How to Play Better Post-Flop Poker

Going through old issues of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter and posting highlights in my own words. For anyone interested, I highly recommend signing up for the actual site at f4wonline and checking out the full archives.
PREVIOUSLY:


1-7-2002	1-14-2002	1-21-2002	1-28-2002
2-4-2002	2-11-2002	2-18-2002	2-25-2002
3-4-2002	3-11-2002	3-18-2002	3-25-2002
4-1-2002	4-8-2002	4-15-2002	4-22-2002
4-29-2002	5-6-2002	5-13-2002	5-20-2002
5-27-2002	6-3-2002	6-10-2002

PROGRAMMING NOTE: Some of you may have missed last week's post because I didn't do it on Wednesday. Ended up posting it Thursday instead, so it's there in the archives below if you missed it. I know this 2002 series of Rewinds doesn't really have the momentum or appeal that it had back when I was posting them 3 times a week for years on end. Sorry about that, like I said before, I just decided to post these on a whim when the virus started and didn't really prepare for it so it's all kinda haphazard. But just didn't want anyone to miss the one from last week if it flew under the radar.

Steve Austin walked out of WWE this week and threw everything into upheaval. As a result, Raw featured Vince McMahon challenging Ric Flair to a match for ownership of the entire company. It was the ultimate final blow-off to a huge long-term angle, and they did it with only 2 hours of build-up. With Vince now in charge of both shows, questions are swirling about whether this spells the end of the brand split, only a few months in. The reason this all happened is because, only 6 hours before Raw went on the air, Steve Austin showed up to the arena and found out he was scheduled to wrestle (and Dave thinks put over, though he hasn't confirmed that yet) Brock Lesner. Dave immediately points out the obvious, that an Austin vs. Lesnar match is something you should build up ahead of time, not throw it on free TV with no build up at all. Plus, he's still so new, he's incredibly green, and he's spent the last few months selling way too much for people like the Hardyz and Bubba Ray Dudley. Hell, before he debuted in WWE, he wasn't even the most over guy in OVW. He's nowhere near the level you'd expect for him to be winning matches with Steve Austin un-hyped on free TV. In fact, Lesnar should probably go through just about everyone else on the roster before putting him against Austin. That's a potential Wrestlemania-level match and Dave seems befuddled that they would just book it for Raw like this.
Apparently Austin felt the same way because he and his wife Debra left the building and flew home before Vince McMahon even arrived to the arena, the second time since Wrestlemania that he has walked out on the company. A source who was there when McMahon learned of the news said that, for the first time anyone could remember, Vince seemed to drop his "game face" and there seemed to be genuine panic about what to do. Rock has one foot out the door to Hollywood. Undertaker and Triple H are banged up and won't be around forever (bet). Business is already collapsing. And now the biggest star the company's ever had just walked out the door. Last time Austin walked out after Wrestlemania, he was only away for 2 weeks. This time, there's a feeling it could be much longer. Those close to Austin say he's been unhappy for months and this decision wasn't anything specifically to do with the Lesnar match. That just happened to be the final straw. Austin made news last week when he went on the WWE's Byte This show and voiced his frustrations with the company's creative direction. Plans had been put into motion over the last couple weeks for Austin to feud with Eddie Guerrero and then Chris Benoit, which he was happy about (he was enjoying his recent house show matches with Eddie and Benoit is one of Austin's favorite opponents) but that's out the window now. Austin and Vince McMahon reportedly haven't been on good terms for several months now and word is the night before Raw, the two of them had a very heated conversation over the phone that left Austin pissed off and frustrated even before this went down.
And that's the deal on Austin. He has more money than he'll ever be able to spend and doesn't have any financial need to wrestle. He only does so because he enjoys it. And if he doesn't enjoy it anymore, then by all means, it's his right to leave and he doesn't owe the business anything if he wants to hang up the boots. But Dave does feel like Austin owes WWE at least a few weeks to write him out of storylines since he's such an important piece of the company. Walking out from a live TV taping is unprofessional and it leaves guys like Guerrero and Benoit left hanging, thus screwing up their future plans and money-making potential too (yeah, that's something that doesn't get talked about much. Austin walking out fucked Guerrero over pretty hard here. It would take him another 2 years to get back into that main event scene that he would have been involved in here). That being said, pretty much everyone in the locker room sympathizes with Austin and agrees with his complaints about the creative direction of the company, but not many of them were defending the way he walked out. And given that this is the second time he's done it, the feeling is he shouldn't be allowed back without facing some actual punishment this time.
So anyway, the day of Raw, they went into panic mode and had to re-write the entire show. And with the feeling Austin won't be coming back anytime soon, Vince felt they needed to do something big. So they went with blowing off the dual-owners angle in a match that was designed to turn Flair babyface again and establish Vince as the heel owner of everything. There was also discussion of turning Undertaker babyface again, since he's been getting more cheers than RVD when they work together at house shows lately but they decided against that for now (they end up doing it in a couple weeks). So now Flair has been abruptly turned back, after only turning heel a few weeks prior. The brand split may or may not be dead. And there we stand.
In what would have been a major story during any other week, DDP has officially retired from wrestling at age 46. Unfortunately, Austin's walk-out overshadowed everything. The decision on DDP's retirement was actually made by Vince McMahon and Jim Ross, who pretty much made the choice for him after they got his medical reports. DDP has been advised by multiple doctors that his spine is shot and he needs to retire. For the company's own liability, WWE decided to listen to the doctors and DDP agreed. There has been talk of finding ways for DDP to work the remainder of his contract for the company in a non-wrestling capacity. (He obviously ends up wrestling a handful of matches in the years since, but for the most part, this really was the end of DDP's in-ring career as a full-time wrestler).
There were a couple of moments on Raw this week where Shawn Michaels was cutting a promo and made a comment about Austin "losing his top spot" and another comment later about Rock "stealing Triple H's spot." A lot of people in the company backstage were upset, feeling like this was the same ol' Shawn, going into business for himself and trashing on Austin and Rock and yada yada. Not the case. Those comments were actually scripted for Shawn to say because they want to get over the idea that Shawn on the mic is a loose cannon and you never know when he might start "shooting" and say something he's not supposed to. It's all very dumb, you see. Almost like Vince Russo is coming back any day now or something.
Dave gives a big preview and rundown of the Jarrett family's new NWA-TNA promotion, which has its debut show next week on PPV. Not all cable systems are carrying it, however. Cablevision and Dish Network both declined to carry it, but DirecTV is. This cuts down on the number of available homes for the show and probably cuts 20-30% off their potential revenue. The main PPV provider in Canada, Viewer's Choice, has also declined to carry it. Steep mountain to climb here. Dave expects them to do decent numbers for their first show but predicts an XFL-like collapse after that. By week 3, Dave is scared for their chances. From here, Dave gives the whole history of other promotions who've tried to make it on PPV in the U.S., with varying degrees of success and failure. UWFI, UFC, ECW, WCW, PRIDE, etc, WWF has even toyed with similar ideas. In 1991, they did the one-off Tuesday In Texas PPV as a test to see if they could run PPVs back-to-back (Survivor Series was only the week prior) and it was a flop. The original concept for Shotgun Saturday Night was for it to be a weekly Saturday night PPV with a similar >$10 price point, but that idea got scrapped before it got off the ground and it became just another TV show. Dave doesn't think TNA is going to make it without a TV deal. This PPV exclusive plan just has too much working against it. The Jarretts have talked about the millions of disenfranchised fans that stopped watching after WCW died, and it's true. Those people are out there. But those millions of fans all checked out between 1999-2001, and TNA isn't going to win them back by using the same people and the same concepts that ran those viewers away from WCW. All your wacky booking ideas, your Vince Russos, your Jeff Jarretts as champion, bringing in guys that even WWE won't touch (Scott Hall), etc. Those are all the same things that ran away those WCW viewers. Dave just doesn't see how this experiment can work in its current form.
Vince McMahon himself was the latest guest on WWE's Byte This show and needless to say, it was interesting. Vince denied the idea that the wrestling business is "cyclical" and said it's more like a series of peaks and valleys that have slowly been trending upwards over the years. Vince also admitted WWE doesn't always make the best decisions but says their batting average is good overall. Vince also said he's proud to have the word "wrestling" in their company name, which is a pretty big about-face from all the years he's tried to publicly claim they were "sports entertainment, not wrestling." He admitted things are rough right now but said there are huge changes coming soon that will change the entire industry but wouldn't elaborate on what he had planned (I think time has proven that the answer to this was nothing whatsoever. They had no idea what they were doing during this time and were just making shit up as they went along). Vince acknowledged that Austin has been frustrated lately and said Austin is the most demanding of all the wrestlers in WWE. Vince also said he pays no attention to the internet because everyone thinks they're a booker. He also complained that it's hard to live up to people's expectations because fans all think they know everything now. Acknowledged ratings being down and played it off like, yes, WWE is sick. But it's only a cold, not pneumonia or anything, so don't panic.
More notes from Vince on Byte This because huge unbroken paragraphs suck: he hinted at producing movies starring WWE talent. Dave thinks that's a bad idea. "No Holds Barred," anyone? Criticized backyard wrestling, which Dave actually agrees with him 100% on. Was asked about bringing Vince Russo back and said he hasn't given it any thought but he has an open door policy (see you next week, Russo! Jeez, it almost makes you wonder if Vince got the idea from this interview or something). When asked about the recent Jim Cornette/Ed Ferrara incident, Vince basically seemed disinterested but said he admires Cornette's passion for wrestling but felt spitting in Ferrara's face was unprofessional. When asked about NWA-TNA, Vince said he didn't understand how they could do it without television. Trying to get people to pay $9.95 a week for a 2 hour show (a minor league product at that, because anything other than WWE is basically minor leagues at this point), when they already get Raw and Smackdown on free television. Otherwise, he said he has no opinions on it because he hasn't seen it, but Vince seems to share Dave's opinion. He doesn't see this PPV model as sustainable and doesn't seem particularly threatened by it.
NJPW's latest Best of the Super Juniors tournament is in the books and was a disappointment, just like everything else in NJPW lately. Koji Kanemoto won a pretty boring tournament. There was only one new name involved, which was Michinoku Pro wrestler Curry Man (Christopher Daniels under a mask). He's talented and charismatic but he's not even that big a star in Michinoku Pro, much less to the NJPW audience. Otherwise, it was more of the same, with no real notable matches.
Zero-1 in Japan is hoping to put together a working relationship with NWA-TNA. Specifically, they're hoping they can do a Shinya Hashimoto vs. Ken Shamrock feud, perhaps over the NWA title.
While training for his comeback, Kenta Kobashi messed up his shoulder doing bench presses, because of course he did. Doctors have told him not to return too soon but he still plans to be back in the ring by next month. Because of course he does.
NJPW's latest show at Budokan Hall was a disaster. From photos Dave saw, he figures there couldn't have been more than 3,500 fans in the building. Even at its weakest after the NOAH exodus, AJPW never fell below 7,000 at Budokan and this show looked to be half that. It's likely the smallest crowd NJPW has ever drawn to that arena. The whole show was said to be terrible because of the depressing atmosphere of a building that was 2/3 empty.
This week's World Cup game between Japan and Russia did a 66.1 TV rating, making it the #2 highest rated sports broadcast in the history of Japan. This is notable because by doing so, it surpassed the Rikidozan vs. Destroyer match from 1963, which did a 64.0 rating, knocking it down to #3 (for what it's worth, it's believed that a Rikidozan vs. Lou Thesz match in 1957 was actually watched by even more people, but official ratings weren't kept as detailed back then, so it can't be counted for sure).
Dave has read some excerpts from the new Shaun Assael book on Vince McMahon called "Sex, Lies, and Headlocks." From what he's read, Dave says it's a very good and accurate portrayal of how the WWE has grown to what it is today. Vince's former close friend and VP of Titan Sports during the expansion era Jim Troy and Jim Barnett were both interviewed for it, among others. If you're a hardcore fan who's been following the Observer for years, there's nothing new here that you probably don't already know from a major story standpoint, but there's some interesting details at least that were new to Dave. But to the average fan, this should be pretty eye-opening. Dave expects to have a full review soon.
CZW held its second annual Best of the Best tournament at the old ECW Arena and the show got rave reviews. Particularly British wrestlers Jodie Fleisch and Jonny Storm, who tore the house down in their match. Trent Acid defeated Fleisch to win the tournament.
The Coen brothers, producers of the movie "Fargo", have had talks with Bobby Heenan about doing a movie based on his life (this pretty obviously went nowhere).
New Jack is no longer working with XPW and has jumped ship to work with a rival local promoter in Southern California. Perhaps not coincidentally, the last check New Jack received from XPW promoter Rob Black for $800 ended up bouncing. Dave says New Jack probably isn't the guy you want to write bad checks to.
NWA-TNA has changed its taping plans and no longer plans to tour, and they will now be live every week. The first two shows will be taped this week in Huntsville and after that, all future shows will be live from Nashville at the 9,000-seat Municipal Auditorium. Apparently the rent for that building is really cheap because a newer, more modern arena was just built nearby, so TNA can afford it. That being said, with as much trouble as they're having selling tickets for the debut show in Huntsville, Dave thinks it's pretty optimistic to start trying to run live tapings in the same 9,000-seat building every week. He thinks they would be much better off running a small 800-seat building every week, with a smaller, more intimate atmosphere that would come across a lot better on TV than a big cavernous arena that, inevitably, is going to be mostly empty (to this day, 18 years later, TNA/Impact has never once drawn a crowd of 9,000 fans. Never even really close actually).
Various other TNA notes: Dave runs down the list of confirmed names for TNA's first taping. Rick Steiner, K-Krush (formerly K-Kwik in WWF), Konnan, Steve Corino, The Harris Brothers, Psicosis, and a bunch of others. Don Frye has talked to Jeff Jarrett about coming in to work a match with Ken Shamrock. Jackie Fargo is going to be there doing something. They made an offer to Shane Douglas but he only agreed to come in if they didn't hire Francine (some kind of falling out between them). TNA decided they'd rather have Francine. They're expected to be doing some kind of old school vs. new school angle so....yay. More latter-years WCW shit. Mike & Todd Shane are coming in as a tag team called Dick & Rod Johnson and will have costumes that apparently look like penises, just in case you were still on the fence about whether Vince Russo is involved. The top stars are basically making around $3,500 per week which is a pretty decent salary for one day's work every week. The guys without name value, on the other hand, are getting $300 per show and are covering their own transportation. Just in case you were still on the fence about whether Jerry Jarrett is involved.
Ken Shamrock did an interview and acknowledged that he hasn't done pro-wrestling in a few years and knows he's going to be rusty. He also said he's worried because with only 1 show per week, he won't really be able to get enough matches under his belt to get good again. He also said he's signed a 3 fight deal with UFC and will be fighting Tito Ortiz in September, which turns out to be a pretty huge damn deal.
Dave saw the K-1 match with former WCW developmental wrestler Bob Sapp vs. some dude. Doesn't matter. What matters is Bob Sapp is enormous ("makes Brock Lesnar look like Jerry Lynn"). And he mauled this poor guy. In fact, it looked like Sapp was trying to get DQ'd, as he started kicking and kneeing the guy while he was down and just treating it like a street fight, violating lots of rules in the process. He was DQ'd but then K-1 booked Sapp and this other dude for a rematch in July. That leads Dave to think this was planned as an effort to get Sapp over as a lunatic, but if it was a work, somebody should have told the other guy because Sapp fucked him right on up. "This was like everyone feared Mike Tyson would behave, but 1,000 times worse and from a man far more scary." Furthermore, Sapp came out in a full Ric Flair robe and to Ric Flair' ring music, and the arena went insane. Sapp has massive superstar appeal in Japan right now and promoting him as a violent psychopath who has no regards for the rules in a shoot fight appears to be getting over huge.

