Reminder: 10Th Online School Championships - 8 February 2020.

It is expected that Blake Govender (Oakhill School) will be playing in order tomaintain his spot in the Protea Team.

MSSA is proud to announce that it will once again hold its 10th School Provincial Online Championships on 8 February 2020.

The championship may be used by gamers to qualify for eligibility to be selected for the National Squads, from which the National Teams shall be drawn, should MSSA need to choose a team for any of the titles played in such championships.

MSSA's School Online Championships has become South Africa's largest official online championship. It is an event that lasts from 10H00 until 18H00 and has proved itself to be a most enjoyable event.

The esports titles to be played in all MSSA's school championships and leagues are as follows:

Period/genre	Title	Platform	Age restriction	Players
Shooter	CS GO	PC,	16	5 v 5
	Paladins	PC/console	12	5 v 5
Sport	FIFA '20	PC	3	1 v 1
	PES 2020	PS 4	3	1 v 1
MOBA	Dota 2	PC	12	5 v 5
	League of Legends	PC	12	5 v 5
	Clash Royale	Mobile	12	1 v 1
	VainGlory	Tablet/cell	12	3 v 3
Fighting	Street Fighter V	Console	12	1 v 1
Card	HearthStone	Mobile	7	1 v 1

MSSA would also like to take this opportunity to thank all the dedicated Educators for ensuring that the school teams are ready-and-able and for giving up so much of their time and patience. Only once the learners have left school will they really comprehend what the Educators have done for them.

The championship would not be possible without the continued support from Educators.

Thank you!

Tournament Structure:

As per the MSSA's rules, being:

• If less than six players, the championship shall be a Round Robin Championship
• If 6 to 10 players the championship shall be four rounds as played to the Swiss System
• If 11 to 30 players the championship shall be five rounds as played to the Swiss System

Eligibility:

• Any player/team who is a Registered Player affiliated to a school affiliated to MSSA may enter through such school club.

Entry fee:

• Entry is R35.00 per Registered Player.
• Only fully-paid-up Registered Players may participate in this event.

Entry date:

• Entries need to be submitted by no later than Wednesday, 5 February 2019.

Registration:

• To register, the Educator-in-charge must complete the Google Drive document. The entry form may be found on Google Drive. Educators are to download the entry form, completed the downloaded form, and e-mail it to Mind Sports South Afica. The link for such form is: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1M07rv0ER9jqE25IqMNZqGlsUPqJaE_X2/edit#gid=1844490715

Age restrictions:

Educators must ensure that their teams/players are compliant with South Africa's age restrictions per game title. Under-aged players shall not be allowed to compete.

Medals:

Medals shall be awarded to the first three gamers for both men and women in the following categories:

• MEN: The top three places (1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd)).
• WOMEN: The top three places (1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd))

Please note that the medals shall be awarded to the players at the next LAN championship in which such team/player enters and participates.

Colours:

• School Provincial Colours: All Players that win all of their Matches at a Provincial Championship will earn School Provincial Colours. All Players who score within the top 50% in a specific Period at a any two (or more) Provincial Championships, and who also score within the top 50% at a National Championship in the same period and in the same year, will earn School Provincial Colours.

When and Where:

• 8 February 2020
• The first round will start at 10H00. Players shall be given 60 minutes to complete each round. 
• Players must all be on-line at 9H00.

The championship is accredited as being of the same status as a provincial championship. This means that the championship shall be used for the following:

• The awarding of school provincial colours;
• The awarding of medals for 1st, 2nd and 3rd places for both men and women;
• The ability to qualify for National Team Trials. 

As usual Trials shall be done at a LAN venue, and the team that can best represent South Africa shall then be selected.

Shout casting:

• The MSSA shall decide who may shout-cast the games.
• Anybody wishing to be appointed as a Shout-Caster must apply in writing to mindsportscorrespondence@gmail.com 

Also read:

• Why schools and universities should invest in esports.
• https://esportscommentator.blogspot.com/2019/09/entry-fees-for-provincial-and-national.html
• How school clubs affiliate for the 2020 season.

