Cat in the hat homemade costume

I have two violations for costumer not getting order and I know I put it in the right place last time. How many can I get till they deactivate me? Do you guys save your completed photos are can DD pull them back up? I plan to switch away from DoorDash but until I get approved for grub hub this is where all the moneys at.

For context i am a male and i'll turn 18 in few months and i am studying for my high school graduation.
So basically my family owes a small land somewhere in the mountains, and no one lives there and use that land it's basically abondinated.
So there's no issue for me moving there, i want to build a small hut there rise some farm animals and do farming, have maybe a dog and a cat and some birds
For money i won't need much since i can manage to hunt and cook i wood's fire but i'll need matbe like 3 hundred a months for the animals food and some food cigarettes and beer for me in my country 3 hundrad dollar is more than enough for that
So i thought i may do some online maybe like trading coding or idk anything that can make me that much * there's signal there so i'll be able to get internet connection
For the electricity i thought i can get someone to build me some set of solar-panels i'll just need to charge my laptop and maybe a small refrigerator
Gas? Who needs gas i'll cook in fire
For the water there's this source that will provide me with water to drink and shower
And if i had a medical emergency i can call my family for help drive me to the nearest hospital
I won't have much connection with humans since it's some kinnda isolated place i'll spend most of my time getting water reading books hanging there with my dog and hunting ofcs i'll have to work eventually but just enough to make 300$ a months
Thanks for reading you'all

Hey there!
I feel kind of numb right now and I know some attention, banter and flirty words would feel great. Hopefully not just for the night but I'm being realistic here.
Just to make sure you actually read the post, add the name of the last food you had to your message. I put that request more or less in the middle on purpose. Feel free to make it a topic of conversation if that's something a bit unusual. Who knows maybe you've had something fancy. If not we can always start off with 20 questions or something and see where it leads.
I'm into science fiction, cats, witty tv shows, not dogs, I own a few shiny rocks. I enjoy memes, I paint wargaming minis (you're free to look up my post history because I will look up yours). I love weird stuff and arcane knowledge. Useless facts are the best and you never know when you’re going to be able to share some with people.
If you think we could vibe well together and if you share at least some interests and you've read so far, all you have to do is message me!
Talk to you soon :)

For context i am a male and i'll turn 18 in few months and i am studying for my high school graduation.
So basically my family owes a small land somewhere in the mountains, and no one lives there and use that land it's basically abondinated.
So there's no issue for me moving there, i want to build a small hut there rise some farm animals and do farming, have maybe a dog and a cat and some birds
For money i won't need much since i can manage to hunt and cook i wood's fire but i'll need matbe like 3 hundred a months for the animals food and some food cigarettes and beer for me in my country 3 hundrad dollar is more than enough for that
So i thought i may do some online maybe like trading coding or idk anything that can make me that much * there's signal there so i'll be able to get internet connection
For the electricity i thought i can get someone to build me some set of solar-panels i'll just need to charge my laptop and maybe a small refrigerator
Gas? Who needs gas i'll cook in fire
For the water there's this source that will provide me with water to drink and shower
And if i had a medical emergency i can call my family for help drive me to the nearest hospital
I won't have much connection with humans since it's some kinnda isolated place i'll spend most of my time getting water reading books hanging there with my dog and hunting ofcs i'll have to work eventually but just enough to make 300$ a months
Thanks for reading you'all

This drama is mainly about the events of Season 7/World Championship 7 (WC7), the season of Battlebots that aired in 2023. Big spoilers for the season inbound, including the overall winner, along with spoilers of the outcomes and winners of previous seasons.
I will try my hardest to be unbiased which is hard because I am extremely biased and any attempt to be unbiased could only come across as enlightened centrism. I will simply try to keep the bias to a manageable level.

Battlebots

In case you don't know, Battlebots (well, combat robotics, but Battlebots is the most well-known and publicized event by an order of magnitude) is a... sport? Game? Hobby? Lifestyle? Where the goal is to throw two robots of a comparable weight against each other, with the goal to destroy each other. Battlebots itself is in the heavyweight category, with a 250 lb weight limit per robot. Other popular weight classes (relatively popular - heavyweight is the only televised one) are antweight (1 lb), beetleweight (3 lb), hobbyweight (12 lb), and lightweight (30 lb.) Battlebots itself airs on Discovery, generally with a main season and a spinoff season each year.
If you watched Battlebots back in the late 90s when it was on Comedy Central, you might remember robots that were basically big wedges pushing each other around a square and maybe occasionally taking a bit of armor off. That's not how it is anymore. Bots are destructive, powerful, and great spectacles to watch fight. Seriously, you should watch Battlebots. It's on Discovery+ and HBO Max. If you don't want to spend the money, Norwalk National Havoc Robotics League (NHRL) has competitions every few months that are livestreamed for free on Youtube in the smaller weight classes.
In case it's not clear from the write-up, Battlebots is filmed usually in the fall, and the season airs spring the next year. So all of the events in this write-up occurred over a 2-week period in OctobeNovember 2022, but only were public drama as the episodes aired January-May 2023. Much like any reality/game show, all the builders, production, etc. knew the outcome of the season before anything aired, there's just millions of dollars of NDAs.

The Culture

Something interesting about Battlebots that might surprise those unfamiliar with it is the culture. While teams work as hard as they can to reduce the other robot to splintered scrap in the box, back in the pits everyone is super awesome and nice and kind and helpful - a frequent occurrence is going to the pit of the bot you just took apart and seeing if there is any way you can help with the rebuild.
The classic example is in the 2021 season, when the iconic Witch Doctor's weapon disk kept breaking due to poor quality steel. They were scrambling to find material and resources to machine a new disk, when a ton of teams came together to save their season.
Team Sporkinok (yes, that's a trans Battlebot) lent them their pickup truck, to go pick up steel from a nearby supplier who was found by the captain of Team Blacksmith.
They needed to recreate the failure to figure out was wrong, so Team Shatter (the biggest, strongest hammer-bot in the competition) took their robot to the test box to try and break a disk.
They took the steel to the nearby build space of Team Chomp, who stayed up all night on their waterjet to cut new disks (the new disks worked well, by the way.)
After the season, they still didn't know for sure what the cause was, so they worked with Team Hypershock to create a dummy test robot, modeled after the very durable robot (and future 2022 champs) Tantrum, they could test the old disks on. They then sent the broken disks to a materials science lab run by a friend of the captain of Team Tantrum to perform materials analysis.
Many of these teams had fought Witch Doctor in the past, others would fight them in the future. But that doesn't matter - in robot combat, everyone is friends outside the box.
Right?