WATCH: Bob Sapp vs. some dude. Doesn't matter. K-1

Edge will not need surgery for his torn labrum injury, so he'll only miss a few weeks of action instead of a few months. Edge is in the midst of the biggest push of his career and this is his chance to finally break through to the next level so needless to say, good news.
Notes from Raw: show opened with Vince walking out, which was unexpected since this is Flair's show. He said Austin wasn't there and made a point of saying Austin was too much of a coward to be there. Pretty well buried Austin and buried Raw as a bad show (blaming Flair in kayfabe for all the show's real life problems. Sorta like last year when they actually turned the bad ratings into a storyline by trying to blame it on Corbin. Some things never change). They're doing a storyline with Trish making fun of Molly Holly for allegedly having a fat ass because, again, some things never change. Former Tough Enough contestant Chris Nowinski debuted doing the Harvard grad gimmick like the heel jock in every teen movie. "The heel jock." Never change Dave. Shawn Michaels made his big return, cut his promo joining the NWO and turning heel on the fans before superkicking Booker T out of the group. So theoretically, this should mean Booker T should have to work his way through the entire NWO one by one before getting to Shawn at the end, in what should be Shawn's first match back. "I'm not holding my breath," Dave says. And of course, Vince beat Flair to take control of both shows. Horrible match but considering it was a last minute panic move, understandable under the circumstances. Lesnar ran in and helped Vince win the match.

WATCH: Vince McMahon opening promo with Ric Flair on Raw
WATCH: Ric Flair vs. Vince McMahon for sole ownership of WWE

Notes from Smackdown: during a big pull-apart brawl, several agents ran in to break it up. Among them were Dean Malenko and Fit Finlay, appearing on TV for the first time in their new backstage roles, and John Lauranitis who was also shown on TV last week. More gay jokes with Billy and Chuck and Rico, which Dave calls Russo-esque. Not quite yet. Jamie Noble was introduced with Nidia from Tough Enough season 1 as his valet, in a feud with Hurricane. There was a big effort to make Bob Holly a star this week, starting a feud with he and Kurt Angle and they really pushed Holly hard as a star and Angle busted his ass to try and get him over. And they did a show-long angle with Maven in the hospital (he's legit injured) and Torrie Wilson shows up, it's implied that she gives him a blowjob, and then Dr. Tajiri shows up, mists Torrie and beats up Maven. Dave is at least happy that they're trying to make an angle out of Maven's injury so he has a storyline to come back to, which is more effort than they put into most stuff these days.
Various WWE notes: referee Tim White suffered a torn rotator cuff in the Backlash Hell in a Cell match and will need surgery that will keep him out of the ring for months. Rey Mysterio is scheduled to debut on WWE house shows this week and, as of now, is expected to be wearing his mask again. Terry Taylor has been reaching out to get hired, but the company won't return his calls (they eventually re-hire him in September).
There's been a lot of praise for the new Spiderman comic "Tangled Web" which was written by Raven (I had to research this, but yeah. "Tangled Web" was a Spiderman anthology series that lasted about 2 years and had 22 issues. Each issue was written by different authors. Issue 14 was called "The Last Shoot" and sure enough, it was co-written by Raven alongside Brian Azzarello, who is the mind behind one of my favorite comic series of all time, 100 Bullets. And I had no idea. Wild).
The long-discussed plan of having Arn Anderson as Chris Benoit's manager seems to be off the table now. The thought is Anderson has been devalued so much in recent months (they pretty much wheel him out every time they need someone to take a beating for heat in a Flair feud) that he wouldn't be effective as a manager for a strong, serious heel.
Tough Enough II winner Linda Miles made her in-ring debut on Velocity, against Ivory. She was accompanied by fellow winner Jackie Gayda, who turned heel on her and cost Linda the match. Dave thinks it's waaaaaay too early to put these 2 women in a feud against each other considering how green they both still are.

WATCH: Linda Miles vs. Ivory - WWE Velocity 2002

The Rock, Vince McMahon, Undertaker, Jerry Lawler, Jm Ross, Triple H, Stephanie McMahon, and Shane McMahon were all in Memphis at the Mike Tyson/Lennox Lewis fight last week. Rock could be seen on camera a few rows deep throughout the fight, while Vince was shown on camera as a celebrity in attendance before the fight. The others were never shown on-camera, but they were all there. The PPV is estimated to have done 1.8 million buys and grossed a record $103 million, which are numbers that WWE can only dream of. Prior to the PPV, Rock co-hosted a pre-show party with guests such as Halle Berry and Britney Spears.

NEXT WEDNESDAY: Steve Austin accused of abusing Debra, much more on that situation and Austin's walkout, Jesse Ventura not running for re-election, Rock wrestles in Hawaii, and more...

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Analyzing Data's first poker game in which Riker famously bluffs him, although Miles O'Brien is revealed as the real sucker at the table.

Riker is dealing and calls the game: 5 Card Stud, nothing wild.
The action we see in this hand mostly follows the (normal) rules of the game. It moves clockwise around the table and nobody seems to act out of turn or anything.
In fact, out of the now 5 Star Trek poker hands I've analyzed, I think all of them have either followed the rules, or contained minor and explainable discrepancies.
Since these 5 hands are actually a significant amount of all the poker we ever see, it maybe turns out that it's something of a myth that Star Trek poker is silly and everybody is always breaking the rules. Lots of people play very badly in almost every hand, that's no myth, but with (I think) only about 3 or 4 possible hands that I could still look at, most of the ones I've analyzed don't significantly break the rules of the game, or when they do make relatively serious violations, they are pretty easily explained (often with the help of some great comments...it's not like I'm a poker pro! also I don't have much experience playing 5 Card Stud cuz nobody plays it).
...
Here's the entire scene.
Unlike other games we see, they seem to be playing Limit 5 Card Stud here, where you can only bet or raise in specific limits. This is how 5 Card Stud is almost always played in the late 20th and early 21st centuries...although it's not a very popular game, unlike 7 Card Stud which is widely played and which I love).
Usually though we see them playing No-Limit 5 Card Stud when they play this game. I had really never heard of that outside of Star Trek, and I explained why it's such a weird game in my first poker post, but I did look up NL 5 Card Stud and apparently some form of it is played in some real casinos in Norway or someplace. You can maybe find it but only in one tiny corner of Europe, and I think it's probably dealt differently.
The 5 Card Stud I know is dealt one card down and one face-up and then a round of betting, and then three more cards all face-up, one at a time with a round of betting after each deal, and this is the form (dealing and betting structure) which we always see when they play 5 Card Stud on Star Trek.
Apparently there are other forms -- "3 Down / 2 Up" is generally played No-Limit, so maybe that's what they play in Norway.
...
Anyway, because every raise we see in this hand is equal to the size of the initial bet on that round, and every bet is either 5 or 10 chips, it seems very unlikely that they are playing No-Limit and that every raise just happens to be a minimum-sized raise, because that never happens on other hands we see them play. In a hand like this one Riker would usually put in a big raise on the end, maybe 100 chips, but because they're apparently playing Limit, 10 chips is the maximum he is allowed to raise.
The betting on this hand has an odd wrinkle though. Generally in Limit 5 Card Stud the betting limit would be a smaller bet on the first 2 rounds of betting, and double that amount on the latter 2 rounds, although this is very dependent on house rules, but betting limits always increase throughout the hand (not every round betting though).
But on this hand: the first round of betting is in 5-chip increments, the second round it doubles to 10-chip increments, then on the third round it goes back down to 5-chip increments, and on the final round it's back to 10-chip increments.
This isn't totally insane or anything though, and because there are so many variations and house rules (and this is a friendly home game for zero stakes) this is definitely not breaking any strict rules of the game. You can set the betting structure however you like.
We could surmise that they're playing with their own house rules, and maybe the first person to bet on each round is allowed to open for either 5 or 10 chips, depending on what they choose, and everybody else has to follow. Or maybe if somebody bets 5 you're allowed to raise 5 or 10 if you want (although we don't see anybody do the latter), but it's pretty clear that they can only bet in increments of 5 or 10, so it's a basic type of Limit betting.
Pots can still build up pretty big -- this pot gets relatively big without a single re-raise and only a couple of players by the end -- but you're not gonna have dramatic all-ins in Limit betting structures. It's also MUCH harder to bluff in Limit games because you can only bet in relatively small limits, so opponents will tend to be getting very good odds to call just 1 more bet at the end, if there has been some action along the way.
...
I'll list the action as well as Data and Riker's cards, because theirs are the only cards we ever see. We don't see them as they are being dealt but it's clear when we do see them that they are laid out in the order in which they were dealt.
I am not yet listing anybody's hole card (hidden card), just the ones we see on the table.
Pulaski: ? (must be Q, K, or A)
La Forge: ?
Data: Q♣
O'Brien: ?
Riker: 10♥
Action: Pulaski bets 5, everybody calls.
Notes: Again there are different rules regarding antes and who acts first, but whenever we see them play stud, the strongest hand showing has the first option to check or bet. This is almost always how the game is played, BUT another semi-common rule is a "bring-in" on just the first round. A bring-in is where the lowest card showing is required to act first and to make at least a minimum-sized bet to basically get the action started (this is only ever on the first round). But for a number of reasons -- mainly that I don't think we ever see them do this -- I doubt they're playing this way.
This is all to explain why Pulaski must be showing a Queen, King, or Ace in order for the action to start with her, because we know Data has a Queen. It's very likely she was dealt a King or an Ace because Data ends up with 3 Queens at the end so she would have needed to have the last Queen in the deck. Compared to that 1 Queen, there are 7 Aces and Kings that we never see during this hand, so she's obviously much more likely to have one of those. It's not really relevant cuz she's about to fold, but for the sake of being as complete as possible I believe the action would still be following the rules here if she was showing a Queen. In that case Pulaski and Data would each be showing the same highest hand (one Queen), and I believe that the first action would then start with whoever is closer to the dealer's left, which is Pulaski here. So she could have a Queen. But she probably has a King or an Ace, giving her the highest card showing.
Unless she has real trash like K-4 offsuit it's very sensible of her to bet here. Just because it's hard to bluff in Limit games doesn't mean every hand gets to showdown...it just means that once the pot starts to get bigger it's harder to bluff. But people may drop out along the way, and she could have everybody folding by third or fourth street if she continues to show the strongest hand and bets it the whole way. When she bets here she's taking the lead and saying that she doesn't have K-4 garbage. It's unlikely she already has a huge pair, but 2 high cards are a very strong start in 5 Card Stud, a game where 1 pair very often wins at showdown.
Compare this to the hand where Crusher outplayed Riker. Worf got dealt an Ace on the first round that hand and he checked, and it checked around. That was because Worf is bad at poker -- he wasn't being sneaky. He stayed in that hand until finally folding on the last card despite showing only an Ace and a bunch of garbage (in a hand where Dr. Crusher had a board of Q-Q on third street, like Data here).
Pulaski is good at poker, and even though we never see any of her cards this hand, she seems to play it well.
...
Next round:
Pulaski: ?, ?
La Forge: ?, ?
Data: Q♣, Q♦
O'Brien: ?, ?
Riker: 10♥, J♥
Action: Data bets 10, O'Brien calls, Riker calls, Pulaski folds, La Forge folds.
Notes: I have no idea what any of Geordi's cards are but this is still probably the single best play we ever see him make in any poker game. Most of the time he's terrible, but here he at least finds an early fold, instead of chasing his pipe dream of a hand and paying chips on every round just to fold when he inevitably misses his miracle at the end.
I mean this is probably an extremely trivial decision for Geordi. Data is showing Q-Q so if Geordi doesn't have a big draw brewing, or an Ace or King in the hole (trying to improve to a higher pair), or a pair of some kind by now, it's a 100% fold and there's nothing to even think about. Geordi probably has absolute garbage like 9-8-3 with no flush draw so it's the easiest fold ever, but still, at least it's one hand where he folded his losing hand early, saving himself some chips..
Pulaski also finds a fold here, despite showing (very probably) a King or an Ace. She obviously doesn't have a monster hand like a pair of Aces or Kings cuz she'd play that, but even most legitimately strong starting hands that she might have opened with last round are now huge underdogs once Data pairs his Queen. Pulaski could have had A-9, or K-J, or similar. But this last card pretty obviously didn't help her (since she folds), and most of the time she will be way behind Q-Q. Also, because her Ace or King is face-up (and the rest of the cards in this game are all dealt face-up) everyone at the table will see if she pairs it. And again, because it's Limit, she can't put in a huge raise at any point and try to buy the pot with a bluff.
I'm just contrasting this to Geordi and Worf, both of whom would probably call off chips for another round or two in Pulaski's shoes, just cuz they have an Ace or whatever and they're feeling lucky.
...
Next round:
Data: Q♣, Q♦, A♥
O'Brien: ?, ?, ?
Riker: 10♥, J♥, 5♥
Action: Data bets 5, O'Brien calls, Riker raises 5 more to 10 total, Data calls, O'Brien folds.
Notes: Riker's play is really bad/strange but I have to start with O'Brien because I think this is the only time we see him playing poker and this is one of the worst folds I've ever seen. In real or fictional poker.
Let's assume the ante was 5 chips (that's obviously the minimum bet so it makes sense it would also be the ante -- and there's no way the ante is less than that). So let's count how many chips are in the pot: 5 chips from all 5 people as antes (+25); another 5 from everybody on the first round of betting (+25); a bet of 10 and two calls on the next round (+30), and on this round Data has put in 10 total, O'Brien has put in 5 so far, and Riker has put in 10 total (+25). Adding those up, 25+25+30+25=105. So there are 105 chips in the pot after Data's call, and the action is on O'Brien, who owes 5 chips.
So to potentially win 105 chips will cost him 5 chips. 105/5 simplifies to 21/1, so those are the odds he's getting here to call 5 more chips. 21 to 1 odds. That means he has to win this pot once every 22 times for it to be an even-money call. If he calls and loses this hand 95% of the time it would still be a slightly profitable call (better than even-money)!!! He'd have to lose this hand about 96% of the time for a call to be a mistake...and even then it's a small mistake cuz the direct odds aren't far off from that!
Of course there's no reason to waste 5 chips if he can't ever win...BUT HE ALREADY CALLED 5 CHIPS ON THIS ROUND OF BETTING! Then Riker raised 5 more behind him, and importantly Data just called that raise. That means that O'Brien will be closing the action on this round of betting, (unless he raises). If Data had re-raised Riker then O'Brien could reasonably fold as the bet would be 10 to him instead of 5, and he wouldn't be closing the action. Riker could raise again behind him, and Data could raise again behind that! In Limit games the amount of bets are usually capped at around 5 or 6 bets/raises per round -- Data and Riker couldn't just keep raising each other 5 chips forever, it would be capped. But that's irrelevant here because Data did NOT re-raise Riker, so O'Brien can close the action with a call of just 5 chips.
Literally anything that was worth calling 5 chips for is worth calling another 5 chips for here especially because his call will close the action AND because there's 1 card to come! Unless he's drawing dead to a pair of Queens (which Riker actually is...but he's hoping to bluff), he has to call. He's getting 21 to 1 odds!!! If he was already dead to a pair of Queens, his call of Data's 5 chip bet can only be described as accidental.
Again, without knowing ANY of his cards I can easily say this is the worst fold I've seen on Star Trek. Either O'Brien lacks the most rudimentary understanding of what "odds" are, or he misread his own hand.
YOU'RE GETTING 21 TO 1, MILES. If you have any pair you can easily make a winning trips or two pair on the last card five freaking percent of the time.
(Note: If Miles did have just one-pair below Queens here he would in fact be drawing dead to Data, but only in this specific instance because Data happens to have a third Queen in the hole. Nobody except Data knows that, and it's very rare that Data would have three Queens here. As far as O'Brien knows, any hand he has with a pair in it would be live against Data (and certainly live against Riker, who I'll get to in a second), and Data usually won't even make as much as two pair by the end, let alone trips.)
Misreading your own hand and putting in chips when you should have folded, and then finally folding once you realize which cards you actually have, is deeply humiliating and terrible...and that's honestly his best-case scenario for this fold to be sensible.
I think that scenario is unlikely, and it's vastly more likely that O'Brien is simply awful at poker.
Time to pluck a pigeon is right.
Riker can only make a flush or pretend he made a flush if he catches another heart, which is unlikely. If Riker catches a non-heart 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, or 9 then it's open information to everybody that his hand can never beat Data's one pair of Queens! Riker's ONLY PLAY if he catches any of those cards (because they can't make him two pair or trips) is to fold. That set of cards I listed is 21 different cards (3 of each suit from each) . If Riker lands any of those 21 cards his hand might as well be auto-folded by the dealer. His best possible hand would be J-J and this would be open information. Most of the other cards in the deck would also give Riker at best three of a kind (lower than Queens), but if he had trips or two pair it would certainly be worth a showdown against Data, who will usually have just the 1 pair of Queens he's showing.
...
I covered this in the first hand I analyzed, but Riker is out of his mind here a little bit.
Riker lands a third heart on the board and raises Data, who is showing a pair of Queens. Riker isn't there yet. He can't have a pair better than Jacks, he can't have more than 1 pair, but anyway he's not worried about pairs -- he's posturing that he has 4 hearts, giving him a flush draw.
Data should have re-raised him (in which case O'Brien's call-fold could be maybe reasonable). By far Riker's best chance of winning this hand at showdown would be if he had a legit flush draw here. That would give him 8 outs (as far as he knows).
Starting with 13 hearts in the deck subtract the 4 hearts Riker is presumably holding, and 1 more because Data is showing the A♥.
We can't know what other cards they've seen from Pulaski and Geordi and Miles before they folded, so we're looking at it based on the facts we know. If Riker had a flush draw he'd have 8 outs and there are 45 unknown cards to him/us -- starting with 52, subtract Riker's 4 "hearts," and the 3 cards Data is showing. 52-4-3=45. And 8 of those 45 cards win him the hand, so his chances of getting a heart are 8/45, or about 18%. In reality there are only 7 hearts he can catch, because Data's hole card is the Q♥.
Either way he should not raise Data here. It's not bluffing time yet...a flush draw with 1 card to come is openly a bad hand here against 1 pair! In 5 Card Stud we can see that he can't have any kind of multi-way draw. He can't have a pair and a flush draw, and we can see he can't have a straight draw along with his flush draw. Because his highest card showing is a Jack, every possible hole card he could have in the entire deck makes him a massive underdog to Q-Q with one card to come.
This is open information and a clear mistake by Data. The only reason NOT to re-raise is if he thinks another raise will scare off O'Brien, and because Data has a huge hand (three Queens) he wants to bleed O'Brien and Riker on fifth street.
I think that's unlikely to have been Data's strategy though. He's brand new and perhaps deeply concentrating on the wrong things at this stage, and I think this is just a mistake.
...
Last card
[NOTE: I am showing their hole card in brackets here]
Data: [Q♥], Q♣, Q♦, A♥, 4♦
Riker: [2♠],10♥ ,J♥ ,5♥ ,4♥
Action: Data bets 10, Riker raises 10 more to 20, Data folds.
Notes: We can see now that Data's hole card is the Q♥ because we see him looking at it. When you think about it, it seems irrelevant that he looks at his hole card here while making his decision -- if Riker doesn't have a flush, his best possible hand is one pair of Jacks. Data's hole card in fact gives him his strongest possible hand here -- three Queens. But that makes no difference! No hole card could give him anything that could beat a flush here. Either Riker has a flush, or Data's board beats him, with one pair of Queens. Data's hole card doesn't matter, except...
While it doesn't matter at all that Data's hole card is another Queen, it does matter that it's a heart. Data is making some bizarre rudimentary mistakes since it is his first hand, but that doesn't mean he isn't also employing some not-awful strategic thinking here. ^(Notation)
...
As far as Data's play here, in Limit games your choices are really distilled, and facing just one opponent you will essentially always be making 2 choices at once because there are so few options. If your opponent bets or raises, you already know exactly how much they will bet, so decisions sort of come in pairs. Hopefully the following makes clear what I mean:
Data, or anybody acting first here and facing one opponent, has exactly 6 different "lines" or series of actions he or she can take. Each of these lines represents what Data could do ONLY if/when his opponent bets or raises him. If his opponent does not bet or raise him, his second planned-action doesn't matter cuz the hand is already over before then.
So in between each pair of actions, it is assumed that Riker has bet or raised.
These are the 6 lines Data could take, acting first:

