thiago_simoes

Yup. I'd say Zanetti, De Luna and Molinari are one step ahead in the still rings. Maybe Caio Souza can spoil someone's party, or even Daniel Villafañe, but I wouldn't bet on it.

I don't, but the issue here is a lot more complicated. I don't exactly root for Palestine, but I support their right to exist as a nation. The reason I mentioned Palestine is because I never, ever, root for Israel, especially in gymnastics. From what I've read, judges (or whoever is responsible for declaring the death penalty) attribute nonexistent crimes to LGBT people so they can be killed. I wouldn't doubt it. Forging a murder, rape or any other serious crime just to kill someone for being gay is something I honestly expect from Iranian justice system. This is not to say Brazil is a safe haven for LGBT+ people. On the contrary: Brazil is the number 1 country in the world when it comes to murders of LGBT+ people. Protestantism in Brazil is getting stronger and stronger, and Brazilian Protestantism is as dangerous to LGBT+ people as any other radical religion.

Mostly Arabic-speaking nations thanks to religious issues, of course, though some nations in the Caribbean are also part of this list. But since the thread is about what nations we root for, there's no point in listing other nations for which I'll never root for.

Japan. I'm a Japanophile: I love the culture, the language (I've taken classes for three years), the cuisine, and of course I love video games (total Sega fanboy). Not really a fan of anime and manga, though I've been a fan of Saint Seiya/The Knights of Zodiac since I was a child. I also love it when smaller nations get medals in gymnastics. My current profile pic also shows support for Palestine, so it's easy to assume which country I'm never rooting for. Also, I don't ever root for Iran, though the Iranians here are great people and I really enjoy Iranian films. But as a gay man I can never root for a country where gay people are killed by the government.

[hide] Preliminary RoundJune 7th - June 20th, 2019 24 Nations, 6 Groups, the 1st and 2nd Nations from each Group and 6 best 3rd ranked Teams among all Groups will qualify for the Round of 16 Group A Date & Time (GMT +2) Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 June 7th 2019, h. 21:00 France 3 0 South Korea June 8th 2019, h. 21:00 Norway 2 1 Nigeria June 12th 2019, h. 15:00 Nigeria 1 1 South Korea June 12th 2019, h. 21:00 France 3 2 Norway June 17th 2019, h. 21:00 Nigeria 0 2 France June 17th 2019, h. 21:00 South Korea 1 2 Norway Group B Date & Time (GMT +2) Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 June 8th 2019, h. 15:00 Germany 2 2 China June 8th 2019, h. 18:00 Spain 1 0 South Africa June 12th 2019, h. 18:00 Germany 3 1 Spain June 13th 2019, h. 21:00 South Africa 2 0 China June 17th 2019, h. 18:00 South Africa 0 1 Germany June 17th 2019, h. 18:00 China 1 0 Spain Group C Date & Time (GMT +2) Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 June 9th 2019, h. 13:00 Australia 4 0 Italy June 9th 2019, h. 15:30 Brazil 3 0 Jamaica June 13th 2019, h. 18:00 Australia 2 3 Brazil June 14th 2019, h. 18:00 Jamaica 2 1 Italy June 18th 2019, h. 21:00 Jamaica 0 5 Australia June 18th 2019, h. 21:00 Italy 1 3 Brazil Group D Date & Time (GMT +2) Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 June 9th 2019, h. 18:00 England 0 0 Scotland June 10th 2019, h. 18:00 Argentina 0 3 Japan June 14th 2019, h. 15:00 Japan 2 0 Scotland June 14th 2019, h. 21:00 England 1 0 Argentina June 19th 2019, h. 21:00 Japan 3 1 England June 19th 2019, h. 21:00 Scotland 1 1 Argentina Group E Date & Time (GMT +2) Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 June 10th 2019, h. 21:00 Canada 2 1 Cameroon June 11th 2019, h. 15:00 New Zealand 0 3 Netherlands June 15th 2019, h. 15:00 Netherlands 1 2 Cameroon June 15th 2019, h. 21:00 Canada 2 1 New Zealand June 20th 2019, h. 18:00 Netherlands 1 1 Canada June 20th 2019, h. 18:00 Cameroon 3 1 New Zealand Group F Date & Time (GMT +2) Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 June 11th 2019, h. 18:00 Chile 1 4 Sweden June 11th 2019, h. 21:00 United States 6 0 Thailand June 16th 2019, h. 15:00 Sweden 4 0 Thailand June 16th 2019, h. 18:00 United States 3 0 Chile June 20th 2019, h. 21:00 Sweden 2 2 United States June 20th 2019, h. 21:00 Thailand 0 3 Chile [/hide]

Well, it works for me. I can watch a sevens match without losing interest, while I can't stand XV.

Many bad gymnasts and a handful of very good ones.

No Marta Pihan. Noooo.

I'm only interested in gymnastics events, of course, but I'm still baffled at the choices of the medal events. Only mixed pairs and women's group in acrobatic gymnastics? Why? Synchronized trampoline? A mixed group event in aerobic gymnastics, but no individual men's and women's events? Insane. Artistic and rhythmic gymnastics are not much better, either. One gymnast per nation, six nations in finals. This is just ridiculous. I like the idea of giving a bigger opportunity for smaller nations to get medals, but seriously, at least leave eight gymnasts in finals. I can't forget how dreadful it was to see Iridon from Romania winning a medal on the uneven bars after a fall. She's terrible on this apparatus, so how the hell did she win a medal? Even I can't get too excited about this event, honestly.