Riptide

Every year there are of course rookie bots competing for the first time. Sometimes from veteran teams and builders, such as last year's Blip (from the creators of Tantrum), or this year's RIPperoni, from former members of the teams behind Uppercut and P1, but just as often from new builders, at least new to heavyweight (almost nobody starts out with with the robots that can cost as much as a new car.)
One of these 'new-to-heavyweight' rookies last year was Riptide, captained by Ethan Kurtz (the guy with the "you know I had to do it to em" pose.) Ethan had found a good amount of success previously with the beetleweight Rival, and Riptide was basically Rival writ 80 times bigger. Riptide had a pretty good first season, winning 2 out of their 3 qualifying fights and making it to the quarterfinals before losing to the extremely good SawBlaze.
No real controversy, aside from a false start and early hit on HUGE in their first fight - written off as "I'm fighting a heavyweight on Battlebots for the first time" nerves, no hard feelings from anyone, not even HUGE. They also gave fan-favorite (formerly) indestructible brick Duck! such a bad thrashing that Duck! permanently retired after that fight (Duck! was having a bad year anyway, that fight was just the icing on the cake.)
Their success led to them co-winning Rookie of the Year alongside Glitch, who won an amazing 7 fights in a row, a feat only done before by 3-time championship winner and undisputed GOAT Bite Force (Glitch had to bow out of the tournament because their bot had taken irreparable damage despite the victories, but it's possible they could have extended it even further.) Riptide became well known for Ethan screaming "LET'S GO!" (or sometimes, "LET'S F------ GO"!", giving the censors a bit of a workout and annoying production) after big wins.
So coming into season 8, their sophomore year, hopes are high for Riptide and people want to see this breakout star do well, right? After all, there's no big controversy in their funding or anything, is there?

Stan Kurtz

Stan is the bald dude next to Ethan in the team picture. He's Ethan's dad, and also one of the main sponsors for the team through his company BeCourageous. Where did Stan Kurtz get his money to sponsor a big team? Well, he once had a company named RevitaPOP. RevitaPOP made vitamin B12 lollipops. If you know anything about 'alternative medicine,' this is where you say "oh no."
Stan Kurtz was once upon a time the president of Generation Rescue. Yes, that Generation Rescue, the Jenny McCarthy 'vaccines-cause-autism' one. He was instrumental in getting the 'movement' off the ground in the first place - I even seem to recall seeing a link to a talk he did where he said he was backstage for McCarthy's interview with Larry King, but I'm not about to sift through hours of his horrid talks and speeches to find it.
Stan Kurtz sold lollipops that he claimed cured autism, autism that he and his organization claimed was caused by vaccines. In fact, he claimed they even cured his son Ethan's autism! Remember this when you read about Ethan's behavior - it's not an excuse, but "autistic but prevented from going to any kind of therapy or anything because it would make his dad look like a liar" is certainly an explanation.
Let me divest into opinion for a sec. Stan Kurtz is evil. There is a direct line between the actions of Stan Kurtz promoting vaccine denalism and snake oil cures, and dead children. Fuck Stan Kurtz. Every other problem with Team Riptide could be overlooked if they did not have this dude as their primary sponsor (which necessarily would require replacing Ethan as captain, because you can't separate him from his dad financially.) Okay, back to the writeup.
But put a pin in "Riptide's captain and his dad are antivaxxers" - it's a surprise tool that will help us later.

Riptide in WC7

Fight 1: Glitch

Aside from that, people didn't have that much of an opinion on Riptide going in to WC7 (and even that wasn't too widely known until partway through the season.) Generally, there was a feeling of "let's see if they can keep it up" - often a lot of very promising rookie bots have weak second seasons. They started the season fighting Glitch, to see who was truly better. One hit, weapon-on-weapon, and Glitch fucking died. Upside down, weapon not spinning, no way to self-right.
Team Glitch asked Riptide to hit them again try to flip them back over, maybe knock some life back into the bot. Not an uncommon thing, but sometimes it backfires. Riptide did, launched Glitch across the box, and now Glitch was super-dead. Instant, extremely decisive knockout for Riptide. No drama yet.

Fight 2: MaD CatTer

Now on to the second fight. This one was against MaD CatTer, consisting of community college professor Martin Mason (goatee in the middle) and his students. Martin Mason is known for his intentionally cheesebally and over-the-top Macho Man imitation/homage, with lots of pointing at the camera and saying "Oh yeah!" Also by all regards the nicest man on planet Earth and one of the most beloved figures in combat robotics.
Of note is MaD CatTer's driver, Calvin Iba (guy beneath Martin's pointing hand.) Calvin Iba is one of the few builders better known for his smaller robot - his robot Lynx is the winningest beetleweight of all time, with an incredible 11 tournament wins, 8 undefeated, and an overall record of 86-11 as of December 2022 (and several events since then, but I can't find overall fight records of those events.) Now, Lynx is a very similar design to Rival (and therefore Riptide) - Lynx predates Rival by a few months, but the design is relatively generic and common at lower weight classes so it's not exactly plagarism.
This is relevant because Battlebots production tried to stir up drama, painting Calvin as angry that Ethan copied his bot and scaled it up to 250lb before Calvin could himself. For what it's worth Calvin did play into it a bit (he brought Lynx to the fight), but by all regards there aren't really any serious hard feelings about that. "Beater bars" (the weapon style of Riptide/Lynx/Rival) predate all three bots. Worth noting that Rival lost to Lynx in a brutal slugfest in the semifinals match of NHRL a few years ago, so maybe Ethan had a bit of a revenge arc more than anything.
On to the fight. MaD CatTer is a pretty serious bot - not most people's favorite to win it all, but a 'serious contender for semifinals' kind of bot - so nobody knew how this would go. It was back and forth for... about 10 seconds, then Riptide got one good hit and did not let up. MaD CatTer got taken apart like they never had before, left a smoking mess, stuck sideways against the arena wall, knocked out within a minute. Riptide then drove around a bit and punted pieces of MaD CatTer around the box, which got them a warning from the ref for being unsafe and for doing unnecessary damage to perfectly salvageable components of MaD CatTer. The team apologized later for that, saying they wouldn't do it again. Remember that.
Okay, two rapid knockouts against serious bots. Riptide is definitely not suffering from the sophomore curse. But in the post-fight interview, we did get a little taste of Ethan being a bit of a jerk - basically dismissed Calvin/Lynx as worse Riptide, and put his hand over Martin's mouth (without Martin's permission) as a way of saying "shut up wrestler man!" Could have been funny, but it came across as somewhat mean-spirited and Martin clearly was not cool with it (and Martin Mason is not a sore loser - he spends almost every post-fight interview gushing about how good the other robot is, even if MaD CatTer loses.) Production asked Calvin what he thought, and he said (while holding Lynx) "well, I designed this robot to be unbeatable, it's a great robot to base it off of. Good job." Good comeback.

