddy can't be home this weekend."
• He says that esports has always been a lie to sell you this dream, "Meanwhile there's about 2% of the cunts getting all the checks."

Valve

"Anything that Riot does, is better than Valve's inaction"

• Slasher says that the larger aspect of esports as a whole compared to other entertainment mediums and Valve's lack of inattention are the bigger problems. He continues saying that the fact that Valve let their game be ran as an esport, they need to take on the responsibilities of it.
  • Both Slasher and RL wants Valve to take control but not on the level of Riot Games, there needs to be a balance.
• In case it was ever a question: Gabe Newell has been to 0 CSGO Majors.
• RL calls Valve out saying they could have done something during the gambling era.
• He says Valve used to come to the majors, but doesn't think they do anymore.
• RL had met with Valve at the Cluj-Napoca Major and had tried to appeal iBP's indefinite punishment and had also gave Brax's life story:
  • A recent family member passed away, they had lost a lot of income, they had to live in trailer, iBuyPower did not pay any salaries, and was pressured by family to make money who didn't support his career.
  • RL said that Valve told him, "How dare you try and make us feel guilty." "We shouldn't feel bad about enforcing the only thing that matters that we need to make players afraid of: cheating and match fixing"
  • RL also tried to share other info about match fixing and nothing came of it
• RL points out that Source 2 or a new engine is not something you will want based on the experience of transitioning from CS 1.6 to CS:S. "Valve's track record with brand new engines being launched, not fucking great from what I remember."
• Slasher says "If there is anything the community should do, is pressure Valve to hire a community manager."
  • They say that we need a commissioner, a community manager (not the person who runs the Twitter who posts memes all day), then we need to have a circuit
• RL reiterates that Valve doesn't care about CS esports and says they need to change the culture at Valve to make them care about CS esports
  • Slasher says a systemic problem is making it so working on CSGO would be a bad decision for you as an employee for Valve
• He also hasn't talked to Valve in ages and have sent over bugs and cheats and doesn't get emails back anymore
• Slasher says we should be directing attention at the developer leads, pointing out Ido Magal, if he even is still the project lead
  • RL thinks that Ido and Brian are the only people that "vaguely even give a fuck about CS" and were the only people that RL recalled that actually read Reddit and paid attention from time to time
• "It is really fucking precarious. Somebody has got to step the fuck up and start giving a shit"
  • Slasher suggests org owners, with CSPPA, with ESIC, with TOs have a concerted effort against Valve
• "Riot Games are doing better things than Valve in the esports space" which is something RL didn't think he'd say.
• "People who used to be talent, working with unions, arguing with other talent, when the unions fucked them over, can't understand their perspective, TOs fucking over broadcast talent, broadcast talent wanting to leave and go and work for orgs, orgs having no money, Valve might take coaches away because all the coaches are cheating, ESIC has about 4 people in a fucking call doing the investigations, everyone thinks they're spies for ESL, ESL are just the evil fucking overlords wanting to rule the scene and will just somehow, like cockroaches outliving a nuclear bomb, and Valve are in a fucking holiday in Hawaii thinking about the next Dota character because they don't give a fuck about us."

Closing Statements

"We've peaked. If we want to sustain and exist, now is the time to figure it out. No esports lasts as long as this, we've already done 8 years. We've already broke the records. We have got to figure out a way to coexist and drive the negative forces out and we need to do it as a collective and we're not doing that."

• RL compared the Counter-Strike scene to the people on the Titanic who ran around with guns robbing people while the boat was sinking.
• "We have given up on being a respectable esports scene." "We are now a conduit to make money for those who want to just milk it, just have one last ride, one last roll of the dice. It's done." "What a fucking mess. What have we done to our fucking scene?"
• "There's just too much self-interest driving all of this." "I don't see a way we stop the dominoes." "When it's that bad, when there's that many dishonest people that ESIC have to come out and say that if we punish them all there's no one left. What does that tell you?"
• "How many opportunities have we had to clean house? How many times have we said, 'this must never happen again', and another scandal." "The entire skins betting operations was the biggest criminal conspiracy in esports ever executed and no one has been punished for it." "The people who could be driving that don't want to."
• "Right now people are fans of those organizations because the scene has value. It is worth being a fan of Astralis because they are excellent at Counter-Strike. It is worth being a fan of s1mple because he is the best player in Counter-Strike, maybe the exception of ZywOo. If the scene is devalued, if the scene loses its meaning, those things lose its meaning too, and people will leave, people will stop tuning into the games. I have seen it happen in multiple esports, this is not my first time at the rodeo. I am getting big Brood War vibes right now and I don't like it."
• "The role you play in all of this as fans, as viewers, as listeners, as consumers of esports content, it's absolutely imperative that you know who the good guys are. It's absolutely imperative that you use your voice. It's absolutely imperative that when things are bad, you know who, at least, is trying to make them good, and you have to apply your criticism to the right targets."
  • He continues saying it's no good in continuing to attack ESIC and saying how they are bad, ESIC have it hard
• He says CSPPA are on the right side of the argument on BLAST but have been on the wrong side of many arguments many times.
  • "If you are not willing to stand along side the weakest member of the union, with the least amount of influence, and the least amount of power, then it is not a union at all and you shouldn't pose as one." "You wanna serve a bunch of special interest do it, everyone else in esports fucking does, but do not pose as something you are not." "We love the players. I've been fighting for players rights for as long as I've been able to, but the CSPPA is not what we needed."
    • "They are not applying the pressure to the right people, they are not fighting the right battles, they are not helping their weaker members."
• He says what orgs have done by keeping or hiring coaches is bad. "When you give up on holding an appreciable standard, you've lost the scene" "Competition matters, rules matter, punishments matter, achievements matter, excellence matters" "If you start stripping that away, you have nothing" "You guys need to take that knowledge and apply it sensibly."
• "Valve has sold you all down the river, they sold everyone in the esports scene down the river, tournament organizers are selling their talent down the river. Don't hate on them for sounding tired after a 16 hour day. Don't hate on them because the hype for a matchup they've seen for the 20th time in the past 3 months, they can't be as excited or it sounds contrived. Support your guys, they're there for you, these are your people."
• "This community has got to start acting like one for the first fucking time. Just put the petty shit away, let's try and fix this fucking scene while we still have one to save."
• "You can't rely on Valve, you can't rely on ESL, you can't rely on the CSPPA, you can't rely on anyone." "Once again, it's gonna be the likes of us, the amateurs, the people who give a fuck, rolling up our sleeves and grafting." "I'm old and tired and I don't want to have to do it again. People need to pick up the torch and do it."
  • "Like Michal did, like Dudenhoeffer did. You see something wrong, fix it. You see somebody doing something wrong, call it out. If you think something could be better, let people know."
• "Vote with your wallets if you're not happy with the direction Valve goes in. If when we do get to the Major, they serve up another subpar, same old bullshit stickers and signatures package again, do not buy it."
  • "You're a powerful block and if you use it correctly we can fucking avert this disaster."
• "I'm not doing another year in this broken, bust-up fucking scene, where everyone is miserable, everyone is broke, everyone is tired, and everyone is trying to fucking rob everyone else, blind, while the fucking people who are meant to be protecting you, are just fucking enhancing it and lining their own pockets."
  • "I'm not doing it anymore and you shouldn't want to do it either."
• "I stand by every fucking thing I said. I mean it, because this game fucking matters to me, this scene fucking matters to me. I put my life into this, my adult life, and to see it in this state is fucking sad."

Disclaimer I want to thank everyone for the gilds, replies and suggestions. I just do not have time to reply to everyone, but I am reading everything. I am not sure how much bigger the thread can be, I already typed this but it vanished so I think I'm at the limit. I will try to keep updating, but I don't expect the thread to be up top for much longer and will likely vanish soon, so if you need anything save it.
Yes, it's hard, it sucks, it's depressing. It is something we all have to do if you want to see this virus go. Everyone knows the deal, too many think they're the exception but no one is. However, staying home is hard so maybe I can help at least one or two people with some incentives. I'll try to give links to some things that can help cure the boredom, and some support if you need it.
Most of this might be obvious to some, some might not even have internet and of course, money is a big issue, so I'll try to give some suggestions:
For streaming and on demand things such as Netflix et al, don't forget you can subscribe for free for your first month. This goes for most things in the list. If you are worried about putting in your payment details and forgetting to cancel a month later, don't worry! You can sign up and immediately cancel and you still get your free month!
For people who don't have a smart TV, you can buy a cheap Amazon Fire TV stick or a Roku box. The Fire stick can go as low as £20 often for 1080p. It will drop to £30 for 4k.
I picked up a 4k Roku device for £18 on Amazon once. It's fast and snappy. currently it's going for £33 for the 4k version. Having both, there is little difference between the devices. NowTV also do their own roku powered device.
Subscription based streaming sites that all offer 2-4 weeks free for first timers

• Netflix *According to comments the second month is free.
  
• Amazon Prime You can either get Amazon video on its own, or take prime with other benefits. I strongly urge those who use Amazon for buying off their store front to use [https://smile.amazon.co.uk/] as there is literally no difference except everything you buy amazon donates to a charity of your choice.
  
• Now TV (I believe it's 7 days)
  
• Disney+
  
• Britbox
  
• Amazon channels. I believe you can get all these individually but Amazon offers them as channels bound to your prime account, and they are again either free for a couple weeks (again, take them, cancel instantly) or very cheap. I recently subscribed to Starzplay for £1 for 3 months. It has some good shows on it like Fringe, doom patrol. It also has channels like Curiosity stream and shudder
  

If you have not subscribed to the any of the above, you can get a few months of free TV by signing up and cancelling instantly. I suggest waiting at least 5 minutes just to let it go through the system.
Some tips for Now TV. IF you already have a subscription, I've noticed you can get it cheaper by cancelling. When you cancel they will beg you to stay. Select "I can not afford it this month" and they should beg again, telling you what shows they have. If you say you still want to cancel, they'll beg one last time and offer you the subscription for cheaper. This won't work every month, but I've noticed they'll always offer it the first time, then again after a couple months. If you're subscribed to both films and entertainment do the most expensive one as it may not work both times (but it might!). You can also pick up passes from storefronts a lot cheaper sometimes, before I could pick one up on Amazon for £3 but, they seem to have cracked down on it. If you shop around (or if anyone knows of a legitimate store please let me know) you might be able to pick it up cheaper. Lastly, check their website and under your account they should have an "offers for you" section.
Completely free TV

• Pluto TV
  
• Viki
  
• Roku
  

If you do have a smart TV and/or device, there are some good free streaming apps. One I really love is called PlutoTV. I know this is on both Roku and the fire stick, as well as Ps4/Ps5 and xbox.
Pluto offers a bunch of live channels and now an on demand section, all for free. It has adverts but they are actually short (shorter than regular TV and fewer of them). Some of the channels are just streaming certain shows like Mythbusters 24/7 or Dog the bounty hunter, but it has a lot of old movie channels as well as 24/7 kickboxing and MMA. It also has a 24/7 poker channel I quite like.
Another one I like is Rakuten Viki however, I haven't watched it for a while as my fire stick is only 1080p and I have too many other devices attached. I believe it is on Roku but you have to jump through some hoops and have an account. The last I checked on the fire stick you did not. Viki offers a metric ton of Asian shows, mainly from Japan and South Korea but it does have chinese, Malaysian etc. It has subtitles. Some Japanese shows are hysterical, albeit weird.
Roku also do their own channels with free shows if you own a device.
For those who don't have a smart TV or a Streaming device, you can set up your own computer as a dedicated streaming device with Plex. It's been a while since I used it but I believe it now also offers free movies and TV.
Anime
If you are into Anime there is

