Thank you for inviting me to explain the German energy vendor. It is something that you can understand only if you know a little bit more about our mentality and our domestic debate. But it is something that you can explain easily to everybody around the world in order to understand it. Why did we take such a far-going decision? Well, there was no other issue that has divided Germany more as the issue of nuclear power plants. I cannot see in any other country, not in the UK, not in France, not in Italy, not in the US, certainly not in China or in the Czech Republic, a similar debate that has hijacked the political debate in Germany for more than 30 years. The Green Party was founded as a result of this debate and the resistance against the use of nuclear energy has spread around the country for more than 30 years and after the Fukushima incident, there was no longer any chance of public acceptance for the use of nuclear energy. So whether it was right or wrong, that's not the matter. And the question is, you cannot on the long run implement an energy policy that has no backing by 75% of the people in your country. And therefore we had to come to an end of the debate and what we have decided is to close down all our nuclear power plants by 2022. We have closed down already eight of them. We are still an electricity exporting country. The supply situation still is rather stable compared to countries where nuclear energy is no problem like the US. And we have to, and we have of course to replace all these nuclear power plants by different sources of electricity production. This is not a big challenge because when you compare France with the chair of nuclear electricity today is 75%. When you compare that with Germany with the chair of only 25% of nuclear energy, then you can see that it's an easy task just to replace some nuclear power plants by some let's say fossil fuel power plants. That was from the beginning on, never the ambition. The ambition was to implement what we call in the meantime energy vendor, energy transition, energy turnaround. There is no correct English translation for that. But it means and implies the entire revolution of the energy supply sector within a period of 30 to 40 years. And this is something that is quite demanding because Germany is one of the most successful and competitive European countries worldwide. And we have struggled very hard to restore that degree of competitiveness that we have today. So we have to be very cautious in approach and very conscious that everything we are doing could have an immediate effect on the competitiveness of our economy and our business sector. And this is why it is so extremely important to have a public debate on the aims and the targets of this energy vendor. Well, we are the first industrialized country of this size that has decided to base its almost entire energy supply on renewable energies. According to schedule we would have 80% of renewable energy supply by 2050. That means we have now, by the end of last year, we had 23% of electricity from renewable sources. That's for a small portion of water. But then to a very large extent, wind, electricity from biomass and electricity from solar panels. And all of them combined 23%. This year probably 26% at the end of the year. More than 35%, probably more than 40% by the year 2020. And then until 2050, a share of 80%. That's quite a challenge because it means a complete and entire revolution of our supply system in previous years. The supply was organized in a way that the power plants were located in areas where there was enormous demand for electricity. So in the Ruhrgebiet, in Bavaria, in the Rhine area, you have lots of power plants and that meant that the grid was not very extended. It was a very highly developed grid, but in a regional dimension in the first place. And now we see renewable energies implemented everywhere in Germany and that means we have to completely reorganize our grid infrastructure, for example. Many other challenges as well. And why did we do it? Well, there is one simple reason and this reason is called sustainability. Sustainability probably is the biggest challenge for our generation. We are today living in a fast-growing world of almost 8 billion people. The problem is not the number of people but the economic growth that is coming from all these people, especially in Asia. An economy like China is doubling every 10 years, quadrupling every 20 years, and at the same time the energy and electricity demand is doubling and quadrupling. And China, for example, is in big trouble how to provide enough electricity for all these people with rapidly growing energy demand. They are constructing new coal-fired power plants one every week, more than 50 every year. They are constructing new nuclear power plants and still they cannot satisfy the growing demand for energy. And when we look at the entire world scale, then you can imagine what it would mean if we would base the growing demand for electricity and energy for a world of 8 billion people, a growing world of 8 billion people, almost entirely on nuclear energy and fossil energy. It would mean that we would release much more CO2 into the atmosphere than we have done over the last 100 years. It is rapidly increasing and I'm not a religious believer in climate change. Well, there is climate change. There is no doubt. But I'm not a religious believer that it is made by mankind. Many researchers say it is made by mankind. Others say, well, we doubt, but I mean when we know in 30 years from now, then it's probably too late to change it. So that means we have to act now if we want to preserve a good environment for our children and grandchildren, then we have to act now. And that means we have not to reduce, but we have to stabilize the consumption of fossil energies. Even if we would reduce the share of fossil energies with regard to the entire energy consumption, we would probably still see an increase of the absolute numbers of tons of coal and oil and gas that will be used to satisfy that demand. And therefore, we cannot oblige countries like China, India, Indonesia to reduce economic growth in order to protect the environment. They always will choose in favor of economic growth because they want to have washing machines, TV, air conditioning, cars, everything that we have for so many years already. And the only way of solving that deadly race for energy is to provide patterns and models that would allow us to combine economic growth with the needs of a sound environment. That's the challenge. And this cannot be done by countries in East Asia or Africa. It can be done only by the developed countries in Europe, in the US, where we have the technological skills to develop new approaches and new systems. It's also in the technological interest of Europe. Germany is one of the highly reputed countries with regard to engineers, patents, etc. Germany has missed the revolution in the entertainment industry in the 70s that came from Japan and Korea. We have always missed the digital revolution that came from Silicon Valley. So we have missed a number of basic innovations over the last decade. And now our presumption is that we are the eve of a deep-going revolution in the field of energy supply. It has more or less a similar decree than the digital revolution of the internet. And therefore, if Europe could manage not only to teach others and to provide models and patents for energy supply, but if we could manage to be the first in this energy revolution, it would guarantee us a competitive advantage. There are other regions in the world that would last many, many years and help us a lot to economically survive in a globalized world. This is the reason why we believe it's not just for the environment, but it's also for our economy, a good thing to develop new solutions in the field of energy supply. And this is what we have to do over the next couple of years. We have to encourage a wave of innovation that would cover everything from the production and the distribution of energy to the issue of energy efficiency to the design of the products, to methods of production. It would cover almost the entire economic activities of a country like Germany. And this is why I, in one of my first speeches when I was appointed minister, have said, well, it is the biggest challenge for Germany since the reconstruction after the war and unification after the fall of the Iron Curtain. We don't see any other technological economic challenge of such an importance for the country. So what do we have to do? We have, for the first time, the first challenge, of course, is to have an energy production that is based increasingly on renewable energies. Yes, that is something that we have successfully achieved by providing a very generous feed-in tariff scheme. When you buy a windmill or when you have solar panels on your roof, you are entitled to feed-in tariffs for 20 years, fixed feed-in tariffs. That was very important over the last 10 years because you could earn perhaps 1% interest with a traditional financial instrument, but you could earn easily 6% to 15% by investing into renewable energies. So that meant that the capital, the international capital and investment moving around desperately looking for a safe harbor was able to say, well, we have a safe harbor, we can earn a lot of money and at the same time do something positive in favor of the environment. That's an extremely attractive combination. So we have really initiated a wave of investment in this field. For example, when you look at our solar panels over the last, we have a feed-in tariff system since the year 2000, but two-thirds of the capacities in Germany have been implemented within the last three years. It was an enormous boom, like the housing boom in other countries and different booms. I'm always very suspicious when I'm talking about booms because my experience is that a boom will last longer or shorter, but it comes to an end one day and then you'll have collateral damages. But today we have in Germany 32,000 megawatt solar panels, and that means in a sunny day we will produce by these solar panels between 11 in the morning and 3 o'clock in the afternoon the electricity amount that corresponds to 20 nuclear power plants. That's enormous. But what is different? The nuclear power plants in the past have produced it in a very, in a very equal way and today it is produced only when we have sunshine, that means over day, and it is produced especially in summer and not in winter, and it is changing every day, so you have to provide completely different instruments for keeping your crit and your supply system intact. The same applies, by the way, to the windmills. We have a similar number of windmills. We have enormous amounts of biomass, electricity production, and all this has been encouraged without any concrete idea of how to organize the process. It was all done by private initiative and it was done in a completely different way. So today we have most of the renewable energy capacities in the north. We have most of the demand in the south. That means we need long