Check-Fold [to be clear, in this instance the action describes Data checking, Riker betting (not listed), and Data folding to Riker's bet]
Check-Call
Check-Raise
Bet-Fold
Bet-Call
Bet-Re-raise

Again, each of those pairs are Data's possible actions here, and the second action is only required if Riker bets or raises. Generally a person makes these pairs of decisions really as one decision, especially in Limit games where you absolutely know how much your opponent's bet will be.
Of the 6 possible ways Data could have played this hand at the end, I think Bet-Fold is probably the very worst. Check-Fold is also an extremely weak play, but at least saves him 10 chips I guess.
Data has to see a showdown here. For the same price as it cost him to eventually fold here (10 chips), he could have seen a showdown if he'd gone Check-Call!
And I would say that Check-Call is probably Data's best line here. If he was more used to the game and Riker's tendencies and he thought it was more likely than not that Riker was bluffing here, he might Bet-Call or even Check-Raise, each of which would get more money out of Riker (but also be risking more, if Riker actually does habe a flush).
There were 105 chips in the pot after the last round of betting. Here Data bets 10, and Riker raises him 10 more to 20. So from 105 we add Data's 10 and Riker's 20 to the pot. That means there are now 135 chips in the pot, and it costs Data 10 chips to call. If he calls (or folds), he's closing the action. So he can absolutely see a showdown here for 10 more chips, nobody can raise behind him. So he's getting 13.5 to 1 odds that Riker is bluffing. Insta-call. At 13.5 to 1, that means Data is making money with a call if Riker is bluffing at least 7% of the time here.
In other words, if Riker has a flush 93% of the time here -- meaning Data loses 93% of the time when he calls -- it's still a slightly profitable call because he's getting such enormous odds!
Data has to call, maybe half-resigned to losing...but if he's even heard of bluffing -- a term which is often used outside of poker and with which he MUST be familiar in the context of intergalactic diplomacy, aggression, wars, etc. -- he should know Riker is bluffing at least 1/14th of the time. Note: that's not one-quarter of the time, it's one-fourteenth of the time.
But Data's fold isn't really his biggest mistake though. He played this last round of betting completely thoughtlessly. He forgot basic logic. But this isn't a Gotcha! Star Trek Mistake -- I'm going to try to explain it.
I'd say it's probably because he's simply never been exposed to this particular sort of logic or strategy in regards to games, and he doesn't always make the logical or verbal connections that we think he should. For example, his ongoing difficulty with idioms is puzzling -- hasn't he read, like, a LOT of human literature?
He plays plenty of chess and while you can sort of bluff in chess, there is also obviously no hidden information. You can't openly lie in chess, the closest you can do is misdirection and even that obviously isn't at the heart of chess strategy.
Anyway maybe I'm being harsh on a newcomer, but Data's whole action here on the last round is bad. Why is he leading out for 10 chips if he's going to fold to a raise??? That is his real mistake.
Riker will literally never, ever, ever, ever, ever just call him. If Riker has a flush, Data cannot beat it and this is open information. With just 1 hole card, Data's best possible hand here is three Queens (which he happens to have). He can never have a full house or anything else that can beat a flush -- it's impossible with just 1 hole card. And because Riker's highest card showing is a Jack, it's also open information that if he does not in fact have a flush, he cannot possibly beat Data's one pair of Queens that are showing.
Data leading out for 10 chips here is awful, if he's folding to a raise. You can't bet/fold that...you just can't. What was the purpose of Data's 10 chip bet? It's certainly not a bluff, but it's also not a value bet because Riker cannot ever have a hand like a pair of Kings -- something he might call with (which could beat Data's board but might not be the winning hand, since Data could have two pair or three Queens). Riker also cannot have two pair. He either has a flush or he's losing to Q-Q, and again this is all open information.
Since Riker will never ever call, it is impossible for Data to make a value bet. The only possible value his bet has is if he thinks it will induce Riker to bluff more chips.
...
This is very similar to the hand where Dr. Crusher was showing Q-Q and Riker was trying to bluff her. It was the same thing -- either Riker had a flush, which would 100% be the best hand, but if he didn't have a flush he couldn't possibly beat Crusher's Q-Q on the board. In that hand, on the final round of betting, she bet, other people folded, Riker raised big, Crusher re-raised, Riker re-raised even bigger, and she called. She HAD TO CALL, because just like this hand when she re-raised him it's impossible for it to be a value raise, because he is never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever just calling. Her opening bet on that hand was maybe to see what everybody else (Data and Worf) might also do, but when it's down to her and Riker she cannot make a value bet. Just like Data's bet of 10 chips here -- it is logically impossible for it to be a value bet. Quite literally the only value it has is that it may induce Riker to bluff off more chips. So when he does, she has to call, just like Data has to call Riker's raise here.
Data should bet-call or check-call at the end here. I mean, a (very bad) argument could be made for check-folding...but bet-folding is illogical.
Fortunately Data's not a Vulcan, and I think it's fairly normal for him to make oddly simple mistakes when first encountering or trying something. Data learns extremely quickly, but often is pretty 'dumb' to things that one would think should be obvious to him (like idioms). Even after reading volumes of writings about a subject he often won't really "get it" until he experiences it and/or discusses it with somebody who can answer his questions. I think this tendency can explain why he made such bad decisions here, on fourth and fifth street, but really especially at the end (fifth street). He just didn't "get it" yet.
...
Note that Riker didn't have to show his bluff, since everybody folded. But he wanted Data to learn the strategy of the game, and this one hand seemed to have a major impact on Data's understanding of poker strategy.
Also, even though it's a really bad fold by Data, I guess I don't hate the raise from Riker. His main problem is that he's playing 10-2 offsuit. The only way he could win this particular hand was to bluff if he caught some hearts, so if he folds now after he catches a miracle scary board then he's really never getting any kind of value from this.
If you're gonna play absolute garbage then you're gonna have to bluff a lot -- or else lose a lot -- cuz you're gonna have the worst hand a lot.
And Riker knows Data is brand new to the game, and Data just gave a little speech about how simple the game is but didn't mention bluffing. And it only costs Riker 20 chips here to make a raise which Data may read as strong.
Riker's raise at the end I guess is correct...but I completely hate the way he played himself into this mess. He should have folded on the first round of betting. He also should have folded on the second round of betting. On the third round of betting I guess by now he might as well keep going and try to catch a bluffable card, although I don't like his raise.
Here on the end when he actually catches a bluffable card he's gotta go for it, otherwise why even bother staying in?? He's never going to make the actual best hand here, with the offsuit 2 in the hole.
...
(Notation)
Data's Q♥ in the hole is one less heart in the deck that Riker could have as his hole card. If Riker is sometimes bluffing and sometimes has it, then Data having a heart as his hole card makes it a bit more likely that this is one of the times Riker's bluffing. There are still a number of cards Riker could be holding that would give him a flush, but he can't have the Q♥.
"Card removal" -- adjusting your idea of your opponent's range of likely hands based on the hidden card(s) that you have which block hands could have had -- comes more into play in other poker games, but it's not irrelevant here.
As it was Data's first time playing I'm not sure he was considering that his hole card had zero actual value to his hand at this point other than card removal adjustment of how likely it is that Riker's bluffing. I wouldn't say it's impossible that Data is considering this because, again, that's the only reason for Data to care what his hole card is. It's open information to everyone that Data's hole card is irrelevant...except for the purpose of looking at card removal. But that shouldn't really have much effect on Data's decision here anyway, since all he knows is that there's 1 less unknown heart. Changes it from 8 hole cards Riker would win with to 7.
And of course having a heart in the hole should make Data a little more likely to call, which he doesn't, but maybe he was in fact considering how much that 1 card mattered, it just didn't sway his (very bad) decision to fold. It shouldn't have even been a part of the decision, but maybe he was paying too much attention to certain minor things like that because he was so new to the game. It's the only reason for him to look at his hole card here (other than to "play dumb" like in the hand with Neelix, but Data is not doing that here).
...
Card removal can really come into play in Texas Hold'em and can get pretty interesting. Say you have Q♥Q♠ and you see a flop against 1 opponent, after making a big re-raise with your Queens before the flop. The flop is 10♥ 5♥ 2♠, and let's say there are some big bets back and forth and then your opponent goes all-in..
Based everything going on, (your knowledge of the player, the action pre-flop and on the flop, and maybe you're deep in a big tournament and you have more chips than them, etc. etc.) let's say you're pretty certain your opponent is not on a pure bluff. You think they probably have a very big hand or big draw. You want them to have a flush draw if you're going to call, because you're getting good odds to call if they do have a flush draw a lot of the time. But iff they have a very big hand on that flop and it's not a flush draw, then it's probably better than Q-Q
There's a straight draw on that board with 4-3, but your opponent wouldn't have played 4-3 pre-flop here, so what flush draws can they have based on the pre-flop action? Definitely A♥K♥ or A♥Q♥, very probably A♥J♥ and K♥Q♥ , and maybe Q♥J♥ . Based on everything (pre-flop action, etc.) you doubt they'd have something like 8♥7♥ , or A♥9♥ . They might have played A♥10♥ pre-flop but the 10♥ is on the board so they can't have that.
So really there are 5 flush draws that you think they could probably have (A-K, A-Q, A-J, K-Q, Q-J). But because one of your Queens happens to be hearts, you can eliminate three of those holdings as impossible.
That might not seem like a big deal but it actually is (in certain hands).
Your opponent would probably play this hand exactly like this if they had A-A and K-K, and those become more likely because you can eliminate a lot of flush draws. Your opponent could also have 10-10 which means they flopped three 10s and have you crushed. If 5-5 is in their pre-flop range, that also has you crushed, with a third 5 on the board. Maybe they have J-J or exactly the other two Queens in the deck, but most of their likely non-flush-draw holdings would seem to be way way ahead of you.
Maybe, depending on all sorts of things (like how much of your chip stack you'd be risking, if it's a tournament or cash game, etc), if you had Q♦Q♠ instead of a heart you might have leaned toward calling, since the other possible flush draws with the Q♥ would be "live" in your opponent's range, making it X% more likely they have a flush draw, so X% less likely they have three of a kind or K-K or A-A.

RetroSSBBRank #4 (2012): Ranking the Best Brawl Players of Each Year!