• Crunchyroll
  
• Funimation
  
• HiDive
  

The first 2 are free to watch, or offer premium without ads which you can have a trial with. Crunchyroll is the better of the two with more original choice for Japanese voice and subs, while Funimation has more Dubs. I don't believe HiDive is free to watch but you do get a 2 week trial. These are more exclusives than the previous two.
PC Centric software
If you are a gamer or like Audiobooks or anything that uses computers for things like music making, programming or graphic design

• Humble Bundle
  
• Fanatical
  
• IndieGala
  

Humble Bundle offers, as per the name, bundles. A long running site that got bought out by IGN. It offers both single items and bundles you can buy individually/as a pack while also offering a separate monthly subscription for around £8-9. The subscription gives you 12 games on average per month. That's the simplest explanation but it changes somewhat as sometimes you get to pick 10 out of 14 games, or get all 12.
Humble bundle offers more than just games though. Every Tuesday they bring a new bundle of games, while Thursday (I "think) a new bundle of books. They very often have books from the Black Library giving you a ton of Warhammer books. Sometimes it's standard E-books, other times it's audiobooks. A few times a year they do bundles for graphic design, a typical bundle would include programs like Paintshop Pro Corel Painter etc, They usually go for £0.76 for tier 1 up to around £18 for tier 3, which would include 4-6 full titles with 10+ addons. They also often have Music making bundles or video editing software as well as Programming or video game development.
The bundles change often, they usually have around 11 bundles at a time that last for 20 days. Sometimes it's trash but they do often have some very good deals.
Fanatical offers the same as humble bundle except usually not as high quality, but sometimes they do have some incredible deals, and they are very very cheap.
Both humble and fanatical are safe, trusted and been around a long time, and they are NOT grey market key sites. They work with the publishers and developers. You can buy games both old and new for a lot cheaper than you would most other places. Unless it states otherwise, keys are usually for steam.
**BOTH HB and Fanatical (HB much more common) offer free games fairly often. The catch is linking your steam account to them (at least HB). It is safe however.
IndieGala is another site like above. Except, these are much much lower quality. However, they offer a metric ton of free games. Quality is low but it is legitimate, and a lot of free stuff.
Game Store Fronts

• Steam This one is so obvious I didn't add it, but apparently many want me to. It is the best out there, and you can find almost everything, with fantastic deals.
  
• Greenmangaming offers games cheaply. Again, not a grey market site (which are legal but unethical) and they sometimes do bundles.
  
• GoG (Good old games) is a DRM free site run by CDPR, the makers of the Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk. They offer you games quite cheap and not needing DRM (such as Steam, Uplay etc which is less invasive versions of dodgy DRM from the olden days).
  
• Epic Games Despite the controversy whether you care about their rivalry with valve, they offer free games ever week. Without ever having bought anything I have gained over 170 games. literally. Good games for the most part. They often give you £10 coupons as well.
  
• Twitch Everyone knows twitch, but if you don't, it's a streaming service for watching gamers and girls with low cut tops accidentally bending over in front of the game. However, if you're signed up to prime, you get free games each month (and randomly between the set bunch).
  
• Playstation Store Currently has January sales. Currently the free games for PS+ are for PS4: Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Greedfall. For the Ps5 it is Maneater
  
• Games with Gold Bleed 2 and the King of Fighters XIII is available until Janurary 15th whilst little Nightmares is available until January 31st.
  

Gaming Subscriptions
Like the TV versions, you can sign up to these for a free trial (or very cheap). If you do sign up to only one at a time, it should keep you busy for a few months

• Xbox Game Pass You can do this on both/either an Xbox or PC. If you sign up to the regular one, you can get a month (maybe three!) for £1. After you have done that, you can sign up to the premium version for 3 months at £1 a month. Most people know game pass, but you can download a large selection of games for free. The premium version gives you games with gold, allowing you to keep the games forever (but can only play with a subscription)
  
• Ubisoft+ I'm not 100% sure if you get a trial or not. This allows a large collection of Ubisoft titles to play for £12.99 a month. Quite expensive but good if you like Ubisoft titles I guess.
  
• EA Play EA's version. Goes by a ton of names I think, EA Access, EA Play, Origin Access etc etc. There's a couple of versions of this, and it is across all platforms (PS4/5, Xbox, PC) but not sure about the switch. I "think" the premium allows you to play on all platforms, while the cheaper one on a single platform, but I may be mistaken.
  
• PS Now a once terrible service that is now actually very good. Allows you to download some Ps4 games to your PS4/5 and lets you stream a massive amount of Ps2/3/4 to your PC or playstation.
  

There's more like nvidia's service but you need the Shield device which is quite expensive. I'll leave it at that.
Audiobooks & Ebooks

• Audible Not sure what the current deal is but if you are a prime member you can sign up for a trial and get a free Audiobook each month for 3 months. Some warhammer books are 48 hours long, 3 of those gives you a good 100+ hours of listening!
  
• Comixology Another Amazon company, but lets you download some free comics I believe.
  
• Marvel Unlimited No experience with this. ItFuckingWont wanted me to add it. A subscription service for Marvel.
  

Education

• Sign Language BSL here No experience myself, suggested by n21brown and asked for a few times. Didn't know SL was so popular! Listed as "Pay what you can"
  
• BBC's Bitesize here is apparently good for home learning. Again, no personal experience.
  

If you need some spare change
Okay, I don't generally bother with it, but maybe some of this could be useful to you. These are NOT a quick way to make a fortune. These are small things you can do over time for a bit of pocket change

• If you have prime you can get a FREE FIVE POUND GIFT CARD by literally just streaming a song from Amazon music (which is included in prime) here is the details According to the comments it's only for select people, but it's worth trying If the link doesn't work for you just google "Amazon £5 coupon music"
  
• Now, these sorts of sites have been around for years, I haven't used any other than talkInsights which I must have signed up to 10-15 years ago. Basically they send you surveys and you answer them. They are confidential and don't ask for personal details in the survey. You need 2000 points and you get £20. During the pandemic they've slowed down but I probably get around £40 a year. Not much I know, but it's an email followed by a quick survey ticking boxes. Depending on your answer sometimes you get screened out, I'm not telling you to lie but just be consistent with your answers and you should be able to work out how to not get screened. Some emails are only worth 20 points, others 200. It's slow to get to the 2000 but very quick to just answer a few questions.
  
• Apparently beermoneyuk is a good sub to make some pocket change with.
  
• There is also matched betting. I have never done this, I don't have the patience but from what I've read, it's legitimate, it works and you can make a fair amount of cash from it so long as you do it correctly, and there's a ton of guides. I mention this because people stuck at home could get into it and as long as you're careful (I.E not entering in the wrong numbers) it's risk free AND it pisses off the betting shops. It seems people in comments have had success with it. Disclaimer A couple have complained about gambling. This arguably is not gambling. If you are susceptible to addiction do not do it. However, it's argued that there is no fun or buzz in this, and it's a very tedious and time consuming thing. Others argue you can't make the same money anymore (People were making thousands, now only hundreds if that). It's risk free providing you know what you're doing, the risks are user error, such as entering the wrong numbers. Someone pointed out that due to the lockdown, bets could potentially be cancelled due to sport stopping. So use on a side of caution. We're (mainly) adults so I'll leave it up just because this doesn't have the excitement of regular gambling.
  
• Microsoft Rewards This is an easy way to make pocket change doing very little. Most people have a MS account. The rewards program offers you numerous ways to grab points, by playing free to play games, answering small questions (you don't even need to answer most of the time, just open the link and shut it) and by using bing and searching on it. I've gotten 20k points JUST by answering questions over a couple months. There are many rewards but you can grab a £5 gift card for 6k for example, or a month of game pass (and AFAIK you can make points playing the games)
  
• Google rewards Someone mentioned this in the comments. I have not used it, so can not give any input on it. Sounds similar to TalkInsights which I linked. Google states "Complete short surveys while standing in line, or waiting for a subway. Get rewarded with Google Play or PayPal credit for each one you complete. Topics include everything from opinion polls, to hotel reviews, to merchant satisfaction surveys. We’ll notify you when a survey is waiting."
  

That's it for now. I will try to update as I go along. A long post but I hope that it can help some of you with finding something good to do that's free, cheap or a bargain. I do suggest getting prime, especially since you get free music, free delivery, free TV and music and free video games each month. In fact, there's a ton of perks and I feel I've gotten way over the cost investment.
Hope it helps someone at least
PartTimeCrazy said if you bought an Apple product you get 3 free months of Apple Arcade and Apple TV free for a year
fakehunted is upset I didn't mention wanking. Tesco have 225 sheets of Tissue for £0.75!
tale_lost suggested Project Gutenberg for a collection of free E-Books
Learning Language
Unfortunately, I don't have time to check every link listed so I will link the comments:
Togtogtog Gives a lot of links for Spanish

• Duolingo Numerous people have suggested this So I haven't used myself. Thanks to OhHiGCHQ StephanieMecredy & Allorie_95

Board & Tabletop games
Corporal_Anaesthetic has made a list of Board games
ilyemco suggested these
HEALTH
I'm not a doctor! But if you're a smoker, something I strongly suggest is to quit. I struggled for years but in the first lockdown I quit, technically. I haven't had a cigarette since, however, I do that silly thing millennials do. I vape, but, it made quitting extremely easy. I would not have been able to do it if it wasn't for 88Vape They sell extremely cheap liquids at £1 each. You can find these in B&M but you can pick up 25 for £20 or buy your own mix.
Vitamin D deficiency has been said to be a big problem for the virus. I'd suggest (again, not a doctor!) that you pick some up. Tesco do a 3 for 2 deal. So you can pick up 270 tablets for £7.
If you are vulnerable you MIGHT be able to phone tesco and get put on their delivery saver list (currently it's paused but phoning may help. At the very least they might give you a priority slot. I did this for my mum, we didn't shop at Tesco but I phoned for her, and they put her on with no hassle, so she can always get a delivery.
HELP & ADVICE
The lockdown Rules.
Reasons to leave home include:

• Work or volunteering where it is "unreasonable" to work from home. This includes work in someone else's home, such as that carried out by social workers, nannies, cleaners and tradespeople
  
• Education, training, childcare and medical appointments and emergencies
  
• Exercise outdoors (limited to once a day). This includes meeting one other person from another household in an open public space to exercise
  
• Shopping for essentials such as food and medicine
  
• Communal religious worship
  
• Meeting your support or childcare bubble. Children can also move between separated parents Activities related to moving house
  

I want to add, if you are in danger you are also allowed (and must!) to get away from the situation for some reason, BBC seems to have missed this very important thing (or I am blind)

• To flee the threat of harm or violence.*
  
• CoronaVirus Symptoms
  
• CoronaVirus government site You can check your location and how many cases here.
  
• Worldometers Shows cases around the world.
  
• Interactive UK Map Another easy to read map with cases in counties and local area's.
  