• 2020 Calendar of Events
• The various events held by Mind Sports South Africa.
• Why schools and universities should invest in esports.
• New National Team Selection Criteria
• Selecting the national Protea teams for Mind Sports South Africa.
• MSSA's umpiring course - 25 January 2020.
• The road to Eilat

The Final Form Of My Home Made Magnetic Army Transport

I wanted to put out an update to my last post on building a magnetic model transport system for my Convergence.

Just before Captain Con my wife was kind enough to finish making the bag to carry all of the magnetic bins I built. It's frankly huge, but it carries absolutely everything without any issue.

It's huge! Total size is 16" deep, 24" wide, and about 15" tall. In the above picture it's carrying my dice tray, dice, all of my Convergence and a Blacksmiths Guild Ball team, and my sheet pan/tournament tray (sprayed silver).

The bag is semi-rigid, using some foam internally between the fabric to give some stability and padding. My wife did an outstanding job on it.

I got some flak from my Guild Ball friends for how much room I was taking up in the trunk on the drive up, but its awesome.  It fits neatly in my own car's trunk and will be used for all my local travel from now on. This is significantly easier than when I had to use an old PC carrying strap to bind all my cases together to carry the CoC around locally.

In case you didn't see the last post, here are what the cases look like populated with my stuff:

Conclusions

If you compare this to an actual product of equivalent size, it's about what you'd get in a Magna Rack 1520 from Battle Foam.  The racks plus bag for that is $365 plus shipping.  If you add up total materials for my system, I'm likely looking at about $100 max. Of course, I didn't have to pay for any labor in this creation.

On the flip side, I mentioned to my wife that she could probably pull $100 to $150 for a bag like that for other gamers if she tried to make one and she said in no uncertain terms that it flat out isn't worth it for her labor to charge that little.  Apparently the bag was a bit of a pain in the ass for her to make. She was happy to make it for me, but no one else has my charm to convince her it's worth making another.

If I wasn't married to an extremely talented quilter (and all around amazing woman) I'd probably would have to had been more careful when picking out my bins to make sure I could arrange them to fit in a piece of luggage I could buy rather than having the bag being fabricated to meet the specs of what bins I purchased.

I'm very happy to have done this, and I intend on magnetizing my other armies to use this system going forward, though I already have a bunch of foam so I'm not as motivated to go ahead with that. Plus I plan on just using Convergence for a while anyway.

Where Have The Players Been In Your Campaign?

Sit back and consider, for a moment, the contiguous land mass of the Russian nation. It's huge. Wikipedia says that area is 17,098,246 square kilometers. (6,601,670 sq mi) For comparison, a city block ranges from 0.0025 square miles to 0.01 square miles.

Britannica says that "Russia has a maximum east-west extent of some 5,600 miles (9,000 km) and a north-south width of 1,500 to 2,500 miles."

When I created the full Lands of Men hex map, I took a map of Russia and then folded, spindled and twisted the map to make something new, then put my campaign into it. When I started, I had 3 hexes. Now I have... well... this. (Click to embiggen)

The areas in red are where the PCs have been, with a total of about 6 years of play (counting a 4 year campaign interregnum, we've been doing this for ten years.)

The Eastern Borders campaign is my tabletop campaign. They've ranged the most, having gone up towards the Sithasten Mountains when they freed the Marshal's daughter from the Black Brotherhood. They've traveled east to Irecia, the lost Diamond City. They've gone south into the Southron Duchy, into the Nisangel Forests to journey deep into the depths of Tuluk. It "feels" like a lot, but there is so much more to see and do!

The Southern Seas campaign is my play-by-post campaign. Those guys have been at this particular go around for almost five years. In that time, they've covered about two hexes of area, but then the pace of play-by-post is slower. Still, they've been in the mountains near orc territory, and they've sailed to the island city of Ramathia!

The Western Borders campaign is my online Roll20/Discord campaign. They started in January of 2019. While they've had a few hexes of travel while going to a nearby town of Tannia, they've mainly been in one hex of area, seeking to clear the ancient ruins of Griffon's Keep from an advance warparty of orcs, goblins and evil priests. This lies near their homebase of Gireford, a small village.

