Werloc

Well, I did say for the first time in forever. Vietnam's participation seems ages ago.

This is no longer a committee, but a full on government.

The semi-finals are just a figment of your imagination, they were never in the rule book, we don't talk about it. Although, it would make it a bit easier for me, since I'm having a very hard time as it is awarding only a set of twelve points between 40+ countries, even though it's a possibility that there would be possible bitterness related to the draws of semi-finals and of course those, that would not qualify. Edit: Like, there is nothing worse in this world than Eurovision fans on Youtube, I'm pretty glad that TISC is mostly a friendly environment.

Well, with the song and voting deadlines still to come, we're still not out the water yet, sadly

If that were to happen, I think that @OlympicIRL would have to double down with the help on the templates To some a dream, to others, a nightmare

Still, to this day, my biggest heartbreak is Switzerland. Was a very nice, friendly user, had her on Facebook even. Their song that year was the best 12 points that I have awarded throughout all of the TISC's and I keep listening to it on Spotify to this day.

I remember him always picking songs that were by Eddy Grant, I guess he stopped participating, because all of the hit songs were used

There's also the user from Montenegro that after a couple of years of bad results said that he will stop participating in TISC and hasn't registered to this day. Edit: and I think that the Czech Republic is missing a few now?

@dezbee2008 Congratulations for not being the last country alphabetically for the first time in forever #UruguayGoesForTheSave

Estonia and Uruguay on the same day?????? That's amazing news! @Herki 2014 was the only year when all three Baltic countries participated, but after that we haven't seen neither Latvia, nor Estonia in our contests, so it is pretty nice to get such a comeback after all this time. Other pretty old comebacks would include countries like Norway, Vietnam, that we haven't seen from the very first editions. Sweden and Switzerland have been missing for a very long while, Australia, can't recall others, because I don't have my spreadsheet in front of me.

LITHUANIA So, I have decided to go with the risky route and honestly, having participated in TISC so many years, I kind of have the feeling from which users I can expect some points, because they find this style of music fairly appealing (or at least I'm lead to believe they do). It's a very old song, like, I was not even born kind of old, by a very famous (at that time) band FOJE and yes, it's the third time Lithuania decides to compete with a song in Lithuanian (The lyrics, of course, translated below by me and I advise you to read them along with the song), as of now, it seems to work out 50% of the time, so let's see if my feeling to pick this song is going to be justified in the months to come. FOJE - Kitoks Pasaulis (A Different World) Verse 1 Žiūri aplink, stebiesi viskuo, (You're looking around, surprised by everything) Daiktus matai savo šviesoj. (You see all of the stuff in your own light) (own light = from your perspective) O jeigu viskas yra ne taip (But what if everything is not how you perceive it?) Ir tu pasaulį regi atvirkščiai? (And you're seeing the world the wrong way?) (differently from everyone else) Chorus: Galbūt ne garsas skamba tyloj, o tyla garse. (Perhaps it's not the sound that is playing in the silence, but the silence playing in the sound) Ką apie tylą žinome mes? (What do we even know about silence?) Galbūt ne šviesos žiba tamsoj, o tamsa jose. (Perhaps it's not the lights that are shining in the dark, but the dark is shining in the lights) Kiek dar nedaug suprantame mes. (There is so much that we don't understand) Verse 2 Žiūri aplink, viskas tvarkoj, (You're looking around and everything seems fine) O ar žinai, kas bus rytoj? (But do you have any idea on what is going to happen tomorrow?) O jei pasaulis apsivers? (What if the world turns upside down?) Kitom akim žiūrėti privers. (Will force you to witness everything through different eyes) Chorus: Galbūt ne garsas skambės tyloj, o tyla garse. (Perhaps it's not the sound that will play in the silence, but the silence will play in the sound) Ką apie tylą žinome mes? (What do we even know about silence?) Galbūt ne šviesos žibės tamsoj, o tamsa jose. (Perhaps it's not the lights that will shine in the darkness, but the darkness will shine in the lights) Kiek dar nedaug suprantame mes. (There is so much that we don't understand) Verse 3 Tu pabandyk pasižiūrėt (You should try looking around) Gal kiek netaip, gal kiek kitaip. (Perhaps not like that, perhaps a little bit differently) Tikiu, paprasti daiktai apsivers, (I believe that the simplest of things will turn upside down) Ką nors neregėto ir naujo atvers. (They will open up something new that you have never seen before) Chorus 2x

Now the real question is if I want to continue with the good results and pick a song that I think would do well here or pick a song that could be a candidate for last place

This is what I'm talking about! Everyone is already posting songs and I had no clue it was happening. The only thing that reminded me to check Totallympics today is when I saw a news article of Sagan winning gold and I thought "hey hckosice must be happy"

Lithuania will be continuing the tradition of participating in TISC Edit: You'll just have to keep reminding me and tagging me before the major deadlines, because I'm not as confident in my abilities to keep track of things at the moment.

If you knew what a trainwreck my life is at this moment, you wouldn't be that shocked

What a twist

Well, a song in Lithuanian was already present in two editions before It would be disappointing if you participated in them and didn't hear our language

Well, Israel did mention during last years voting that sadly they won't be coming back to Eurovision and they thanked for all of the wonderful years in Eurovision. Also, did you place that Moroccan flag by accident? What's the most surprising is that there's no news from Bulgaria as they've been doing very well these past editions.

I think I might break the Lithuanian top 10 streak by choosing an old song in Lithuanian, which will take 30th place

Yey, we're out Thought we'd go out against Croatia though. (I'm just a simple person that hates basketball in a country where basketball is everything)

The level in these championships seems so low, we somehow managed to get 1st place after dropping a game against Georgia. Many of the top teams are playing worse than expected, perhaps some things will change during the quarters/semi's, but it seems that everyone can drop a game to anyone, with Spain clearly ahead, followed by Slovenia/Croatia and perhaps someone from group D.

Any reason why Greece is underperforming in this tournament?

I guess I would be ok with only one boat per country during the Olympics, it's just a bit disappointing that you can only enter 1 during the World Championships, World Cup events, Continental Championships etc. Many athletes are left on the sidelines, because they can't get to these events and are forced to form 4's / 8's in Rowing if they ever want to compete. It's a huge problem here in Lithuania for our canoe slalom and rowing, since most of our athletes are always capable enough to reach finals/semi-finals in the most important competitions, a few of the athletes that can't beat them and the younger generation pretty much doesn't get to compete anywhere for the full season and that leaves the teams with no reserve, because there's a certain amount of sideline time that a person can take before calling it quits.

I know it's far-fetched, but a man can hope.

Well, we've seen Laura work around 80-90 second disadvantages before the last discipline, perhaps she'll show her magic again.