• World Health Organisation
  

Support

• Samaritans
  
• Mental Health UK forum on reddit
  
• Link to above's stick post for support outlets
  
• Mindful
  
• Mind.org
  

FOR THOSE SHIELDING YOU CAN CONTACT THE ROYAL VOLUNTARY SERVICE. These people helped my mother with picking up her medicine from the chemist. They were very helpful and went out their way to keep in touch and do it immediately. (It's the only experience I have with them though)
_riotingpacifist wanted these links added, but I simply just don't have the time to vet and check all the suggestions here, so I will link as is:

• https://england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/
  
• https://www.goodsamapp.org/
  
• https://vaccinationvolunteers.sja.org.uk/roles/volunteer-vaccinator.html
  
• https://nhsvolunteerresponders.org.uk/getting-you-started-guide-steward-volunteer
  
• https://peoplesmomentum.com/evictionresistance/
  
• https://londonrentersunion.org/
  

Update:
Digital Art
These are Free

• Krita Arguably the best in my opinion. It has a load of options, brushes and a decent UI. It works fantastic with a tablet.
  
• Gimp This is a decent program but last I used, the UI was a pain, and it isn't so user friendly while misses features, but it works, and it is possible to do some incredible creations on it.
  
• Medibang Paint This is slightly geared towards Comics and Manga. I really enjoy using this with my drawing Tablet. As far as I know, it also for regular tablets for Android/Ipad and is free.
  

You can pick up a drawing tablet on Amazon quite cheap these days! Small ones that are just a black slate such as the wacom ones are good but takes some practice to get use to, but very worth it if you can't afford a dedicated drawing tablet with a screen.
Office suit software
A couple of free applications for word processing, spreadsheets etc.

• LibreOffice This has most the average user would need to write their own books or to work from home. There's not a huge amount of difference between the two I'm linking (since I last used anyway) so it's more for preference.
  
• Open Office You can pick this up here and again, like above it's just preference.
  

Music Making
I'm going to direct to matthewharris806 for some links as all the programs I've used like Reason are expensive, or cheaper stuff in bundles such as Magix software.
Games development
D_Dad_Default gives some links for that here

Game Information

Game Title: Cyberpunk 2077
Genre: Role-playing, first-person, action-adventure, sci-fi, dystopian, open-world
Platforms: Playstation 4/5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X, PC, Stadia
Media: 2012 Cyberpunk 2077 Title Reveal
2013 Teaser Trailer
Mike Pondsmith about Cyberpunk World
E3 2018 Trailer | Gamescom 2018 48-Minute Gameplay Walkthrough
E3 2019 Cinematic Trailer | E3 2018 Keanu Reveal
'The Gig' Trailer
Night City Wire: Episode 1 | Episode 2 | Episode 3 | Episode 4 | Episode 5
Refused: Becoming SAMURAI | Lifepaths | Tools of Destruction
Postcards from Night City | Gangs of Night City
Rides of the Dark Future | 2077 in Style | 'The Diner'
Xbox One X & Xbox Series X Footage | PlayStation 4/5 Footage
Johnny Silverhand Trailer | JALI Lipsync Tech
Official Gameplay Trailer | Photo Mode Trailer
Developer: CD Projekt Red ^Info
Publisher: CD Projekt
Price: $59.99 USD
Release Date: December 9-10, 2020
Next-gen features patch - TBA 2021
More Info: /cyberpunkgame | Wikipedia Page
Review Aggregator:
OpenCritic - 77 | 65% Recommended [Cross-Platform] Score Distribution
MetaCritic - [PS5]
MetaCritic - [XBSX]
MetaCritic - 86 [PC]
MetaCritic - 54 [PS4]
MetaCritic - 58 [XB1]
MetaCritic - [Stadia]
Neuronally arbitrary list of past CD Projekt Red games -

Entry	Score Platform, Year, # of Critics
The Witcher	81 PC, 2007, 50 critics
The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings	88 PC, 2011, 76 critics
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	92 PS4, 2015, 79 critics
The Witcher 3: Hearts of Stone	89 PC, 2015, 37 critics
The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine	92 PC, 2016, 50 critics
Gwent: The Witcher Card Game	80 PC, 2018, 6 critics
Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales	85 PC, 2018, 51 critics
Cyberpunk 2O77	99 PS4, 2020, 79 critics