distance cables in order to have sufficient capacities in the grid. We will have technical problems. Technical problems because the bulk of the renewable energy production always is in summer. In summer we can easily produce in a couple of years 50,000, 60,000, 70,000 megawatt. But in summer, when everybody is sitting in the garden or swimming in the pool, spending holidays in the Mediterranean, then we have a very low energy need demand, and then we have a surplus of energy. That is enormous. And it would mean that we cannot find people who would buy that, so we would be faced with negative prices on the electricity exchange market. And in the winter, when people are back home from Mallorca, when people are no longer in their gardens and in the swimming pool, but producing in the factory and sitting at home watching TV, we have a very modest production of renewable energies because there is less sunshine, there is less wind, and there is less biomass. And even in winter it could happen, for example, between what happened between Christmas and New Year, that we would produce more electricity than we need because everybody was on a Christmas holiday, leave, all the companies were closed, the public administration, the schools were closed, and then it was warm, sunny, windy weather, and we had much more electricity than we needed. But it could also happen that every four or five years, perhaps every 10 years, we would have a situation in January, minus 15 degrees for almost one week, brilliant sunshine, but 20 centimeters snow and solar panels and no wind at all. And then we would have a record demand for electricity, but a very low production of renewables. That means we have not just to think about renewable energies, we have to think about backup capacities, we have to think about storage of energy, we have to think about new ways of demand side and supply side management.  Well, when I was invited in Paris to explain it to the French, to a committee of the French assembly and because they are interested in the transition energetique in my country, then I said, well, I consider this not as a problem, I consider it as a challenge from part of the problems of Sunday, because we can see that in Germany today, tens of thousands of engineers from energy supply companies, from grid companies, from universities, from local and municipal companies are thinking and researching day and night on what they can do to solve all these problems and to solve the problems in a way that they would not lose but earn money and how we can use the surplus in summer in a cheap way, when electricity is cheap, how we can provide more energy in winter, how we can develop storage capacity. There is a concept that is called power to gas, where you can use the wind energy in summer that is not needed in order to produce gas that can be used in winter to produce electricity again. It will take some years to come to good solutions but one thing is for sure, I cannot see any other country where you have so many people, engineers and others thinking about these challenges and I have no doubt at the end of the day we will see solutions in this field. There is an issue of financing and this is important for all European countries in financial trouble and public money is running out in most of the countries, also in Germany. We have inserted in our constitution a sovereign debt break and that means we cannot just continue like we did over the last couple of 40 years and that means we have to look at the expenses for our business sector and we have to look at the costs for private people, for pensioners for example. We had an increase in electricity prices over the last three years of only 3% for energy intensive companies because we have good ways to protect them, they are exempted from the renewable energy fee but it means others have to pay more and therefore for private customers the energy price went up by 20% and for the rest of the German industry it went up by 25%. That is something you can support for two or three years but then it has to come back to a normal development and there is another reason why it has to become cheaper and better at a time because if we want to sell it as a pattern to China, to India, to African countries then it has to be affordable, it has to be cheap. We can afford as Germany a renewable electricity that is unaffordable for countries like Kenya, Uganda or Ivory Coast. That means in Germany we have to develop not just the technical solutions we have to develop also what we call scale effects what we call a cost-decreation and therefore I am working very hard to reform our law on renewable energies in a way that we will have a decresion an overall decresion of the feed-in tariffs and I have managed as far as solar panels are concerned last year to amend that legislation in a way that we have an automatic monthly decresion of feed-in tariffs for solar panels every month and at the same time we have stated by the law that as soon as we will have reached more than 50,000 megawatt of solar panels in Germany there will be no new feed-in tariffs anymore. And what did we see? We have seen over the last couple of months there is still a high degree of new solar panels in Germany probably 4,000 megawatt this year but it is no longer costly because it is no longer feed in the electricity grid it is now used for the own consumption of the owner of this panel because this is what I call an indirect subsidy because when you produce your own electricity on top of your roof as a discounter of food for example, Aldi and then in summer you have an enormous demand for electricity for air condition and for your cooling and freezing machines and then you can use the solar panels on the roof that could use electricity at 10 cent per kilowatt hour and instead of 17 or 18 when you take it from the public grid and for a private owner it is even more attractive because they would have to pay 28 cent per kilowatt hour and they could produce it at 12 cent per kilowatt hour that makes it very attractive. So you see, we have a lot of problems that we have to tackle problems that are chances we have in the first stage neglected the European dimension of energy transition in Germany from a legal point of view as you know in this institute this was not an infraction because the Lisbon Treaty clearly states the energy mix falls under the national competence of every member state but nevertheless we all know that if we want to make Europe a success and insist on legal clauses and the treaties alone we have to have a cooperation with our neighbors and our friends in Europe and this is why I'm now travelling around explaining what we are doing and looking for a cross-border cooperation because it is my personal conviction that if we can organise this kind of transition within the European context it would become safer, it could become cheaper and it would become a model for other countries worldwide I have taken an initiative and I will have invited ministers to Berlin at the beginning of June the minister from China, from India, from the UK, from France to establish a renewable club where we want to promote politically worldwide the idea of renewable energies and surely we are not alone in the universe that is what many people in Germany think I think we are the only country yes we are the only country with such a far-going ambition but when you look at Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia today is the country with the highest budget for renewable energies if you look at China they will bypass Germany with solar cells in China by the year 2015 if you look at Morocco, if you look at South Africa if you look at many countries of India worldwide and then you see there is a revolution at the beginning and I hope that we all are ready when it breaks out and that we can benefit from it thank you so much for your attention


I remind members that, if the amendment in the name of Donald Cameron is agreed, then the amendment in the name of Monica Lennon will fall. The question is that amendment 1512.1 in the name of Donald Cameron, which seeks to amend motion 1512 in the name of Michael Matheson, on legislative consent to the environment bill bill, be agreed and members should cast their votes now. The vote is now closed. The result of the vote on amendment number 1512.1 in the name of Donald Cameron is yes, 27, no, 92. There were no abstentions. The amendment is therefore not agreed. The next question is that amendment 1512.2 in the name of Monica Lennon, which seeks to amend motion 1512 in the name of Michael Matheson, on legislative consent to the environment bill, be agreed. Are we all agreed? No. The Parliament is not agreed, therefore we will move to a vote and members should cast their votes now. The vote is now closed. The result of the vote on amendment number 1512.2 in the name of Monica Lennon is yes, 26, no, 92. There were no abstentions. The amendment is therefore not agreed. The final question is that motion 1512 in the name of Michael Matheson, on legislative consent to the environment bill, be agreed. Are we all agreed? Yes. The Parliament is not agreed, therefore we will move to a vote and members should cast their votes now. The vote is now closed. Thank you. The result of the vote on motion 1512 in the name of Michael Matheson is yes, 66, no, 30. There were 23 abstentions. The motion is therefore agreed. That concludes decision time and we will now move on to members' business. I ask members who are leaving the chamber to do so quietly.


The battle station can quickly and accurately transfer that information. That's probably a good thing. Oh jeez. Ben, get off of the airplane. You're going to ride in it, not on it. Oh jeez. For those of you who can't see this, he just collided with the aileron. He's going to get a ride over in Buford in the low country and enjoy himself today. Oh jeez. Here's the problem. He's got pedals in his feet. He's got a right pedal and a left pedal. Those are the rudder pedals. He must think it's an accelerator and a brake. I don't know what he's going to do with that stick that's coming up through the floorboards between no is, you push forward on the stick, the houses get bigger. You pull back on the stick, the houses get smaller. But in this airplane, if you pull back on the stick long enough, the houses get bigger again. I'm not sure what we're going to do about this, Wayne Boggs.  No, I think we're going to call up the hull missile battery. Oh, an oscillation, right? Except this is a WIO, a Wagnowski induced oscillation. Yeah, something like that. So he's, I don't know what we're going to do with this guy.  And this is what happens with the FC. The nose just falls forward. He picks up from flying speed. And so, this year, he wants to thank, maybe he can scream at you again. Who knows? Man, he was yelling loud. As this little teeny five-plane, known as the fifth one, the associate side shoulder roll heads to the back course and still climbs up over 500 feet above the ground. He didn't know that he was ten years old. And the flight instructor, he had a certified instrument.