Can you believe that 2012 was eight years ago? It genuinely feels like yesterday. Who remembers 2012? We were in the middle of the golden age of super hero films with the release of both the first Avengers and the Dark Knights Rises (coughthe best movie of the 2010s cough) that year. Breaking Bad was becoming rapidly more popular, Netflix was in their prime time (before they virtually half Netflix Originals), there was the whole 2012 election for us American folks, and Minecraft (and Youtube with it) completely exploded, but you know one thing that's inarguably the funniest thing that happened that year? The apocalypse predictions. Anyone remember that? However, while the nutcases of the world were woeing themselves with their own apocalypse, you could say the Brawl scene was experiencing its own.
To cut to the chase, Meta Knight was a problem. He was a very big problem. By 2013, 40% of competitive Brawl players admitted to using Meta Knight, and top 8s were often 3/8 to 4/8 Meta Knight. 2011 saw only Meta Knight winning supermajors, and of the 11 largest tournaments at the time, Meta Knight won 8 of them (with the other 3 being Icies lol). Without directly spoiling anything, half of this years top 10 mained Meta Knight. If you count Ally, that's 6/10. Ridiculous, right? The biggest tournament of the year, Apex 2012, was no exception. You see, originally it wasn't going to be that way. An official panel of TOs, top players, and Smashboards organizers held a vote in late 2011 on whether or not to ban Meta Knight. Pro-ban votes outnumbered anti-ban three to one. Apex was supposed to follow.
After the ban, many tournaments started taking measures to reform. Texas adopted the ban early in the decision making process, and other, smaller scenes did so periodically over the rest of 2011 and early 2012. Still, one tournament went against the mold. Apex 2012. Well known for its international competition, players from all across the globe (most notably Japan) were vying to attend. However, as Japan hadn't ratified the MK ban, many of their best players played Meta Knight. Most of the Japanese attendees like Otori, Kakera, Rain, and others who had trained mostly Meta Knight were thinking about not attending because of the ban. Alex Strife, the Apex TO ruled against the Meta Knight ban for his tournament, mostly to attract more international players. His ruling set a standard for the rest of 2012 as more and more tournaments took to the ban reluctantly and the ruling fell apart.
You can read a lot more about the Meta Knight ban than what I can manage to write here. Basically, the hand friendship that Strife held for the Japanese lasted for the rest of Brawl, eventually creating a more interconnected and international scene. At the expense of every character not named Meta Knight, players from all around the globe traveled more often and competed with each other. Europeans like Mr. R and Orion traveled to the United States multiple times, top Americans played in Japanese brackets in their big tournaments, and Canada made their first major as the year progressed. And, of course, Apex became a hive of activity where people from every region on Earth came to compete and train. Enough backstory then. Who ended up as the best of the best in 2012 anyways?

Honorable Mentions

Masha (Falco) (Sonic) (West Japan)
Trela (Lucario) (Texas)
Earth (Pit) (Zelda) (West Japan)
Daiki (Sheik) (Meta Knight) (Ice Climbers) (Pikachu) (East Japan)
Shu (Snake) (East Japan)

20. Fatal (New England)

(Snake)

Reviving the dormant Snake meta as the only Snake solomain in the Top 20, and thus, the best one in the world, New England’s best Fatal returned to the rankings from his Honorable Mentions place in 2011. His year was marked by several ups and downs; he would pick up some good wins in one tournament, then completely flop compared to expectations on the next weekend. Since he was the best player in New England, many of his best moments this year were achieved at his trips to Tristate, where he competed with, and defeated many of the gods of the game. Some of his better wins in 2012 include Vinnie and Nairo.

19. Rich Brown (Socal)

(Olimar)

In a time period where Socal was marked by inactive and lackluster players, Rich Brown broke from the pack, repping the increasingly relevant Olimar in the tournaments he tested his skill at. Busy with work and hobbies, the musician failed to attend too many tournaments, but the ones he did attend, he made a mark. By 2013, he was one of two players to have a positive record on ZeRo and, at Apex, he defeated Mew2King and Mr. R to claim his spot in the Top 12. Still, playing at only four tournaments the whole year (with one featuring a loss to rusty Mike Haze) worked in his disadvantage in the end. Many of his West Coast rivals were still vying for their spot as the best in Cali, and Rich Brown's inactivity ultimately saw him handing the crown to Larry for best Brawl player in California at ReveLAtions 2012. Through it all though, Rich Brown strutted his stuff and proved that the world had room for yet another Olimar in Brawl’s top level.

18. Kakera (West Japan)

(Meta Knight) (Ice Climbers)

Traveling to the United States for the first time in 2012, Kakera made a big impression, placing 5th, beating ZeRo, Ocean, and Orion, only being defeated by the two best North American players. Although he placed the third best of all the Japanese players in attendance, his results back home didn’t reflect the 7th place position he held in the year prior. The Meta Knight main’s first tournament back in Japan was the first in a line of underwhelming ones, by finishing 9th overall at Japan’s first “league tournament”. The rest of 2012 just continued this slump of lackluster performances, and Kakera’s year ended up looking like a mixed bag. His less impressive results include that 9th at SRBT 1, another 9th at SRBT 2 a couple months later, and 5th at Piosuma 2 at the end of the year, where he picked up a less than perfect loss on a little known player named Kameme. Don't get me wrong, Kakera’s results were great for any Top 20 aspiror, but paled in comparison to his stellar 2011 or really most of his rivals in Japan or abroad. When I said it was a mixed bag, that means there were highlights too. At the Sunrise Tournament, he defeated Earth and Masha to finish 5th, and in September, after three to-the-wire sets, Kakera won SumabatoX 16 over bracket demon 9B. So, if there was any enemy for Kakera in 2012, it was comparison. He was bad in comparison to his twin brother, he was bad in comparison to many of the other top Japanese players, and he was bad in comparison to the year before. Still, Kakera kept up the momentum and became a name to fear and respect in Brawl circles.

17. ADHD (Tristate)

(Diddy Kong)

Continuing his backslide from the top, ADHD’s former glory was slowly slipping. If you look at his results, they don’t look that bad, sure. 7th at Apex, 2nd at Rescue, even winning Collision V, ADHD wasn’t that bad right? Well in reality, as good as his placings look from a distance, they were a far cry from Pound 4 winning ADHD or just two years before. His only winning records were with Vinnie and Brood, and he took L’s from pretty much everyone else. Respected players like Mew2King and Nietono and weaker names like Anti and even Ultimate Razer took shots at the Diddy as 2012 dragged on. However, even under constant scrutiny from his peers from his lacking results and the general decline of Diddy in the meta, the ADHD still achieved notable feats in the 2012 season. He still kept up his 4 year streak of consistent Top 8s (only interrupted by a DQ at 25th and a close 9th at a major) and even took a couple sets off Nairo, even though their set count was widely in Nairo's favor. ADHD’s most stunning performance that year was that first placing at Collision V I mentioned, taking sets from Vinnie, Nairo, and Mew2King to finish first.

16. Maguro (East Japan)

(Meta Knight)

Another one of the new Japanese faces that seems to pop up on these lists from time to time, Maguro, or “Tuna” translated directly to English, was one of the top Meta Knight players in Japan, only to add to the ever growing list. His high regard by contemporary players and by me is carried mostly by his breakout tournament at Piosuma 2, where he beat Nietono and Otori to place 3rd.

15. DEHF (California)

(Falco)

Larry’s fourth consecutive year in the Top 25 wasn’t as notable as some of his breakout years, but he still managed to make a mark on the scene within inactivity. Aside from reaching just outside of Top 8 at two of the biggest tournaments of the year, he defended his home turf at ReveLAtions 2012. At this tournament, out of region talents like Mew2King and Fatal and in region prospectors like Tyrant challenged the Falco for first place. DEHF defeated them all and took a hefty chunk of the $2000 pot bonus. Even though Larry Lurr was the best player in California by a good margin and held winning records over multiple great players, his biggest strength in 2012 was his freak upset over Japanese player Rain at Apex. The crazy upset sent waves through the tournament and kept Larry among those "names to watch out for" in national tournaments.

14. Dabuz (Tristate)

(Olimar) (Pit)

Here’s the thing with Dabuz’s 2012: there wasn’t that much good; there wasn’t that much bad. He didn’t improve much and he didn’t backslide much either. If anything, I’d say that Dabuz’s attendance in tournaments helped everyone else much more than he helped himself. As Olimar became more and more popular, the practice that Brawl veterans like Ally, Mew2King, ADHD, and more got from Dabuz was much more profitable than whatever practice Dabuz got from Meta Knight player #11. Anyways, in the occasional tournament that Dabuz attended, he still racked up solid wins over Nairo, Ally, and Mew2King, although holding losing records against players ranked below him like DEHF, Pelca, and Gnes. The most interesting bit about Dabuz in 2012, though, was his alter ego, "Angel of Icarus" which he used in a few tournaments, featuring a strange combination of Olimar and Pit. Angel of Icarus wasn't too bad too: with the mid tier character, Dabuz took a set off of Nakat who would've been considered a Top 40 level player at the time.

13. ANTi (Tristate)

(Meta Knight) (Diddy Kong) (Marth)

The boisterous social media king returns for the fourth year in a row, with his classic Meta Knight/Diddy Kong combination. In 2012, Anti didn't focus as much on singles as much as doubles, only entering singles seven times during the year, which was considered pretty low for a Tristate player at the time. However, in doubles, ANTi thrived, even with a multitude of different doubles partners each tournament. He placed second at Apex losing to the near invincible twin team of Otori/Kakera and at SKTAR, he still managed to place top 3 in doubles… teaming with a Luigi main. In addition, he never dropped any regional doubles event, only falling in doubles tournaments when strong out of state players attended. Either way, these posts aren’t about doubles, they’re about singles, and ANTi showed the world what he was made of in 2012. He picked up multiple wins on Nairo, went even with Mew2King, and maintained a positive record on Dabuz, ADHD, and Rich Brown. His worst loss the whole year was to Vinnie, a player I rank higher than him in 2012, so you know he had the consistency. In the end, 2012 ended up a relaxed year for the loudmouth Meta Knight which, actually, kind of suited ANTi as he took his Brawl career more casually as the years went on.

12. 9B (West Japan)

(Ice Climbers)

I’m sure anyone recalling 9B’s 2011 are confused with his remarkable low placing. I’ll just refer to a conversation between Keitaro and Smashboards user Djent in September of 2012 upon seeing 9B being double eliminated by Kakera’s Meta Knight, a matchup he excelled in during the previous couple of years.
Djent: It's interesting that 9B went years without losing to Meta Knight - then all of a sudden lost to several within 6 months. I'm not sure if it's the case that Japan's MKs have finally "learned the matchup," or if 9B himself is responsible for the decline.
Keitaro: I think the 9B side of Japan is a tad overrated. Maybe 2 years ago they were gods, but the Otori, Kakera, Rain side have improved so much within the last year that players like 9B, SLS, and Hayase simply aren't as strong as they should be. Especially since they don't travel to the other side of Japan for competition that much while Otori, Kakera, Brood, Rain have been going to America and improving a lot.
Where 9B had dominated in the previous few years, it seemed that the hand that had served him so many wobbles in the past was writing on the wall for his eventual demise. In a stark contrast to to 2011 where he won every single last set and tournament he entered with the exception of one set to Kie and one tournament sandbagging, 9B struggled to keep his hold (pun intended) on the Japanese scene. Technically the first tournament that he lost was a single elimination tournament, losing to Ranai of all people, but if you don’t count that, even after, 9B kept slipping (pun still intended) on players he dominated in the past. If his first “real” tournament loss was the Sun Rise tournament (where he placed 5th) it showed the world the capabilities of 9B in this new era. He could go toe to toe with great players: at just the Sun Rise tournament, he beat Nietono, Shogun, and Mikeneko, but he would still be getting trouble with the top echelon of Japanese competitors like Otori (who defeated him in Winners) and with niche players that don’t attend tournaments often like Masha (who defeated him in Losers).
After the Sun Rise tournament, 9B went on to lose two tournaments in a row in a fashion completely different to 2011. Losing to Brood and Kakera in Grands wasn't that bad, but his worst loss in I think his whole Brawl career happened at the second of these tournaments, to hidden boss Icies player Miyacci. In conclusion, 9B’s 2012 had serious ups and serious downs. If he was going to turn things around, he needed to tap into that godlike 2011 dominance and fix his issues with the Ice Climbers ditto, a matchup that he lost to Vinnie, Kakera, Ranai, and Miyacci with. When the 2013 rank comes out, we’ll see if he fixed his problems as Brawl advances.

11. Vinnie (Tristate)

(Ice Climbers) (Mr. Game and Watch) (Meta Knight)

If you’ve been catching the theme of 2012, you can probably tell that there were two groups of players: the Japanese who pretty much won everything, and the Americans who got whooped by the Japanese about 9 times out of 10. Many of the American player at #15 or above had competitive or even dominating records with their peers but did poorly against the Japanese. Vinnie was the exact opposite. Even though he was a respected member of the Tristate scene, he held losing records against most every North American player above him on this list. 4-6 with Nairo, 0-1 with Esam, 3-4 with Mew2King and even 0-1 with ADHD, a player six spots below him. In North America’s biggest tournament, Apex 2012, he drowned in pools and fell at 49th. But when he traveled to Japan, all hell broke loose. His first tournament, SumabatoX 15 was above average, placing 2nd beating Earth, Souther, and regional boss Oiwa before losing to 9B in the ditto in Grand Finals. SumabatoX 15 proved to be just a warmup, though. When he played in the Sun Rise Tournament, the second biggest tournament in 2012 and the biggest Japanese Brawl tournament ever, he went on a rampage. Before getting double eliminated by Rain (which you’ll soon learn isn’t a bad loss at all), Vinnie tore through Daiki, Masha, Brood, 9B, and Otori, placing 2nd by the end of the weekend... only to get third at his first regional back in the states. All in all, the New Yorker improved a lot from his 15th place in the last year, somewhat caused by his focus to Ice Climbers rather than Mr. Game and Watch. He just had much higher to grow before being considered one of the greats.

10. Mikeneko (East Japan)

(Marth)

I was going to write something original, but what I said in my Top 100 Introduction (this isn’t a shameless plug I swear) makes a pretty good point if I say so myself. I wrote:
When Mikeneko came into the international scene in 2012, Marth was pretty dead. Long since outclassed by Meta Knight and Snake, as well as developing top tiers like Ice Climbers, Diddy Kong, and Olimar, many of the best Marth players had either dropped the character or become inactive. I just want to remind you that Marth was ranked the seventh best character at the time. Meta Knight and Icies were a bitch. Mikeneko revolutionized the way Marth players spaced around Ice Climbers' options as well as made big strides in the character's strongest side: his range advantage, especially against Meta Knight. His Meta advancements pushed the character up two spots in the 2013 tier list as well as inspired a new generation of players to new heights with the character, most notably everyone's favorite Dutchman, Mr. R.
All of this is true and more. Mikeneko made his debut in the RetroSSBB Rank a flashy unforgettable one, and for good reason: he had to show the Americans what Marth was really made of. His impressive 7th at the Sun Rise Tournament only foreshadowed an impressive 1st place at Piosuma where he beat Otori and Kakera. You know what’s the ironic thing though? One of Mikeneko’s biggest strengths, matchup inexperience against Marth, ended up being one of his biggest weaknesses. You see, Mikeneko could chop up Meta Knights,Olimars, and Ice Climberrs all day long. He took at least one set from each of Japan’s best Meta Knights after all, and he went even and positive with Nietono and Brood respectively. But you know which players that did give him trouble? Daiki and Luminous. You might’ve caught that Daiki plays Sheik when I introduced him in the Honorable Mentions. Guess who Luminous plays? ROB! Even through the wack upsets to mid tiers, Mikeneko proved himself a worthy competitor and the definitive Brawl Marth player in the world.

9. Brood (East Japan)

(Olimar)

You know that one guy in apocalypse movies that likes to, well, “take a little off the top” if you will? He never enters the fray of the battle but once the heroes take out the zombies he has no problem coming out of hiding and stealing the loot. That was Brood. While it was a comeback story to rival his 2010, it wasn’t with mighty fanfare or some spectacular one-off performance. He just took a little off the top at every tournament. At Apex he didn’t do too much special, only took wins from Mr. R and Trela while taking respectable losses to Ally and ADHD. At SRBT 1, he beat Otori while taking a respectable loss to Mikeneko. All across the year, he slowly grew better and better while picking up better and better wins. And what happens at the end of some of those zombie movies when the guy who takes a little off the top has to actually fight? He has this bazooka from all of the loot he has and he’s now one of the strongest people in the movie. Brood did the same thing. After a slow, yet wildly successful 2012, he topped it all off by winning SumabatoX 17 in November, beating 9B and Miyacci, becoming the third Olimar to win a tournament with any size in Brawl, and outplacing them all, including his notable bracket demon Kakera. Oh and being the only player to have a winning record on the #1 and #2 in the world doesn't hurt too. Not bad for a little bit off the top, huh?