Reviews

Reviews in bold were posted after launch

Website/Author	Aggregates' Score ~ Critic's Score	Quote	Platform
Polygon - Carolyn Petit	Unscored ~ Unscored	Cyberpunk 2077 is dad rock, not new wave	PC
Rock, Paper, Shotgun - Graham Smith	Unscored ~ Unscored	Cyberpunk 2077 is huge, sprawling, complex, and deeply flawed. It’s at its best as a fairly straightforward singleplayer action game, with likable characters and thrilling capers in a fascinatingly detailed open world that looks better than any game before it. It’s at its worst if you want it to be an RPG, an approach-as-you-please Deus Ex successor, or a polished piece of software. I enjoyed my time with it a lot, and I even want more of it, though I’m going to spend years complaining about its flaws. I’ll enjoy the complaining, too.	PC
Skill Up - Ralph Panebianco	Unscored ~ Unscored	This game and Night City are far too special an experience to be interrupted and undermined by the issues that currently undermine this game. Part of me wishes I was among the people who picked up the game for the first time a year from now, with all its parts finished and shiny like a brand new Quadro type 66 Avenger. Regardless of when you pick it up, you're in for a once in a lifetime experience, and you can't say that about many games.	PC
Push Square - Robert Ramsey	Unscored ~ Review-In-Progress	On PS5 via backwards compatibility, there's still fun to be had - a glimpse of the game's excellent potential - but even then, it's crippled by bugs and crashing issues. There's something truly special at the core of Cyberpunk 2077, but in its current state, it's simply not good enough. So far, a colossal disappointment.	PS4
TheSixthAxis - Alexis Ong	Unscored ~ Review-In-Progress	Pondsmith has talked at length about how 2020 and 2077 aren’t meant to be prophecies, but cautionary tales, but CDPR isn’t quite the right studio to pull off a cautionary tale of this scope. I’m not sure whether dumping more hours in will yield a better takeaway, but here’s hoping for more.	PS4 Pro
Press Start - Brodie Gibbons	Unscored ~ Review-In-Progress	Cyberpunk 2077 is staggering, overwhelming, and even surprising at times in its spectacle. Although my first dozen hours with the game has been marred by easy-to-fix problems, Nighty City, along with all it offers and all that call it home, makes for an intoxicating escape. Here's hoping the next one hundred hours are as utterly compelling.	PC
Eurogamer - Chris Tapsell	Unscored ~ Recommended	Exceptional characters, heartfelt storytelling and enjoyable action threaten to be engulfed by endless bugs and hasty, uneven design.	PC
GameOnAUS - Royce Wilson	Unscored ~ Essential	This is an outstanding and highly enjoyable game, but take your time with it, do all the side missions (think of them as extensions of the main quest, in fact) and don’t rush the main storyline. You should absolutely take the earliest available opportunity to explore Night City and everything it has to offer. From the visuals to the music to the vibe, it’s a superb experience and one I am looking forward to spending a lot more time with.	PC
Daily Mirror - James Ide	100 ~ 5 / 5 stars	It's been a long wait, but the end result is a massive sprawling RPG with an incredible story, heart-pounding action, solid mechanics and customisation, offering you unparalleled player choice in a deep, atmospheric world that I can't wait to plug myself back into.	PC
Digital Spy - Owen Gough	100 ~ 5 / 5 stars	We could wax lyrical about how good this game is for another ten years, and we still think the conversation would be relevant - so yes, we think Cyberpunk 2077 is the game of the decade. This is an event, and a big moment in gaming, because the brilliant Cyberpunk 2077 is laying down the stepping stones for greater feats in the future.	PC
GameSpew - Richard Seagrave	100 ~ 10 / 10	Cyberpunk 2077 isn’t perfect, but it is ambitious. It marries a gripping story with a huge open world absolutely dripping with atmosphere; one in which, after fifty hours of gameplay, I still feel like I’ve only scratched its surface. Even now I’m itching to jump back in and complete yet more side jobs, not only because they’re enjoyable, but also just in case they offer V more options when it comes to ending their story.	PC
Gamerheadquarters - Jason Stettner	100 ~ 10 / 10	Cyberpunk 2077 is the cyberpunk game of my dreams, it provides one of the most highly detailed environments I’ve ever seen, with an incredibly expansive and immersive narrative.	Stadia
GamesRadar+ - Sam Loveridge	100 ~ 5 / 5 stars	What Cyberpunk 2077 lacks in core campaign length, it makes up for with depth and soul, offering a world of intrigue and violence unlike any other.	PC
God is a Geek - Mick Fraser	100 ~ 10 / 10	Despite a few flaws, Cyberpunk 2077 is one of the most consistently astounding pieces of media I've ever had the pleasure of consuming.	PC
PowerUp! - Leo Stevenson	100 ~ 10 / 10	Frankly, Cyberpunk 2077 is the best video game I've ever played	PC
The Digital Fix - Andrew Shaw	100 ~ 10 / 10	CD Projekt Red has set a new standard for what can be achieved in this sandbox. Cyberpunk 2077 is taking open-world gaming to the next generation.	PC
TheGamer - Kirk McKeand	100 ~ 5 / 5 stars	I’m V and the game is Silverhand - I can’t get Cyberpunk 2077 out of my head. I’ve had it a week and played 70 hours, which is probably about as healthy as scooping out my face and replacing it with electronics, but it didn’t feel like work. Like a digital personality loaded onto a biochip, it felt like stepping into another life for a while. It’s a life I can’t wait to relive.	PC
VG247 - James Billcliffe	100 ~ 5 / 5 stars	With so much to see and do, Cyberpunk 2077 is the kind of RPG where you blink and hours go by, which is just what we need to finish off 2020.	PC
Windows Central - Jez Corden	100 ~ 5 / 5 stars	Cyberpunk 2077 is an open-world masterpiece that features some of the most immersive and liberating storytelling this industry has to offer. With full freedom to choose V's personality, looks, and gameplay style, Cyberpunk 2077 gives the player an unrelenting amount of control in a world that delivers dozens upon dozens of hours of high-quality content.	PC
Stevivor - Jay Ball	95 ~ 9.5 / 10	The most important thing that everyone needs to know about Cyberpunk 2077 is that while it’s imperfect, it is without a doubt a superb game.	PC
Geek Culture - Marion Frayna	91 ~ 9.1 / 10	The dark future certainly looks promising, thanks to the collective imagination of the team at CD Projekt Red, which seems to know no bounds. Cyberpunk 2077 certainly took a while to come to our hands, but be glad it’s finally here, for it is here to stay for a long time to come. And it certainly did not disappoint.	PC
Game Informer - Andrew Reiner	90 ~ 9 / 10	An open world you can get lost in and continue finding new things to do	PC
GameWatcher - Marcello Perricone	90 ~ 9 / 10	A remarkably well-executed open world game whose greatest heights exceed its deepest failings.	PC
GamingBolt - Rohan Philip	90 ~ 9 / 10	Minor flaws aside, Cyberpunk 2077 on PC is an exciting and enthralling open world experience. It doesn't set a new industry standard, but it does most of the things it aims to do with great success.	PC
Hardcore Gamer - Chris Shive	90 ~ 4.5 / 5	Cyberpunk 2077 is excellent and one of the must-play titles of 2020, but unfortunately this statement needs to be clarified depending on the platform.	PC
IGN - Tom Marks	90 ~ 9 / 10	Cyberpunk 2077 throws you into a beautiful, dense cityscape and offers a staggering amount of flexibility in how you choose to take it from there.	PC
PC Invasion - Jason Rodriguez	90 ~ 9 / 10	Cyberpunk 2077 has some glaring flaws and missed opportunities. Its open-world sandbox suffers from poor NPC and police AI, and it lacks customization and transmogrification features to help your character stand out. Still, the pros outweigh the cons owing to a brilliant narrative, memorable missions, strong supporting cast of characters, well-integrated combat and hacking mechanics, and jaw-dropping visuals.	PC
PCGamesN - Richard Scott-Jones	90 ~ 9 / 10	Groundbreaking, but not quite as much as you're hoping it is. Cyberpunk 2077 doesn't surpass its brilliant influences, but in Night City, Johnny Silverhand, and its chilling vision of hyper-capitalism, it claims territory of its own.	PC
RPG Site - Alex Donaldson	90 ~ 9 / 10	When Cyberpunk's grim setting and mix of gameplay systems land, it is a powerfully impressive experience - sprawling, dense, clever, witty, and most importantly damn good fun. Other times, it has all the charm of a moody, edgy teenager.	PC
TrueAchievements - Heidi Nicholas	90 ~ 4.5 / 5 stars	It might not reinvent the genre in every aspect, but for a fantastic story, an insanely detailed word, and brilliant dialogue, you’ve got to try it.	PC
Xbox Achievements - Dan Webb	85 ~ 85 / 100	Cyberpunk 2077 is an incredible but hugely flawed video game. At its core lies a deceptively deep-RPG, set in one of the most wonderous cities ever created in video games and it’s genuinely an experience I’ll never forget. It’s just a shame it’s such a bloody bugfest, though.	XBSX
Daily Star - Tom Hutchison	80 ~ 4 / 5 stars	If you’re willing to lose yourself in Cyberpunk for the long term you’ll definitely get your money’s worth out of a strong role-player that’s flowing with action missions.
GameCrate - Angelo D'Argenio	80 ~ 8 / 10	I want to recognize how ambitious and fun this game is while simultaneously warning people about how incomplete and sloppy it is. Whether or not this is a worthwhile purchase will be entirely up to whether or not you want to brave the bugs, glitches, and general half-baked feel in order to get to the core roleplaying game underneath.	PC
GameHaunt - Mark Louis Salazar	80 ~ 4 / 5 stars	Cyberpunk 2077 is of massive ambition, and the characters in it are brilliantly written and performed.	PC
Jump Dash Roll - Derek Johnson	80 ~ 8 / 10	Cyberpunk 2077 has some seriously major technical problems, but it's worth putting up with them to experience a fantastically down-to-earth story that's accompanied by solid shooting and great music.	PC
Metro GameCentral - GameCentral	80 ~ 8 / 10	A stunning achievement in open world gameplay but one whose tonal inconsistencies and weak narrative undermines what could have been an all-time classic.	PC
Screen Rant - Cody Gravelle	80 ~ 4 / 5 stars	Ultimately, it feels like Cyberpunk 2077 is a fitting bookend for the previous generation of games and a strong starting point for current-gen. Now it's time to start innovating again.	PC
TrustedReviews - Jade King	80 ~ 4 / 5 stars	CD Projekt Red has created a triumphant RPG experience with Cyberpunk 2077, yet it often falters under the weight of its own ambition thanks to inconsistent writing and narrative	PC
VideoGamer - Josh Wise	80 ~ 8 / 10	The scenes that have lodged most deeply in my memory are not those devoted to the chases, the shootouts, or the narrow squeaks, but those possessed of a quiet empathy.	PS5
PC Gamer - James Davenport	78 ~ 78 / 100	Some nice characters and stories nested in an astounding open world, undercut by jarring bugs at every turn.	PC
Critical Hit - Brad Lang	75 ~ 7.5 / 10	Cyberpunk 2077 tells a compelling story with an excellent assortment of characters but fails to deliver on the promises of a living, breathing open-world. All of these faults are amplified by a messy user interface, unengaging combat, and shoddy performance across multiple platforms.	PC
Destructoid - Chris Carter	75 ~ 7.5 / 10	Cyberpunk 2077 is a victim of bloat, but you can choose to ignore a lot of it and take in the sights. That's where Night City is at its best, and I sincerely suggest that you take your time going through it, as rushing will only lead to disappointment. Even just strolling through though though, you'll probably be left wanting more.	PC
Easy Allies - Ben Moore	75 ~ 7.5 / 10	The glitz and glamour of Night City unfortunately doesn't cover up its rampant bug infestation. Written	PC
Attack of the Fanboy - William Schwartz	70 ~ 3.5 / 5 stars	Cyberpunk 2077 will ultimately be optimized for every platform and the major bugs will likely be squashed, but it's real problems will remain. A lack of gameplay and systems that matter leave the game feeling uninspired, even if some of the conversations and characters in this world are the best we've seen in quite some time.	PC
But Why Tho? - Quinn Hiers	70 ~ 7 / 10	Cyberpunk 2077 offers players an interesting world to explore, great storytelling, and loveable and deep characters. But the main story is light on cyberpunk themes, and the bugs and bad graphics really hinder the playability. Once the technical bugs are hammered out, Cyberpunk 2077 will be a game I would recommend.	PS4
GameSpot - Kallie Plagge	70 ~ 7 / 10	Cyberpunk 2077 has standout side quests and strong main characters, though its buggy, superficial world and lack of purpose bring it down.	PC
Kakuchopurei - Jonathan Leo	70 ~ 70 / 100	Cyberpunk 2077 is definitely a massive CRPG undertaking. If it weren’t for the glitches and bugs in the way, I’d say CD Projekt has a helluva masterpiece in its hands.	PX, XBSX
PCMag - Gabriel Zamora	70 ~ 3.5 / 5 stars	I fell in love with Night City, warts and all. If its many bugs can get ironed out, Cyberpunk 2077 is a potential Game of the Year candidate. Here’s hoping that CD Projekt Red can quickly push out fixes.	PC
Shacknews - Josh Hawkins	70 ~ 7 / 10	I’d love nothing more than to sit here and tell you that it’s a perfect game and that you won’t have any issues playing it. Sadly, that isn’t the case. In its current state, Cyberpunk 2077 has a strong story and world, but those strengths are weighed down by bad design decisions and bugs aplenty.	PC
Twisted Voxel - Ali Haider	70 ~ 7 / 10	Too ambitious for its own good, Cyberpunk 2077 attempts to do too much and falters in its execution as a result. Despite its issues, it’s better than the sum of its parts and might be worth checking out for fans of action RPGs.	PS5
Worth Playing - Chris "Atom" DeAngelus	65 ~ 6.5 / 10	It may not sound like it, but I enjoyed many aspects of Cyberpunk 2077. It doesn't hit the highs of The Witcher 3, but it still has a lot going for it. However, it was released in such an unfinished state that it's hard to give it a positive review. It's an 8.0 game hiding in a 4.0 game wrapper.	PS4
Cultured Vultures - Ryan Stevens	60 ~ 6 / 10	A lack of focus, vague combat, and some truly befuddling performance issues hamper the still competent, and often enjoyable, detective sim that the best parts of Cyberpunk 2077 want to be.	PS4
Gamers Heroes - Blaine Smith	60 ~ 60 / 100	Cyberpunk 2077 is a great game, but it could have been an incredible game that defined a generation. Instead, it falls victim to its own ambition and the industry's constant desire to push, push, push it out.	PS5
GamingBolt - Shubhankar Parijat	60 ~ 6 / 10	Contrary to expectations, Cyberpunk 2077 is not going to set the world on fire. It's not the gaming revolution that was promised to us, but it's still a fun RPG- with plenty of room for improvement.	PS5
Guardian - Keith Stuart	60 ~ 3 / 5 stars	Blade Runner meets Grand Theft Auto in this sprawling hellscape of a role-playing game, which is extraordinarily immersive but let down by misogyny and xenophobia	PC
Pure Xbox - PJ O'Reilly	50 ~ 5 / 10	Cyberpunk 2077, in its current form on consoles, is a hard game to recommend getting involved with. There's a strong narrative here, brilliantly written characters, some excellent side missions, fun combat and an astonishing setting but, as things stand right now, it's an experience that's in need of some serious TLC. The Series X version may well perform better than the frankly shocking last-gen console efforts but this is a game that we had constant problems with and one that doesn't feel or play like a fully finished product.	XB1
IGN - Destin Legarie	40 ~ 4 / 10	Please don't play Cyberpunk 2077 on a base Xbox One or PS4. It is a shockingly bad way to experience what is a fantastic RPG on better hardware.	PS4, XB1
Gadgets 360 - Akhil Arora	30 ~ 3 / 10	CD Projekt Red delivers a horror-show on the most popular console	PS4

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Technical Analyses

Website/Author	Subject
Digital Foundry	How bad is last-gen performance - and what will it take to fix it?
Digital Foundry	PC tech analysis: a closer look at the ultra high-end experience

First Review Thread
Games Early Impressions Thread
The latest patch of the game is version 1.04 at the time of posting.

Game Information

Game Title: Assassin's Creed Valhalla
Genre: Action-adventure, role-playing, open world, Vikings
Platforms: Playstation 4/5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X, PC, Stadia
Media: - Opening Hours Gameplay | Norse Mythology
Cinematic TV Spot
Post Launch & Season Pass Trailer
New Gameplay Walkthrough | Deep Dive Trailer
Story Trailer
Official Soundtrack Cinematic Trailer | Eivor’s Fate - Character Trailer
Gameplay Overview Trailer | UbiFWD July 2020 | Official 30 Minute Gameplay Walkthrough | UbiFWD July 2020NA
First Look Gameplay Trailer
Cinematic World Premiere Trailer
Developer: Ubisoft Montreal ^Info
Publisher: Ubisoft
Price: Standard - $59.99 USD (contains microtransactions)
Gold - $99.99 contents
Ultimate - $119.99 contents
Release Date: November 10, 2020
PS5 - November 12, 2020
More Info: /assassinscreed | Wikipedia Page
Review Aggregator:
OpenCritic - 84 | 92% Recommended [Cross-Platform] Score Distribution
MetaCritic - [PS5]
MetaCritic - 85 [XBSX]
MetaCritic - 85 [PC]
MetaCritic - 82 [PS4]
MetaCritic - 82 [XB1]
Viciously arbitrary compilation of main games in the Assassin's Creed series -

Entry	Score Platform, Year, # of Critics
Assassin's Creed	81 X360, 2007, 77 critics
Assassin's Creed II	90 X360, 2009, 82 critics
Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood	89 X360, 2010, 81 critics
Assassin's Creed: Revelations	80 X360, 2011, 77 critics
Assassin's Creed III	84 X360, 2012, 61 critics
Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag	88 PS3, 2013, 36 critics
Assassin's Creed Rogue	72 PS3, 2014, 53 critics
Assassin's Creed Unity	72 XB1, 2014, 59 critics
Assassin's Creed Syndicate	76 PS4, 2015, 86 critics
Assassin's Creed Origins	81 PS4, 2017, 63 critics
Assassin's Creed Odyssey	83 PS4, 2018, 86 critics