Fight 3: Captain Shrederator

Captain Shrederator is a longtime veteran, being one of the few robots (alongside Witch Doctor, Hypershock, and Lock-Jaw) who has competed in all 7 seasons of the reboot. And they've competed for even longer - under various names and throughout various small tweaks, Captain Shrederator is basically the same robot as Phrizbee, from original Battlebots Season 3.0 in 2001. They're not exactly good by any modern standard, to be honest, but they're fun and an institution of the show. Worth noting that leading up to this fight, Nick Nave (son of Shrederator captain Brian Nave and a member of the team) had been hinting at possible controversy around this fight for a few weeks beforehand on the subreddit, so people were ready for some shit.
So going in, everyone expects Riptide to win. Here's a bot that made MaD CatTer look like a middleweight, versus a team with, at the time, a 6-18 career record. Riptide can't be complacent because even Shrederator can do some damage if you let it (by some metrics, Shrederator may have the most powerful weapon in the competition), but it's their fight to lose. Ethan Kurtz explains his strategy in an interview before the fight - get some big hits that flip Shrederator over. Once they're upside-down, they can't self-right and they'll be counted out. Makes sense, a solid, quick, safe, easy way to win. Well, watch the fight here if you can.
If you can't, I will summarize: It starts off with Shrederator dodging Riptide and spinning up, until eventually Riptide gets a solid hit that breaks a piece of Shrederator's shell off and destabilizes them. One more big hit from Riptide and Shrederator lands upside-down - it's over. Well, no. Riptide then goes in and hits them again before they can be counted out. And again. And again. And again. At this point Shrederator is basically completely dead, but it's still able to spin. Shrederator's team calls over to Riptide "yo, stop it we're dead already." Riptide hits Shrederator again. Riptide's weapon operator tells Ethan to hit him again. And so he does. And one more time, as sparks fly out of Shrederator's pulverized electronics. Riptide leaves Shrederator dead on the floor, as they go and, you guessed it, punt shrapnel around the box. At this point the referee has to physically take the controller from Ethan (while the rest of team Riptide tries to stop the ref.)
Of course this is a KO for Riptide, but in doing so they did around $10,000 worth of extra, unnecessary damage to Shrederator, and almost the entire bot had to be thrown out and rebuilt from spares. Riptide was not apologetic (and in fact later Ethan would gloat to the camera over how Team Shrederator hadn't even tried to rebuild their bot.) No members of Team Riptide helped Shrederator rebuild either, though one did offer. (It wasn't Ethan, Stan, or the weapon operator Sid.)
To say this was controversial to the community would be lying. Controversy requires some argument or debate. There was none - everyone thought Riptide went way too far. Riptide later tried to say "we interpreted their spinning as intent to keep fighting, and we couldn't hear them asking us to stop." Which was seen by most of the community as a load of crap, since Ethan had said to the camera that he didn't need to do those late hits just before the fight, and teams are bantering with each other in fights all the time. Riptide was formally warned by the ref again for this fight.
At this point, the editors I guess realized that controversy sells. In almost every remaining episode of the season, even ones where Riptide didn't fight, they had some clip of Riptide, or Ethan, or something else to rub in "these guys are really mean and have a good bot, wHaT iF tHeY wIn???" Very much a 'whenver Riptide's not on screen, all the other robots should be asking "Where's Riptide?"' situation. It got old very fast (read: instantly.)

Fight 4: Black Dragon

You want to talk about beloved teams, you have to mention Black Dragon. This Brazilian team is known for two things - their plush duck, which they won in a claw machine the first time they came to the US for a competition and have kept as a good luck charm ever since, and their durability - they had gone a near-record 24 matches without ever getting knocked out, winning all of those fights or losing by judge's decision. Leading up to this fight, Battlebots kept having segments showing how Black Dragon had almost surpassed Bite Force for the "most fights without a KO" streak (Bite Force was never KO'd in its entire 4-season career, going 26-1 with 1 lost JD.) Of course, then they had to fight Riptide.
This fight was probably the least controversial Riptide fight of the season - you can watch it here. Riptide went in and did not let up, unrelenting, leading to the Brazilian bot suffering their first ever KO in under a minute. Riptide was actually pretty chill in the post-fight interview, very respectful towards Black Dragon - I guess that ref warning stuck. For now. With that, Riptide advanced to 4-0 in the qualifiers, and ended up securing themselves the #2 overall seed (behind the undefeated Brazilian monster Minotaur, a favorite to win it all every season and the season 3 runner-up.)