8. Mew2King (Tristate)

(Meta Knight)

Juggling college, Melee, and work, as well as being unmotivated to play, Mew2King’s Brawl career suffered, making 2012 the first time that players wouldn’t immediately recognize the king as the world’s best player. He already accrued plenty of out of form losses throughout 2011, but 2012 only brought deeper losses and more losing records. 2011 Mew2King could shrug off the occasional dropped set to Vinnie or Atomsk, but you can’t overlook Mew2King’s losses to drastically lower level players in 2012 such as Trela, Masha, Earth (twice) and, of course, Ocean in a set that’s been described as one of Brawl’s bests. And lastly, 2012 was a stark difference for set records for Mew2King. In previous years he only had a few losing records here and there, but out of the five Top 10 players that he fought in 2011, he sported winning records against only two, Ally and Nietono, while typically losing against Nairo, ZeRo, and Otori.
All of this is negative, I know. I just wanted to defend my position that M2K wasn’t the best at the time. Most people would agree then too. If you look through threads anticipating Apex 2013, or even any regional/local in the second half of 2012, you would sense users’ skepticism of Mew2King’s skill at the time. Either way, Mew2King didn’t become the 8th best player for nothing. He still had winning records against most of the Top 10 and generally did well like getting second at XSmash, just not as well as the rapidly improving younger generation. But who were the players to usurp the king’s throne?

7. ZeRo (South America)

(Meta Knight)

Yep, it’s all coming together. After years of intense training with limited resources in the weak scene of South America, the Chilean finally made the distance to America after handedly winning every single Brawl and Melee Chilean tournament in the previous couple years. With his few dollars he saved from working minimum wage jobs in his hometown, ZeRo traveled to the United States and placed a meagre 17th at Apex in January, beating Trevonte while losing to Kakera and Rich Brown. Undeterred and with a taste of peak Brawl play, ZeRo again hit up his locals, defeating every opponent that was sent his way, and winning every single tournament again, long before his infamous streak in 2015. The Chilean didn’t go out without a fight, however. Just before the year ended, he traveled to the US again, to spectacular success. In the two tournaments he attended, he placed first and second, beating Mew2King, Esam, Nairo, and Anti, only dropping two to Nairo in close sets. This was only the beginning for Zero, and as Brawl was just getting international, 2012 was just the start for one of the greatest to ever touch the game.

6. Ally (Canada)

(Snake) (Meta Knight) (Marth) (Ice Climbers)

Japanese players come, Japanese players go. New top players take the throne while new leave, but Ally stayed consistent. Really, in all of Brawl, he was the most consistent player, never really falling from that low from his rank. He’s been Top 5 all this time, after all. 2012 marked the start of the second half of Brawl, and generally a Brawl where Ally wasn’t the competitor for #1 of the years beforehand. After attending WHOBO in August, the Canadian took 5 months as a break from the game, slowly fading from the public eye. But did he make those first 7 months count. He held winning records against Nairo, Mew2King, Brood, Vinnie, and Gnes, and even in the matchups that he typically lost like Esam or Dabuz, he still managed to take a set or two off of them before the year closed. However, the rest of his losing records aside from his loss to Otori showed the chink in his armor against the unpredictable, unorthodox characters such as his losing record to Esam (Pikachu), Dabuz (Olimar), Nietono (Olimar), and his even record with Atomsk (King Dedede). Despite not winning any majors and disappearing on the scene for almost half a year, by years end, most still viewed Ally as a Top 10 level player, if not higher, for whenever he played in tournament.
As a small sidenote, 2012 was one of the years that Ally spent a lot of time experimenting with secondaries. Aside from the Marth and Icies I put next to his mains, Falco, Wario, Wolf, and even ROB were occasional picks for the Canadian to use.

5. Nietono (East Japan)

(Olimar)

Sure, Nietono has dropped a spot since the 2011 edition, but, in many ways, the Tokyo Olimar was performing better than ever. Many can say that his first tournament of the year, Apex 2012, set the mood for the rest. Nietono’s legendary run that still stands as his best tournament placement at a major, saw him defeating three top ten players (Nairo, Esam, and Ally) as well as two top 25 players (Fatal and DEHF) en route to 2nd. I touched on this a little bit in Nietono’s blurb for the Top 100, but this spectacular performance completely shifted top player’s perspectives on Olimar, lifting him from 8th in the July 2011 tier list to 2nd in the April 2012 one. All this to say, Nietono did pretty good in his first trip to the states.
Still, don’t think that Apex carried him to 5th. He maintained Top 10 level results for the rest of the year too. In April, he won a large regional with Rain and Otori in attendance, and by December, boasted winning or even records on every American player he played against, other than a -1 with Mew2King. Who were his winning records, you ask? None other than top level players like Esam, Ally, DEHF, ADHD, and Fatal. He did well against his Japanese foes too, taking sets from the one and two in the world as well as showcasing his broad matchup experience, having winning records on Kakera, Mikeneko, Brood, and Yui, playing Meta Knight/Ice Climbers, Marth, Olimar, and Fox respectively. By the end of 2012, Nietono had transformed himself into a Brawl legend and one of the most respected names in the far east.

4. Esam (Florida)

(Ice Climbers) (Pikachu)

Yeah, so Esam was really, really good in 2012. I’d argue it was the best year of his now decade spanning career. Coming off a 2011 where players were juuust getting comfortable with his status as a top player, he flipped the community on its head, surging to the top of the ranks as one of the world’s best players. But what did Esam do to crack into that top level of play that so many have failed to reach? Picked up Ice Climbers. Ok, it’s not that sexy, but it worked. Following a less than perfect 9th at Genesis 2 and an subpar 17th at WHOBO in the previous year, Esam disappeared from the spotlight and trained his new comain to the level of his electric partner. When he returned half a year later at Apex 2012, hefinished as the best Ice Climbers player in the venue, even racking up high profile wins like Kakera and Rain with the icy character.
Unlike many of his North American contemporaries that outplaced him in years prior, Esam kept up the heat in 2012, never losing momentum as the year continued. Other than going 0-2 with Nairo, he held winning records on every single North American player he faced, including ANTi and Mew2King, two players that went undefeated against the Floridian in years prior. Some of Esam's best moments include winning WHOBO 4, the largest Meta Knight banned tournament in Brawl history, beating Ally and Gnes. Finishing the runner up at SKTAR didn't hurt too. Ally, Anti, Vinnie, and Salem all ended up victims of Esam's effective dualmain combo at that stacked Tristate national. Overall in 2012, Esam kept up the heat day in and day out, proving himself to be one of the best the United States had to offer in a time when they were looking pretty weak, all things considered.
On the leadup to the 2012 rank, I debated for a while on who should be #3 and #4 but I ended up compromising for Esam as the second best in America. Who was the first?

3. Nairo (Tristate)

(Meta Knight)

I bet you guys figured it was only a matter of time before Nairo started snatching those W's in Brawl like he has in recent years. With a 14 spot leap from his 2011 rank, Nairo proved his Tristate friends that he was worthy of going toe to toe with the greats that the region had produced and proved the world that he wasn't just some regional threat Meta Knight any more. In many ways, in 2012, Nairo was the best Super Smash Bros. Brawl player in the Western World. All while being 15! Like holy shit! I know I always get surprised about people's ages but Nairo was getting 3rd at Apex 2012, disgracing grown men and earning almost a thousand dollars in one weekend all while being a sophomore in high school. When I was a sophomore in high school, I finally realized that it would save time if I just bookmarked Pornhub instead of searching it every time. Nairo was leagues ahead of me! But for real, even with his young age, Nairo meant business when it came to tournaments.
His vicegrip in-region was great, winning Tristate's biggest tournament at SKTAR and having winning records on Vinnie, Dabuz, and ADHD, but his biggest strength that defined him above the rest of North America was his strength against his Japanese rivals. While many just went 0-2 with every Japanese player, Nairo chalked up wins on Nietono and Kakera, with his only Japanese losing record being Otori. Hell, Nairo probably could've done better in 2012 too if he went to Japan one or two times. However, since he was, well, literally a child, he never got the opportunities to travel to Japan for runbacks and training sessions, as did Mew2King, Vinnie, Havok, QuiK (yep, that QuiK), and more did later in the year.
Nevertheless, it never affected his rule stateside and most agreed by December 2012 (or even by August after SKTAR, that victory was a big deal), that he was the best American player. Even after thoroughly defeating most every opponent in his path, Nairo's friendly nature, affinity to pull out wacky secondaries in bracket and unorthodox aggressive style quickly made him a crowd favorite. I wonder how that plucky Meta Knight main is doing now?

2. Otori (West Japan)

(Meta Knight)

In some ways, Otori was two people. I could explain myself, but I think ZeRo could say it better than I ever could. This is taken from his Facebook recounting his experiences playing friendlies with Otori and some other Japanese players before Apex 2013 in January. Here's what he said:
... He (Kakera) is a good friend and person, is very joyful and fond. Same for otori. otori (Kenta) is VERY funny, and we troll a lot, as well as with 9B. I yell things like TATSUMAKI which means tornado, and he spams that haha. Also I told him in japanese "I'll grab your nipples" and then I did so, and all the guys there just died laughing hahaha. Good times!"
Otori sounds like a super chill person to hang around, right? In many ways, he was just that. Of course I never met him, but from what I've read, Otori was a joyful, joking around kind of guy. Here's ZeRo talking about the other person of Otori that I was just talking about:
Otori has timed me out thrice, twice by ledge grabs (I was winning but he won at the end by rules), and another one normally.
Let me be clear here. This isn't a set they had at Apex. This isn't a set they had at a regional. This isn't even a moneymatch. Otori was literally timing people out in friendlies. Brawl was crazy, right? Maybe Otori has everything solved, right? He's having fun even while ruthlessly pursuing victory. And let me tell you, when he wanted the gold prize, he got the gold prize. Otori's first trip to the US was in 2012, where, in January, he made history as the first Japanese player to ever win a Brawl major on American soil, and the third foreign player to ever win a smash major at all on American soil. Otori's run beating DEHF, Esam, Ally, Nairo, and Nietono (that's four out of the top six players for 2012 plus Larry) would've immediately launched anyone straight to at least Top 10 in the world, but he never let up the pressure in the coming tournaments.
Of course the 3rd at Sun Rise Tournament immediately comes to mind, where he defeated Mew2King, 9B, and Kakera, but he picked up respectable wins at every tournament he attended too. You can't complain at getting 2nd at Piosuma or even a 4th at SRBT after all. Brawl's community soon learned that Otori's strange mix of fun in real life and unapologetically defense in game would end up creating own of their most interesting and strong players. By the end of 2012, Otori was considered on the same level of and, more often than not, better than the predecessors that made Meta Knight who the masked menace is today. As successful as Otori was, he didn't finish the year without a superior in skill. That honor goes to...

1. Rain

(Meta Knight)

If 2012 was the apocalypse, Rain was the badass toting two machine guns in each hand, mowing down zombies while corny heroic music plays in the background. Of course this might come as a surprise. Hell, it should. Rain? That Meta Knight Falco player of the past couple ranks? Yeah, of everyone reaching for the throne, he was the guy to take the crown after Mew2King. It wasn’t easy, though. Rain’s first tournament appearance at Apex was a complete flop. He beat Dabuz and Dutch Marth main Orion, but lost to Esam and DEHF, two players much below his caliber. Nevertheless, he kept on training, winning the first two Japan league rankings tournament in February, placing a respectable 5th in April in the third one, then winning the Sun Rise Tournament and Piosuma 2 to finish out the year. As I mentioned in the introduction, the Sun Rise Tournament was the biggest Japanese tournament ever, a record it held for over three years.
You see, at this point, Rain was known for three things, two of them being slightly related. First was his biggest weakness and one of the three things: his tendency to self-destruct. Rain opting to go balls to the, well, blastzone in edgegaurds made him infamous for SDing in matches, leaving his consistency something to be desired. Second, he was a tier whore. Ok hear me out, look at his Smashwiki page and take a look at his mains. Ultimate: Joker. Smash 4: Bayonetta. Brawl: Meta Knight. Melee: Fox. I rest my case. But that’s the third thing he came to be known for: his versatility and history between games. Of course in 2012, Smash 4 and Ultimate weren’t out yet, but by this time, Rain had already played a lot of Melee, even placing 5th in the legendary Jack Garden tournament, featuring Ken and Isai from yore. Yeah, he’s been playing that long.
That lengevity ended up being his biggest strength though. As he played against these opponents for one years, two years, three years, and much much longer (the Jack Garden Tournament was in 2005 for perspective), he slowly got better and better and better against these opponents, slowly picking up on their habits then brutally capitalizing in each set. This wasn’t his first rodeo in Brawl too. His 8th rank in the 2011 version getting him practice over all of these great opponents just set up for his spectacular 2012. And was it spectacular. Rain did so much in 2012, so I’ll try not to go on and on, but he held positive records on Otori (#2), Nietono (#5), Mikeneko (#10), Vinnie (#11), Dabuz (#14), won the second most important tournament of the year, and won almost every tournament in the Japanese League Rankings tournament that he attended. As reluctant as Tristate pundits, Nairo fans, Japanese detractors, and Meta Knight haters were, many of them agreed on one thing: Brawl had finally gotten a new king.

I won't pretend to have a schedule, so 2013 comes when 2013 does. I hope you guys enjoyed this. Before you go, please answer this poll on how I can improve these posts. There's only 2 left so might as well make them better each time, right? Have a great weekend and I'll see you next time.
Edit: Links to the past 3 for those interested
2009
2010
2011

Wrestling Observer Rewind ★ Feb. 14, 2000


1-3-2000	1-10-2000	1-17-2000	1-24-2000
1-31-2000	2-7-2000

Vince McMahon made headlines this week by announcing that he's planning to start his own football league called the XFL. Last year, McMahon failed in negotiations to buy the Canadian Football League. McMahon had been contacted last February about purchasing the Toronto Argonauts team, but McMahon said he'd rather just buy the whole league. Several teams, particularly ones that are losing money in recent years, wanted to hear him out but the majority of team owners were concerned that McMahon would change the rules and pull out of smaller Canadian markets in order to expand into the U.S. so they didn't want to sell and the discussions fell apart. Before that, back in 1998, Vince had inquired about purchasing the Minnesota Vikings, but never made an official offer and it was seemingly never more than just an idea. The new XFL was announced as having 8 teams and will probably end up being the place for players who aren't quite good enough to cut it in the NFL. It's scheduled to start in February 2001. The announcement sent WWF stock prices crashing and McMahon's personal WWF stock worth dropped from $1.66 billion down to $555.9 million overnight. Most people would expect it to bounce back soon, but people said the same thing when advertisers started bailing on WWF, causing the stock to drop, and it never did bounce back even when ratings went up and the advertisers stopped leaving. So who knows. Investment analysts are recommending against WWF stock right now, even at the new low prices. McMahon took the drop in stride, saying brokerage firms that downgraded the WWF stock "don't get it" and could "kiss his ass" which is, needless to say, not normal behavior for a major corporate CEO and probably only damaged the company further. The costs and risks of starting a new football league are enormous, which is why the stock has tumbled. McMahon claimed his company will be running the XFL on its own, saying "We're not looking for partners. We don't play well with others." But other sources on the inside tell a different story and claim Vince is indeed looking for other partners and investors (this was before NBC got on board. Contrary to popular belief, this wasn't always a joint venture from the start, it was purely WWF at first).
Vince insists that this isn't meant to be competition for the NFL, but he did trash talk them during the press conference, calling them the No Fun League. There will be some rule changes in XFL, like no fair catches among other things. Rumors are each team will have a $2 million salary cap and a 40-man roster. There's talks of incentive-based contracts also. The idea is to keep costs low so they don't lose a shit-ton of money trying to hang with the NFL. Of course, as long as they're paying low salaries, they'll always be the ECW of football because they won't be able to get the best players. Anyone who is actually an NFL-quality player is going to go for the NFL money. Dave lists other failed football endeavors (USFL and WFL) and how they both failed miserably and lost huge amounts of money. Recently, NBC and Ted Turner had talks about starting their own football league but the idea was scrapped when they decided it wouldn't make sense financially. And NBC and Turner both have faaaaaaaaar deeper pockets than Vince McMahon. Anyway, XFL games will be played at major stadiums in major markets like New York, Los Angeles, Washington, San Francisco, Miami, Orlando and two other unannounced cities. Whether Vince can fill up these major stadiums to get people to come watch minor league football remains to be seen, especially during the Feb.-Apr. season.
And of course, this all leads to questions about credibility. Will the games be worked? McMahon has denied it, but many in the media are skeptical. Dave expects them to establish characters with some of the players, probably worked gimmicks and whatnot, and rely on pro wrestling-style hype which is what Vince knows. But what happens if Vince creates a marketable personality who isn't that good on the field? That's when you have to question whether or not he'll start trying to work the games. Needless to say, Vince McMahon is the greatest promoter in wrestling history but his track record outside of wrestling is, to put it nicely, utter shit. He's failed as a boxing promoter, a movie producer, a bodybuilding promoter, a hotel owner, and more (Dave also mentions the new Times Square restaurant, saying it's too soon to see if he'll make it as a restaurateur. Spoiler: no). A lot of the success of this is going to depend on the television deal WWF can put together.