Hey real quick guys, Corecast is going to be a standard podcast that will be uploaded to iTunes. However, before we can do that, we need to have three shows in our feed. Until then, I'll upload them here. I just wanted to warn you guys that this isn't a video. This is Two Dudes talking about Core. Hello everyone and welcome to the first episode of Corecast, the show where we talk nothing but madeabuff and core. I'm your host, the one and only Mangus. Joining me is Nato Christo from Twitch, Nato, how you doing brother? I am doing wonderful, Mangus and Nato Christo in one podcast, is this a crossover stream? Team it up, team it up, I like it. So what we're going to be talking about today are some of the news and updates and then Nato has been collecting up suggestions from you guys on his stream. We're going to go over some of those and talk about what we like and what we dislike about him. How about we just drive straight on into the news? What news do we got for madeabuff and core? I know there's a lot of it, Nato. Yeah, so there were some pretty big developments over the past couple of weeks. The alpha that was supposed to come on the 27th, I believe, is actually has been pushed back with no real release date at the moment. So as unfortunate as that is, there's a very long post that Opolis made and I feel like although it's being pushed back, we are in the right hands. Just like Opolis mentioned in there from that quote, a bad game that's pushed out is always bad, but a good game that's delayed is always good. Something like that, I'm paraphrasing. That's a quote from Nintendo, yeah. Yeah, but it does feel like they have their priorities right. They knew that they weren't going to meet their deadline. They didn't want to give us a bad product. One thing I've been saying to people on my stream is just the game build that you and Briddick ended up playing before we did, the mid lane was a little wonky, the shading was really off, and then very shortly after we got access to it and everything was fixed, and then even then the day of some small things like the dirt was kind of off and looked like minecraft. A lot of people were complaining about next day that was fixed. You know, if those are any kind of small little good omens as to what's to come. It seems like they know what they're doing and Metabuff is in a good position right now. So, you know, it does feel like we're in the right hands and I'm very confident in what they're doing. All the power to them in that delay, you know, take as long as you need. Yeah, I think it's definitely a good thing. You don't want to rush the game out before it's ready. I mean, the map changes, that's one thing. Actually getting the gaming ability system down and having all these characters interact with each other the way they're supposed to is a whole another story, and I would rather they get some more testing internally before they release it to the public. One thing, this might be a little controversial, but I kind of hope that when they do release the alpha the first day or first week, whatever, I hope they release it under an NDA. I know that's going to break a lot of streamer and YouTuber hearts with me saying that, and I would certainly, of course, want to be creating content day one from core, but I think they need to keep it under wraps until they have it a little more fine tune because they're not they're not making core so that streamers and YouTubers can can get a leg up and get their career started. They're making it for the fans. We need to, you know, realize that and allow them to do what they need to do. So I really think that they should release whenever they do release their alpha, it should be an under under an NDA. Yeah, I really do agree with that, especially other alphas that are sometimes released. It's not always the best kind of first presentation of it. And it's unfortunate because that doesn't make the game. We've seen, you know, we're both gamers here, Mongoose. We've seen games start off from, you know, bare minimum, you know, almost nothing and really develop into these amazing, amazing worlds that, you know, we are very in love with. And I would really hate for core to step into that arena and end up getting really pushed to the rocky start in alpha. That would be that would be pretty disappointing. So I do agree. I think at least if they're going to do an under NDA, give us a good month or two as the community figures and, you know, the players, whoever has asked to it to give them proper feedback so they know, OK, this is what we need to fix phase two or phase three of alpha. You know, then we can start releasing NDA further for the streamers and the community figures and start doing that. But I do I do agree. I think right away, you know, as much as we're all excited for it, they do need to I think that an NDA would be good for them. Yeah. Right. Because they have no idea what's going to happen. They think they might know they can do their own internal testing.  They have no ability to forecast that. And that's what the alpha is for. And I would rather that people see the alpha in a more polished state than to see it before they're able to address those bugs. Right, exactly. And that's another thing that I've been going on to is from the sounds of it. You know, nothing's been totally confirmed. I did ask Opolis and Allo this at one point and neither have given me a direct answer as they so lovingly do to us. I was curious as whether the alpha, when it came out, it was going to be similar to like what Epic did when it just kind of never left alpha, which I don't mind, you know, that I think that's a perfectly fine thing to do to have us grow with the game, you know, go from alpha to beta to, you know, whatever the normal process is. But from what it seems like, it seems like once they give us alpha access, it's kind of just sailing from there, whether it's smoother or choppy, we're going to be on the seas of core. That's kind of the general outlook. So I think if that is the case, then, yes, we, NDA is perfectly fine, you know, as long as it's not going to be out for a week or two. And that's another thing to do about alphas. I think it's going to be good if they are going to do a timed alpha, they need to give us at least two months to really kind of test things, mess with some different additions that they put on. I don't think a week or like, you know, like a month, even a month, I don't think is enough time to really, really kind of mess with things. You know, so we definitely need a little bit of time with that. But like I was saying, it does seem like they are kind of holding off on that idea of once it's released, we're going to have access to it. For those of you who aren't tracking, Opholis is the vice president of Metabuff, one of the VP's of Metabuff. So if we say Opholis, that's who we're referring to. And Flores is somebody that helps out with Metabuff. He's on the team. Yeah, getting back to the late alpha, they set that date for the 27th and that was kind of a little ethereal in that, you know, from the beginning, when they first released that day, because, you know, it is a very romantic date. It's the it's one year after Paragon closed. That seems like a weird date to set for an alpha. Because like I said, you never know what's going to happen between the time you announce that till the time it ends. And I'm just glad they I'm glad they announced it well in advance to give people a little bit of a heads up. And, you know, if they would have just if they would have announced this on the on the 26th or the 27th, I would have been a little more devastated. But I've given us a little bit of a heads up, I think, is the best bet. And they did that well. Yeah, yeah, they handle that really well. And then even though even that day, you know, they were very active with us. I'm pretty sure it was that day, Opholis hopped in my stream, me and a pastor Jebediah, another community figure. We were kind of like co-casting one of my streams.  Hey, I'm going to hop in. I'm more than happy to.  And it was really nice talking to him. And, you know, he had a lot of really good insight. And, you know, he gave a lot of good info. And, you know, you can you can really feel the love and the passion for what they're doing from all of these people. When you talk to them, you know, I'm sure you can, you know, you can definitely confirm this to Mongoose.  But, you know, Opholis, Alo, those are the people that I have mainly spoken to. They're very much in love with us. They're passionate about their team. They're passionate about what they're doing. And at the end of the day, you know, they always want all of us to remember that they're in the same boat as we are. They loved Paragon, excuse me. They loved Paragon. They love the memories they have, you know, and they really are doing everything they can to bring that back.  And, you know, yeah, it's they're definitely doing the right thing. They gave us a good amount of time, you know, they did it early enough in the month where, you know, they let us know they were active in the community. They were talking to us, answering questions for us.  You know, they were there for us and talk to us, you know, doing things that not a lot of developers would take their time to do, you know, they already have a busy schedule. They got a lot of stuff going on. And I think it was handled very well, in my opinion. Yeah, yeah. I think it could have been announced a little earlier. I mean, they, they replaced FaZe and Quong. I think they probably knew at that time that they were going to have to delay the alpha because that is not enough time to prep Decker and Fing Mal. If Decker and Fing Mal weren't already being prepped, because there's a lot that goes in to bringing these heroes to life. Right. So I think they probably knew a little before now, but they were kind of, they were probably just waiting to kind of ease the blow by releasing the UI updates and some more, some more map testing keys and stuff like that. By the way, I kind of, this is another gripe I kind of have. I'm sure that there was community, members of the community that wanted Decker over FaZe. I'm sure there was members of the community that wanted Fing Mal over Quong. I don't think that's the real reason that they replaced those heroes. I think those two heroes, along with Revenant, who got replaced by Sparrow, those three heroes are extremely hard to implement. Even Epic couldn't implement them right in a lot of ways. And I think that's probably why they were, they got, they got pulled in favor of Sparrow, Decker and Fing Mal. I think that's probably the real reason. I wish they would have just said that, like just come out and say, Hey man, these phases, just the tether is just too hard to make work in time for the alpha. So we're just going to, we're just going to sub, sub Decker in. I think I wish they would have done that. But maybe, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm absolutely incorrect. Maybe it was, you know, a massive amount of the community complaining because they couldn't have their, their Decker booty. I don't know. Yeah. No, yeah. And you know what that, you know, I actually didn't realize that Quang and FaZe were replaced. I knew Revenant was, I guess I just wasn't paying attention enough, my obelisk is going to drop me now.   Like I do think that could definitely be a lot of work. I could really see how that could mess with an alpha or even just, you know, make an alpha feel weirder than it really should be. Yeah.  Again, all speculation, but yeah, if that was something, you know, it'd be nice to kind of get an honest answer from that and be like, Hey, this is really what happened. You know, but you know, I am a firm believer of the transparency that they're offering us. So I'm going to take my face value for it. But yeah, definitely going kind of trailing back to what you said, I think around then they knew, I think they kind of had an inkling that it, you know, it wasn't going to work out and they were probably just like, let's just keep busting our asses. Let's see, let's give ourselves to fill, you know, early April and see where we are. If we're nowhere close, you know, then, then we can, you know, then we're going to have to delay it. But I think maybe yeah, I think they tried giving themselves as much time as possible. And you know what, too, you know, they're doing a huge service for all of us and they put a really, really short deadline on themselves kind of making, you know, a game from the ground up for, you know, for lack of better terms, amateurs, you know, making a game from the ground up that a triple like company was making, you know, I think games is not a small company, you know, taking, you know, filling in those shoes is definitely a big thing to do. So I think they might have bit off a little more than they should, but I'm glad they realized that and they're taking the proper time and, you know, they're doing the right thing now. Taking a little responsibility. Yeah. And they kind of eased the blow with the with the UI updates. Right. Get into talking about those, that UI update video. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. The UI video was, it was really impressive. Oppolist did mention a lot, most of that was pretty much just kind of like, like CGI video, but it was just like an idea of what they're going to have because he said pretty much that's what they're having. So that it looked really, really nice. I love the menu. I loved how the main menu looked, how it had like the store, like I think it was like a clan-like option in there too. Yeah, alliances. Yeah, alliances. Yep, that's what it was. Yep. And then they had the, like the footnotes for the updates and stuff like that. I can't remember the name of that right at the moment. The what's new? Yeah, what's new. Yep. Yep. Stuff like that. You know, they had a lot of really cool stuff on there. And then I loved when they showed the actual game modes, you know, they had two separate sections or three separate sections. Really, they had the competitive, their casual ranked, and I think they had like, like an all like trainings kind of based one.  So I liked that they're already, you know, kind of following through with that.  But, you know, it's cool that they're kind of owning up to that and they did kind of confirm themselves. So, you know, they kind of pointed the gun at their foot. So we're going to see if they're going to, you know, if it's going to fire because, you know, now that's kind of confirming, you know, now they got to do other game modes, you know. I think a lot of those modes, like you had the casual, you had the rank. I think the other mode was team mode, like five, like five players queuing up at once because I know they don't want four stacks. From what I've heard, they don't want four stacks because when you have a four stack, it's always that that fifth person's problem, you know what I mean? Yeah. Nobody ever was playing their friends. So it's always, it's always the random guys fault. Like this freaking rando over here doing this and that. They might be playing a perfectly good game, but if they're not on your team, it's their fault. And they want to avoid that, which I think is a great thing. Yeah, yeah. And I even like the extra little incentive. Again, I don't know. None of that is set in stone.  I like that a lot. Yeah, that's very nice. They did have the proving grounds up there, too, which I would assume would be some because they had solo queue versus AI co-op versus AI and then proving grounds. I would assume proving grounds would be some sort of testing map where you could go in by yourself and test things out, which I know happens to be much more difficult than you may imagine, because when you have server set up and everybody's playing on a server, you've got that server that you're paying for. You're paying for that server to host 10 players in a five on five match. If one person goes into that proving grounds, that's a separate server. Now you're paying the same amount that you're paying for that other server that's hosting 10 people. You're paying that same amount for one person to play on that server by themselves in that proving ground. Unless they've come up with a way around that, that may not be the most cost efficient thing. And we may not see those proving grounds until they're a little more financially stable. Hopefully they will be financially stable. That's another thing I want to bring up. I'm going off the rails here. I'm going off topic. Another thing I want to bring up is people say, you know, Paragon didn't make enough money for Epic to stay in business. What makes Medabuff think that CORE can make enough money for them? Well, CORE doesn't need to make nearly as much money as Paragon was for Epic, because Epic has investors that they have to Tennyson, that they have to answer to. In quarterly reports, Medabuff doesn't have that. Medabuff doesn't have the huge team that Epic has. And so they don't have to pay as many people as much money. So they can CORE can survive with a much smaller player base and much smaller income than Paragon did. So I think that's a that's an important thing to put out there because a lot of people worry about that. I don't think it's as big of a concern as you may believe.  How did I go from proving grounds? I think I think you connected that because of the cost of server. Right, right. You've got a lot in your mind, Mongoose. But the one other thing, very interesting detail I saw in the character selection screen where you could pick your own skin or whatever on the left or right hand side. I guess it would be my left Gideon's right was core abilities. That was something they brought up in the proof of concept was having core abilities, which would function similar to relics and other like relics and smite. So it would be something that you would pick at the beginning of the match before you go in. It would be like a very high cooldown, high impact ability that was specific to you. So it does look like they still kind of plan to have those because it was in the UI. Didn't look like it was selectable, so it definitely won't be in the alpha. But that is something maybe we can look forward to if relics are something you enjoy. I know not everybody enjoys that style of play, but pretty cool stuff. I'm glad to see that that some of the stuff from the proof of concept is making it into the final product it looks like. Yeah, yeah. And, you know, this is kind of segueing our way into our main topic.  I hear that almost every time I stream, you know, every every, like I'll say, like 10, 15, 20 minutes, I get someone mentioned maroon system from Smite and stuff like that. And so it's cool that that they do have that. And if I'm not mistaken, I'm pretty sure. So me and a pastor brought that up to Apollos. And I think it like the way they want to do that it's kind of like their answer to do you remember in the old original Paragon builds, you could pick your OP buff card? Yeah. So I'm pretty sure that that's going to be that kind of that version. Like it's going to be something similar to that, like like you're saying, like a high cool down high kind of damage or high intensity ability or something, you know, some type of extra thing that you're going to be getting, which is going to be a really cool thing, you know, and like you're saying, you know, that's something that they had in the proof of concept. And, you know, they are obviously realizing that there are other mobas out there that are successful. And they're kind of, I think, looking at what makes them successful. And, you know, so far that's kind of that. If I had to say something that is the most popular that's mentioned on my stream so far, it's definitely that people are always mentioned the room system and how that kind of adds a lot of diversity to it. So if they're adding that and not only just adding that, but also adding the ability to kind of customize it and choose your own, I think that's really, that's a really, really fucking cool idea. Well, if they're going to, if they function similar to the prime cards that they would only be active during the prime buff, right, did they say that the core abilities would function like prime cards or was that just, I think that's something me and pastor were just speculating. I know we asked Oplis, I can't, I'm going to go back and I'll listen to my to my stream when I get a chance. And that's my vaude. And I know Oplis did answer that for us. I don't want to say yes, you know, because I don't want to say the wrong thing. I'm going to I'm going to say right now me and pastor were speculating about that. We did bring that up to them. I can't remember perfectly. We said, you know, I don't want to put anything in Oplis's mouth and, you know, kind of put anything out there without it being true. Strongly resistant urge to make a comment about putting something in Oplis's mouth. Let's move on to the map test. I think unless you had anything else you wanted to talk about for the UI updates. No, I mean, the only other thing that I saw in there that I'm like, oh, two things actually, when you watch the UI update, it showed all their stats. Obviously, none of that is set in stone. But one thing I noticed is there's no mention of character movements. I loved Mongoose.  I hated the idea that I could bop away a Kalari or a Chimera or someone and they could just walk faster than me. So I I love that everyone's going to be on an equal playing ground. If you know, if there's cards and stuff that are going to mess with movement speed, whatever, you know, I trust Metabuff. You know, I'm sure they'll talk to us about ideas and stuff like that. You know, they're very good about that, about being open and you know, with the community and us as community figures. But you know, if that's something they want to add in as cards, cool. But off the bat, I love that everybody has same movement speed. It's not even mentioned in the game. I love that. And then on top of that, we're also seeing a really cool Gideon skin that has never been shown before. That was the tough one. I think that is such a cool like a battle mage Gideon skin. Like I saw that I didn't notice it at first and Pastor made me rewind and look at it. And he was like, dude, that I've never seen skin. And I was like, oh my God, dude, you're right. Yeah, what a Gideon look like Tyrion Lannister though. I know. Oh my God.  He looked a little off to me. He did. I think that was because of the textures and the shading and stuff like that wasn't perfect because they just kind of put the character model in there from like, you know, from what they're the assets they got from Epic. Obviously, you know that that was just like a video proof of concept kind of video like that. So I don't think they put too much effort into shading the characters just for that.  That's not going to be the character in game. Nothing else. Another thing I noticed is when they were they were choosing their heroes, there was no mirror matches. Once once the enemy team picked a hero, it was great out for your team. So yeah, yeah, I did see that. And then also I love that kind of like for honor kind of teams looking at each other kind of charging at each other. I thought that was fun too. You know, this is all stuff that they could literally never make it in the game, but I loved seeing it. The UI video, I think was really great. It was good seeing finally hearing something to you know, on top of us waiting for the alpha before it was delayed. It kind of felt like Metabuff was a little silent. And you know, I did voice my opinion to a couple of my friends that are that I'm friendly with on the Metabuff team that, you know, I was just like, you know, kind of like, you know, am I just not hearing anything or like, have you guys not announced anything? And you know, so it was nice to finally get a good information, really see not just like, Hey, we're doing core is a perfect concept, like a real first step, like, you know, we have the launcher now we saw a really like, you know, a rough draft of what the menu is going to look like, what we can expect. All that look, it looks really, really cool. I'm I'm I'm loving it so far. You're going to hate me for this, but I remember when you were talking about that in the discord, and I was actually sitting on the map like playing. I was like, man, they just gonna be so happy. Oh, man, I'm sorry, dude, I'm sorry. No, that's okay. No, that's okay. I get it now. And I'm up to date with everything. And I've had a few conversations. I'm up to date. I know what's going on. I understand why. And yeah, no, that was funny, though. That's funny. Speaking of the map, let's talk about the new map test, because I know you have been playing around on it and streaming it. I've been messing around with it a bit myself. So let's talk about our impressions of this new map. What do you think? Hate it. It's horrible. I'm just kidding. I'm kidding. No, I love the map. I there there are things if I personally was making the map, I am have zero skill in it. And it would just be aesthetic. Obviously, everything that they have, you know, see if that you know that you have self and doing the numbers and their blood Mortias, he's working with them, right? Yeah, he's, you know, they're testing kind of like rotation times.  Obviously, everything can be tweaked. The I love how the map looks. I love how it feels and plays. I love how it has a similar it has the only remnants of monolith that we're getting is the general shape of the map, which I'm okay with.  It feels more it feels more open, but also there when it needs to be tight, it feels tight. You know, it's very clear where they want team fights where they don't want fights. I really like the freedom that they're kind of implementing in it.  