NearPup

Do you have a link?

I don't know anything about Arena of Valor, Clash Royale or PES eSports so I can't comment on those. For Hearthstone, Tredsred (the Japanese player) is fine but none of the players are really top tier. It's disappointing because China and South Korea have some of the best players in the world and neither qualified. For League of Legends, watch out for the South Korean team. Those players are good. Ruler and Peanut are world champions, Faker is a multiple time world champion and the consensus best player of all times, and both other players are strong. China and Taiwan have very strong teams too, with Vietnam also having a good team. But just like in the professional tournaments South Korea should be dominant. Sadly the groups are very imbalanced, with only two of China, South Korea and Vietnam able to reach the semi-finals. For the StarCraft II tournament we have Maru from South Korea, one of the best player of all times, and we have a bunch of also-rans. The League of Legends tournament is probably the only one really worth following. I don't think eSports should be part of the summer Olympics or traditional multi-sport events, but I also don't think it's an audience that can be ignored by the IOC, especially because it isn't the same audience as traditional sports. I think it would make a lot of sense to establish an Olympics and regional games for eSports and other mind sports (like chess and go). Edit: wow, who's bright idea was it to include Arena of Valor?

After watching The International all day I'm kind of all esports-ed out.

If that joke of a sport that is baseball5 ever makes it to the Olympics I am done.

Does winter sports count? Kelly Sildaru is 16. She could have won two gold medals in Pyeongchang if she didn’t get injured during the qualification period. If she is healthy in 2022 or 2026 she will be a serious gold medal threat in the women’s ski slopestyle, half-pipe and big air.

Synchronized Swimming is the most endangered discipline in all the Olympics IMO. You get rid of it, you add two women’s water polo teams and just like that aquatics is gender neutral and you reduced aquatics’ overall allocation by about 80 quotas.

Baseball is just not a good fit for the Olympics. The roster size is huge (24, no other team sports have more than 18 players per team), the venues are specialized, and the games are very high varience and so dependent on the pitching rotation. That and as long as MLB players aren’t competing Olympic baseball is a joke.

The second most popular team sport in the world, and growing fast? Fat chance, especially as long as the NBA allows it’s players to attend.

Ya, I think this tornament has shown that the Americas very much deserve 3 of the 6 quotas.

Loser's Semifinals: 12 - 1 (F/4) The mercy rule was invoked in the match between Canada and Australia after only four innings. Australia ended up using four pitchers in the match. Canada will face the loser of vs. in the loser's finals for a spot in the Grand Finals. Additionally, either or will grab an Olympic quota.

Loser's Quarterfinals: 1 - 2 10 - 4 Currently, Canada least Australia 12-0 (!!!!!) in the top of the third (!!!!!!!) inning of the loser's semifinals. So it looks like the medals will go to Japan, the USA and Canada in some order.

Loser's Quarterfinals Result: 1 - 0 (F/9) 8 - 1 (F/5) Extremely close match between Mexico and Italy, very good pitcher's duel. Took until the fourth extra half inning until anyone scored (which is pretty unusual given the International extra inning rules). Canada, meanwhile, had a very strong showing against the Netherlands. That match ended on a walk-off two run error. The Dutch could have kept the match much closer if it wasn't for some sloppy fielding. Coming up are the Winner's Semifinals: vs vs

Has won it’s first two quotas for Tokyo 2020, both in Sailing: Tom Ramshaw won the quota for the Fin class and Sarah Douglas won the quota for the Laser Radial class.

Thanks, the new static flags look much nicer, especially on mobile

For sporting purposes they basically are. Politically Guadeloupe is very much part of Europe (it’s part of the EU, votes in French election and is filled with French citizens).

So, taking this thread somewhat seriously: Alpine Skiing: a team speed event. Something a bit like the luge relay, where once a team member reaches the finish line their teamare gets released from the start gate. Biathlon: make the current sprint purely a qualification race for the pursuit and a super sprint. Keep pursuit the same, and have the top 30 in the sprint race in a shorten mass start with four shooting legs. Bobsleigh: a team event (one monobob, one two-man, one two-woman, one four-man) Cross Country Skiing: an uphill event. Just literally climbing the alpine skiing downhill course. Luge: women’s doubles (obligatory because it doesn’t exist yet) Freestyle Skiing: a team dual moguls event. Eight teams of 3 (with a sub), knockout format, each match consists of 3 dual moguls run (one per athlete). Freestyle Skiing: a rail jam type event. Freestyle Skiing: a men’s and a women’s team ski cross event (none of that mixed snowboardcross bs) Skeleton: team event (two man, two woman) Snowbording: a Super-G Snowboarding: a rail jam event Now, the semi-serious IOC approved mixed events: Mixed Cross Country relay Mixed Cross Country team sprint Mixed Nordic Combined relay Mixed Nordic Combined team sprint Mixed Freestyle Skiing Moguls (same bullshit format as the mixed aerials team event) For both freestyle skiing and snowboarding: Mixed big air team event, mixed half-pipe team event and mixed slopestyle team event (2 men and 2 women get 2 runs each, best run from each athlete count, 8 teams start, 5 make it to the finals, unlimited subs between qualifications and the finals, so you get to give eight gold medals if you use all your subs ). I just made up *six* mixed team events that are better than the mixed aerials team event in one go. Call me, Bach. The above mixed team events for the rail jam, too. A mixed team relay in *long track* speed skating, because at this point why not? You know what else you can do in a mixed format? A mixed team sprint and a mixed team pursuit in speed skating. Mixed 3x3 ice hockey.

Tokyo (Kasumigaseki Country Club), Paris (Golf National) and Los Angeles (Riviera Country Club) are all using existing venues, and they all had multiple potential venues available to them. Frankly, the case for keeping golf in the Olympics is precisely that it isn’t a very expensive sport to stage if a venue already exists, which is the case in almost every major world city. Rio was very much the exception, not the norm.

has a slight chance. But Italy and the Netherlands are indeed quite clearly the best two teams in Europe. If we're going by current form Italy appears quite a bit stronger.

Just wanting to chime in (I *am* a US resident ) to thank Rdbc for the write ups. They are quite good.

That's a pretty odd record.

EVO is this week-end (broadcasted on Twitch). It's the biggest fighting game event in the world, with over 10,000 entrants over about 8 games. It's a fun event, and doesn't require a ton of knowledge of the games to enjoy.

Rough day for the Italian team, first the loss in extra innings against Australia (a game they would have won if not for an error), then a 1 run loss against Canada. Still, I think they are proving to be the best European team.

Taiwan managed to beat South Africa by 21 runs to 0 thanks to a thirteen run top of the 4th inning. That's a very unusual score given the mercy rule xD

Yes, but a new IF should be established and major reforms need to be implemented. This can’t be done in time for 2020 but should be done for 2024.

You know, the more I think about 3x3's qualification system, the more baffled I am by it. It's just so ******* ridiculous and completely unfit for the Olympics.