Round of 32: Shatter

For those who don't know, Battlebots has a series of qualifying fights (this year, 4 fights per bot) to determine, out of the contenders (50 this year), which 32 get to compete in the tournament for the Giant Nut, and where they will be seeded. As the #2 seed, Riptide got to fight the #31 seed - hammer-bot Shatter, who you saw earlier helping Witch Doctor. Now, let me not mince words - Shatter was fucked. To paraphrase a comment I saw, "If Shatter drives like a god, gets the most perfect hammer shots ever, and in general is the best a hammer has ever looked in the history of hammers... they will still lose." There was no way Shatter could ever, ever win, barring some kind of catastrophic self-induced failure from Riptide. But damn it, Shatter captain Adam Wrigley was sure as hell going to try.
Now, for more info, the bots have rules that govern what you can do. There's a lot, but 2 are relevant - strict 250 lb weight limit, and the tip speed of a spinning weapon cannot exceed 250 mph. Bots are weighed before each fight to confirm the weight limit, and all bots with spinners have to do tip speed tests in the test box. After the weigh-in, you cannot modify or work on your bot in any way without the approval of production and safety. Not for anything. Maybe a sticker if you want.
So when a Shatter team member found Riptide working on their bot in the tunnel leading from the pits just before the fight, questions were had, and team Shatter demanded Riptide be reweighed and tip speed retested (there were rumors in the pits that they were spinning faster than 250mph.) The team later explained they were attaching a plastic hammer to the robot to mimic Shatter (teams doing funny decorative mods to their bot to mimic the other bot is a longstanding tradition.) All evidence seemed to point to that being the case, so nobody thinks they were lying about it, but it still warranted a reweigh. My opinion - that's fine, but tell production. If people think you're going to do something illegal, and you do something legal but in a way that looks illegal, don't be surprised when people think you're doing something illegal.
I will note that the show made a big deal out of how when Riptide was weighed before they were 'caught,' they weighed in at 250 lb, and the re-weighing said they were 248. There was some concern from Shatter about that, not helped by Stan Kurtz being kind of smug back to them. In response to one Shatter member asking "Why is it 248 now and 250 before?", Stan responded "You're right, there's something wrong. We made it lighter." Now, the thing with this is that there are multiple scales, they're not extremely precise, and if anyone has ever worked with industrial scales before you know how easily they come out of calibration. Some builders have said that whether or not the AC was on could add a pound of weight from the airflow. The "250lb" scale was not the same as the "248lb" scale as well. Generally, nobody really thinks there is something up with the weight, but working on the bot post-weigh-in absolutely warrants a reweigh, no matter who it is.
Riptide complained a lot about it, to the point where the word "whiney" comes to mind. You messed up, teams are meant to tell production before they add decorative stuff and you didn't, so you need to be reweighed. You've already pissed people off in the past so don't be surprised when they give you a bit more scrutiny. Take your lumps, apologize, act like adults, and maybe people will give you the benefit of the doubt next time. Instead, there was a lot of "oh boo is me, we're being discriminated against" - a direct quote from Ethan is "their paranoia is affecting our performance, I think it's really uncool that they did this." Granted, if the scale drifted the other way and they had to lose 2lb of armor to satisfy the arbitrary scale drift, I would get it more, but as it is they just look, well, whiney.
At this time, unbeknownst to anyone until they revealed it on a livestream, Team Whyachi (the team behind the powerful flipper Hydra, engine of (self-)destruction Fusion, and Comedy Central-era legend Son of Whyachi, who had the pit next to Riptide, was asked by production to put a spy camera up to make sure everything was above board. Allegedly they also began doing analysis of the audio and video of the actual fights, to make sure teams (read: one team) weren't cheating and spinning faster than the "maximum speed" they did in the test box.
However, aside from the (explainable, acceptable) scale drift, Riptide was not found to be cheating with tip speed or anything else. Shatter accepted this without complaint - they just wanted to be sure. So, that's out of the way. Ethan basically said "they are paranoid and are trying to ruin us so we will crush them" - fair enough, I suppose. Here's the fight (note: this video includes the entire 'weigh-in' drama before the fight if you want to watch it instead of just reading about it.) For what it's worth, Shatter lasted longer than anyone yet against Riptide - almost 2 minutes - but it went the way everyone expected. The most unexpected thing was in the post-fight, where Ethan basically said "Adam is a paranoid loser" (alongside, allegedly, some more personal insults that got cut), then went in for a "sporting" handshake. Unsurprisingly, Adam refused it.
Now, Adam is basically the "union rep" for the builders - he's the guy chosen (by the builders) to represent them when Battlebots is thinking about changing the rules. He is a very widely respected guy and is by all accounts very sporting and nice. So when you've pissed him off enough that he refuses the handshake (only the second refused handshake in modern Battlebots history, as far as I am aware), you know you fucked up. But either way, Riptide is on to the round of 16.

Round of 16: Hypershock

You saw Hypershock earlier. They're quite good - definitely a contender, though generally not going to be anyone's main pick to win it all. This year, they were the #18 seed after a rough set of qualifiers, fighting 2021 champs End Game, 2021 runner-up Whiplash, perennial contender SawBlaze, and the confusingly fast Claw Viper (seriously watch this, look how fast that boy is.) But after a solid win over #15 seed Lucky, they were on to the round of 16.
When I say Hypershock is a fan favorite, I mean they are the fan favorite - between their iconic style, aggressive driving, and captain Will Bales's humor and charisma, it's probably not wrong to say Hypershock is the most popular bot and team around. People love Hypershock, and people don't love Riptide, so this fight had a lot of "save us, O-Will Bales Kenobi, you're our only hope" energy with the community. Leading up to this, Will said in an interview that Riptide was good, but every team can't be good forever, and that someday Ethan will experience, in Will's words, a "humbling event."
But Hypershock wasn't the odds-on favorite here - Will Bales's flashy driving tends to lead to errors, and against something as nasty as Riptide, any error is death. The full fight isn't uploaded, but here's a clip of the post-fight highlight reel. Will started out doing a 'box rush' (charging straight at the other bot as soon as the fight starts), only to attempt to dodge to the side. Unfortunately, this led to him powersliding directly into Riptide's weapon, losing a wheel, and getting flipped over.
Now, the thing with vertical spinners in Battlebots is they spin 'up' - this means that the outer side goes up and the inner side goes down, so you can brace your own bot against the floor and send the other one flying. Now Hypershock is upside down, effectively spinning 'down,' so the energy from hits pushes the other bot down and themselves up. Riptide is spinning 'up' as normal. Both of these are extremely powerful weapons. Both want to send Hypershock into the air. So what happens when they collide? The energy of both weapons goes into sending Hypershock flying up over 25 feet and slamming into the ceiling of the Battlebox. Remember that that thing weighs 250 pounds. To quote Will in the post-fight interview, "nobody has ever been hit like that before." Much to the chagrin of Hydra captain Jake Ewert, who had the goal of being the first-ever bot to send another bot into the ceiling (and came within inches in their fight against Deathroll), Riptide made Battlebots history here.
The rest of the fight goes as expected at this point and Hypershock is KO'd, with Riptide moving into the quarterfinals. Sorry Will, you aren't the humbling event this time.