In a way, this is really cool to see, as well as eye-opening. There's so much space! So many things to discover, to see, to explore. I honestly don't think that I'll live long enough to see all of the major cities visited by PCs, much less every hex explored. That's... crazy.

Anyway, though I'd share this as I think this is hella cool! What about your campaign? Where have your players been? How much have they explored? What else is left?

The Pokémon Sanctuary Project

Alola! Welcome to my new writing project!

I've been a Pokémon fan since I picked up Pokémon Red in 1998 just before my 18th birthday. Over the years, I have toyed with the idea of building a comprehensive Pokémon zoo of sorts. It's a huge undertaking that grows with every passing generation of Pokémon game that adds more Pokémon to collect. I've started and failed a few times over the years to create a comprehensive collection of Pokémon to carry forward into future generations.

The closest I came was in a Pokémon Emerald run I did in 2008 (roughly). I'm not sure if those creatures are still on a copy of Emerald, or stored in the Ruby/Sapphire Box on some Gamecube memory stick somewhere. I may try to hunt them down in the future, but for the purposes of this project I'm starting from scratch, and I'm starting where it all began. I'll be playing through the Virtual Console version of Pokémon Red.

I'm going to be documenting this journey in the form of a serial narrative. I hope to upload a short story every week as I progress through Pokémon Red with my created character, Fox, who aspires to be a world renown Pokémon collector and zoologist. In order to make his story more interesting to read, I will also be doing the initial playthrough as a Nuzlocke Challenge that I will detail below. As I handle the writing, my brother will be doing some original art for the series to spice up the adventure. I hope this will make the experience fun and interesting for personal friends and Pokémon fans alike.

The Nuzlocke Challenge

1. Any Pokémon that faints must be released. 
2. Only the first Pokémon encountered in each area can be caught. No second chances. 
3. All Pokémon will have personalized nicknames to make them more endearing. 

These are the basic rules of the challenge and speaking retrospectively they really make the early game quite challenging and intense. I've never had more tense encounters in an RPG in my life. In addition to these rules, I have also decided that (for the sake of the narrative) I will not be using a starter Pokémon. The challenge starts for me when Fox catches his first Pokémon on Route 1 and then trades away the Charmander he used to catch it. I've run from all battles before that point and just rushed to a point where you can catch your Pokémon. So Rattata or Pidgey (no spoilers! don't look at the episode title!) will be the first and only Pokémon on my team leaving Route 1.

Addendum: I will not be catching an HM Slave. All HMs will be taught to actual members of the team unless I hit a roadblock. If the path forward requires an HM that I absolutely cannot teach without catching a new Pokémon, then an HM Slave may be caught. If that occurs, that Pokémon will only exclusively be used for the HMs and never for battle, but I will be trying to avoid this at all cost. Having one of four battle moves taken up by an HM adds to the challenge, but I won't accept it as a loss if I get to an impasse due to HM nonsense and am forced to catch an extra Pokémon.

• Episode 1 - Tabula Rattata
• Episode 2 - Nibbles & Kiwi
• Episode 3 - The Lone Wolf
• Episode 4 - A Trainer's Resolve
• Episode 5 - Monumental Heartbreak
• Episode 6 - Battle for Boulder Badge
• Episode 7 - The Dread Rocket Raticate
• Episode 8 - The Nugget Bridge Rematch
• Episode 9 - Something Oddish in Cerulean
• Episode 10 - Kanto Underground
• Episode 11 - All Aboard the S.S. Anne!
• Episode 12 - A Tremendous Chop to the Team
• Episode 13 - The Team Surges Forward
• Episode 14 - A Wild Side Quest Appears
• Episode 15 - Putting a Pin in Lavender Town
• Episode 16 - Quiet Gardens of Celadon

Building Cities!

What's going on everyone!?

Today for the #2019gameaday challenge I played a solo game of Carcassonne on the mobile app with 2 AI and actually won!

It was a good game and very close until the ene but some wisely placed farmers ended up winning me the game!

As one of my favorite games I don't think I'll ever get sick of this one!