But you're also not being not necessarily as punished for being a non vertical character. I do think that might be there might be some balancing they got to work out in there. But overall, I'm generally really pleased with the map. I love how it looks. I love how it feels. I love the two different sides at level. They kept that dawn dusk kind of thing that epic initially draw at the end, not initially Jesus that they kind of dropped in there. Yeah, it overall, it's really nice. I like it. You know, there's some things that I would want to change. There are some things that we've noticed in my streams that could be updated, but that's obviously a little aesthetic visuals that aren't as important for a functioning game. So what I want to talk about with the map is some of as far as the things that I like, there were some things that I dislike, but the things that I like were some really highly technical things that they worked in, especially with sound. You could definitely you could tell when you entered the jungle because you start hearing the birds were twerping the bird working, the birds twerking in the bushes. I love when birds twerk. But I mean, that was really cool. And not only that, but there was a Doppler effect to it. Like, it felt like like the sound changed as you moved around. And I don't know, did you find the minion that was making the sounds when you were jumping around on the map?  There's like two in each jungle. And then just to jump on that too, I'll let you get back to it. But if you I don't know if you were like really noticing, but it really there was a lot of dynamic in the sound like you see when you walk in the jungle, you know, it was kind of quiet at first and it got really loud. And then like you had the whooping of the like like the raven and everything. And then like in the lanes, you could hear like the water and stuff like that like kind of running from like the river in the center and like where they were kind of trailing on the edges. Like there was a there was a real like variety and noise. And like you couldn't hear that the jungle noise from the lane and stuff like that. Yeah, that's just something small I want to throw in there too. But go ahead and continue. Yeah, I mean, and that's something they plan to capitalize on overall. They they want to make the sounds in the jungle sound different like a howitzer explosion in the jungle will sound a little more muffled than a howitzer explosion in lane. I think that's really cool of them. And I like that.  That's that's a big thing like Call of Duty and first person shooters is sound whoring where you know you listen for footsteps. And that's something you're going to be able to do. You're going to be able to hide behind a wall. Here those footsteps coming closer and closer and know when to jump out and engage an enemy and know you know how many enemies are coming, which is something we really didn't happen. Paragon and they're going to implement that in core. I think that is absolutely phenomenal, just an outstanding idea. The overall appearance of the map I thought was absolutely beautiful. It was a gorgeous map. And they had a lot of verticality, like you said. You know that verticality we got to take full advantage on with Kalari, but not everyone is as vertically inclined as Kalari. So a lot of people were saying that, you know, Kalari has an unfair advantage. Kalari is supposed to have a vertical unfair advantage right when it comes to Paragon. She did in in Model S. She did in Legacy and that's there for heroes like that to capitalize on. But yeah, because not to mention she has, you know, like maybe a max of like 60 health. So yeah, you want her to get away better. And really quickly on that too, when ever people were saying that, I would point out, I'm like, you guys all know how high Grey Stone could jump. Like every almost every window there might be excluding like one or two spots where only like Kalari and maybe Wukong can get through. But almost every window and every like every like fog wall up top of Fang Mao, a Grey Stone, a Chimera, if someone was up there, a Gideon, like everybody has like who has a mobility, can take advantage of those. But there were a couple extra ones that, yes, Kalari and like a Wukong can take more advantage of because they're sacrificing a lot more on other things like health. So it is completely understandable for them to have those extra advantages. But once I kind of pointed that out, it made a lot more sense to people that, you know, OK, this isn't just for Kalari. And the other thing too is just because a hero doesn't have verticality doesn't make them useless, crunch didn't have any verticality whatsoever. Yet he was an enjoyable character that was fun to play and was an effective character on the battlefield in monolith. And, you know, he didn't have any verticality and he did just just as well. It's going to be the same for core just because your hero doesn't have the same vertical movement as some of the other characters doesn't mean they're going to be useless. They're just going to be played a little different and have some different strengths. So a lot of people are very worried about that. I don't think you really need to be all that concerned. We really need to see some gameplay, though. We really need to be able to test this map in a PvP environment where we're actually playing against people to make these decisions. And I'm sure once that happens, there will be some more changes to the map. And if it is does end up to where the heroes with, you know, greater vertical movement abilities can absolutely dominate the battlefield, then they will probably change some things about the map or change some things about those heroes' verticality. So not something to worry about too much, I don't think. Yeah. And that's another thing to the people always need to remember is that what we're seeing right now is going to go through a lot of changing, a lot of testing, a lot of critiquing, especially from, you know, me and your me yourself and the other community figures because realistically of our position, we will be probably playing the game sooner than other people to give Metabuff those accurate, that accurate feedback without all the backlash from a majority of the community. You know what I mean? So like a lot of the stuff that you know, it's good that me and you were here. And then the thing I always stress out to my to my viewers is, yes, any ideas you can have, feel free to post it in the community discord. It's a great place to put it. But every developer that's on Metabuff is not going to have every second to go in there and every but there are so many people in those in those in that discord talking at different times, your idea might get lost. Feel free to dump your ideas on Mongoose, on myself, on British, on, you know, Ryan Red, on, you know, on another notch. Any of us that are streaming, if you're in our discord, if you're in our streams, let us know things that you like. You don't like things that you're worried about because we can either let you know what the answer is or we can pass it along to the right person without it seeming like backlash and unnecessary hatred from the community.  But yeah, but everything that you guys are seeing right now, you know, this map could be a hundred percent different from the actual release of the game, you know what I mean? Obviously, that might not be the case. But, you know, that that is a potential that does happen in games. Like the map could be completely different from the final product. I like let me get into some of the things I didn't like. I don't like solo lane at all. So we're laying the way it's set up now. If harvesters work the same way they did in Paragon and there's no guarantee of that. But if they did, then solo lane is definitely going to be dominated by casters because a melee hero would not have a chance in that lane because there's the lip that the caster, the the raised platform that the caster can stand on and just kind of ping that solo laner out of lane, you know, an aggressive caster will always be able to push a mid laner back. Maybe not. I mean, a melee hero back, maybe not kill them, but push them back under their tower, which would give them ample opportunity to plant that harvester if they wanted to and then give their team an economy bonus. And yeah, I really didn't like that. I hope that gets changed a bit. And the other thing it's that harvesters all the way away from the jungle. So that caster who pushes that melee hero back also really doesn't have to worry about getting ganked by the jungler because the jungler has run all the way across the lane in order to get them unless they use a movement ability. And if they use a movement ability that they don't have that to catch up to the caster, if they just piece out, run away. So I hope that gets changed for one thing. But again, without being able to play actual people on the map, I really don't know. Right. And to throw another another viewpoint on this, this is actually something that we spent probably like a good day talking about on my stream. There was a few things that people brought up. A lot of people were they brought up that same concern like, you know, what if a caster could easily take that? What we mentioned was, first of all, that main ring that's on the the harvester, if they could program it where you have to be in the ring for it to even be active for any ranged person to even get close enough for that to matter. Yes, they can poke them. But if they're close enough to poke, they're most likely close enough for a gray stone or a fangmau or a quang to jump to their teleport to and really deal up deal with some damage as strong as Gideon can be.  You know what I mean? So that was one thing. The other thing was even make, you know, if they were going to do that kind of ring where you had to be in it to have it work, make that even tighter. The third thing that somebody mentioned to was even just doing like that in legacy, push it off to the side so that it's not a chore for the solo laner. It's an option. If you don't want to worry about it, fine. But if you but you'll have to defend it if the other person wants to go and take it.  You know, if that Aurora wants to go there and try to get that for the team, you don't have to really spend time worrying about it, but you want to stop them from getting it. So it does become another task. But, you know, if both people are going to leave it alone, it's not right there because there was a lot of times in legacy where that solo harvester would never get used because it was far off the side. People were worried about fighting, but mainly I saw people go back there to recall, to hide and recall. You know, so I feel like it could fall into that same category where, you know, it could help out the team. But it could also just kind of be there as, you know, another strategic place to hang out. You know, so I think there's some definite things that they could do there. What you're saying does make sense. I didn't think about that. Having the jungler kind of move in from there. It is very far from the jungle. But I think making it more optional by having it pushed to the side is a lot better than kind of having it shoved in the solo laners face, you know, along with worrying about ganks, rotations from mid and, you know, the actual fighting of the two solo laners. Having that right there is a lot of pressure. So I think having it off to the side would be a really good option. Well, if it's the only neutral harvester, that's not optional. That is something that you were going to fight to the nail for because it gives an economy bonus to your entire team. So even if you push it off to the side, there's always going to be a fight for it. And if you're a melee hero, melee heroes don't have as much lane clear as, say, a Gideon or a Fei or a Bellica. If they go to set that harvester up, Bellica is just going to jam a wave underneath your tower and then your tower is going to go down. And when you go back to try and clear those minions, she's just going to take that harvester back. So even if you do that, it's still going to massively favor castors. And the other thing you were talking about, I know window was saying that as well, have it be like a domination thing, like you have to be standing within the ring to activate the harvester.  