Quarterfinals: Copperhead

It's the final episode of the season - the quarterfinals, semifinals, and finals are all in one episode. People are spooked because Riptide is a incredible, powerful bot built and driven by shitty people, and nobody wants them to win but they might. But to go any further, they have to beat Copperhead.. This snake-themed bot is probably best known for getting a new captain almost every year, and this year it's Luke Quintal in charge for his first time. They just came off of an insanely dominant upset over 2021 champs End Game.
Luke has said that he was too focused on Copperhead to pay attention to the controversy, so he became aware of it when, leading up to this fight, builders kept coming up to him and whispering in his hear "dude, you have to beat Riptide. You have to beat them. You might be our last hope." He's just a first-year captain/driver, with the oldest bot in the competition (Copperhead has had the same two frames for its entire 4-year career - this is the longest any frame has competed in the history of modern Battlebots without replacement), who's had to have back-to-back fights against rookie of the year Ripperoni, 2018 Most Destructive winner ROTATOЯ, and End Game. No pressure.
Now, people have tried ways to beat Riptide. You can't just tank their hits with a durable bot (Black Dragon.) You can't outdrive them with fancy footwork (Hypershock.) But something nobody has been man insane enough to try is to go weapon-to-weapon on purpose to break Riptide's weapon. Copperhead just went weapon-to-weapon with End Game and broke theirs. Copperhead is durable enough to take those huge hits Riptide deals out. So their strategy is to just go berserk until something breaks. But there's one major plot twist left.
Remember how I said the Kurtzes are anti-vaxxers? Well, the pandemic is still going on. In order to get into the pits, you either had to be double-vaxxed or test negative every day. Well, there's no confirmation that Ethan was or was not vaxxed (but let's be real), but guess what? In the greatest Chekhov's gun in Battlebots history, he tested positive for COVID the day of the Copperhead fight. Riptide is out their driver for their biggest fight ever.
Other builders have confirmed that this was not the first or only time that team members had to miss days due to testing positive, but previous times either 1) did not involve the drivers, or 2) were in the qualifying rounds where fights could be postponed to following days. But neither was the case this time. Now, this is really a shitty situation for Riptide, and I do feel some degree of pity for them - what a thing to happen. But at the same time, lmao.
Riptide has to spend most of the day deciding who would drive the robot in the fight. The first person they ask? Jack Barker, driver of End Game and 2021 world champion. Jack agreed - can you blame him? Riptide is a hell of a bot, probably super fun to drive, and who knows, maybe he could win another Giant Nut. This got as far as Jack driving Riptide around the test box, before Luke found out and was like "hang on, no. He's not on your team. It's not fair that you can just go to the best driver in the pits and ask them to drive for you." Production agreed and hastily made a new rule where the driver has to be a member of the team. This all was not in the episode, and was only revealed by Luke Quintal after the season aired.
Team Riptide then deliberated between the several members of the team who might stand a chance. They eventually decide on team member Felix Jing, who's an award-winning Vex Robotics driver but has never driven a heavyweight before. Felix seemed to be a nice enough guy, and pretty humble. However, in the deliberations over who would drive, they lose time and are unable to replace their damaged weapon from the Hypershock fight.
So the fight. Riptide box rushes Copperhead, and the first weapon-to-weapon sends Copperhead flying. Luke's bot is still going, though, and goes in for another clash. This goes on for a few hits, until a massive hit sends Copperhead flying up and Riptide flying back - but when they come to, Copperhead's weapon is spinning... and Riptide's weapon is cracked down the middle, exactly what Copperhead was aiming for.
Copperhead does not let up and keeps hitting, eventually ripping about a quarter of Riptide's weapon off completely. However, the damage from the last 4 years of fighting added up. Those big hits from Riptide were the final straw - one of Copperhead's two wheels just falls off. Copperhead can still move, just about, on just one wheel, but suddenly this fight got a lot closer. They keep hitting Riptide, but it goes to the judges after the full 3 minutes.
It's a split decision. Battlebots is scored on an 11-point system - 5 points for damage, and 3 each for aggression and control.
All three judges gave Copperhead three damage points to Riptide's two and Riptide two control points to Copperhead's one.
The first judge scored aggression 2-1 for Copperhead. 6-5 Copperhead.
The second judge scored aggression 2-1 for Riptide. 6-5 Riptide.
The third judge scored aggression 2-1 for the winner...
Copperhead!
They did it, they saved the goddamn universe. We will not have to live in a world where the ur-anti-vaxxer and his dickhead kid win Battlebots. Everyone is fucking ecstatic. I cheered. The audience cheered. God probably cheered. And boy, did the pits cheer - some builders have said this was the biggest celebration in the pits they had ever seen. Tim Rackley of Monsoon (big lad with the flag) apparently was picking Luke up and carrying him around the pits cheering. Riptide is out.
It's a pity Ethan wasn't there to experience his 'humbling event' in person, but it happened. He was there on a video call on a tablet - apparently, production did ask him how he felt and he went on a 5-minute rant about how the team was being forced to face jealousy and adversity because they had to get reweighed. The entire rant was cut from the episode that aired. I've seen conflicting reports if he said "if I was there we would have won," but it would be in character if he did.
Team Riptide used their appeal (each team gets one) to ask the judges to re-review the fight - they did (absolutely fair - you have nothing to lose, anyone should appeal in this situation), and as though to rub it in even more, the sole judge who ruled for Riptide changed his mind about Riptide's aggression, giving Copperhead a unanimous JD. The saga of Riptide in WC7 ends here.

Aftermath

There was zero drama of any kind for the rest of the season (all 3 fights of it.) All the fights were great, clean fights between respected and respectful teams and robots. Copperhead ended up losing to HUGE in the semi-finals - no surprise or shame there, HUGE is designed to be invincible to bots like Copperhead. HUGE ended up facing the mighty SawBlaze in the finals, and in probably the best finals match in combat robotics history, SawBlaze managed to win a unanimous JD, giving SawBlaze captain Jamison Go the Giant Nut.
Literally zero people were unhappy with this - both Jamison and HUGE captain Jonathan Schultz are some of the nicest, most genuine, humble builders in the sport, and going into the finals it was very much a "no matter who wins we all win" kind of thing. Both bots are also "non-meta" - "meta" being the general form of bot that Hypershock, Riptide, Witch Doctor, Copperhead, etc. are, a compact vertical spinner - seasons 3-6 saw meta bots win both first place and runner-up, so people were excited to see a finals match with something new on both sides.
This was very recent, so no news if Riptide will be invited back next year. I would be shocked if they weren't, though - controversy sells, and regardless of how bad the team is, the robot is a killing machine that makes for incredible spectacles. There is allegedly a "sportsmanship rule" being added next year - it's a pity that something that has gone unspoken for decades has to codified in rules because of the actions of one team, but hopefully it will help. Between unethical sponsors, destroying fan favorite bots, being rude both inside and outside the box, cheating allegations, and a stunning lack of humility, Riptide really checked all the boxes in the 'bad guys' field this year.
I could say "the viewing community is willing to give Riptide one more chance to apologize and redeem themselves" but that would be a lie. For the most part, the subreddit, main Discord, etc. are all sick and tired of ever seeing the team again, and would love nothing more than for some cool, nice builder to hijack the bot so we can have cool robots and cool people. I don't know how the builders feel - I imagine that they're probably not quite as vehemently opposed to the team on average, but there's probably no love lost.
I enjoyed writing this up quite a lot, because it really was a classic "villain defeats the main good guys, but then the underdog comes out of nowhere and saves the day" story. Also Battlebots rules. Feel free to ask me anything about the show, or any bots, or if you want to see some cool bots that I didn't include. And seriously, watch Battlebots, it's so good. Check out /battlebots - it's the off-season, so the shitposts are about to get real good. I'm running out of characters so the collection of miscellaneous facts I originally had stuck on the end of this writeup is going to be in the comments.