WATCH: Vince McMahon announces the XFL. The first time.

Sabu has agreed to a deal with WCW this week, which in turn prompted threats of a lawsuit by Paul Heyman, who has Sabu signed to a contract through 2003. Word is Sabu's WCW deal is for around $400-500K per year, which is about double what he was making in ECW. As for his ECW deal, Sabu claims that Heyman has somehow breached the deal, allegedly due to late payments, and thus it's invalid. While it's true that there have been late payments lately to wrestlers, Heyman claims there was no breach. Even if it had been, Sabu's contract specifically states in the event of a breach that a letter must be written to ECW informing them of such and giving them 90 days to resolve the issue. No such letter was ever written. Any attempt to terminate the contract by legal means has to be filed in court in Westchester County and Sabu has not filed any such paperwork. WCW hopes to debut Sabu at the 2/14 Nitro and their lawyers and Heyman have had a lot of discussions about it, with Heyman alleging contract tampering by WCW. Heyman has said that he is willing to sell Sabu's contract to WCW (since at this point, with all the heat between them and Sabu clearly wanting to leave, why force him to stay?) but said he's not going to release Sabu without something in return from WCW. Otherwise, Heyman has said he will file a lawsuit and restraining order against both Sabu and WCW, which would prevent him from debuting on Nitro. Sabu's best days are behind him and Dave suspects he'll likely just end up another lower-card hardcore division wrestler in WCW. But hey, if the money is good, at this point in his career he's smart to take it, assuming the ECW stuff gets worked out. All of this couldn't come at a worse time for ECW, which just lost both RVD and Jerry Lynn to serious leg injuries. In the midst of all this, Sabu's mother suffered 2 heart attacks this weekend so he's been dealing with that too.
Time for some best of the decade awards! Dave looks at the results of all the year end award votes from 1990-99 and uses fancy math to come up with a list of winners for all the best ofs of 1990. He explains how the math works but I hate math so if you have any questions, you're gonna have to go read this shit yourself. It actually IS really interesting to see how these points accumulate and how it shapes who wins. While someone like Steve Austin seems like the obvious winner for a lot of categories, he was only a top star for the last 2 years of the decade, so his numbers don't fully reflect that. Anyway, here are your best from the best of the decade of 1990s.

WRESTLER OF THE DECADE: Mitsuharu Misawa
MOST OUTSTANDING WRESTLER: Kenta Kobashi
BIGGEST BOX OFFICE DRAW (based on shows drawing 30,000 people or more): Shinya Hashimoto
BIGGEST BOX OFFICE DRAW (based on PPVs that did 1.0 buyrate or better): Hulk Hogan
TAG TEAM OF THE DECADE: Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue
BEST ON INTERVIEWS: Ric Flair
MOST CHARISMATIC: Ric Flair
BEST TECHNICAL WRESTLER: Jushin Liger
1990s BRUISER BRODY AWARD (BEST BRAWLER): Mick Foley
BEST FLYING WRESTLER: Rey Mysterio Jr.
BEST PROMOTION: New Japan Pro Wrestling
BEST BIG MATCH WRESTLER: Mitsuharu Misawa
MANAGER OF THE DECADE: Jim Cornette
ANNOUNCER OF THE DECADE: Jim Ross
BOOKER OF THE DECADE: Riki Choshu
PROMOTER OF THE DECADE: Giant Baba

Ratings news: more of the same of course, but USA Network's "Walker Texas Ranger" beat Nitro during their head-to-head hour, which is the first time that's ever happened. ECW on TNN's ratings are down for the 2nd week in a row. And Sting's made for TV movie Shutterspeed was a huge flop. In fact, Raw's rating was higher than Nitro, ECW, and Shutterspeed's combined.
Several of the female wrestlers in CMLL are threatening a sexual discrimination lawsuit against the company because the female wrestlers are never booked on the major arena shows.
Shinya Hashimoto and Naoya Ogawa are scheduled for yet another rematch against each other in the main event of the April Tokyo Dome show. They're also hoping to have Kensuke Sasaki defend the IWGP title against Bill Goldberg if he's physically ready by then. NJPW is also hoping to run a show at a 100,000-seat outdoor stadium this summer that would be a mixture of wrestling and vale tudo, because goddammit, Antonio Inoki is going to kill this promotion with his vale tudo obsession or die trying.
Michinoku Pro will be doing a show honoring the 10-year anniversary of Great Sasuke's wrestling debut, which leads Dave to drop an interesting anecdote: "Not only did I actually see his first three pro matches, but I was in the car with him on the way home from his first match."
Mil Mascaras is in Japan right now working shows which are being billed as the last time he'll tour Japan before he retires. Dave calls bullshit and says Mascaras will never actually retire (yup, to this day he still wrestles a handful of matches per year, at 75 years old.)
New Jersey indie promotion Combat Zone Wrestling announced plans for a PPV in June that will feature Atsushi Onita vs. Terry Funk in one of Onita's famous exploding ring barbed wire matches. CZW isn't actually funding the PPV, some other group is funding it I guess and CZW is just the company involved. CZW also said there would be other matches including one match with snakes, alligators, and a piranha in various corners of the ring. The PPV date was announced as the same date that WWF's King of the Ring is scheduled for so there's no chance they're going to get any real buys or even clearance from the PPV providers, for this show. Especially not for a hardcore show, given how much the PPV providers frown on excessive violence sometimes. Funk claimed that he hasn't been any discussions about it but that he'd be willing to do it. He doesn't have an exclusive contract with WCW right now, he's just being paid by appearance. The last indie to take a chance on running a PPV was the Heroes of Wrestling show which was an enormous flop. With WCW and ECW barely turning a profit on PPV these days, Dave thinks this is a bad time to try this.
Rob Van Dam's injury is a broken ankle and broken fibula and he's expected to be out of action for about 3 months, which is a huge blow to ECW right now.
Don Callis' gimmick of Cyrus is where he basically plays the role of a heel TNN executive and Dave thinks it's the craziest shit he's ever seen. Trying to get the TV network that carries the promotion's product over as heels that are hurting the company (this goes poorly for Paul in the end. Turns out TNN didn't particularly love the gimmick).
ECW was planning to hold a PPV later this year in the Westchester County Center in White Plains, NY but now they're banned from the building so that won't be happening. They sold out the building last time they were there, but the management was unhappy with the show due to the violence, the crowd chants (specifically "show your tits") and the fact that Paul Heyman cut an obscenity-laced tirade. So now the building won't let them come back.
Bobby Duncam Jr's. official cause of death is listed as an accidental overdose from the prescription painkiller called Fentanyl. He did not have a prescription for the drug, and had gotten it from a family member.
The WCW movie Ready To Rumble is scheduled to be released in April. They showed a trailer on Nitro and Dave thinks it looks pretty bad.
Correction, the DDP/Buff Bagwell angle hasn't been scrapped as reported last week. But both men are banged up so they're off TV for the moment and they'll probably pick it back up when they return. DDP's thought to have a ruptured disc in his back which, if it ends up being true, isn't great news for him (he should call up that ex-wrestler dude that teaches yoga. I bet it would help).
On Nitro this week, Scott Steiner cut an unhinged promo on Ric Flair and WCW in general. He pointed out that WCW sucks (which is true but Dave doesn't think they should be calling more attention to it on their own show), said people switch over to Raw when Flair is on TV so they can watch Steve Austin, then blamed Flair for getting Austin fired from WCW (Dave is befuddled at that one), and more. Needless to say, ratings numbers are freely available and of course, Steiner's claims aren't even remotely true and in fact, Flair has always been a bigger ratings draw than Steiner. In fact, Flair is still just about the only dependable ratings draw they still have. Anyway, the promo went on so long that they ended up scrapping other segments later in the show. Needless to say, none of it was supposed to happen and it led to Steiner being sent home from TV the next day as punishment, so he's essentially suspended right now, although it's not really a punishment. Everybody basically sees it as Steiner getting a day off the road with pay and of course he'll be brought back.

WATCH: Scott Steiner shoots on Ric Flair

Kevin Sullivan is still the head booker, assisted by Terry Taylor, Ed Ferrara, and Tony Schiavone. Vince Russo was offered a spot as one of the writers but refused unless he was the sole person running the show, saying that's what his contract gives him the right to. WCW head Bill Busch has suggested to Russo that maybe they should just part ways, but Russo doesn't want to give up his lucrative contract, so he's fighting to stay and get what he wants.
Lenny & Lodi have been repackaged as a new tag team that is basically meant to be a Hardy Boyz rip-off. On Thunder it was announced that their team name was Too Excess but that didn't last for long. WCW's legal department nixed the name, apparently feeling it was too similar to the Hardyz whole "2 extreme" thing. No word on what they'll end up being called now (they end up just being called XS).
Sting and Goldberg both did interviews with the Observer website. Sting expressed frustration with WCW not knowing what to do with him anymore. He also said they talked about him bringing back his old blond flat-top gimmick back but he said he doesn't want to do it. As for Goldberg, he said he suffered a severed tendon in his arm and needed over 31 liters of blood in the transfusion and came within a centimeter of losing usage of his arm. He also talked about his streak ending and said, "from that point on my career went downhill. I believe that to be an indication of the inability of the people responsible there to do their job, I guess." He said he's learned he can't trust anyone in wrestling and said he wasn't thrilled with Russo and Ferrera and the direction they've taken the company. "The new writers we brought in made me sick. I'm not Steve Austin and Bill Busch isn't Vince McMahon," he said. He also hinted at wanting to do MMA and there's been rumors of him fighting in Pride. Dave thinks it's a bad idea because he has so much to lose and so little to gain in a legit fight.
Hulk Hogan appeared on Bubba The Love Sponge's ~~wife~~ radio show and also trashed WCW, saying they won't spend money to make money and said it was stupid that he wasn't even booked on Nitro for that night. He also particularly trashed Billy Kidman, saying Kidman wouldn't be able to headline a flea market and that WCW needs to stick with guys like himself, Savage, Sting, and Goldberg to bring in ratings. He said it's no wonder WWF is kicking their ass when WCW won't even use Hogan on TV while they have Kidman main eventing shows (which leads Dave to question, since when has Kidman worked a main event? Not on any shows Dave has been watching).
Latest on Shane Douglas and Konnan is that WCW wants 'em gone. But Douglas is refusing to sign his release that they offered him and Konnan has a meeting scheduled this week, but as it stands, WCW isn't making any effort to bring them back. Probably should have stuck with Benoit & Co. rather than chickening out when shit got real. Now they're stuck in the middle with neither side fighting for them.
Rick Steiner won the Buckmasters Classic hunting championship, which is a pretty famous celebrity hunting competition that a lot of wrestlers usually compete in. Steiner won the big buck competition. Due to an error in scoring, he thought he lost and so he left before the competition was over to fly to Nitro. But then they figured out the error and realized he'd won but they couldn't find him for the trophy ceremony. Steiner didn't even find out he won until the next day.
There was a big story in Variety that both CBS and FOX were trying to land deals with WWF for both network and cable shows. On the CBS side, the story reported that the plans were to keep Smackdown on UPN but to move Raw and all other shows over to TNN, which is owned by Viacom/CBS. WWF's contract with the USA Network expires in September 2001 but they have an escape clause that allows them to get out of the deal this year if they want to. TNN is a much lower-rated network than USA (even though they're both available in about the same number of homes) but WWF has enough fan loyalty that Dave thinks most fans would follow the show over to the new channel, although it'll probably still suffer a slight ratings hit. As for FOX, Rupert Murdoch claims they have no interest in wrestling but that's just patently not true and in fact, WWF and FOX have had off-and-on negotiations for the last 2 years. In fact, just before Owen Hart's death last year, FOX made a serious offer to outright buy the entire WWF, but Vince turned it down. As for current negotiations, the story reported that FOX is looking to buy an equity stake in WWF and that Smackdown would move from UPN to FOX, with Raw moving to FX. That would be a huge blow at first for WWF since FX is in about 30 million less homes than USA, although if Raw moved to FX, it would go a long way towards getting more systems to pick up the channel. Also, the FOX deal can't happen for at least 2 more years because UPN still has a contract for Smackdown until then and considering that's the show that is basically keeping UPN alive, they're not going to give it up willingly. This news led to WWF's stock going up sharply when the story came out. But then the next day, Vince announced the XFL, which erased all the gains and then some.
Royal Rumble did about 600,000 buys on PPV. For comparison, WCW Souled Out a week earlier did about 95,000 and ECW did 80,000 a week before that. This makes it the 2nd biggest Rumble in history (last year did 700,000 buys). WWF was pretty worried about buyrates for Rumble and especially Wrestlemania this year since Austin is gone, but this is a pretty good sign that Wrestlemania will still do just fine without him.
Smackdown notes: Dave thinks this was the best episode of SD since it debuted. Cactus Jack cut a promo on the Radicalz and trashed WCW (referring to it only as "Atlanta") and saying the reason the Radicalz came to WWF was because they weren't old enough to cut it in WCW. Dave says the perception of WCW as a company full of old has-beens is a real problem and they need to start giving young stars mega pushes, whether they're ready or not, because they have to erase that stigma. He says WWF pushed Triple H long before he was ready but it's paying off now and he's become a strong main event star. This is the episode Eddie Guerrero got injured in, messing up his elbow on a frog splash. There was some question over how that match ended because Eddie was supposed to win but after injuring his arm, he kinda panicked and told Road Dogg to pin him to end the match, which they did. But it was an arm injury. Austin damn near got paralyzed and still managed to get his scheduled pin on Owen Hart a couple years ago and there seems to be some raised eyebrows on Eddie for the way he handled it. Anyway, the Triple H/Benoit match was the best match in SD's short history, even though having him (the uncrowned WCW champion) lose to Triple H (the WWF champion) on the very first night didn't do Benoit any favors. But evidently sending the message that WWF is superior to WCW is more important to Vince (yup. He'll prove it again by totally botching the Invasion and he'll still be doing it 15 years later with Sting at Wrestlemania). Triple H also survived the crossface twice and kicked out of Benoit's diving headbutt finisher and Dave just isn't sure what the point is. But either way, Benoit came off like a total star and Dave says WCW has no idea just how badly they fucked up by having this guy on their roster for 4 years and never doing anything with him until it was too late.
Raw notes: Chyna wasn't on the show because she was filming a guest spot for the show Third Rock From The Sun. The Radicalz turned heel on Cactus Jack and were signed to WWF by Triple H and Stephanie, which led to the main event of the show which Dave says was the best Raw match in a LONG time. Triple H/X-Pac/Benoit/Malenko/Saturn vs. Cactus Jack/Rock/Rikisi/Too Cool. Dave gives it 4.25 stars and said it was one of those nights where everything clicked perfect and the crowd heat was off the charts. Kane and Paul Bearer returned to a monster pop.
Chris Benoit was on a recent radio show and said the reason they didn't do a WWF vs. WCW champion angle when he came in is because the WCW title doesn't mean anything anymore and has no credibility to start with, so the angle would have been meaningless. He said he was disappointed that he never got to have real feuds with Bret Hart or Ric Flair and said he had been promised repeatedly that he would, but it never happened. He said WCW had asked him and all the other guys who wanted to leave to just sit on it for a week and meet again to re-discuss. Shane Douglas had pushed everybody to wait the week and hear what WCW had to say, but Benoit said he had already made up his mind the day he walked out that he would never wrestle for WCW again even if he had to sit out the rest of his contract.
ABC 20/20 did a story on Mick Foley and Beyond The Mat, mostly focusing on the damage he does to his body and the effect it may be having on his brain. During production of the story, WWF's PR guy trashed the movie and claimed the scene with Foley's kids crying during his match was staged. Foley was pretty irritated by that and the PR guy eventually apologized for saying it (if you think he's irritated now, just wait till Vince talks shit about Foley's wife).
Vince McMahon was a guest on Jim Rome's show Last Word. It was mostly WWF-related (and Rome doesn't like wrestling) despite McMahon trying to steer the conversation towards the XFL. Rome doesn't know enough about wrestling to ask good follow-up questions, so he just asked Vince about the usual stuff (is it acceptable for kids, drug use, Owen's death, etc.). Of course, Vince is used to this game and he handled Rome pretty easily since he didn't know enough about the business to challenge any of Vince's responses. Rome was respectful during the interview but after the interview, in his closing comments, he trashed wrestling and McMahon, basically saying it damages society with racism and sexism and corrupts children and all that shit. Dave thinks Rome should have had the balls to say all that stuff during the interview rather than waiting for McMahon to leave and then tack it on to the end of the show when Vince isn't there to defend himself.