So anyway, you slice it, it benefits castors. It just changes it up just kind of changes the way it benefits castors. Right. Right. Now, let me throw this one thing at you. So, you know, if so under the assumption that, you know, the one team is following, you know, how Metabuff is setting up the game, because realistically they want that to be two fighters, like a fangmao, a quang, a gray stone, those kind of characters that lane specifically for them. Um, if if somebody did decide to switch it up and pick a fey or bellica, um, in your scenario, are they are they dropping mid lane and now is a fighter going to be going to mid lane? Or is that team going to have two casters? Because I think right. So I personally think that could end up hurting the team in the long run because, uh, you know, there's plenty of fighters that can out damage a caster late, much later on in the game. So yes, early on that might make problems. And then there are also a lot of ways that angling the harvester, because like if you remember on legacy, you didn't kind of have to be in view of the harvester, like you had to be in that side lane to actually be able to, you know, drop a Gideon rock or how you there was an angle you had to get in there, which would give the melee fighter some chance to kind of lead, you know, kind of teleport to you and give that that caster a fight. Again, I get what you're saying, you know, I'm trying to play devil's advocate here, obviously. And give another viewpoint on here. You know, I'm not super in love with the harvester. I think cool idea, you know, but I, you know, looking at this from every angle, I think there is a way it can be done. What you're saying doesn't make a lot of sense. Having it completely out in the open like that does make it much more caster favored. And I think it's already kind of destroying that that meta that meta buff wants of having fighters, casters in middle, and then the carry support on the side lane on the other on the other end. Yeah. Yeah, it's something that they'll definitely have to change. And I think they probably will. Another thing I didn't like was the mid lane when I first played the map, I liked the mid lane better than when they made the revisions. They had that that cliff wall that faces each other. I think that should be offset. So it would be mirrored right now. It's like, you know, the walls are directly facing each other. I think the wall should be on one side for one lane and the other diagonally. Yeah, diagonally. I was trying to think of the best way to say that. I think, yeah, I think you've got it. I think you get. Yeah, yeah. No, I do. See, I'm on both ends of that. I like it being direct only because one side of the jungle is always going to be favored for a rotation than the other. Obviously, if coming, you're going to want to focus on getting the red buff and then rotating. If it's diagonal, one one lane is always going to be closer to the red buff on that platform, which is going to open up for more opportunity for the jungle to rotate in and kind of sneak up on them, whereas if they're both on the kind of more neutral side, the blue buff side like they are now, I think it gives a mid laner. It gives one of the mid laners more equal chance because again, you know, if I'm on the I think it's right now, it's on the dawn side or let's just say the dawn side, you know, is on the left side of the tower, you know, closer to right. It's a lot more likely someone's going to come from the right side, you know, right from under you and do a chimera jump or a gray stone jump and get right up there with that buffer, come from the stairs right above with it. But if you're on the further, if you're on the far side of both teams are on the far side, it'd be a little unfair if I was on dawn side and I was getting bullied by the red buff side and the, you know, the opposite dusk laner was only to worry about the blue buff and had more vision of where the red buff side can come from. That's my only gripe about having a diagonal. I think if you're going to do it, have a platform on both sides, kind of similar to how monolith did it. But I personally kind of like that. If they are going to do it on diagonal, I think you need to have it on both sides only because it does make it a little unfair for the person closer to the red buff. That's a good point. Another thing people saw a lot of people talk about, they didn't like the design of the or prime dunk pit in the duo lane. I really don't know what to think about that because we kind of look at everything through the lens of this is how it was in Paragon. This is a Paragon. This is core and the prime dunk, you know, just because their prime dunk pit doesn't look like the one that we had in Paragon doesn't mean it's not going to work. It does look weird to me, but I think that's just me projecting Paragon on the core. So I don't know that might be the problem for other people as well. I don't I really don't know. What do you think of the prime dunk pit? I I loved I loved prime dunking. I didn't like how long it would make a game. I didn't like some of the options that they added to it. I'm actually going to I'm actually going to send you on Discord to even look at this. One of my viewers actually drew something out. That would be cool kind of a fixed for it, because they were in my stream, a visioned actually is one of the mods for the community Discord. He kind of revamped it and made it so it's more of a staircase, a little more open, less of a wall. But I personally like dunking. I thought it was it was a fun new mini game that incorporated into the game. You know, the whole team is going on every kind of going back and forth, you know, everybody, both teams kind of equitably reach this point in the game where they're like, OK, I'm ready for our prime. They're ready for our prime.  And in in this version of core is you you cannot fight in the prime. I hated that about monolith. There was too much room to fight. You could have an entire team fright fight right in front of or prime because there was so much space in course, current map right now. It's a very like once you enter the or prime pit, you're in or prime. There is no way to fight around him without hitting him and getting him involved on the team fights, devastating for either team that he's attacking. So I like the idea of, OK, let's wipe the team or white most of them. Let's go in there, get prime and let's bring it over to the dunk spot. And it's going to give us that boost that we need because right now both teams are even, you know, we're good, you know, my team is good, your team Mongoose is good. We're both good team captains. Our characters are fed where they need to be, you know, they're everyone's ready to go. So if we're evenly matched, that's a match that could last forever, giving you that or prime buff. And that dunk adds the risk of your entire team dying right away. And it also adds on now the other team is stronger than us, regardless of both of our set skills. They are, you know, statistically now stronger than us because of that buff. So the game could, you know, progress a lot quicker. There are a lot of people that argue that it did extend the games, which it definitely did, adding on the the Harvester Revivals or all the Harvester Revivals, I think is a mistake. You know, so there's definitely some kind of revisions and stuff that they have to look through to really make it work. But I think prime dunking is something that could be really fun. And it would also be cool to kind of have it optional. You know, in competitive, it's not really needed, because, you know, that could extend the game a lot. I think competitive games should just be, you know, talent against talent, skill against skill, you know, whatever, you know, whatever item set is better than the other one. I think that's something that's interesting. And you know, having dunking for, you know, have a specific mode for that has the kind of mini games, quote unquote, you know, or add that in casual. But I do like it. And I hope that Metabuff can find a way to really make it work. As long as it'll allow you to resurrect your inhibitors. Oh, my God, I hated that so bad. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And even then, there's ways that they can allow you to revive the inhibitor, but make it very limited, you know, give you give your inhibitor like 25% health or make it the inhibitor revival for like a minute, like give you a minute of time to kind of set up your lanes and push, you know, give you that little bit of extra time. And then after a minute, you know, you lose your inhibitor instead of taking the, you know, the powerful buff from or prime for your team, you guys get a minute or two of inhibitor time. You know, there's things that I think they could implement that could help. But I do agree. I think the inhibitor revival is a very risk thing. Yeah. I don't know, I really enjoyed the or prime dunking mechanic back in legacy as well. I actually felt the opposite of how you felt about the actual or prime pit itself. I think it's more open than the one we had in Model F. There's a lot of area in that circle and then there's a lot of area just outside that circle in order to fight in. So that's going to be, I don't know, I think it's going to make for some pretty damn good teamfights. Yeah, no, regardless. Yeah, I think it's going to it's it's set up where a round prime pit is there's a lot of space to fight. What I mean is like once you enter, you know, the prime pit, it's pretty tight around around him. Like you couldn't do a steel ults without hitting him. You couldn't do a Gideon ultimate without hitting him while you're inside of the pit.  And then you kind of entered his initial little pit. I think it's a little it's a little more tight.  Like you have to finish that. Do you mean like before he's pulled or after he's pulled? Because once you pull him, you can pull him to a wall. Right. No, no, that's what I mean.  Yeah, and I definitely don't want to see people being able to solo prime like super early in the game like he used to be able to in Paragon. That that doesn't ever feel good for anybody. Right. Right. Yeah. Like I used to I'm guilty. I used to do that all the time as Chimera. I I enjoyed doing it for the fact that it was broken. But I'm glad that they took it out because it was not necessary for me to be able to do that alone and fight off, you know, another person trying to stop me. That was that's not a good thing. My feeling on that is whenever you could do something like that with a hero, it makes you feel like you're playing a powerful hero. It doesn't make you feel like you did something incredible smart. You know what I mean? Right. It doesn't make you feel like a good player. It makes you felt like you played a good hero. Right. Exactly. And that's not something I want. I want to I want to feel like, OK, you know, I'm not good with, you know, Chimera because broken. I'm good with Chimera because I know how to play and I know when to beat up my attacks. I know when to do my my ultimate. I know when to jump and follow through.  I think that's probably why I was always drawn to the less played heroes. Like I had Mastery on Richter, Faye, Crunch, Shinbi, like, I know a lot of people ended up playing Shinbi, but when Shinbi first dropped, like people get mad when I picked her. Yeah, she was. Yeah, she was in a bad place when she first came out and and and and then like closer to the end, she was like a huge meta pick. But yeah, I remember that. She first dropped.  And then they'd be like, OK, maybe Shinbi's not so bad. Yeah, and I was kind of in the same boat with you. I actually made a compilation video a while ago and I put it on the on the Facebook group for Para gone back when it was up. And I just it was just all Richter, I jungle Richter.  They would dodge and but I got in and and Mongoose, I was like, I was really good.  There's a reason Richter had that assassin tag, man. He was right, right, right. Exactly. Yeah, people didn't know how to use them. And, you know, they just thought because he was big, he couldn't run around the jungle. And boy, were they wrong when they saw me. Yeah, no, I'm I'm I I enjoy that feeling. I'm going back to that. Yeah, I don't want to be able to take down or prime by myself, you know, unless. It goes back to that. You know, I built the perfect set for Chimera and I can just barely take Chimera, you know, take an order prime or take on like two people by myself because not only am I good enough to use his abilities, I've mastered, I think, mastered my build for how I play Chimera, you know, that's kind of different than just having having an all damage build for Chimera and an all speed build, which is pretty much how you'd only build them in and in legacy. You know, so it is a slightly double edged sword. One of those edges is a little more blunt than the other. But, you know, it does come like that. Yeah. All right, folks, that's going to wrap it up for the first episode of the core cast. We actually had some other topics we wanted to get to, but we were having such a great time talking about the news and updates that we just kept on going. We want to keep this limited to maybe about an hour, hour and a half. So we'll save those topics for next next time. Be sure to tune in for next time. Nato, you got anything you want to say to the folks before we go? Nothing really.   And let's not let's not put pressure on Metabuff any more than they need. I'm sure they're beating themselves up about the delay. There's no need to get bashed from us, you know. And what I can't say is from reading everything and everybody's responses, everyone's been great about it. So I just say let's be patient, you guys. And let's really enjoy the trip because once it's here, it's going to be here and we're not going to be able to stop. So let's enjoy the calm before the storm. Calm before the storm. I love it. All right, folks, we're going to be out of here. We will see you later.