Fiancé and I found the cutest stray kitten roaming around. We cannot keep him due to circumstance. We have called a lot of shelters and either of gotten no response or said they can’t take him. Animal control gaslit us and said he’s not a kitten (therefore they couldn’t take him and told us to release the cat in the wild) but we just took him to an urgent care and they determined he was about 10 weeks (obviously a kitten). Does anyone know what organizations in the area who would help or if there’s another place we can just bring the kitten? We just need some options

Hey ladies! My name is Kevin, and I’m a big nerdy goofball, and by big I mean both tall and chunky as well as well, just nerdy. Any love for the dad-bod physique? I am also a huge animal lover, and I’m here looking to find a regular (Discord) chat partner. I’m open to any race/ethnicity, but would prefer someone around my age and within a few time zones of GMT-5.
I’m very left leaning, child-free and non-religious. I love board games, television and film, history, animal care and food of all kinds. I am a big proponent for being active in local community support organizations as well as being an upstanding ally. I have recently become much more active in the fight for LGBTQIA+ rights. Counter-protest date? I’m far from perfect, but making other people laugh or smile is what makes my day!
I do some freelance work here or there, but mostly I’m focusing on myself (physically and mentally!), my community, and more recently, fostering cats! Helping socialize semi-feral cats has become a passion of mine and something that I find incredibly rewarding. My first foster was just adopted! Yay Paddington!
I’d love to meet another animal lover, as my eventual dream would be to open up an animal sanctuary that doubles as a therapy center for humans. I have an unbreakable love for animals, and faith in their ability to help us heal. I think seeing a battered, scarred or withdrawn animal come out of their shell, seeking love, attention and comfort is one of the most rewarding things on the planet.
I’m a sucker for a cute giggle or laugh, freckles, curly hair and genuine passion about what interests you. Intelligence and emotional maturity are big things for me, but I’d also love someone to watch trashy reality TV with! Tell me about your pets, your D&D campaign, your favorite movie, or your dirty little secret! Let’s get to know each other. Please give me more than ‘hey’ or ‘how are you’ to work with!

Hello there! My name is Ven, and I'm excited to put myself out there and see what kind of connection I can make with someone special. I'm a 34-year-old -indian guy, never been married and single, cat on the wall regarding having children in the future.
I assume my nationality carries a stigma. Nevertheless please be assured that I am a normal open minded person and go against any stereotypes associated with my ethnicity/nationality. I seek people who are open minded to converse and enjoy sharing their lives with me
I work as a Cybersecurity specialist for US corporations, so I basically live in US and UK timezones, and I speak six languages, including English. I work remotely from my home in India but ready to travel anywhere in the world.
I'm someone who values open-mindedness, kindness, and intellectual curiosity. As a liberal, I'm passionate about social justice and making the world a better place.
I'm body positive, which means I believe in embracing all body types and sizes, and I'm an egalitarian who believes in equal rights and opportunities for all.
I'm also an avid supporter of the LGBTQ+ community, and I'm proud to be a staunch atheist who bases my beliefs on science and reason.
In my free time, I like to explore my creative side by doing watercolor art and writing spontaneous poems. I'm also a lover of good conversation and interesting ideas. I find discussions about a wide range of topics fascinating and always enjoy learning from others.
My water color art: https://imgur.com/a/TQpFuyo
One of my greatest passions is traveling, and I've been fortunate enough to explore many parts of South India. I'm always eager to see new places, try new foods, and experience new cultures.
But I'm also someone who values meaningful connections, whether they're romantic or platonic. So while I'm definitely looking for a genuine connection that could potentially lead to something more, I'm also happy to keep things platonic if it seems right. I like constant communicators as opposed to snail messages or texters. Effort and enthusiasm to connect is what I seek.
As an animal lover, I've come to appreciate the unique qualities that all animals possess. Their independence, resilience, and unyielding spirit are traits that I admire, and I'm always drawn to their stories. I firmly believe that every animal deserves love and care. Being an animal lover has taught me the value of compassion, empathy, and the power of kindness.
Speaking of romance, I should mention that I'm attracted to bigger women. Not in any adverse way rather genuine preference borne from positive experiences.
I am a bigger stocky guy at 5'10, bald and light brown skin: https://imgur.com/a/s9xs37W
And while I enjoy watching movies and TV shows from all genres, I have a particular soft spot for historical dramas, sci-fi, horror, and thrillers. My taste in music is eclectic, but I particularly enjoy heavy metal, rock, Phonk, EDM, and trance.
If any of this resonates with you and you'd like to get to know me better, I'd love to hear from you. Let's start a conversation and see where it takes us

Hey ladies! My name is Kevin, and I’m a big nerdy goofball, and by big I mean both tall and chunky as well as well, just nerdy. Any love for the dad-bod physique? I am also a huge animal lover, and I’m here looking to find a regular (Discord) chat partner. I’m open to any race/ethnicity, but would prefer someone around my age and within a few time zones of GMT-5.
I’m very left leaning, child-free and non-religious. I love board games, television and film, history, animal care and food of all kinds. I am a big proponent for being active in local community support organizations as well as being an upstanding ally. I have recently become much more active in the fight for LGBTQIA+ rights. Counter-protest date? I’m far from perfect, but making other people laugh or smile is what makes my day!
I do some freelance work here or there, but mostly I’m focusing on myself (physically and mentally!), my community, and more recently, fostering cats! Helping socialize semi-feral cats has become a passion of mine and something that I find incredibly rewarding. My first foster was just adopted! Yay Paddington!
I’d love to meet another animal lover, as my eventual dream would be to open up an animal sanctuary that doubles as a therapy center for humans. I have an unbreakable love for animals, and faith in their ability to help us heal. I think seeing a battered, scarred or withdrawn animal come out of their shell, seeking love, attention and comfort is one of the most rewarding things on the planet.
I’m a sucker for a cute giggle or laugh, freckles, curly hair and genuine passion about what interests you. Intelligence and emotional maturity are big things for me, but I’d also love someone to watch trashy reality TV with! Tell me about your pets, your D&D campaign, your favorite movie, or your dirty little secret! Let’s get to know each other. Please give me more than ‘hey’ or ‘how are you’ to work with!