READ: Transcript/recap of Vince McMahon on Last Word

Shawn Michaels met with Jim Ross last week and expressed interest in returning to television, but it's said his back is worse than ever now (even after the surgery) and they never even discussed the possibility of him making an in-ring return. Shawn also is interested in getting some of his students a tryout.
Various WWF notes: Undertaker had surgery for a torn pec he suffered weightlifting which should keep him out another 3-4 months. Taka Michinoku will still be out for another 3 weeks or so after suffering a dislocated shoulder at Royal Rumble in that bump they kept replaying. Trish Stratus is expected to start on television in the next month or so, no word on her role yet.
Letters section is all people with thoughts on the XFL. One guy says it's just another Vince McMahon ego trip and says he's crazy for risking company money to do it (while publicly thumbing his nose at stockholders). Two different people speculate that this is Vince's response to Ted Turner announcing a similar plan last year, though Turner later decided it wasn't feasible and abandoned the idea. (In retrospect, I wonder how much of the XFL was just Vince McMahon trying to prove he could do something Ted Turner couldn't? Vince has always had a pretty unhealthy obsession with him). Someone else says the XFL will never get off the ground so why even talk about it? Someone else thinks Vince might succeed and says to never underestimate him. And most everybody else predicts that this is doomed for failure and says Vince needs to stick to wrestling because that's what he knows and he always fails at every other venture.

WEDNESDAY: Vince McMahon continuing to make headlines with the XFL, Scott Hall has another incident in Europe, several former wrestlers file racial discrimination lawsuit against WCW, and more...

Which ideological bloc is best positioned to win the 2nd Weltkrieg? A military and geopolitical analysis of Europe Part 2