Reviews

​

Website/Author	Aggregates' Score ~ Critic's Score	Quote	Platform
Kotaku - Zack Zwiezen	Unscored ~ Unscored	Overall, it feels a lot of care and thought went into making Valhalla feel less like a checklist of things to do and more like a world to organically experience.
Polygon - Nicole Carpenter	Unscored ~ Unscored	Valhalla’s most intriguing story is one about faith, honor, and family, but it’s buried inside this massive, massive world stuffed with combat and side quests. That balance is not always ideal, but I’m glad, at least, that it forces me to spend more time seeking out interesting things in the game’s world.	XB1
Rock, Paper, Shotgun - Alice Bell	Unscored ~ Unscored	For fans of the series it’s really entertaining. It might not set the world on fire, but you can set some virtual bits on fire yourself if you want.	PC
IGN India - Shunal Doke	Unscored ~ Unscored	Its new skill system promotes experimentation with different builds, and gear has been streamlined in a way where you’re not constantly chasing bigger numbers every single moment. Level grinding has all but disappeared, and the new setting just oozes atmosphere and theme. Boring protagonist aside, Valhalla is definitely the strongest of the new Assassin’s Creed RPG trilogy.
ACG - Jeremy Penter	Unscored ~ Wait for Sale	Some amazing changes to the way the game is presented, all for the better, can't get out of the way from somewhat weightless combat, bugs and other issues.	PC, XB1, XBSX
Eurogamer - Tom Phillips	Unscored ~ Recommended	Valhalla is another enormous Assassin's Creed saga, lavishly designed, with its sights set on story direction over narrative choice.	XBSX
Daily Star - Tom Hutchison	100 ~ 5 / 5 stars	Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is another success in the series.	PS4
PowerUp! - Leo Stevenson	96 ~ 9.6 / 10	Assassin's Creed Valhalla is the best Assassin's Creed ever. Fully embracing its new genre and giving players so much choice and freedom has paid off handsomely. There's not really much more to say. You simply have to experience it for yourself.	XBSX
Gamers Heroes - Blaine Smith	95 ~ 95 / 100	Assassin's Creed Valhalla is the best tale the franchise has ever told, featuring the most varied and rewarding gameplay the series has seen in years. Valhalla will forever dine in Odin's Hall as one of the greatest RPGs of this generation.	PS4
Vamers - Edward Swardt	95 ~ 95 / 100	It is, undoubtedly, the best Ubisoft has to offer at this stage in time, and will forever be regarded as one of the greats in the Assassin's Creed franchise.	XBSX
Game Informer - Joe Juba	93 ~ 9.3 / 10	Assassin's Creed Valhalla is full of interesting stories and fun interlocking systems, making it an engrossing world you can easily get lost in	XBSX
Impulsegamer - Stephen Heller	92 ~ 4.6 / 5	A intriguing change of pace that gives the Assassin's Creed series the breathing room it has so desperately needed for eons, without making any compromises on content. Well worth you time to enter the gates of Valhalla.
PC Gamer - Steven Messner	92 ~ 92 / 100	Bloody and captivating, Valhalla is Assassin's Creed at its best.	PC
Critical Hit - Darryn Bonthuys	90 ~ 9 / 10	A saga for the ages, Assassin's Creed Valhalla is a breathtaking journey of discovery that has a cold charm to it. It is both serious and ludicrous in equal measure, an RPG that has added more than it has removed from its core experience while delivering a game that feels familiar and completely new at the same time. Skal!	XBSX
Digitally Downloaded - Matt Sainsbury	90 ~ 4.5 / 5 stars	That being said, as far as the gameplay is concerned, this series is going nowhere interesting at this point there while there will be more, and I really implore Ubisoft to take a good, hard look at the bloat and consider whether a more streamlined approach that doesn't get in the way of the best feature (the history and narrative) would not be wiser next time around.	PS4
DualShockers - Cameron Hawkins	90 ~ 9 / 10	Assassin's Creed Valhalla is a combination of everything that made the series great up to this point while cementing all that it needs moving forward.	XB1
Game Rant - Joshua Duckworth	90 ~ 4.5 / 5 stars	Assassin's Creed Valhalla is a love letter to fans of the classic action-adventure titles as well as the newer role-playing mechanics.	XB1
GameZone - Mike Splechta	90 ~ 9 / 10	As an Assassin's Creed fan who has stuck by the series through its high points, and was certainly disappointed by many of its low points, I can confidently say that what Ubisoft has crafted here was not only crafted with an immense amount of love and respect for the series, but for its fans as well. Assassin's Creed Valhalla is one Viking adventure you certainly don't want to miss.	PS4
Gamer Escape - Eliot Lefebvre	90 ~ 9 / 10	Like I said at the beginning, you kind of want these games at some point to stop working, but… Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla really works. It works in all the ways it wants to work. It takes the bones of its predecessor and improves the overall gameplay significantly, giving players plenty to do, characters to invest in, and a satisfying core gameplay loop that’s been refined down to a careful formula at this point.	PS4
GamesRadar+ - Louise Blain	90 ~ 4.5 / 5 stars	With a sprawling world to conquer and gory combat but also the chance to use that iconic hidden blade, Assassin's Creed Valhalla brings a triumphant balance to the series.	XBSX
GamingBolt - Shubhankar Parijat	90 ~ 9 / 10	Assassin's Creed's third crack at the massive open world RPG formula is also its most confident, making for a streamlined yet sprawling adventure that ranks as one of the best the series has delivered since its inception over a decade ago.	XB1
Glitched Africa - Marco Cocomello	90 ~ 9 / 10	Assassin's Creed: Valhalla may be an even further step away from the traditional Assassin's Creed recipe but it is still a great game. Besides the addictive combat and fantastic skill tree, I loved how it fixed the pacing issues from Odyssey. I had a purpose this time around and knew where I was going and what I was doing. The Viking setting is refreshing too and delivers some decent tales to experience while exploring a breathtaking world.	PS4
Noisy Pixel - Azario Lopez	90 ~ 9 / 10	Assassin’s Creed Valhalla takes the advancements of the series found in Odyssey and applies it to a whole new setting. As brutal as the period of Vikings is, there’s something beautiful about this adventure. Every action is rewarded with some great moments of storytelling, and aside from a few narrative roadblocks tied to the player’s level, there’s an amazing world here just waiting to be discovered.	PS4
Press Start - James Mitchell	90 ~ 9 / 10	Assassin's Creed Valhalla blends old and new to create a unique experience and one of the best Assassin's Creed experiences yet. It combines series-best combat, a compelling story, and mesmerizing locales to dually offer a definitive Viking and assassin experience.	XBSX
Pure Playstation - Chris Harding	90 ~ 9 / 10	Ubisoft delivers another open-world epic, but this time it's a focused and streamlined affair. The graphical overhaul works to announce the end of one era and the beginning of another as Assassin's Creed continues its ongoing evolution as an accessible action-adventure for the long-time fans, while still offering a deep RPG experience for those introduced via Origins and Odyssey.	PS4, XB1
Rocket Chainsaw - David Latham	90 ~ 4.5 / 5 stars	It’s hard to find flaws in Valhalla unless you’re a die-hard Assassin’s Creed fan.	XB1
Stevivor - Ben Salter	90 ~ 9 / 10	Like Origins, Valhalla benefits from a year off with a fresh audience. It doesn’t reboot this time, but instead improves upon the duo it’s following, introducing proven elements from some of the best in the business.	XBSX
TechRaptor - Nirav Gandhi	90 ~ 9 / 10	Assassin's Creed Valhalla streamlines the best parts of Origins and Odyssey while trimming the fat, though is hampered consistently by bugs and technical problems. Still, it's a journey well worth taking.	PC
Video Game Sophistry - Andy Borkowski	90 ~ 9 / 10	This is not a tactical assassination simulator - it's a complicated, crafted and nearly perfect open world experience that (if you give it a chance) it will win you over
WellPlayed - Adam Ryan	90 ~ 9 / 10	Valhalla brilliantly mixes brutal combat with satisfying stealth to offer up a package that ticks many open-world boxes that are so often missed	PS4
Sirus Gaming - Jarren Navarrete	85 ~ 8.5 / 10	Eivor's tale is an interesting story to experience and the gameplay that comes along the journey is liberating without being repetitive. With that, we recommend the game fully. It's not without its flaws. Even under the shadow of its predecessors, Valhalla is certainly a game that stands on its own.	PS4
Wccftech - Francesco De Meo	85 ~ 8.5 / 10	Assassin's Creed Valhalla is a definite step up for the series, thanks to the many tweaks made to the RPG mechanics that powered the previous two entries in the series, better storytelling, great atmosphere, and meaningful side-content. Even with the tweaks, however, Assassin's Creed Valhalla is still an Assassin's Creed game at heart, so those who are not into the Ubisoft open-world game design will hardly change their opinion with the game.	PC
Cubed3 - Drew Hurley	80 ~ 8 / 10	Fans of the series are going to adore Assassin's Creed Valhalla. Origins and Odyssey felt like Ubisoft trying something new, stretching out and seeing what worked, and Valhalla takes what was learned there and expands upon it. Some things, like the combat, don't feel quite there yet, still, but other elements absolutely have evolved for the better. There's a lot to love here, and not just in the frankly absurd amount of content available. The story is fantastically enjoyable, with Eivor really shining throughout (play Female for what feels the canon story!) - they are truly deserving of standing alongside the icons of this long-running series. This is a legendary tale and an addition to the franchise that is good enough for the gods.	PS4
GameSkinny - Jordan Baranowski	80 ~ 8 / 10 stars	Assassin's Creed: Valhalla builds its world around a familiar formula, but with a compelling story and plenty of things to do, it's a game series fans will find inviting.	PC
GameSpot - Jordan Ramée	80 ~ 8 / 10	Though its campaign takes time to get going, Assassin's Creed Valhalla brings a satisfying finish to the current saga of the franchise.	XBSX
Hardcore Gamer - Chris Shive	80 ~ 4 / 5	Assassin's Creed Valhalla brings quality of life improvements to the new Assassin's Creed model but doesn't stray too far from familiar territory.	PS4
IGN - Brandin Tyrrel	80 ~ 8 / 10	Assassin's Creed Valhalla is a massive, beautiful open-world fueled by brutal living and the dirty work of conquerors. It's a lot buggier than it should be but also impressive on multiple levels.	XBSX
PlayStation Universe - Michael Harradence	80 ~ 8 / 10	Assassin's Creed Valhalla is everything I hoped it would be, and more. It sells the Viking fantasy flawlessly, is brimming gorgeous locations, vistas and interesting characters, and will keep you busy for 100 or so hours if you want to grab everything on offer. It's buggy in places, and the grinding is overwhelming at times to the point where it spoils the feeling of exploration and progression. However, these shortcomings can be overlooked if you're willing to stick with it. And you should, because Eivor's journey is one worth soaking up.	PS4
Shacknews - Bill Lavoy	80 ~ 8 / 10	Ubisoft is known for their fun open worlds, but it appears that experience and previous stumbles have seen them take big steps forward, making Valhalla one of their best Assassin's Creed games in recent memory.	PC
The Digital Fix - Seb Hawden	80 ~ 8 / 10	Assassin's Creed Valhalla is fun, with its many activities and a rewarding gameplay loop. There is nothing better than rocking up to a monastery with your raucous crew and robbing them blind.	PS4
Windows Central - Jennifer Locke	80 ~ 4 / 5 stars	Assassin's Creed Valhalla provides a gorgeous playground to explore with excellent combat. Though the story seems unnecessarily long, it's a fun Viking tale mixed with the series' own flare and sci-fi elements.	XB1
Screen Rant - Rob Gordon	70 ~ 3.5 / 5 stars	Enjoyable, but struggles with scope.	PS4
USgamer - Reid McCarter	70 ~ 3.5 / 5 stars	Assassin's Creed Valhalla's vision of ninth-century England is a beautiful place to explore, populated with a great cast of characters who make up for the bland new protagonist, Eivor. Nevertheless, the tired overarching story of Templars and Assassins, and a design ethos that overstuffs the setting with side activities, add unnecessary bloat and distractions to the experience. Valhalla's a solid action-adventure game that does well to capture the turmoil of its historical era, but it's weighed down by the increasingly ponderous legacy of the series it represents.	XB1
Destructoid - Brett Makedonski	65 ~ 6.5 / 10	But I also found myself making excuses for Assassin's Creed Valhalla until I couldn't any longer. It mimics the Odyssey formula but takes a step backward in almost every way. It sacrifices story for scale. It's designed to discourage stealth in favor of epic battles. It's true to the Viking experience, but it isn't true to the Assassin's Creed experience. That's why it comes off feeling like the least essential game in the whole series. Impressive in some of its accomplishments, but inessential all the same.	XB1
Worth Playing - Chris "Atom" DeAngelus	65 ~ 6.5 / 10	Assassin's Creed: Valhalla is a mostly solid, if somewhat unambitious, Assassin's Creed game that is dragged down by a shockingly poor PS4 release. I look forward to seeing how it runs on a PS5, but the last-gen version is hard to recommend due to the sheer amount of issues that I encountered while playing through the game. If you discount those issues, Valhalla would be a comfortable 8.0, but one can't just ignore those issues. Fans looking to continue the franchise's story should wait until Valhalla receives a series of patches or until they can pick up a next-gen version.	PS4
Gadgets 360 - Akhil Arora	60 ~ 6 / 10	Assassin's Creed Valhalla is too much of the same thing, and it's not nearly engaging enough.	XB1
Game Revolution - Michael Leri	50 ~ 2.5 / 5 stars	Obsessing over playtime and Content™ at the cost of innovation and depth puts Valhalla‘s ability to actually get into Valhalla in question, as it doesn’t quite earn the kind of glory that only the best Vikings achieve.	PS4