As always, thank you for reading and don't forget to stop and smell the meeples! :)

-Tim

10Th Online School Championships - 8 February 2020.

It is expected that Blake Govender (Oakhill School) will be playing in order tomaintain his spot in the Protea Team.

MSSA is proud to announce that it will once again hold its 10th School Provincial Online Championships on 8 February 2020.

The championship may be used by gamers to qualify for eligibility to be selected for the National Squads, from which the National Teams shall be drawn, should MSSA need to choose a team for any of the titles played in such championships.

MSSA's School Online Championships has become South Africa's largest official online championship. It is an event that lasts from 10H00 until 18H00 and has proved itself to be a most enjoyable event.

The esports titles to be played in all MSSA's school championships and leagues are as follows:

Period/genre	Title	Platform	Age restriction	Players
Shooter	CS GO	PC,	16	5 v 5
	Paladins	PC/console	12	5 v 5
Sport	FIFA '20	PC	3	1 v 1
	PES 2020	PS 4	3	1 v 1
MOBA	Dota 2	PC	12	5 v 5
	League of Legends	PC	12	5 v 5
	Clash Royale	Mobile	12	1 v 1
	VainGlory	Tablet/cell	12	3 v 3
Fighting	Street Fighter V	Console	12	1 v 1
Card	HearthStone	Mobile	7	1 v 1

MSSA would also like to take this opportunity to thank all the dedicated Educators for ensuring that the school teams are ready-and-able and for giving up so much of their time and patience. Only once the learners have left school will they really comprehend what the Educators have done for them.

The championship would not be possible without the continued support from Educators.

Thank you!

Tournament Structure:

As per the MSSA's rules, being:

• If less than six players, the championship shall be a Round Robin Championship
• If 6 to 10 players the championship shall be four rounds as played to the Swiss System
• If 11 to 30 players the championship shall be five rounds as played to the Swiss System

Eligibility:

• Any player/team who is a Registered Player affiliated to a school affiliated to MSSA may enter through such school club.

Entry fee:

• Entry is R35.00 per Registered Player.
• Only fully-paid-up Registered Players may participate in this event.

Entry date:

• Entries need to be submitted by no later than Monday, 5 February 2019.

Registration:

• To register, the Educator-in-charge must complete the Google Drive document. The entry form may be found on Google Drive. Educators are to download the entry form, completed the downloaded form, and e-mail it to Mind Sports South Afica. The link for such form is: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1M07rv0ER9jqE25IqMNZqGlsUPqJaE_X2/edit#gid=1844490715

Age restrictions:

Educators must ensure that their teams/players are compliant with South Africa's age restrictions per game title. Under-aged players shall not be allowed to compete.

Medals:

Medals shall be awarded to the first three gamers for both men and women in the following categories:

• MEN: The top three places (1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd)).
• WOMEN: The top three places (1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd))

Please note that the medals shall be awarded to the players at the next LAN championship in which such team/player enters and participates.

Colours:

• School Provincial Colours: All Players that win all of their Matches at a Provincial Championship will earn School Provincial Colours. All Players who score within the top 50% in a specific Period at a any two (or more) Provincial Championships, and who also score within the top 50% at a National Championship in the same period and in the same year, will earn School Provincial Colours.

When and Where:

• 8 February 2020
• The first round will start at 10H00. Players shall be given 60 minutes to complete each round. 
• Players must all be on-line at 9H00.

The championship is accredited as being of the same status as a provincial championship. This means that the championship shall be used for the following:

• The awarding of school provincial colours;
• The awarding of medals for 1st, 2nd and 3rd places for both men and women;
• The ability to qualify for National Team Trials. 

As usual Trials shall be done at a LAN venue, and the team that can best represent South Africa shall then be selected.

Shout casting:

• The MSSA shall decide who may shout-cast the games.
• Anybody wishing to be appointed as a Shout-Caster must apply in writing to mindsportscorrespondence@gmail.com 

Also read:

• Why schools and universities should invest in esports.
• https://esportscommentator.blogspot.com/2019/09/entry-fees-for-provincial-and-national.html
• How school clubs affiliate for the 2020 season.