November 18th, 1952
Today finally I interviewed Rezan Kull, the independent. I got way more out of it that I thought. Sometimes we agreed, sometimes we didn’t, but she was always pretty nice, like Mrs. Rensen, though pretty different. I like them both a lot, they’re nice in their own ways. I’d really like to see Rezan again, in a less political way, where we can just have fun, swap stories. She’s gone through so much, yet seems to be so full of life, maybe because of it. I just hope dad doesn’t find out, it would just be awkward, in so many ways.
I’m going to play my violin a little, before I go to bed.
November 19th, 1952
Last night’s dreams were unsettling to say the least. Not like the nightmares about my mother. Less scary, more shameful and embarrassing. Sometimes I just wish I didn’t dream at all.
My political interview assignment didn’t take me long, it practically wrote itself, but I’m going to give it one last read through before I hand it in tomorrow. I hope Rezan likes it and Mr. Volkers.
Mrs. Hekman is doing well, though her eyesight is really getting bad. Her cat’s kittens are just about old enough to go to new homes. Pickles will be mine soon enough…

Hey ladies! My name is Kevin, and I’m a big nerdy goofball, and by big I mean both tall and chunky as well as well, just nerdy. Any love for the dad-bod physique? I am also a huge animal lover, and I’m here looking to find a regular (Discord) chat partner. I’m open to any race/ethnicity, but would prefer someone around my age and within a few time zones of GMT-5.
I’m very left leaning, child-free and non-religious. I love board games, television and film, history, animal care and food of all kinds. I am a big proponent for being active in local community support organizations as well as being an upstanding ally. I have recently become much more active in the fight for LGBTQIA+ rights. Counter-protest date? I’m far from perfect, but making other people laugh or smile is what makes my day!
I do some freelance work here or there, but mostly I’m focusing on myself (physically and mentally!), my community, and more recently, fostering cats! Helping socialize semi-feral cats has become a passion of mine and something that I find incredibly rewarding. My first foster was just adopted! Yay Paddington!
I’d love to meet another animal lover, as my eventual dream would be to open up an animal sanctuary that doubles as a therapy center for humans. I have an unbreakable love for animals, and faith in their ability to help us heal. I think seeing a battered, scarred or withdrawn animal come out of their shell, seeking love, attention and comfort is one of the most rewarding things on the planet.
I’m a sucker for a cute giggle or laugh, freckles, curly hair and genuine passion about what interests you. Intelligence and emotional maturity are big things for me, but I’d also love someone to watch trashy reality TV with! Tell me about your pets, your D&D campaign, your favorite movie, or your dirty little secret! Let’s get to know each other. Please give me more than ‘hey’ or ‘how are you’ to work with!

Hey :) I would really love to meet my soulmate, my life partner cause I think it’s so so nice to have someone to share this beautiful life with. I am not a drama queen! I do not love to fight,have jealous scenes , cheating , all of that is not mine cup of tea. My piece is very important to me. I love to travel and it’s important for me that you love traveling and we can explore the world together. Also I am practicing meditation, reading books and love psychology, law of attraction too.. I am not religious and don’t believe in church. But I do believe in god just not in religious way. I love sport, my dream is to play tennis with my partner and have morning jogg/walk together. I speak 4 languages , and I already lived in 5 countries. I am an sea/ocean biggest fan. I love love water and you can guess from this what is mine horoscope sign 🤭 also love all animals especially dogs,cats and I am crazy about pandas. Feel free to text me and I would like to hear more about you.

Hello! I am nonbinary and have had a mastectomy. I do consider myself a woman, although I bet most people would say I'm pretty androgynous. I'm also fat, so now's your chance to click away if that's not what you're looking for. I am not interested in debating gender stuff with anyone. :)
I'm hoping to connect with a cis man my age or older. It'd be really nice to meet someone local but I know that's unlikely posting here, so I'd be happy to meet anyone who can keep up a good conversation on Discord.
This is me. I read a lot of science fiction and play a lot of indie games on PC. Those are my main hobbies. I have cats. I am a very unserious person - I speak coarsely, I like dark and offensive humor, I have a loud obnoxious laugh. I'm not a vegan but I like vegans and I don't mind if they try to convert me. I love music and have really eclectic taste, but I guess I could summarize it by saying I like emotionally intense music that climbs as high as possible. Rock from the 70s-80s is sometimes in that category, but so are lots of other things. I also love musicals for the same reason.
My idea of a fun time with a partner would be going out for some low-key activity. Visiting a museum or art gallery, urban exploring, going for a walk downtown, going to an outdoor concert that isn't super loud. Or staying in to play co-op games, or watching a lightning storm from the safety of the garage while we have a drink in our lawn chairs.
I rarely watch movies and I am probably not interested in that as a couples activity. The couch potato lifestyle doesn't appeal to me very much. I'm not saying I go out constantly, (far from it) it's just that I don't think that's something I want to aspire to. It feels like its been a constant uphill battle, but I am trying to become the version of myself that I most want to be. I don't really have my shit together, I never learned all the things I once wanted to learn, and I'll probably never be thin. But making at least incremental progress toward bettering myself is important to me.
My biggest deal breakers, I guess are worth mentioning just in case:

• Religious affiliation
• Conservatism
• Polyamory

Although I'm not bothered by drug use, it can be a bummer to be around someone who doesn't want to do anything but smoke weed all the time. I do like edibles sometimes, (honestly not a huge fan of being high but its easiest to get ahold of) and I enjoyed psychedelics in the past. I use those things sparingly and I'm not looking to build a lifestyle around it.
Those are all the important basics I suppose. I'm mainly interested in chatting on Discord. If you prefer something else let me know but if it's a phone only app for texting I probably won't be into it, cuz I don't like cellphones very much.