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Thanks OpenCritic for the review export

Alright gents, gather around for my adderall infused dissertation on why im JACKED-TO-THE-TITS on this beaut. Now I know there are many valuable DDs on CRSR over there on wallstreetbets, but I decided to give my own opinion for the fuck of it.
Lets get some of the boring stuff out of the way first: (taken from their quarterly report ending sept 30 2020 which can be found on under "SEC filing" on the investor relations page of CRSRs website)

• Net revenue was $457.1 million, an increase of 60.7% year-over-year. Gamer and creator peripherals segment net revenue was $161.6 million, an increase of 128.8% year-over-year. Gaming components and systems segment net revenue was $295.5 million, an increase of 38.3% year-over-year
• Gross profit was $127.9 million, an increase of 112.4% year-over-year, with gross margin of 28.0%, an improvement of 680 basis points year-over-year. Gamer and creator peripherals segment gross profit was $60.0 million, an increase of 200.8% year-over-year. Gaming components and systems segment gross profit was $67.9 million, an increase of 68.7% year-over-year.
• Operating income was $49.7 million, an increase of 353.6% year-over-year, Adjusted operating income was $61.4 million, an increase of 193.7% year-over-year.
• Adjusted EBITDA was $63.7 million, an increase of 184.9% year-over-year, with adjusted EBITDA margin of 13.9%
• Adjusted net income was $48.5 million, or $0.54 per diluted share, an increase of 384.0% year-over-year compared to adjusted net income of $10.0 million, or $0.13 per diluted share.
• As of September 30, 2020, we had cash and restricted cash of $120.1 million, $48.0 million capacity under our revolving credit facility and total long-term debt of $370.1 million
• Cash flow from operations was $24.7 million, compared to a use of cash in operations of $2.1 million in the same period a year ago, bringing the 2020 nine month cash flow from operations to $100.3 million.

These numbers make me fucking wet. COVID was a huge accelerator for this company but I believe there are other catalysts that contributed and will continue to contribute to their growth in the future. REMEMBER these numbers are from June - September. They dont include the 4th quarter of 2020, nor do they include the numbers from the initial lockdown where we saw a lot of people really settling in to the new life of quarantine (and upgrading or buying their first computers) YES they do have some debt, but they recently did a public offering which raised 118.6m of which 86.6m was used to pay off debt. A statement from the quarterly filing :"We plan to continue to utilize our strong cash flow to further reduce our debt"
CRSR also announced the release of new products that will be for sale in OCTOBER of 2020. We will see how well they did in this upcoming earnings on the 9th. BUT, I am an amazon seller and can help get a general idea of how well they sold in Q4 through amazon. For other retailors I did my normal ground DD and traveled to a couple best buys and microcenters in my area to see the stock.
Before I get started I feel I need to explain some things: When an item is listed on amazon, it is given a "rank" which shows where the product is relative to other products in the same category. For example a rank of "1" means that product FLIES off the shelf, were as a ranked of 5m MIGHT sell 1 a month. Its used as a general guideline for amazon sellers to determine how products are doing. You can gather this information by scrolling down on an amazon page till you see the "sales rank #" or if you participate in retail arbitrage and that whole monster you can use a paid software called keepa.
SOME OF THE NEW PRODUCTS RELEASED

1. Cooling systems: e H100i ELITE CAPELLIX, H115i ELITE CAPELLIX, and H150i ELITE CAPELLIX. These bad bois were sold out fucking everywhere. Great reviews checking multiple sites. Sales rank of 43 under cooling systems on amazon. They're moving this product FAST AND IN QUANITIES. Plus we all know how much we love our color changing shit.
2. VENGEANCE i7200 Series: Pretty beast computer, it isn't sold on amazon and I actually didn't check the stocks of this guy in retail stores. So I cant really comment on this one.
3. Corsair K100 RGB Keyboard: Low stock in retail stores, this thing is moving on amazon and seems to be doing pretty well on other online retailors.
4. KATAR PRO WIRELESS Gaming Mouse: This one was interesting. There were more on the shelves than their other mice, but I attribute this to it not being a MMO mouse (lack of side buttons for those non gamers) but never the less showed strong competition on amazon with its Logitech counterparts ( it hovered around 1k sales rank from late October to current)
5. Corsair MP400 Gen3 PCIe x4 NVMe M.2 Solid State Drive: New SSD, almost all of their SSDs have done well in the past. Mainly positive reviews with an extremely high review count.
6. K60 RGB PRO Keyboard: Another keyboard, following the same trend line as the previous keyboard states (#3) sales for this keyboard however were decent (22k sales rank) until December hit, then it exploded (1k sales rank)
7. HS60 HAPTIC Headset: I can personally attest to the quality of corsair headsets and cooling equipment, this shit is fantastic. They're durable for when you throw them and give far better audio and mic quality then their Logitech counterparts.
8. CORSAIR HS75 XB WIRELESS: I bolded this one for a reason. This one wasn't very well received. Although there are a lot of youtube videos and other promoters saying how good it was, customers seemed to have encountered a lot of problems with it. (wouldn't work after a certain amount of time, weird functionality, etc.) BUT THIS IS A POSITIVE in my eyes. Things dont make sense when every product a company releases is fire, and this one sure seems that it wasn't. It does show however that a predominantly computer focused company is expanding into the console market. With talks of future consoles being able to be "upgraded", I believe they are making the move to further their growth within the console space at the perfect time. Of course there are gonna be a few road bumps.

That is quite of bit of products to release in such a short time span, but a perfect amount to release before the most profitable time of the year. They also announced their acquisition of EPCOM (5million downloads on the apple app store), Game sensei, the leading gaming coaching platform. They also announced a partnership deal with PIPELINE a leading streamer mentorship platform (I didn't even know this existed but did some digging and I like it). This leads me to my next point.
GAMING ISN'T GOING ANYWHERE EVEN AFTER THE PANDEMIC IS OVER.
Pro esports and streaming was already gaining a lot of steam pre pandemic, after the pandemic I still see a lot of growth for esports and gaming as a whole. To add, a lot of people try to emulate their favorite streamer or pro players (just like in traditional sports) people WILL BUY the gear that they are using just like people buy whatever it is that traditional sports players wear.
Streamers they sponsor
Teams they sponsor
I like these, a lot. They're biggest team the ROX tigers competes in multiple esports and has a huge fan following (20m). They also sponsor some pretty famous streamers (summit1g - the guy who basically started streaming, Voyboy - a ex pro league streamer that is still very involved with the community and Bajheera - big World of Warcraft player). What I LOVE about this that its not so focused on just NA alone. Example : ROX is a Korean team, showing that they are not only trying to grow their brand within the Americas, but worldwide as well.
THEY'RE GOING TO SMOKE THEIR EARNINGS
Corsair has a 41.9% share of the PC component market with an addressable market of 36B, they report a peripheriral market share of 18.9%. This is the smoke. This company has a LOT of room to grow and new areas to expand into. As shown above they keep producing new products within their main sector that are doing very well, while also expanding into other markets (consoles) Corsairs market cap sits at a steady 4B, while its primary competitor (LOGI) sits at a nice 19B market cap. Corsair can easily hit a 10B marketcap at its current growth. I firmly believe this company is far undervalued, but we will see just how undervalued after their earnings on the 8th.
If we take a look at estimates they are low (which does make me believe there might be a after earnings sell off because the estimates are so weak - everyone could be predicting a earnings beat). Last quarter they reported a EPS of 0.54 when 0.32 was estimated, yet for this quarter -including q4 of last year- the estimate sits at 0.46. Rev estimates sit at 555.27m on the high side for this quarter, they did 457m last quarter. Do they really expect me to believe that they are only gonna make an extra 100m compared to their last quarter which didn't have the Christmas in it?
With all the new product launches and lingering sales from previous products, I think they're gonna murder every estimate.
Now this is just my extremely bullish position and that im very fond of this company, love and use their products. I think they:

1. Clear 600m Rev for the quarter
2. Substantially decrease debt
3. Provide great guidance

Last thoughts before I get to how im playing this. There's some other DDs (I'll have to find them and add them to this post) that touches on how good their streaming gear and software is that also shares the same bullish standpoint that I do (I didn't include this in the DD because I personally haven't looked into as the others DDs are sufficient for my confirmation bias).
Anyways, currently im running a covered strangle. Im more of a thetagang player so you'll see a lot of that aspect if I ever post again.
Positions: Sold 5 x 35p 2/19 Sold 5 x 50c 3/19 500 commons at 43$.
BuT WhY ThE PuTs If Ur So BuLlIsH
Obviously for the freemium. I LOVE this stock at 35-40 and would buy as much as I could afford. I really like this stock at 40-45, and I kinda like it above 50. But to me this isn't a earnings play, I see substantial growth for this company over the current year. I plan to easily 2-3x my money over the next 2-3 years.
Sadly, this is my first DD, so rip away.
Edit: this isn’t financial advice, just my opinion on why I like it. Also if your going to buy calls make sure you have a strong understanding of IV