The year 2015 is very special for physics. It is the centenary year of Einstein's General Theory of Relativity. Regarded by many as one of the deepest creations of the human mind, the year 2015 is also special for another reason. For in July this year, physics students and teachers from all over the world had converged to Mumbai to participate in the world's most prestigious annual competition in physics, the International Physics Olympiad known for short as the IFO. The 46th IFO was held at Mumbai, India from the 5th to the 12th of July 2015. The event was organized by the Homi Bhabha Center for Science Education, a national center of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research Mumbai, an autonomous institution aided by the Department of Atomic Energy. The 46th IFO was supported by the Government of India through the Department of Atomic Energy, the Department of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Human Resources Development. Now at the plus two level the Olympiads are a major program of the Homi Bhabha Center and here our approach in the Olympiads is towards problem solving, towards creating new ways of looking at the regular science in an innovative way which makes the students think go beyond the normal mundane textbook kind of science to look at the world around them and to focus on problem solving both theoretical as well as experimental. And these are all non routine problems and this is the kind of thinking that we would like to expose students to, all students. Preparations for this mammoth event began at the Homi Bhabha Center for Science Education, the HBCSE, more than a year ago. The most important one was of course the academic part because the host country is responsible for preparing the tasks of both the theoretical and experimental components of the competition. So we started this work nearly 18 months in advance that is in the early 2014. We formed an academic committee constituting of scientists and researchers and teachers from various institutions across the country. We also listed the help of a bigger academic team of nearly 100 people who were mainly teachers and researchers in various institutions and they worked tirelessly for the next 18 months to prepare these tasks. The second level of preparation was the administrative one that is to gather the funds to invite all the countries and to arrange for their travel to India. The third part was the logistics of the event which were indeed enormous because this included the hospitality of nearly 1000 people in the city for 10 days, the conduct of the examination for 400 students and their excursions and the transport. For all this the staff members of the Homi Bhabha Center for Science Education worked relentlessly to make this as present and experienced as possible for the participants of IFO 2015. The 4th of July saw IFO participants from all over the world arrive in Mumbai. The arrivals from 83 countries continued for more than 24 hours and several dedicated teams of volunteers posted at the Mumbai airport made sure that they had a hassle free arrival in India. The contesting students were put up at the Leela and the teacher leaders and scientific observers at the Taj Land's End. This was done as per the Olympiad's established practice to segregate the contestants from their leaders. They could not meet or communicate with one another until both the experimental and theory exams were over. To stay in a foreign land, each country team of five students were looked after and escorted by one student guide during the entire duration of the Olympiad. Nearly all of these guides were undergraduate students from Mumbai and Pune. Similar student volunteers helped the leaders and the organizers at the Leaders Hotel as well. Checking in was followed by registration. IFO kits were given to all participants containing all the necessary information including the event schedule. Registration continued from the morning of July 4th to the evening of July 5th to keep pace with the staggered arrivals. On the 5th of July, all roads led to the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. The opening ceremony was to be held at the Hermibaba Auditorium of TIFR. The long ride to TIFR gave the participants an opportunity to view the Mumbai skyline as well as the famous sea link here. IFO 2015 was inaugurated with a ceremonial lighting of the land by Dr. R. K. Sinha, Chairman, Atomic Energy Commission. The aim of IFO is to celebrate physics at its best by posing challenging theoretical and experimental problems to the most meritorious pre-college students from around the world. But there is a greater cultural aim that is to promote friendship and cooperation among students and teachers transcending boundaries of nations and continents across the globe. Organizing any IFO is a huge and demanding undertaking. The 46th IFO was the largest physics competition ever held with 382 students, 160 mentors, 76 scientific observers and 18 guests from 83 countries around the world. The organizers had to prepare theoretical and experimental problems each of the highest order confirming to the most exacting standards of accuracy and precision. Besides this academic dimension, the event was also to include excursions and cultural programs to expose the visitors to the culture and heritage of India in the short span of a week. Formally declared, this 46th International Physics Olympiad opened. The cultural program that followed gave the international audience fascinating glimpses of India's rich tradition of dance and music. The Olympiads have a potential to impact educational systems and attract students to science careers. That's one part and another part is that those who participate in the International Physics Olympiad, that's not only true for the Physics Olympiad, it holds for mathematics, chemistry, etc. too, is that it's very stimulating for the students. You will see that when you followed them now during this week that since they meet their peers from all over the world, there's the same fascination for science as they have. It's very stimulating. There are high school students at the almost last stage, so they are choosing now what to do further on, what will be their career. And for sure, for really most of them, this is a boost to continue in either in physics or in science in general. So I think the impact of the Olympiad, any Olympiad, is big. IFO is a tradition that began about half a century ago in 1967 in Warsaw, Poland, with an initiative taken by Professor Waldemar Goszkowski. The International Physics Olympiads have been organized in a different country every year ever since. Originally back in the 60s, the IFO was instituted as a competition between education systems. And so the students would represent their countries and their country's education and their country's schools. And that's still the case, but increasingly many countries have some training program for their students, of course, and also no longer does this style of competition reflect how many schools operate and how many schools are teaching physics. And so as they become more and more different, I think there will be some changes. And this very year we have a proposal to make significant changes to our syllabus. And that's along these lines to add some of the more modern physics that's come in. So it allows us to ask some questions which are more exciting to students who are seeing more interesting things in their schooling than they used to see. I think that's a real challenge. July 6. In anticipation of their first test, scheduled the next day. This was a day for the students to relax. They visited the Nehru Planetarium and caught a riveting sky show. Many of the students were visiting a planetarium for the first time and were truly awed by it. More joy was in store when they reached the Nehru Science Center and discovered the many wonders here. While the students were having a gala time, the international jury consisting of teacher-leaders and scientific observers from all participating countries were involved in the grueling task of critically deliberating on and approving the next day's experimental test problems prepared by the hosts. This was the first time ever that the experimental test was being held before the theory test. This is the year of light and we use laser light and look at diffraction and use diffraction of light to study and find out why for example or how Rosalind Franklin figured out the double helix structure of DNA just using diffraction of light from a spring. Also we use diffraction from little ripples, surface tension waves on water to determine the mechanical properties of water using light to determine mechanical properties. So these are really exciting experiments. We'd like the children to go home even if they didn't get the entire calculations correct or all their graphs correct. The important thing is they should go home and feel like, wow, that was a lovely experiment to do. They should learn something out of it and say, yeah, this was cool. Finally, the day of the experimental test dawns, 7th July. The logistics for this enormous exercise were a nightmare for the organizers. The students arrive at the venue all charged up. While most were excited about the next few hours, a few decided to relax and save their energy for the actual experiments. If designing the test problems was difficult, setting up the more than 400 cubicles for carrying it out was no easy task either. But now it's all done and the test is underway. To the greater relief and satisfaction of the organizers, all goes well without a hitch. The biggest challenge in arranging and conducting the examination was making sure that each student gets exactly the same kind and setup of experimental apparatus. So each setup was tested for a specific set of adjustments and we took data on each setup before we gave the setup to students for the competition. So we had a team of about 56 academic members who worked hard for 3 days at the examination venue before the examination. Who actually tried setting up the experimental apparatus. They took the data, sample data, we checked the sample data and we checked the sample results and only then we handed over the experimental area, the cubicle to the student for the examination. After the exams, the students were treated to a show of gymnastics and traditional Indian acrobatics known as Malcolm. The unique sport demands extraordinary control and balancing technique on a wooden pole or with a rope. Some of the participants tried their hands at it after the show was over and discovered that some things can be as much fun as physics and as difficult to master. And while the students appeared for the test, it was time for the leaders and observers to relax and take a trip downtown. The architecture of yesteryear's Bombay fascinates the scientists as much as the street food of today's Mumbai. Come the next day, the 8th of July and the roles are reversed. The teachers and leaders are now busy discussing and finally approving the theory problems set up by their Indian hosts while the students have a day to relax. They have a great time visiting the same sites that their seniors did the previous day. The students have begun to mingle now and new friendships are forming. This of course is one of the aims of the whole event. Such friendships not only enhance their interest in physics but can also generate collaborations when they mature into scientists of the future. The walking tour is followed by a visit to the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. This to most students is their idea of paradise. They are like children in a candy shop just can't get enough of anything going from one research laboratory to another. But the next day is another anxious day for the students, a theoretical exam. The idea behind theory questions and