Hi selfimprovement, happy to be here! I've always been someone who aspires to prioritize my mental and physical health, but I've never had the self discipline or motivation to follow through with my goals. I just turned 25, and as I get older, my unhealthy habits are starting to catch up to me. I'm not looking to be the most disciplined or fit person of all time, but I do need to start to taking better care of myself. I am doing very well in my career, have a great social life, and am in therapy which has helped my anxiety a lot. However, I struggle waking up on time and therefore spend the majority of my day running around frantically trying to get to things on time, have terrible eating and sleeping habits, don't exercise despite having a gym in my apartment building, and struggle a lot with sticking to a routine bc of aforementioned lack of self-discipline (I also have ADHD, but find routines are helpful... until i fall off the wagon). I feel overwhelmed trying to get my life together and have no idea where to start.
A bit of relevant background info and my goals:
- I struggle a LOT to wake up on time, especially if I don't have somewhere to be first thing in the morning. I set my alarm for 7:30 every day, but can't remember the last time i actually got up at that time except to like travel or something.
- I live in a large city and work in a creative field where socializing and networking is extremely important. The vast majority of my friends are also creative types, so many of my friends do freelance and/or don't have consistent work hours where they have to wake up at specific times. I work a 9-6 at a creative agency, 2 days in office, 3 days WFH— these days are flexible. Because I'm a creative, it's pretty acceptable to roll into the office late, which I've taken complete advantage of. I can't remember the last time I went into the office at 9am, I always stroll in late.
- I typically don't wake up in time to eat breakfast, literally can not get out of bed until the last possible second, and that sets the tone for the day— constantly running around forgetting things and stressing out about being late places.
- My night time routine isn't much better, I don't have a consistent bedtime. Because I don't have any personal time at the beginning of the day, I end up decompressing at night, which of course turns into procrastinating, staying up late reading or watching TV, feeling wired and gross and stressed and not actually relaxing. I don't spend my alone time working on my hobbies, even though I know it would feel better than laying on my couch doing nothing for hours on end.
- I feel amazing when I am going to the gym consistently and I know its good for my mental health, but I can not get myself to go. I'd LOVE to workout in the mornings 3 times a week before I start working on days I WFH, but... it just doesn't happen. I always feel disappointed in myself when I realize I don't follow through. I'm starting to notice that I'm squishy, I'm not super concerned with losing weight, but I want to be in better shape and a bit more "toned". I look and feel better when I'm exercising.
- I love cooking, but again, get lazy when I finish work and end up snacking or ordering delivery and then overeating and feeling crappy. I'd love to get into the routine of eating healthy, homemade meals when I'm alone, and save eating out for when I'm socializing. Again... I tell myself that and still end up ordering delivery or takeout.
- My social life is super important to me, and I'd like to leave 2-3 evenings during the week open to see my boyfriend or friends, or do something interesting like going out or going to dinner. I feel invigorated and much more motivated the day after I go out with friends, but I don't know how to balance after work socialization with a healthy night time routine because i literally have no bedtime routine at all.
This all leaves me feeling really drained and overwhelmed by the end of the week. I always end my week feeling like I'm behind on things or disappointed that I didn't workout, eat homemade meals, get on a good schedule, or working on my hobbies. It's a really upsetting cycle where I just can not seem to hold myself accountable. The issue I run into is that all of my "problems" compound on each other and I am so confused as to how to start. If I don't wake up on time, I don't do any exercise, which leads to me eating poorly, which leads to me feeling fatigued and exhausted and unhealthy, which leads to me sleeping in, which leads me to stay up later- except im mentally drained so im not doing anything with those hours... then the cycle repeats.
Help me get my life in order please!!!
TLDR; I have no clue where to start in order to get my life in order. I WANT to be productive and organized.

I had a four year old gorgeous longhaired cat. She was a foster fail and I really felt like we were soul mates and life partners. I took her to the emergency vet for what I thought was a very treatable condition--it turns out it was cancer. I was not prepared to put my baby down, but wound up making that choice because I just did not see any way where she could live a good life after this. It was incredibly sad and I was an absolute wreck in the vet hospital making this decision at 4AM.
I have so many doubts and regrets. And it is so so hard coming back home without her here. Everything in my home reminds me of her. I am so devastated.
Having to make the decision to euthanize a pet is hard no matter what. I found this so hard because I didn't see it coming; she was completely healthy until she started having symptoms of something I thought was very treatable. And she was so young; I had planned for so many more years with her. I feel so blindsided and like I will never get over this grief.
​

I know this is old hat to most of you but lemme share my noobish enthusiasm!
Starting in on dubai, and spent two runs doing mission stories and random cheivos and came up with an idea for SASO sniper assassin run to get the 'shoot both at once' cheivo. And to my surprise, it actually worked! It was convoluted and stupid and I'm sure others have done it faster and better, but still very gratifying to pull that off with so little map knowledge.
I started with coins and crowbar, figuring I might hit a couple of those shortcut ladders on my way (I didn't) so the rifle was stowed in the maintenance room behind the lower floor public bathroom. I had to clear out both NPCs with distractions so they wouldn't see me crowbarring my way into the maintenance area, but I got my rifle. Although in hindsight, this was the only thing I used the crowbar for the entire run. So I coulda just brought the damn rifle from the beginning. Oh well, live and learn. Or kill and learn in this case.
Rifle case in hand I made my way through the art exhibit and backstage area up to the server room, with much ridiculous suitcase tossing to get it up ladders and across ledges backstage. Once I diddled the server it's only a short distance to the meeting room where you can drill both targets with once shot in the quiet and seclusion of the locked down room. I had to knock out about 6 people to pull it off, and the suitcase tossing got a bit stupid but it was fun.
In hindsight I could have just unpacked and carried the damn thing since everywhere I went from the backstage area onward was trespassing anyway. I suppose on the upside it enabled me to pack my rifle back up and take it home with me. Call my oldschool but I like doing that.

I fucked my cats dogs hamster in the snail style and it got pregnant. But it turned out the baby was a lizard. I thought he cheated on me. And I put his dick in to a microwave and it exploded making him tranc. And I don't support LGBTQAJFJEVEHWHVSVS. So I fucked him to death. Only to realize it was my grandma. And I was doing all this in my sleep. My grandma is currently in the hospital because of aids and stage 4 cancer and my parents are disowning me because of my act. Pls understand what I'm going through and support me❤️❤️❤️.

So in the end, after all the fiery hell he caught from the golfing world including most of you, it was Greg Norman who was really the one taking care of the players’ interests. He knew full well what a vile machine the PGA was and he broke them.
If you don’t think this week’s outcome was the intent of the LIV in the first place then you’re as stupid as you look. Once again, Greg is the visionary he’s always been in golf. He was prepared to sacrifice his image for the greater good. Sure, he got paid well for it, but that’s also part of his genius. To most sports stars I’ve associated with, nothing matters more to them than their image. I take my hat off to Greg for his capacity to make such a calculated risk. In aussie parlance, ‘good on ya mate. You’re a bloody ripper’!!

Hey all, I posted this over on the Elite Dangerous subreddit and a few people told me to post here as well.
As the title says, I currently use a Thrustmaster T.Flight Hotas X that I got a long time ago as my budget entry. I love playing ED in VR, it's one of the best experiences I've had in 30 years of gaming.
However, I've found after enough playtime that I want more controls. More switches, buttons, hats, all sorts. I really want to make the ship feel like mine.
I don't know if that means a new Hotas, or some kind of auxiliary device for extra buttons. I currently do not have enough inputs for all the bindings I want, so I rely on voice attack. I liked VA at first but it's got cumbersome and in reality I'd love to play without it. It was novel and immersive for a while but quickly became a point of frustration, missed/incorrect inputs, out of sync VA to ED state, etc...
I don't really have a budget but don't want to go crazy. I guess if I had to put a number, my highest 'comfortable' is a total of around £400 ($500), but ideally less.
I don't really like the idea of HOSAS, as there's something I really enjoy about the Throttle.
Looking around, the Logitech x56 looked really cool but it seems to have a lot of hate for quality in the long run. I see a lot of people mention the VKB Gladiator but that appears to be just a stick, so unsure what throttle to pair it with?
I have a lot of desk space and options to build my own mount/rig as I'm pretty crafty and built my own desk with gaming/extending in mind.