I have been playing this game on and off over the years with this most recent wipe the longest I have put time into this game. Dealing with all the crazy issues that most of the average player base deals with regularly with learning just to laugh it off as part of the game.
I am on my off season for work, which has given me time to play almost daily since the Wipe, and weeks leading up to it.
A week ago, my e-mail decided to just stop working on their email authorization server. I have used the account since purchasing the game, 4 years ago, up until last week.
The day was bad. Desync was bad. Load times were bad. Stutters were bad. Worse than your average day... so I decided to hit it with the fresh install. Shouldn't be a problem? I played all morning. I was wrong.
After uninstalling the game and attempting to log onto the website I noticed that I was not getting my email's for authentication codes. Which I literally had gotten one at the start of the month when I re-installed then as well. So the email had been working and was working.
After thinking it might be the system I checked another account, instant auth e-mail. I whitelisted on my email provider. I checked spam and I put in a ticket 6 days ago. (This account doesn't have a copy of tarkov on it).
I get a response today telling me to do everything I already did. As if your support didn't even read the problem and brainless copy + pasted the same reply to every questions hes being asked to handle today.
This support level + lack of care is on a level of a company I like to call Trion Worlds. They handled their community with the same lack of care as yours and they destroyed the community. The lies, the screening posts and lack of general care for their average player base literally ruined a great game.
Here is one of the suggestions I got from you support. " You can change your e-mail address through the profile page".
O rly? I need the auth e-mail to access my profile, and that's the problem I clearly stated and wrote and that's the level of support I got from your team after a WEEK of waiting... A WEEK just to get into my account to play your game. So what's it gonna be ? Another week to be told to check my spam again? How does this make sense? For no reason I haven't been able to play your game and obviously judging by the huge lack of any care of offering any support - you guys just dont give a shit about your players that need actual help. This is such a simple solution, like offering to change my email for me after showing proof? Or maybe sending me an auth email manually to see if that helps? Nah. That would mean you were actually doing your job and helping out someone who plays and paid for your game.
It's like I am asking you as a friend, "Hey I am out of gas man, can you drive me to the gas station so I can get my car going again? And youre reply is.... "oh youre out of gas? Why dont you go drive to the gas station and get some?" Complete fucking brain dead.
Remember its the people who bought your game and play it that keep the money in your pockets. You would think you would try to actually keep some of them around with the fiery shit show the game is.
So thanks for letting my buy your game, thank you for not helping me with bare minimum support. Thanks for stealing my money. Good job BSG.
EDIT** Very big thank you to the reddit community who has come to me with many possible solutions to a work around. Anyone with similar problems I highly recommend taking a look through these comments. I am still unable to access my account and I have done what was suggested and I have emailed again with all my emails and proof of purchase. I explained again what the problem was and I hope they help me with changing my email this time and not asking me to log in to change my email.
Its actually insane to me the level or steps that some have gone through or steps that has to be taken to do something as simple as log in to play the game. For such a wild game this community is solid af. Hopefully I will be raiding soon and if not... well that's just the way she goes I guess.
EDIT #2 - SO Finally. I was waiting on my friend to pack the game for me and resend me all the game files. This took a bit of time but after receiving the launcher + game files through google drive and re-installing this way I was able to get through the launcher to at least install the game.
I STILL can not access my email or access the webpage with out an authorization, which means I still can't change my email or access my profile. I will still need support to help me gain access to my account to change my email. It is strange that I can't access the webpage or get an email to authorize my game sent to me - but my friend just copy pasting me the game files lets me log into the launcher no problem. This seems like a very weird issue.
If you are having problems with support helping you and you are having these problems - have a friend you trust just send you a copy of the game files + launcher. Crazy.
Tarkov community is the best community.
I highly suggest you have your launcher available for download without logging on to the website for temporary fixes like this on your webpage. The authorization email, which im being required to log online, does not matter when I just log on through the launcher (somehow). This would allow a player' with this potential problem to wait for some sort of support and email change BUT STILL being able to access their account on their pc end (possibly). This creates a much better option then just feeling hooped and then being told to check a spam folder and waiting around with minimal options.
This is a janky band-aid option for sure (still doesn't make sense) but its the furthest I have been able to get since last week with the help of the reddit community.

Note: Many of the links are to the Amity Arena Library, a website devoted to the game which includes tracking the history of it through patchnotes and a running history of what cards entered and left the meta. Their website was a valuable resource for this post.

Mobile gaming has taken off like a wildfire since the advent of the smartphone boosted the average processing power a phone could carry. Initially it took the form of crossing over older, more easily runnable games onto the mobile market to... mixed success, but in recent years we've seen both the West and East use mobile gaming to replace the old fashioned movie tie in game. It's easily accessable, has a much wider reach than consoles or PC, you can take it on the go and standards are inherently lower for mobile games than they are a full 60 dollar game.
Since the 2010s, mobile gaming has shifted to what's called the "Freemium" module. The game itself is free to download and start playing, but is insideously designed with obnoxious paywalls or artificial limiters put in place to limit how much you can play each day. If the game is part of a pre-existing franchise, additional money can be made through a premium currency or a chance to obtain high-powered units by rolling a slot machine random chance mechanic. And thus, gacha gaming was born. This sub has had several threads in the past on high profile gacha games, such as the monolithic Fate Grand/Order, Pokemon Go or Genshin Impact. One of the more popular things to roll for in gachas as a consequence is wallpapers for your homescreen, especially for high-grade units as they're usually animated to move a little bit on the homescreen. Today we're looking a low to mid-tier gacha game that rose and fell with the advent of one catgirl. Let's talk RWBY.
RWBY is an online web anime made by Rooster Teeth focusing on four prospective monster hunters who get embroiled in a world-spanning shadow war. It's of debatable quality in matters of animation, combat, voice acting, story, worldbuilding, romance, and it's kind of a little racist if I'm being honest, but one of the major positives of RWBY is that the series tends to have good character design. Series creator Monty Oum set in the guidelines for the show while making it that most if not every design should be made to be cosplay friendly, hence why most of the outfits have things most costume designers haven't heard of like... pockets. And Rooster Teeth, above all else, likes making money. So they know people like RWBY's character designs, enough so that in 2017 plans were made to release a gacha game themed around RWBY called Amity Arena, which would be developed by Korean company NHN Entertainment.
Amity Arena is a PvP tower defense game. Each player controls two turrets and a tower and has three minutes to use units themed from the show to destroy the other player's structures. Whoever took out more wins, destroying a tower is an instant victory. When the game launched, it had three tiers for units- Common (generally held for mooks or low-tier characters in the show), Rare (roughly protagonist-level or elite mooks go here) and Epic (High tier characters usually with an active ability that did lots of damage or stopped enemies in their tracks). The game launched in October 2018 to generally positive reviews from both mobile game players and RWBY fans alike. Fans were happy to get a lot of new official art for the characters in the game and the base gameplay loop was fun. Criticism at the time was largely themed around the lack of content besides PVP matches and some issues with the meta but overall, the launch went well. Each month, the developers would add new units, including popular characters like Neopolitian, Cinder Fall, Zwei the dog, and more.
But everything changed with February 20th 2019, which introduced Neon Katt, the titular catgirl (RWBY characters are themed around fairytales, except for Neon, who is themed around Nyan Cat, and her partner Flynt Coal, who is themed off a potentially racist joke made by Rooster Teeth).
Neon is a character from RWBY Volume 3 who's part of a team that RWBY face during a tournament arc. Her partner, Flynt Coal, was part of the game at launch, and Neon would join him a few months later. Neon in the show is a cocky fighter who taunts the heroes and zips around on rollarskates, which in-game is represented by Neon skating towards the nearest enemy structure to her and hitting it, while all units within a radius of Neon are taunted and provoked into attacking her above all other targets unless they-selves are coded to hit structures. On its own, not a bad idea for a unit, but Neon came with four big caveats:

• Neon was the fourth corner of the square that became known as the Artillery Arena meta, which saw Neon, Cinder (who had an AOE ability she could use which was wide enough to hit a turret and tower and single-handedly killed the entire launch meta of using fragile swarm units), Zwei (an on-summon high damage AOE on any part of the map) and Penny (another AOE ability that instead did chip damage and locked a location down) turn the game's meta into a chip game. Every player ran at least one of the above cards, if only to counter the others. Neon was the universal counter in being anti-swarm and the hardest to stop, especially at launch where her taunt range was so large, it could grab units from the other lane.
  
• Neon launched with a unit weight of "Heavy", which meant that if she was behind a unit she could push it on her way to the turret. This launched a sub-meta where Neon was placed behind a larger unit such as the Ursa (which like Neon was a unit that focused on structures but was made slow to cover its tankiness), to push them towards the turret faster. This was called Disco Bear. They eventually patched this so Neon phased through units by making her a lightweight.
  
• Neon couldn't die. She was invincible until she hit a structure, which combined with her taunt meant that Neon was very annoying to fight and could lock down an entire lane of the battlefield by being placed well and taunting enemies to let you prepare a counter.
  
• Neon was a very cheap unit to summon. Amity Arena uses a mechanic called "Aura" where all units cost a certain amount and it recharges over the match- for instance, protagonist Ruby Rose has a Rare card that costs four Aura to summon, while Weiss Schnee has two rares that cost three and five. Neo only cost two Aura, which made her one of the cheapest units of the game and thus disproportionately powerful for her cost and easy to cycle through your deck so you could spam her.
  

From the word go, Neon is an unpopular unit; she's clearly overbalanced and elements such as the Disco Bear glitch have players thinking she'll have to get knocked down in a nerf- she'll either be made slower, more expensive, or able to die pre-hitting a structure, right?
Neon doesn't show up in the next patch. Instead, before she's fixed, an entire new class of units called Legendaries are introduced, and this is where the game goes full gacha. Legendaries were meant to represent the highest tier characters in the game, the ones who were either the most popular characters or the highest-tier fighters in the show. Or in some cases, the popular ships such as combo cards for White Rose (Ruby/Weiss), Bumblebee (Blake/Yang) and Flower Power (Ren/Nora). Legendaries, representing their value, were impossibly rare and had an infinitely small chance of actually appearing (The most reliable method was to buy the premium chests and hope you'd roll a Legendary, which often cost tons of money), and if you did get one, there was no way to guess which Legendary you'd actually get. Some such as White Rose and Adam were high tier units, others like Hazel or Checkmate were... kinda broken at launch. The playerbase isn't happy at this, especially as free to play players are left out in the cold and reliant on the game giving them high tier units effectively out of pity.
Neon would get a small nerf in the April patch which lessened her taunt range and killed the Disco Bear meta, but her invincibility would be left untouched, even as players submitted feedback regarding how to make it more efficient. The official Amity Arena discord has a weekly feedback section on Tuesdays where players could submit up to four suggestions on how to nerf/buff units and general requests for quality of life such as "Can this character get a new skin from this part of the show," or "Can we have an option to lower music volume that's not just muting all music?" (they never did add that second request) Neon would then remain in this state until the November patch, despite constant weekly requests for a Neon rework, and all it would do is make Neon functionally mortal, in that she had a flat shield bar of 20 that would be lowered by one for each attack before the next hit would kill her. Neon could now die... but your chances of actually doing enough damage to stop her were slim, and regardless, you were now at a serious Aura defecit.
It took seven months for this one unit to get a substantial nerf, all while the game added new units every week and the number of units being affected by patches each month began to gradually sink. To round up some of the major issues people had with Amity that developed throughout 2019 alongside Neon's general existance making life hell:

• Common units were meant to be chump fodder, but could level up the most amount of times with a level cap at 13. This meant longer-term units that had a long time to level such as the Xiong Family card, the AK-130s the Beowolf Pack, or the White Fang gunners, could become shockingly strong if players grinded the money up to reach max level.
  