• 2020 Calendar of Events
• The various events held by Mind Sports South Africa.
• Why schools and universities should invest in esports.
• New National Team Selection Criteria
• Selecting the national Protea teams for Mind Sports South Africa.
• MSSA's umpiring course - 25 January 2020.
• 28th OLD EDWARDIAN SUMMER CHAMPIONSHIPS - 1 & 2 February 2020
• The road to Eilat

My Memory Of Us: A Polish Video Game About The Ghettos

My Memory of Us is a game developed by Juggler Games and soon to be published by IMGN.PRO, both of them Polish companies.

The game is set in a fantasy version of WWII, where two kids who are best friends are separated when an evil king (with robots) comes to power. They impose harsh restrictions on one of the kids (the girl) forcing them to wear certain clothing, mocking them, and creating dangerous situations. They only want to play together, and only by working together can the kids reveal their true power.

The game uses cute graphics against black and white dystopian steampunk backdrops of ghettos, garbage, and barbed wire. The story is narrated by Patrick Stewart.

I'm happy that they are not directly using Holocaust imagery, since this tends to end up in the hands of Nazis who enjoy watching Jews lose the game (like they enjoy watching Holocaust movies and rooting for the bad guys).

I don't know exactly how the story plays out. It might be an apologetic for Poland: the main characters are obviously the bad German regime and the two kids, Polish and Jewish, who work together and are both victims. Or it might not. You could gloss over that and simply enjoy the game. Apparently, the game was inspired by the real lives of some of the developers.

HT: Engadget via Boing Boing

Populife Smart Deadbolt Review: Ultra-cheap And Attractive, But Lacking In The Operations Department - PCWorld

Populife Smart Deadbolt review: Ultra-cheap and attractive, but lacking in the operations department

Brave Browser voted the best privacy-focused product of 2019

Out of all the privacy-focused products and apps available on the market, Brave has been voted the best. Other winners of Product Hunt's Golden Kitty awards showed that there was a huge interest in privacy-enhancing products and apps such as chats, maps, and other collaboration tools.

An extremely productive year for Brave

Last year has been a pivotal one for the crypto industry, but few companies managed to see the kind of success Brave did. Almost every day of the year has been packed witch action, as the company managed to officially launch its browser, get its Basic Attention Token out, and onboard hundreds of thousands of verified publishers on its rewards platform.

Luckily, the effort Brave has been putting into its product hasn't gone unnoticed.

The company's revolutionary browser has been voted the best privacy-focused product of 2019, for which it received a Golden Kitty award. The awards, hosted by Product Hunt, were given to the most popular products across 23 different product categories.

Ryan Hoover, the founder of Product Hunt said:

"Our annual Golden Kitty awards celebrate all the great products that makers have launched throughout the year"

Brave's win is important for the company—with this year seeing the most user votes ever, it's a clear indicator of the browser's rapidly rising popularity.

Privacy and blockchain are the strongest forces in tech right now

If reaching 10 million monthly active users in December was Brave's crown achievement, then the Product Hunt award was the cherry on top.

The recognition Brave got from Product Hunt users shows that a market for privacy-focused apps is thriving. All of the apps and products that got a Golden Kitty award from Product Hunt users focused heavily on data protection. Everything from automatic investment apps and remote collaboration tools to smart home products emphasized their privacy.

AI and machine learning rose as another note-worthy trend, but blockchain seemed to be the most dominating force in app development. Blockchain-based messaging apps and maps were hugely popular with Product Hunt users, who seem to value innovation and security.

For those users, Brave is a perfect platform. The company's research and development team has recently debuted its privacy-preserving distributed VPN, which could potentially bring even more security to the user than its already existing Tor extension.

Brave's effort to revolutionize the advertising industry has also been recognized by some of the biggest names in publishing—major publications such as The Washington Post, The Guardian, NDTV, NPR, and Qz have all joined the platform. Some of the highest-ranking websites in the world, including Wikipedia, WikiHow, Vimeo, Internet Archive, and DuckDuckGo, are also among Brave's 390,000 verified publishers.

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