#world final

[ewanspence]

Nine darter is on, and another nine darter. 80 seconds of literal Magic Darts

[myepisodecalendar]

World of Dance Season 3 - Episode 12: World Final AirDate: May 5th, 2019, 08:00 PM

[fullcourt21nyc]

TORONTO’S MANNY CAMPBELL WINS THE 2018 ALL WORLD FINAL

Toronto’s Manny Campbell aka “Oh Canada!,” who had come in second place the last two years in a row, finally secured the 2018 Full Court 21 All World Final crown Tuesday August 21, leaving behind qualifiers from NYC, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Halifax, Toronto, Chicago, LA, Chicago, and Japan . . .

Earlier in the evening, the NYC Final featured 2013 NYC Champ Matt Thomas aka “Viva Las Vegas,” who had also won the All World Final crown in 2016 (and used the exclusive Full Court 21 rule of NO OUTS to his advantage) . . .

2014 NYC Champ Tyson Hartnett aka “Colones Saunders” . . .

And 2017 NYC Champ Philip Thomas aka “The Af-Am Professor” . . .

But it was newcomer Anthony Aaraon aka “Super Ant” out of Brooklyn who would claim the NYC title and advance to the All World Final later that evening.

Aaron was joined in the Final by the 2018 NYC HS Division Champ Kai Burridge aka “The Brownstone” . . .

Many on the sidelines were saying that this summer’s HS competition was the best it has been since Full Court 21 started in 2013 . . .

The 2018 NYC Women’s Final featured stacked comp, fueled by the top players from Amber Batchelor’s Ladies Who Hoop tournament like LWH MVP Naya Williams aka “Naya Buckets” and LWH Finals MVP Ashley Pledger aka “Splashley” . . .

The crown went to Shamar Stewartson who whip whopped her defenders with her handle and quickly became the crowd favorite standing at five feet tall . . .

Shout out to 2015 NYC Final Women’s Champ Monet Sealy (right) who won Sneaker of the Week props every time she suited up this summer!

Props to all the international qualifiers for coming to NYC to compete . . .

Gratitude to Will Strickland (pictured below), Director of Canada Operations, and Bang Lee, Director of Asia Operations, for helping to organize Qualifiers in a record 17 international cities this summer. Full Court 21 will continue to expand!

Can’t forget the Full Court 21 NYC staff and of course the most important people at the court--the audience!

The 2018 Full Court 21 All World Final was made possible with the support of official uniform provider Shirts & Skins plus official marketing partners Rock Rubber 45s, Doin’ It In The Park, and Mpowerd, who donated mobile solar powered light kits to local Qualifiers in LA, Philadelphia and Brooklyn!

Special thanks to the Brooklyn Nets for being the official sponsor of the first ever Full Court 21 Brooklyn Qualifier on July 17!

Until the Summer of 2019 . . .

Photos: Imani Vidal for Insyte Photography

[myepisodecalendar]

World of Dance Season 2 - Episode 16: World Final AirDate: September 12nd, 2018, 08:00 PM

[myepisodecalendar]

World of Dance Season 1 - Episode 10: World Final AirDate: August 8th, 2017, 10:00 PM

[suppliertynews]

The Street Fighter 5 World Final is a win for eSports and the LGBT community #sfv

The eSports industry is a growing multi million dollar industry.  "Earlier this year at the Staples Centre in Los Angeles, a crowd of 20,000 gathered to watch the 2016 championship final of League of Legends, the widest played video game in the world. The winners of that event, the drearily named SK Telecom (the team is backed by the South Korean wireless telecommunications operator) took home a $2m purse."  In addition, just last year "Activision, the publisher of Call of Duty, created a dedicated eSports division headed up by Steve Bornstein, the former head of ESPN and the NFL Network. Later in the year, rival Electronic Arts – publisher of the Battlefield series – announced The EA Competitive Gaming Division."

With many corporations like Coca Cola, Samsung, Nissan and Red Bull getting in on the growing industry, Capcom is looking to take full advantage of the access marketing dollars.  Capcom, the creator of the popular Street Fighter series, held it's 2016 Capcom Cup in Anaheim, California, a two day event highlighting the best Street Fighter 5 players from around the world.  

This year, Ricki Ortiz was one of two Americans to reach the final day along with six others hailing from Japan, Street Fighter's origination.  As Ortiz made her way to the finals (along with her American counterpart Du Dang), she was also making history solidifying herself as one of the top Street Fighter 5 players in the world.  In a sport where it's hard for women to be considered serious threats for championship titles, it's even harder when you're transgender.  

The Capcom Cup was broadcast through ESPN and streamed on Twitch to over 100,000 spectators.  While many focused on Du Dang's gaming prowess, some online audience members choose to comment on Ortiz's appearance.  Despite the distractions, Ortiz was able to concentrate and give a great showing.  Unfortunately she was not able to win the entire event, but finished second overall, taking home $60,000.  Du Dang the overall tournament winner took home $230,000.

As eSports continues to grow, the audience and unfortunate distractions will only increase.  But Ortiz is more worried about the comments of her age.  At 32, she's one of the older players in Street Fighter 5 industry.  In the end, Ortiz can only prepare herself for what she knows.

"People always ask me: what are you going to do when you’re 50,” she says. “Won’t you have bad reactions or arthritis? I say to them, we’ll see – eSports hasn’t been around long enough for players to compete at an older age. Nobody knows what will happen.”

Regardless, the history Ortiz is meaning is a win for eSports, and a win for the LGBT community.

The Guardian

[redpixel]

This is taisuke last chance to compete for the champion ship this year. He was in the finals twice, hopefully he goes out with a bang.