• A pre-existing divide between free players and players willing to burn money IRL to get access to premium currencies led to a huge disparity in play. Free players have long complained about how hard it is to scrounge money together to level up units at higher costs as even the basic currency of Lien is hard to get large quantities of (you get a certain amount every match win but otherwise you need to burn the Schnee Premium Dust currency for the highest payouts, but SPD is also needed for shop resets, buying crates or unlocking cosmetics). The developers used to do frequent double weekends where all gains were doubled for a weekend, but these became less and less frequent as time went on. Legendaries only added to the divide, as their rarity was bad enough for players willing to spend money (one player, known as one of the largest whales in the community, in trying to get Sienna Khan, reported burning nearly nine hundred dollars on her, while taking nearly six hundred to get the Ice Flower card).
  
• One actual counter was born to fight Neon in the Argus Shield, a stationary unit that existed solely to stall units and take damage. At 2 Aura, it was the first structure to counter Neon, which allevated one of the primary problems with Neon in that no way to counter her was cost-efficient for an enemy player. They buffed the Wall to 3 Aura eventually which killed that hope, and all this happened before Neon's November nerf.
  
• The Summer of 2019 saw a large number of defensive units released; alongside the Argus Shield, several different units were released themed around turrets for the technological kingdom of Atlas, such as the Beam Turret. The Atlesian Burrow Gun was the straw that broke the camel's back and made for a miserable meta as the Burrow Gun would only appear (and be available to take damage) when a unit entered its range. These three units together were all very overpowered on launch and led to a large exodus of players sick of defensive and chip-based metas, especially as what few offensive units that were good enough to counter these metas (such as Professor Port and Adam Taurus) were often nerfed into the ground within a month of release.
  
• Also around this time it became apparent that the developers were unable to meet the quotas that Rooster Teeth was forcing on them. The social media team admitted that a certain number of units needed to be in the game in time for Winter 2019 when Volume 7 was set to start, and as the year went on more and more game-breaking bugs were being found in units, or they were at best horrifically undertuned or overpowered. The Apathy was perhaps the largest case of this, as an unfound bug pre-release meant that the Apathy (who have a passive ability that let them self-duplicate) had no cap on their power, meaning that they could immediately overwhelm defenses and in the case of some phones, be such a resource hog the phone would crash. Many Legendary units were especially guilty of being under-tuned due to low Legendary availability meaning they were simply weren't powerful enough to compare with high-levelled units. Checkmate's ability simply didn't work at launch, and Neon made several more such as Hazel Rainart a joke. May Marigold's invisibility bubble would have been an interesting game changer... were it not for a bug that made it that units placed in the bubble still played their sound lines, meaning players knew what to expect. Things were so bad that when Flower Power launched and wasn't broken or needed an emergency patch, the playerbase were shocked.
  

Unfortunately, the Novemember patch did little to stop the problems with Neon, and a new problem would rear its head for Christmas: Jinn. This unit embodied many of the problems players had: She was a Legendary so it would be hard for free players to get her, and only added to the sheer number of Legendaries that were out there. She was another structure card, and she was horrifically broken. Stopping time for seven seconds in an area around any friendly units, Jinn broke the game overnight, with players horrified at how little playtesting she'd clearly had. Most chip units now couldn't damage structures as Jinn simply could stop time and freeze the turret for the duration of the attack. And to make matters worse? She cost two Aura, meaning it was very easy to cycle a deck and start Jinn spamming.
And yet at two aura she was still one of the only cost-efficient Neon counters... until they patched her to be worth three Aura instead. Talking of the feline menace, January saw Neon get a HP nerf that set her shield at 14. Finally, Neon could be realistically be taken out, still at an Aura defecit but at least it can be countered and now they just have to raise her Aura- why are you buffing her game?
Less than a month later, Neon got, of all things, a buff. Her HP shield was set at 20, and her attacks now did double damage. This is around the point where a lot of players begin to suspect the developers aren't listening to feedback and more long-term players dip out or drop the game. Neon got touched one more time in April, which slowed her down (which itself was a problem as Neon's lessened speed on spawn simply made her better at generating aggro), she dealt 10% less damage and made it somewhat easier to hit her enough to kill her, but a new problem was on the horizon. Because Neon was now no longer the game's White Whale for patches.
Meet the White Fang Gunner Barracks. Added in September 2019, the Barracks fell under many player's radar simply because they were horrifically undertuned. Their gimmick was that every few seconds, a White Fang Gunner would spawn, with three spawning on death. In April, as Neon got her last appearance in the patches, the Barracks got a huge buff and became the centerpiece of the meta; they now spawned two Gunners, which made them immensely valuable for just five Aura. You could overwhelm many anti-swarm units before they had a chance, and shred your way through turrets.
The Barracks would then go six months before this overtuning was rectified, barring one nerf in August that lowered their health to try and stem the tide of units. To sum up every other thing that went wrong during the year meta-wise:

• The playercount was getting so low that players were able to make lists of the AI bots the developers had in place so lower-level players had a challenge (Amity breaks up players by a trophy system where you gain trophies with every win, and by this point most of the active players were in the 2500 to 3500 range. This also meant new players steamrolled through the lower levels only to hit a brick wall in the 3000 range, with the only reliable solution being to willingly lose matches until you were in your optimal range and grind victories until you reached a certain level.
  
• The patches became more and more threadbare, going from 8+ units getting changed each month in early 2019 to three units at most getting changed in 2020 patches outside of the anniversary patch going back to the golden days of eight. The only area where they didn't get more threadbare was in the cosmetics and emotes that the developers were cranking out, all of which were only available through hours of grinding or premium currencies. This was despite the fact that the units were being released slower, going from once a week to once a fortnite.
  
• The majority of units added in 2020 were Epic or Legendary tier, which were the hardest to get for free players unless they got lucky and they were added to the store (and if they had the lien as a Legendary in the store costs a flat 40,000 Lien). One Common and four Epics were released compared to twelve Epics and seven Legendaries. The release of Moonslice Adam especially was annoying for this regard, as Adam already had a Legendary released (at least for Team RWBY, each of them headlined a Legendary when it came to the team attack cards), and this was clearly done to pander to Adam's fans again as his first unit saw a spike in interest in the game. The math was done and showed how artifically scarce Legendaries were made.
  
• The undeovertuning was still in play. Colossus is seen as one of the worst cards in the entire game because of its gimmick. I have literally never seen anyone play it. Flynt became overtuned and now he's a staple thanks to his trumpet's AOE attack being able to hurt turrets and shred most units. Launcher Nora was an especially overtuned unit thanks to her high-damage constant AOE barrage and long range meaning she could annhilate most anything if given enough cover. Even after patches she's still dangerous. September saw the White Fang Dropship Formation added, which was widely seen as a terrible unit and done as an emergency addition because the planned unit for September in the Grimm Seer had to be cut last minute for technical reasons.
  
• The game has barely had significant content added since launch, with the primary gameplay still just being PVP. Barring Battle of Beacon (a mode where you can play as Ruby and Weiss and fend off Grimm which most players just use to grind chests, and no, they still haven't added Blake or Yang) and Plaza (a lobby where you can dress up as a character and run around Beacon), the game has added no new features and quality of life content players have requested since launch (rerolling in the shop, Superior Crates having guaranteed Legendary spawn rates) have been released at a snail's pace (you still can't reroll Legendaries if you're looking for a specific unit). Academies where players can unite to trade units and chat still lacks features that have been requested for years such as the ability to delete messages. And Plaza immediately went to hell because players were doing erotic role play in the chats and after people came forward with proof that minors were being sexually harassed in the Plaza or being coerced into side-channels, the dev response was to... just turn off the chat entirely instead of banning the accounts or implementing moderation. This also removed the chatlog which deleted a lot of the evidence of said harassment.
  

As OctobeNovember comes in, the players are getting more and more furious. The weekly feedback includes a near constant demand for an acknowledgement from the developers given how often it feels like the feedback is being ignored. The social media team get caught several times hyping up how the coming patch would address player concerns, only for said patch to lack those units. The meta has been locked down to the Xiong Family, Flynt, Launcher Nora, Spider-Mines and the hell-cat herself in Neon. Everyone runs at least one of these, people run meta decks not because they want to, but because it's the only way to have a chance of victory.
And then in December, things implode. The patch for the month was set to launch on December 10th with the monthly event missions. But when the clock rolls around, the event missions (which usually take about two weeks to do if you're doing as many as you can a day)... has a six day timer. And the update doesn't come out. The art team doesn't release new unit art. The shop has no special timed bundles. There's no patch notes. And then the Twitter team who've been hard carrying the game through... actually talking to the players and acknowledging the grievances they have... admitted that they don't know what's going on either. The best guess is that the devs have come down with Covid, but no statements to confirm or deny this leave it as guesswork. The timer eventually got reset and people could do the event, but then on Christmas itself, another issue.
Ruby has appeared in the plaza on Halloween (her canonical birthday) and Christmas, and if you go talk to her you get free stuff. But on Christmas people, people discovered that Ruby was talking as if you'd already talked to her. Because they hadn't updated Ruby yet for 2020. She still thought it was 2019 so if you'd talked to her then for goodies, she had none now. They patched it eventually but a lot of people didn't see this fix before the timer ran out to get the free stuff.
Some have resorted to memes to cope with the fact that the game just seems to have died out of the blue. Others have been trying to desperately rally the players and find a way to save it. Some resorted to friendly mockery of the whales who'd spent thousands on a game that seems to be dying (seriously though gacha games need to curb this shit but they won't because whales are godsends for their bank balances).
If the game doesn't get an update in January then two months without new content will mark the end, and the already significant playercount drops will only increase. And it's hard to say if any one thing could have turned Amity Arena's fate around beyond just "Have a better balancing team who can respond better to feedback." Neon began the time of death, but by the time December rolled around the meta was in a horrifically toxic place where if you wanted to make any progession, you had to get down and dirty with the pigs. The team just constantly failed to balance problem units outside of their emergency hotfixes of Jinn, and more often then not they went after units and buffed or nerfed them at random going off playcounts to determine what needed fixing instead of the actual written feedback they were getting. It's clear from the references to the show and some of the attempts to reach out to the community that at least one person in the team genuinely wanted to make the good appealing to RWBY fans, but somewhere during the game's lifespan, they lost their way. Less focus needed to be put on how to milk the players, and instead focusing on making a game sustainable and enjoyable enough to warrant the cosmetics and emotes. The game's failure ultimately isn't on the playerbase. It's on the people who were actually making the game who chose to slack off because they thought it acceptable to do so.
Thanks for reading.
EDIT: HOT OFF THE PRESSES, I JUMPED THE GUN
Had I waited one more day, my story would have had a far more sudden ending, as the game just announced its shutdown for January.
RIP.