IPHO was that the question should not only test the physics knowledge or skills of the student. But after I took in the question, the student should feel that they have learnt something new, something exciting. So for example, the first question was about the sun. And the students actually could determine the temperature of the surface of the sun while looking at light coming from the sun. And they could figure out how to measure the temperature of the core of the sun while looking at neutrons that come from the sun. In this process, they also calculated the efficiency of a solar cell. The second question dealt with overarching principles in physics called as the principle of least action or the extreme principle. Now this is applicable in a wide variety of cases. Starting from classical mechanics to optics to wave mechanics or quantum mechanics. And the topic that the students actually did in this, were dealt all the way from format to an electron experiment that happened only in the last decade. The third question was a very different variety. Here the students went step by step into finding out design parameters of a nuclear reactor. Now simply by knowing some basic facts about thermodynamics, it was amazing that one could actually determine these parameters which are very close to what are there in the actual nuclear reactor. So when the students came out of this exam, the feedback that they got from them was that they did get exposed to physics starting from very fundamental to very applied. And they just loved this one. The best young talents in physics from all over the world have gathered here today. Once again, some decide to approach it with a relaxed frame of mind while others want to utilize every second available to prepare better. And once again, the test goes by without a hitch, taking a great load off the minds of the organizers. The leaders and the observers meanwhile are visiting a historic site in Mumbai, the Kanheri Caves. One of the finest examples of Buddhist art. These caves are truly breathtaking. Today, they also get to experience the famous Monson Rains at last. In almost every country, students are selected for the Olympiad through a multi-level screening process. In India, there is a three-tier selection procedure. About 40,000 students appear for the first level test in physics held across the country by the Indian Association of Physics Teachers. About 300 students selected from this test go through a second level test conducted by the HBCSE. The best 35 of these go through about two weeks of training at HBCSE, after which the best five students represent India at the International Olympiad. Since HBCSE, the Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education, was the organizing institution of I4 this year. In accordance with the Olympiad Convention, the selection and training camp for physics was not held at the HBCSE this year. The camp was organized by the Indian Association of Physics Teachers at Khalsa College at Delhi in June 2015. 10,000 students participated in the first year, like 98. Now, over 50,000 students around India have participated in the first level competitions. So, there has been growth in terms of students, there has been growth in terms of medals that we are getting. There has been growth in terms of our position in the International Olympiads. And finally, the Olympiads have brought a very important element into this country's education system and that is experiments. In all exams such as the IIT, JEE exam, there is no experimental component. The Olympiads is the only competition in India where you have an experimental component as much as 40%. With both the tests behind them, it was time to have fun on the next day, the 10th of July. The students visited the biggest amusement park in the country and experienced they are not going to forget in a hurry. The experience here was amazing, the excursions were really fun and we got to see the culture of India, meet the participants and have a lot of fun. The best thing was probably getting to meet so many other countries and the getting to share experiences with them and sharing a common interest in physics with so many different cultures. I love Mumbai very much, especially the people and the environment because the people here are very friendly, kind and polite. In the meantime, the leaders and the observers visit the Gaudrij lock factory, their last excursion before the hectic end phase of the competition. The toughest leg of the IFO awaits the leaders as they head back. They now have to evaluate the answers given by their students in both their theory and experimental tests. The organizers too need to grade the answers scripts of all the contestants. The 120 graders brought in from all parts of the country have a daunting task ahead. Checking nearly 400 experimental answer sheets within two days and an equal number of theoretical answer sheets rigorously in even less than a day. One of the biggest challenges of international Olympiads is that as many as 30 languages are used for these exams. This involves getting the question papers translated into so many languages, a task carried out by the leaders. But the questions must be designed in such a way that the answers are purely numerical or graphical so that they can be evaluated by the host country as well by passing the language barrier. A large set of graders for the 46th IFO included professors from IITs, universities, national institutes, college teachers and also a large number of undergraduate students who were past Olympiad participants. The graders went through several training workshops prior to the event. Extreme care was taken to see that the evaluation was consistent and accurate. Once the grading is over from both sides, the hosts and the team leaders, there still remains a crucial last step that makes the Olympiad a truly democratic and transparent event. The organizers arrange an arbitration session where team leaders from all countries are given an opportunity to discuss and clear any doubts they may have with the examiners on the scores of their students. The scores after this session become the basis for medals and prizes. We've had so many physics, so much physics discussion that it's just enriched me. And even in this visit when I came for the exam, it's not just the physics, there is also a lot of cultural exchange. For that matter physics itself and science is also part of culture and meeting people from all over the world and talking with them. Not just about physics, about other things, language and cultures and all that. It's also been very enriching. While the seniors sweat over the assessment, students have another fun trip. This time to the vehicle factory of Mahindra and Mahindra, the organizers had made sure that they have as varied an experience as possible within the short span of their stay in Mumbai. After all, the students are what IFO is all about and no effort was spared to make it a rich and memorable experience for them. A remarkable feature of the whole event was the bringing out of a daily bulletin titled Reflections, which would report all the activities and fun of the preceding day of the Olympics. This is an international event which brings prestige to the country because if your students do well, definitely it adds to the prestige of the country. Also it exposes Indian students to international situations. The experience is not only important for the students but also for the organizers. And in a way it has happened this way and that was also the government expectation that these examinations that the country conducts or the program the country conducts will really boost teaching of that subject in the country. Because it will set up a benchmark on the one hand and on the other hand it will prepare teachers and students. Finally, it's D-Day. The 12th of July is the day of reckoning. The entire cluster of students, leaders, observers and guests have gathered at the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai for the closing ceremony. It has been a 24-7 job for the organizers ever since the participants started landing in Mumbai until now when the results are ready to be declared. Only slightly less stressful were the 18-month long preparations before the event actually began. The Homi Baba Centre for Science Education did a splendid job bringing laurels not only upon itself but upon the country as well. I'm very glad that the International Physics Olympiad hosted by our country this year has been a stupendous success. Actually this program, the Physics Olympiad program started some 17 years ago and has been going from strength to strength ever since. I would like to congratulate all the young scientists of the Physics Olympiad said as well as all the administrators and organizers at the Homi Baba Centre for Science Education for bringing honour to our country. And now everyone's heart beats a little faster as the awards are announced. There are honorable mentions, bronze medals, silver medals and gold medals. The honorable mentions and the bronze and silver medals are awarded by a number of distinguished people associated with the Olympiad. The gold medals were awarded by Dr. R. Chidambaram, Principal Scientific Advisor to the Government of India and Chairman, Scientific Advisory Committee to the Cabinet. The award for the best overall performance and best performance in the theoretical task go to Taeyong Kim from the Republic of Korea. The award for the best performance in the experimental task to solve Kim from the Republic of Korea again. And that for the best performance among female participants, Dinti Hongtao from Vietnam. This year some of the best performing teams came from China, Korea, Chinese Taipei, USA and Russia. The Indian team secured four silver and one bronze medal. Science is now going global, collaborations are increasing, mobility of scientists is increasing and the interactions that they start now will be very beneficial to us in the long term. And also the more and more young people will get interested to participate in the Olympiad. Because what India needs now is to have talented young people, talented in science, to have careers in science and we should do everything possible to retain them there. For that of course we have to do a lot of things but one of the main roles is can come from this kind of Olympiads. The next IFO is going to take place in Switzerland. As the Indian organizers handed over the IFO flag to their Swiss counterparts, the Swiss team screened a small teaser showing us what to expect from IFO 2016. And one must say that it must have inspired the 700 strong audience to already begin preparing for the next year. I think that we sometimes forget that it's not just getting them interested, which is important, but also that those who are interested, they must have challenges and possibilities to meet other with the same interest. In China, if the students goes to the final step that I mean for the last 50 students who qualified for the next choice for the IFO and IFO, then they have the right to go to the universities directly. In Nigeria we don't have, we've not had any female student, some countries I see some female, in fact I've seen a female student get a gold medal. I'm looking forward to the day when we have a female student participate in the International Athletes Olympics. I found it very interesting, also the organizing committee did its best, also the problems are of great level, the experiment was very interesting. I think it was very interesting for me and I learned a lot. And thus the 46th International Physics Olympiad came to a close, but the Olympiads will go on from one venue to the other, year after year, more important. Physics will continue to appeal to curious adventurous minds the world over as it did in the past and as it will for generations to come.