How is this possible? Colombia will probably not win any gold medals in gymnastics, they have zero chances in swimming and I don't think they will earn more than one gold medal in judo. Judo, gymnastics and swimming alone could give up to 10 gold medals to Canada, if everything goes well.

I've never had interest because it takes too long. The idea is excellent, but I feel like everything is overthought: very long, potentially tedious and laborious for everybody involved. Maybe if we had a shorter, smaller event, with a less serious tone overall, it would be nice. This is why I proposed the World Tour, so we could just listen to the songs and have fun with it.

I would like to propose something like a "World Tour" TISC series. My proposal is to hold different TISC events through the year, divided by continents or zones, with members from different nations picking up songs from smaller nations to represent. For example, let's suppose we create "TISC South America", and members from Argentina, Brazil, Guyana, Chile and Uruguay (the ones I remember are part of the forum) pick their songs, while other members act as an "honorary" citizens from the other nations and choose one song from this country for the contest. Then everybody involved in the contest vote and results are published on a set date. No need to make it a big event, just publish it and that's it. This way we'd be able to listen to songs from the whole world and maybe we'd get to know more about other countries.

Wow! What about the Faroe Islands? They are part of the European Games, but not parte of the GSSE yet.

Yes, it's all about Slovenia and Croatia. Slovenia was very unfairly treated by FIG, especially in 2007 when Pegan should have qualified to the Olympic Games, but the stupid rules didn't let him. At the World Championships, the only Serbian gymnast to win a medal was Tereza Kočiš, in 1950, but of course the medal was credited to Yugoslavia. After a quick research some time ago, I discovered that a website credited a medal for Serbia at the 1911 World Championships, but later I discovered that official FIG documents credit the medal as a medal for Yugoslavia. The nation did not even exist at the time, but FIG is so crazy they officially consider it did.

Yes, you are right, but I'd say the level was still quite decent. Some of the World Cup events are not exactly stellar, but they're all official FIG events, so it's prestigious to earn a medal. Countries like Singapore, with medals at the Commonwealth Games, have never won a medal at the World Cup series, so this is still a big achievement for Paunovic.

Milos Paunovic, on vault. You can check the results here.

Now that the Faroe Islands can take part at the European Games, I hope they get accepted at the Small States too. If anything, this means more chances for gymnastics events. Surprisingly, the Faroe Islands do have a gymnastics team, and they even got a silver medal at the Northern European Gymnastics Championships once. Also, I'm a little bit disappointed because Montenegro decided not to host rhythmic gymnastics events, but I understand why. Montenegro sent a gymnast to the 2019 European Championships but she finished last in every piece of apparatus, unfortunately. Besides Montenegro, only Cyprus, Luxembourg and Andorra sent gymnasts to the Europeans. To top it off, RG has only been staged once at the GSSE: in 2009, when Cyprus, San Marino and, surprisingly, Andorra got medals.

They definitely do. Scores in the last subdivision are usually a couple of tenths higher than they should be. In artistic gymnastics no one wants to go first.

Hard to say until we have the nominative list. On the women's side, I believe Brazil, Canada and the US will take all the medals. The only exception could be on vault, where Alexa Moreno from Mexico has the potential to be a medalist. Maybe Cuba can be a surprise too, but they don't send their gymnasts to big competitions before the Pan Ams, so it's very hard to predict how they will perform. On the men's side things are a lot more unpredictable. Jossimar Calvo (Colombia) and Manrique Larduet (Cuba) did not look too hot last year, and there's a chance they have not recovered their best form. The Dominican Republic, Brazil, United States, Mexico, Canada, Cuba, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Chile and Argentina all have chances of earning medals. Even Peru and Uruguay have outside chances. Canada's best chance of a gold medal is on the balance beam, or maybe all-around. Padurariu is looking great! On vault, it will be a tight battle between Canada, Brazil and the US for gold, with Alexa Moreno as a dark horse, though I don't believe she will win a medal if everybody hits, unless she upgrades one of her vaults. I'm very excited about what the Brazilians can achieve. I might be a bit too optimistic, but I would say that Rebeca Andrade will walk away with at least one gold medal. Last time a Brazilian girl got a gold medal was in 2007, and before that only in 1991.

Yes! I'm so excited! My top three wishes this year are: 1) a medal for Federico Molinari, 2) Brazil women's team with a gold medal (very hard, but not impossible), 3) at least one major upset, like Ana Sofia Porras winning beam in 2011 and Jorge Vega winning floor in 2015; my bet for 2019 is Audrys Nin Reyes winning vault, but let's see.

Well, take 3D Dot Game Heroes: that is simplicity. Minecraft is just plain ugly.

Exactly! The meeting is laughable and this is the final nail in the coffin of this series. It's like they had no other options: Jon was back to the Nightwatch, Arya decided to go away (maybe because they want to create a spin-off show about her, so of course she could not be the queen), Sansa ended up as the queen of the North, Robb is long dead, so... only Bran remains and they gave him the most important position in the end even though he did nothing the whole show.

Here you go.

Great job! Congratulations! I didn't watch the TV series, but I've read some of the books and I decided to get all of the spoilers now. The conclusion is far from what I was expecting and my favorite character in the book series is now the character I hate the most. I'm not sure I'll be able to read the remaining books now, unless major changes are made to the conclusion of the plot.

So, routines that were badly planned? Not a big surprise. Italy started to take part at the big events too late this year. Not as late as, say, Brazil, but still quite late. I hope they regain confidence for the next stages of the World Challenge Cup series and, especially, the World Championships.