Hello Kaiserreich! The amount of interest in the first version of this post was surprising and awesome to see. So I'd like to thank all of you for reading and encouraging me to continue.
It happened lads. We hit the word barrier. Not only did we hit the word barrier, but part 2 alone hit the word barrier. Comments have 1/4th the word limit of posts so I have no real choice but to split the post, otherwise there'd be a chain of like 80 comments. So anyway, here's part two of part two (lol).
Click here for part two
So I way underestimated just how much goes into this, it took like 2 hours just to get through Germany's section in part 2. I'm trying to make sure I don't miss anything or give either side an unfair advantage that they shouldn't have. It also doesn't help that I'm off the reservation now, pretty far removed from the focuses and event of the mod. Once again, let me know what you think at the end and feel free to ask questions. I'd also like to know what you guys think of the little narrative bits I threw in. If you hate them and think they're unnecessary/just bad let me know, I'll axe them. Part 3 which is the war itself will be out tomorrow, I can guarantee that. It's looking like there is a desire for a part 4 which covers the aftermath as well, I'll do that after everything else is done.
As a side note, it may seem after going through part 2 that the situation for the Internationale and Russia is a bit bleak. Not to worry, the war is very much a 2 sided affair and the victory is very much pyrrhic. While I now know who will be coming out on top it is close enough that I wasn't sure until I got about halfway through part 3.
As with the first post, this will be an exceptionally long block of text, but this time much larger than the average dev diary in size as it now includes an amended part 1 (the buildup) as well as part 2 (the war setup and details on the major players). I've made quite a few changes (some from suggestions and corrections in the comments, others I've changed as new info appeared) to part 1 so I'd recommend going through it again, but if you don't want to reread all of that (understandable) then just skip to the comments section. Just scroll down and you'll see it. That said, read the amended rules of this scenario before you go. If you don't feel like pouring through all this the tldr has been moved to the part 2 section (see above).
The last few days I have seen a few threads asking if there is a "canon" ending for the 2nd Weltkrieg or who the community believes is best positioned to win (ie Sternberg). Responses range from the scenarios put forward by kalterkrieg to that of krasnacht and everywhere in between. This got me thinking as to who truly is in the best position to achieve final victory (aside from the Khan of Khans, but that's obvious). Also a quick disclaimer, this is not an after action report, I did not play the mod and get this result, this is what I believe would happen given my knowledge (and internet resources) regarding the resources and hypothetical industrial capabilities of the nations involved, as well as their realpolitik situations.
There are a few ground rules I'd like to set out before I begin. First, while I will attempt to remain as "realistic" as possible I will also be doing so in the context of the world the KR team has created (ie the 2nd ACW and Austrian Empire/Ottoman/AOG existence will be discussed regardless of its "real life" likelihood).
Second, I will be focusing predominantly on Europe. The other continents will be mentioned and discussed to varying extents, but for the most part, this is about Europe.
Third, while I will make several comparisons to OTL WW2, as well as the nations and men that fought in them, the various factions in the KTL are by no means limited by the actions and resources of their real world counterparts, nor are they limited by the focus trees and events in the Kaiserreich mod. This is what I believe would come to pass given the starting scenario of January 1st 1936 in addition to a handful of other major events such as the Kerensky assassination, the 2nd ACW, and Black Monday.
Lastly, this scenario can (just as the mod itself) be affected by thousands of different variables. I am merely analyzing what is in my opinion the most likely outcome. Unforeseeable events are almost guaranteed in everyday life, let alone in the chaos of a world war. The conclusion I come to will not be agreed on by a great many, if not most, of the users on this sub.
So without further ado, let us begin.
We will start with the first domino to fall on our way to WK2, Russia. Russia in OTL's 1936 was a miserable nation comprised of hundreds of ethnicities and religions, all of them chafing under the "Man of Steel," Joseph Stalin. While the KTL Russia has not suffered the tens of millions of dead, ruthless repression, or vicious purges of the Stalin led Soviet Union, it has also not benefited from it's industrial revolution. As of 1914 the Russian Empire, while improving, was laughably underdeveloped compared to its neighbours to the west (and east in Japan). The Russian economy was overly reliant on agriculture and still operated on a quasi feudal system that crippled the nation economically and laid the foundation for what would become the February and October revolutions. Stalin in OTL recognized these weaknesses and resolved to fix them. Resolve that led to millions of dead Russians and the miraculous success of his five year plans. These were economic initiatives that turned Russia from a cold backwater into the nation that would rival the United States for the latter half of the 20th century. Russia in the KTL never benefited from these ambitious projects. The KTL Russia has been crippled by war reparations to Germany, the loss of half it's arable land, and internal instability. With all this said, Russia is most akin to a less industrialized Weimar Germany, and as such is extremely likely to turn to extremism to solve its problems. An economically crippled and internationally humiliated Russia would be permeated by revanchism to its very core. Given Russia's long history of autocratic rule and near absence of democratic tradition (let alone successful democracy) it is almost a guarantee that Russia would turn to either the far left or the far right. Which of these it would choose is up for debate, and ultimately of limited consequence to this analysis. However, given the fact that the Bolsheviks have already been defeated in a long and bloody war only a decade prior to Kerensky's assassination, it is reasonable to presume that fear of a second civil war (inevitable if the communists were to attempt to seize power) would lead the Russian people to turn to the far right for an answer. Therefore, I believe that Boris Savinkov (or an ideological equivalent) would become the leader of Russia. The Russian people while afraid of Bolshevik influence, are still attracted to the promises it makes. As such, Savinkov's National Populist movement would be very appealing to not only the peasants, but to the hardline anti-German elites as well. Pyotr Wrangel offers a strong (and perhaps more level headed) alternative to Savinkov but is ultimately held back by his more measured approach. The Russian people want bread and they want vengeance. Savinkov offers these things and far more, a more attractive proposal then the cautious realpolitik of Wrangel. So while Wrangel may be the best option for Russia's long term success, I believe it is Savinkov that finds himself in power alongside Kornilov until the latter's death. Regardless of who finds themselves leading the geographically largest nation in the world, their foreign policy will be completely consumed by the need to reestablish Russia as a world power in the aftermath of Black Monday and the subsequent weakening of the German sphere. Once France or Germany kicks off the 2nd Weltkrieg, it is unlikely Russia could resist attacking Germany while it's back is turned. I'll return to Russia later for it's role in eastern Europe during the run up to, and execution of the 2nd WK.
Next up is Spain on the other side of Europe. In OTL Spain kept itself out of the 2nd world war for a variety of reasons. It had little to gain from choosing a side and was under no real threat itself from the belligerents. It was in the interests of both sides that Spain remain neutral (at least after the fall of North Africa to the allies). This is not so in the KTL. KTL Spain has no choice but to choose a side or one will inevitably be chosen for her. If the monarchy finds itself victorious it is doubtful that the French will merely wave from across the Pyrenees as they paint Europe red. As for the Germans, only a fool would believe that the Huns would not press on to Barcelona as soon as France falls. And so Spain really has no choice but to side with their ideological comrades. So who would win the Spanish civil war you might ask? Easy, the CNT. And it isn't even close. With Germany reeling from Black Monday and other events around the globe, the Entente waste deep in the American civil war, and the monarchist/anti-syndicalist democratic base split between the Carlists and the loyalists, there's only one real option. Augmented by a barely guised French intervention that rivals the size of the OTL Chineses intervention in the Korean war, the CNT would find victory in only a few months. Aside from weak diplomatic protests out of Berlin and Ottawa in regards to what is essentially a French invasion, nothing would (or could) be done about it. On a side note for Iberian peninsula, the collapse of Spain to syndicalism raises more than a few alarms in Lisbon. Furious debate would rage in both Algiers and Ottawa as to whether they should even attempt to defend Portugal should the need arise, or if they even could. Ultimately, the hawks would have their way and Portugal would be admitted to the Entente. This would not be taken well in Barcelona or Paris but ultimately there isn't much they can do until they stabilize Spain. A war with the entente this early would almost guarantee intervention by Germany and thus spell the doom of the Internationale. Thus Portugal would become a fortress, preparing for an inevitable syndicalist assault, and to act as the beachhead for the liberation of western Europe.
On our way back east we will stop by France and the UoB for a quick go over of the politcal situation (they will be covered in depth in part 2). Given the republican traditions of France and the democratic traditions of Britain, I doubt totalists could find their way to the highest echelons of power. While I cannot say for certain I would assume that orthodox syndicalists or radical socialists would be the predominant players in the two leaders of the Internationale. It doesn't matter a whole lot however as this analysis only covers the buildup to and execution of WK2 and not the economies and social lives of the nations involved. As for the SRI (no I didn't forget about them), they have a higher chance of going totalist than France or Britain given the fact their nation was blown to pieces, though I can't say for certain. Based off of the fact that Italians flocked to Mussolini after OTL WW1 it isn't hard to believe they would turn to totalists after the KTL WK and Italian civil war. If I had to put money on it, I would bet on orthodox syndicalist France, radsoc UoB (though the independence of Scotland and Wales is not necessarily included in that), and totalist Italy.
We now return to the steppe, to the lands of Ukraine and Belorussia. How exactly the German government would handle the aftermath of Black Monday is of course up for debate, but given that the German Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia before it were historically quite protectionist, it is reasonable to assume that Germany would leave its eastern partners out to dry to varying degrees. While Mitteleuropa called for an open trade union, that's easy to say when everything is peachy. As our own world's European Union has shown on many occasions, the various members will not hesitate to build fences (sometimes literally) if they think it is in their best interests. Authoritarian Germany would be no different and calls from the SPD for European unity and brotherhood would be swept aside. In the case of the Baltic Duchy where a large population of Germans reside, Germany would likely not shut them out, but for Ukraine and Belorussia, the impact would be far more severe. Given Belorussia's relative proximity to the Baltic Duchy and Germany itself it is likely that should any serious issues arise, they would be stamped out quickly by German forces. The Russians will also be far more hesitant to intervene in a nation closer to Germany and therefore potentially beyond the "red line" that would result in war before they're ready. Poor Ukraine on the other hand is in quite the pickle. With a revanchist and expansionist Russia to the east, and an indifferent German overlord to the west, Ukraine will have to look inward for a solution. A solution that will not come from the false king forced upon them. It is in this moment, struggling to feed their families and resentful of foreign meddling that Ukraine would, in my opinion, make the worst decision it could possibly make given their location and the politcal climate. That's right kaiserreich, I'm talking about the Corn Lord. Khrushchev wouldn't even have time to nationalize the industry. A syndicalist nation arising within the German sphere would not be tolerated by Berlin, and with the nearest friendly nation on the opposite end of Europe and unready for war, the carrion birds would flock to the land of corn. This would be the likely result of Ukraine's desire for independence. While Germany descends from Belorussia and reactionaries take to the streets of Kiev, the Russians and Poles would not allow such an opportunity to grab claimed land pass by. The Poles would supposedly act in the interest of protecting Polish minorities while Russia would blitz to the Dnieper in the name of protecting their kinsmen from the evils of syndicalism. Regardless of the publicized reason, Europe would be brought the brink of war. Poland, a de facto member of the German sphere would be begrudgingly ignored by Germany for the sake of focusing on a much larger foe. The Russian occupation of half of the Kingdom of Ukraine would bring Europe the closest it has been to war since the end of the first weltkrieg. With neither side willing to risk all out war just yet, an uneasy peace would settle. At the end of the day, east Ukraine would be dismembered to best serve the Russian state, and the west would be kept intact only to provide a buffer state against the resurgent Russians. No matter which side of the Dnieper a Ukrainian finds themselves on, a gun will be placed in their hands and an order barked to point it at their former neighbours.
The collapse of the Kingdom of Ukraine has further ramifications however. With Germany's land access to the Caucasus removed, Savinkov would waste little time moving against the pretenders in the south. With example of the Alash Orda and Turkestan to look to, as well as massive Russian minorities demanding reintegration, the Don Kuban union, already a house of cards, would crumble. Faced with the bear on their doorstep and Germany now hundreds of miles away, Armenia and Azerbaijan would have little choice but to accept annexation. Georgia, being a socialist state may attempt resistance, but far more likely it's leaders see the writing on the wall and flee the country. And so the bear consumes yet another abomination of Brest-Litovsk.
This brings us to Austria and its "friends" across the Balkans. Austria's problems run deep and stretch from one corner of the empire to the other. If the central powers had won the war it would have been a monumental task to hold the Empire together, a task that historians debate to this day as to whether or not it was even possible. That said, the KTL has Austria surviving this long on the back of our benevolent Kaiser Karl's reforms. As such, Austria will remain intact in this scenario, weathering the storm of the 20's and 30's and coming out (relatively) intact. With storm clouds brewing to the west and east and the world staggering from the effects of Black Monday, the Ausgleich of 1937 is the most important in the Empire's history. Now more than ever Austria must present a strong face to the world. Karl as of 1937 is a seasoned statesmen and negotiator with over two decades of experience on the Austro-Hungarian throne, and he learned much from the failed negotiations of 1927. The last decade has seen ever more reforms pushed through Vienna and into the waiting arms of the "lesser" members of the Empire. Hungarians and their ruled minorities alike look on with envy at the rights and privileges allowed to the other regions of the Empire. As 1937 arrives Karl seeks a true Empire, undivided into petty spheres and states that bicker amongst each other, the Hungarians wish to cling to the old ways of despotism and nobility, and the minor members simply want to be reunited with their kin. The result of the Ausgleich is a mixture of the status quo and pluralism, with the non Hungarian portions of the Empire being united in deed as well as name, and Hungary slowing being forced by internal pressures to adopt the reforms. While Karl is content to let the Hungarians come around in their own time, fate has other plans. The 2nd Weltkrieg comes as an unwelcome shock to Vienna and Budpast, and with the threat of Russian boots and French tanks fast approaching, plans are accelerated. Austria, for the first time in the history of it's existence, is truly united. Whether this is through the United States or the Federation is inconsequential, all that matters is that Austria is either already a unified force by the time the war begins, or it swiftly becomes one in the face of the red tide. As for the rest of the Balkans, the recent troubles in Vienna and the aftermath of Black Monday have allowed the various minor nations to challenge the status quo of Austro-Bulgarian dominance in the region. Unfortunately for you Serbia/Greece/Romania fans out there, this likely would't work out well for them. Serbia has been reduced to a rump state, Romania is crippled by forced oil exports to Germany, and Greece is wracked by internal woes. Thanks to whatever caused the Iron Guard/Monarchist split in the KTL Romania is constantly looking over its shoulder for monarchist sympathizers while Greece and Serbia eye a nation that has been preparing for their return for 20 years. Internal troubles or no, it is unlikely Austria would stand by and watch as Bulgaria collapses, nor would the Germans for that matter. Austria and it's Kaiser are no fools, they know that once Bulgaria is defeated Serbia and Romania will turn their eyes north to their "rightful" territories, and with access to the Caucasus cut off, Germany will be dead and rotting before they allow the last supply of oil in Europe to be denied to them. That is assuming the Bulgarians would be defeated in the first place, which they might not be given their superior industry and geographically defensible position (mountains to west and south, Danube to the north). Bulgaria has prepared itself for this moment for decades, but can they hold against an invasion from three side? Austria has always treated them as nuisance and an irritant inside "their" sphere of influence. This is to say nothing of the self obsessed Germans and their oaf of a Kaiser. Yet with enemies on all side and a restless Turk population in occupied Edirne perhaps it is for the best that old bridges be rebuilt? Between Iron Guard nationalization of the oil fields and revanchism out of Serbia, I believe it is almost assured that Austria and Germany would intervene in the Balkans. Whether this would be the beginning of rapprochement between the two old allies or a cause of further disagreements I will leave up to you as the coming second WK will wipe away all petty squabbles and thus leave the point moot. Regardless of how Germany and Austria go about it, the Belgrade pact is doomed to failure thanks to Iron Guard sabre rattling against a vastly superior foe and unconcealed Serbian revanchism towards a nation with thirty times their population. On a side note for those wondering, the Ottomans are dead. Like super dead. Like if the mod didn't need something happening in that area they wouldn't have made it past 1925 dead. The Ottomans are permeated to the core by corruption and ethnic troubles. They collapse into oblivion during their war with the Cairo Pact and Bulgaria occupies their European possessions outside Constantinople. This is likely the only time they will be mentioned in this analysis.
Before heading to the self appointed hegemon of the world, I will be taking a quick trip around the world to the various other flashpoints that take place in the mod (at least the ones that hold relevance to the 2WK, sorry SA). While China is currently undergoing a substantial update, we aren't entirely sure what that will bring, as such I will be dealing with them as they are now. And as they are now is not good, at least not for the Germans. In the aftermath of Black Monday and Germany's turn inwards, the AOG would be almost guaranteed to completely collapse in on itself immediately. Now whether this leads to the establishment of the republic (which is what I believe would happen) or if the Qing would move into to secure the rubble is beyond the scope of this analysis. The Indo-Chinese revolt would most likely be successful but it is possible that an aggressive regime willing to accept civilian casualties (ie Germany) would come out victorious. It's hard to say, and even if Ost-Asien is successful Von Mucke would be forced to deal with guerrillas retreating into the mountains and jungles to fight on. Ultimately the Pacific theater isn't particularly relevant to this analysis and Germany would be far more preoccupied with events in Europe and would likely leave Mucke to fend for himself. I just wanted to glance over the region. Speaking of glancing over, Mittelafrika is far too large and complex to be 100% reliant on a single man. Therefore even if Goering decides to blow it all up with his incompetence, he wouldn't really be able to do so. While significant damage could be caused, it would hardly result in the entire continent exploding. Mittelafrika is a complex web of local leaders and colonies, all held together by the German bureaucracy. If Goering was losing it, enemies in his own system would supplant him, or at the very worst, control of the colony would need to be transferred away from Dar Es Salaam and the local leaders informed. So as humorous as it is to see in game, Mittelafrika would not just blow up one day. It's possible that mass uprisings would occur, but nothing like you see in the mod. Many asked in the first version of this post about Japan, I may do one of these for the Pacific but in regards to this particular analysis they are not relevant. KTL Japan is nearly identical to OTL Japan and would need to take many of the same routes. Germany would be at war with them, but being surrounded on all sides in Europe they would leave it for another time. Japan would not invade Russia during all this, and Russia would not invade Transamur, if there's a desire I will go into why at a later date. Short story, Russia wants to regain all its western lands and punish Germany, not fight a years long war over what is essentially just Vladivostok.
Second to last and certainly feeling like they're the least, is the good old USA. The first post showed that all of you are very interested in the US conflict so it will be a bit more fleshed out than I originally intended and will partially break rule 2. If there's a desire for it (which there seems to be), an in depth analysis of the 2nd ACW will be next.The US is a very difficult entity to predict in the KTL and the most difficult part of this entire analysis for me personally. The United States in KTL is completely off the reservation and cannot really be compared to OTL as other nations can. While Russia is just Russia with half the people and factories, Austria had reforms so they're stable, and Britain had a revolution because of government cruelty, the US is in chaos just... because. It is entirely for gameplay purposes and doesn't have the same foundation other parts of the world do. The United States is in many ways the exact same as in our timeline, chaffing under the great depression and warily eyeing the coming storm. Yet in so many others it is completely unrecognizable. The US of OTL scoffed at extremism even in the depths of the great depression. National Socialism, Fascism, Socialism, and Communism never broke single digit percentile of national support and even then those that rallied around these groups often dropped the overt authoritarianism of their overseas benefactors. The US of the KTL however is entirely different. Authoritarianism is not just accepted but advocated by large swathes of the population and the recovery of the economy from both natural improvement and the (never penned) New Deal is non-existent. To make matters worse a lack of military industry from US involvement in WW1 and the collapse of the allies that owed millions to US banks has made the depression even more depressing than in OTL. I will do my best to convey what I believe would come to pass in the KTL but be warned that this is by far the most uncertain given its divergence from our reality.
The election of 1936 makes our real life 2016 elections look like an amiable tea party of best friends. Reed, Garner, and Long would have to be physically kept away from each other and anything resembling a coherent debate would be impossible. After years of completely ineffective Republican rule it is highly unlikely that the soft spoken and polite Curtis could achieve victory in the election. The Republicans clung to power in 1932 on the back of the House of Representatives, the American people would not let this happen again. The US people would be looking for decisive action, both politically in regards to the AFP and CSA, as well as economically in regards to the depression and now Black Monday. Even with the significant difference between OTL and KTL, the majority of the United States would be outright hostile to the rhetoric of both Long and Reed. Talk of broken chains and universal kingship would fall on deaf ears in the middle class and affluent west coast. With Curtis speaking of negotiations and seeming to be nothing but a continuation of the miserable status quo, Long spouting nonsense about a nation of kings and Reed dancing to the tune of Paris and London, many Americans will feel they have no choice but to choose the only option they feel will bring about real change. Democrat John Nance Garner. The Garnergang is a mixed bag to say the least. A staunch believer in republican and capitalist principles he sees Long and Reed as traitors both, and would be completely unwilling to negotiate with either. Why would he? They lost. As such the second American civil war begins with Garner unwilling to even discuss social security or welfare with Reed and threats of military action if the Minutemen don't stand down. With Garner standing defiant on the steps of the White House, the Internationale ringing from the streets of Chicago, and rebel yells echoing across the South, the world holds it's breath. While the political and social climate of the United States is quite difficult to predict, the actual outcome of the war is not. First things first, the west coast states do not secede, especially with Garner in control. The secession is being removed next update (barring MacArthur dictatorship, I'll get to him in a minute) and it doesn't make any sense in this context.
To start with the war itself, the American Union State is in a pitiful position. In OTL the south was heavily under industrialized well into the 1960's, not even coming close to northern levels during the post WW2 golden age. The south is no different in the KTL, if anything it is worse due to no US involvement in WK1 and the absence of the New Deal. Long's power base is therefore completely devoid of any actual power. He doesn't have the manpower, he doesn't have the industry, and he doesn't have the international support as Germany would much sooner support Garner in Washington than a man who swears to redistribute the wealth (another change coming in .8 is Germany can back the feds). The Minutemen would be pushed further and further back and reduced to scattered bands waging guerrilla war out of mountains and swamps across the South, as the bands of pro Long militia spread across the disUnited States are hunted down one by one. When this war started Huey forgot the most important law of all in America. There are no kings here, and there never will be.
Reed doesn't have it much better, possessing plenty of manpower and industry in the rust belt but none of the farmland to feed them with southern Indiana and Illinois a war zone. Reed's CSA stands thousands of miles from the nearest friendly nation that can help them with what is possibly the most anti-syndicalist nation in the world on their northern border. The reaction from Edward would be quick and decisive, an immediate intervention in the war to crush the syndicalists in America. Canada cannot even consider reclamation of the home islands as long as a hostile American force is at their back. How Canada would go about this intervention is arguable, it is possible they work hand in hand with the United States to end the war (I believe this to be the most likely), or they could act aggressively and infuriate an already cornered Garner (not particularly necessary given the ideological likeness and amicable relations with the federal US). Regardless of Edward's choice, it is very unlikely that the US and Canada fight one another. Even if Canada occupied New England and Alaska it would be promptly returned to the US at wars end lest Canada be prepared to face a full scale US invasion and uprisings across New England. Ultimately Reed would stand a decent chance on his own but would eventually be completely overwhelmed by a two front war with the feds and Canada. With a war in Europe brewing France and Britain hardly have the men to send on an excursion across the Atlantic, to say nothing of how they would actually get there. The navies of the Federalists and the Entente far outnumber those of the Internationale. The limited coastline of the CSA would be easily blockaded by the Norfolk and Boston based USN. Any attempt at a cross Atlantic naval invasion would be insanity. With no help from Europe and surrounded on all sides, Reed is left standing alone amidst the ruins of the revolution. His chains finally broken.
As for the periphery of this conflict, Hawaii was/is home to a large portion of the US Pacific fleet. With the west coast staying loyal to Washington there is no way Hawaii would be able to break away. Any local syndicalist or native troubles would be put down hard by the military presence on the islands. That brings us to Mexico. Mexico is not in an ideal position as of 1936, even in the KTL. Mexico has lacked stability ever since achieving independence from Spain and their only chance in hell of actually taking land from the United States is the three way civil war tearing the nation apart. Even so, Mexico is faced with a host of issues, firstly, the geography. The Mexican American border is a thousand miles of less than ideal terrain, with the sizable Rio Grande separating them from well developed and heavily garrisoned Texas (it neighbours AUS Louisiana and would be a front line state), as well as the vast Mojave desert. As real life campaigns in North Africa and the Middle East have shown, it takes a well equipped and supplied army to engage in desert warfare. Mexico, barring magic, would not have the motorized or mechanized units nor the logistical means to engage in this invasion. It would be tens of thousands of Mexican troops walking through a desert or attacking across a wide and fast running river against a determined defender (remember that Mexico is syndicalist, the Garner led US would suspect a back stab). Even if the Mexican army crossed the Rio Grande and Mojave, they would then run into a very unwelcoming American civilian population, the most heavily armed in the world. Even then, even if they took border towns and cities, it would all come crashing down when the 2ACW ended and Garner turned his eyes south. Moral of the story, Mexico isn't stupid, they wouldn't invade. If they did, they'd lose. Before I move on, many of you are wondering about our glorious Caesar and his role in the politics of the United States. Simple, he doesn't have one, at least not during the war. He's a general, perhaps he distinguishes himself in the war perhaps he flops, it's hard to tell given his spotty strategic record in OTL WW2 and Korea. As evidenced by his leadership of the Philippines, Japan, and even as the superintendent of West Point, MacArthur was a staunch Democratic Republican and was as far from a Julius Caesar as you can get. With that said, he may very well enter politics after the war is over.
So at the end of the war, America lies broken and divided. The South scarred and burned in Long's scorched earth retreat, the rust belt in ruins from federal and entente bombs. Americans want nothing more than to run and hide from the world's problems as they've always done, but a debt is now owed to the Entente that ensured their victory. And as the drums of war beat across Europe, a red sun rises in the east. Garner and a defeated nation must attempt to rebuild to face the challenges ahead. But for the first time since America was founded 150 years prior, Americans begin to ask themselves. Is the republican experiment a failure? The second civil war in less than a century has left millions dead and countless more lives devastated beyond repair. Is what's left of America still worth fighting for? The traitors have been put down and the stars raised across the land. But no one is singing.
On a (slightly) less somber note, we arrive at Germany. Germany has made few friends since the end of the Weltkrieg and has often alienated the ones it already had. The great Kaiserreich now stands as the undisputed hegemon of the world, basking in the sun it sought for so long. From Saint Helena in the south Atlantic to Pitcairn island in the south Pacific, the sun never sets on the German Empire. At the start of 1936 Germany is on top of the world, the apex predator so to speak. No nation or alliance can hope to challenge the Reich alone. However, over the years Germany has steadily alienated it's allies and accumulated many strong enemies. Brought low by the disaster of black Monday and the subsequent collapse of half her sphere around the globe, German stands on the edge of a knife. One wrong move and her place in the sun, her position atop the world stage, her very existence as a nation, could be forfeit. To the west, the godless syndicalists of the Internationale. To the east, Savinkov and his mob of barbarians. All are intent on destroying the Reich and the better world it has created. Yet now the Kaiser of Kaisers and his people must come to terms with the fact that no matter how powerful you are, no matter how vast your empire, no single nation can stand alone. A lesson that will cost Germany and her Kaiser much in the war to come. In strictly geopolitcal terms Germany has failed miserably in the aftermath of the Weltkrieg. The Reichspakt is held together by fear and German arms, former allies in Austria and Bulgaria turn their backs to the Kaiser as the Ottoman Empire crumbles to dust. And all the while the wolves circle east and west, waiting to pounce at the slightest sign of weakness. Germany does have one great advantage however, they are the lesser of two evils in the eyes of many. All across Europe, kings, queens, and kaisers alike ask themselves what will become of their nations should the German goliath fall. Will The Internationale cease their advance and look inwards? Will the Russian bear's voracious appetite be sated? Of course not. Should Germany fall, the free nations of Europe are next.
And so the Reich does not stand alone.

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No limit holdem - after the flop

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Wrestling Observer Rewind ★ Jun. 17, 2002