I feel bad for Team Spirit after they cruised to a 7-2 start on Nuke. It made me think they're halfway there to making it in the semis, but it was more than that when Mouz suddenly locked in on the second half. It's nuts how Mouz got away with that while Brollan only had 4 kills throughout that decider map. In Spirit, donk and sh1ro really play on a different level. If one of these 2 players leaves the team, it will be difficult for Spirit to reach its former strength. Spirit can strengthen this squad even more by adding to it. I expect kyousuke from the academy team to be added to the main squad. When we really watch him, he is a player like donk. Imagine if you have 2 donks in your team, how will you beat them?
I agree with donk and sh1ro being the key players of Team Spirit, but I doubt kyousuke will be promoted to the main squad since there were rumors about him getting sold to Team Falcons and will replace Teses after the major tournament. That was an amazing match if you watched it. I thought I would be bored after Team Spirit won the first map and then call it an easy 2:0 win for the favorites to win. But no! Mouz just wouldn't go away and pressed Spirit to their boiling point. Was really one to rewatch if you had any bets on the match that could of had you bias of who you were rooting for. I've seen these rumors too, but right now team spirit doesn't have the scary power they used to have.If they want to win this, they need to make one or two changes to the main roster.The possibility of kyosuke and perfecto replacing magixx and zont1x has increased after yesterday's loss to mouz.Magixx has been on the team for a long time and definitely deserves a change.Mouz's comeback against Spirit was incredible.I think they surprised everyone by doing the unexpected because Spirit was the clear favorite of the match.
Wow, didn't realize that Team Spirit were looking to overhaul their main roster with that loss. Magixx has been with them for the longest time and a staple player who isn't so easy to replace. But if Falcons are involved you can expect them to request Donk to come over to their team. They have the money to keep buying team's best players. But yes, that was just an unbelievable match yesterday when they were down 11-7 map 1 you thought it was over but no, goes into overtime ending in 25-21. Then the decider which was Spirit's map pick they were up 7-2 then they completely crumbled.
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Some surprising scores yesterday from the Club World Cup starting with PSG losing to Botafogo. Then Chelsea after leading by a goal early in the first half managed to lose 3-1. But it did not help that Nicolas Jackson received a red card right after Flamengo scored their second goal. Atleast Benfica scored 6 goals to take their match from a pitiful Auckland side who hadn't scored a goal in their last match against Bayern Munich either. This kept the excitement alive for me. The more goals the better! We have some more matches later on tonight and into the weekend below: https://sportsbet.io/sports/soccer/matches/future
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If anyone watched the weigh-ins earlier today I didn't notice most of these fighters especially in the prelims haven't fought in the UFC before. The standouts were the women fighters.
The only fighter I noticed that was the host country is Tofiq Musayev who is fighting Myktybek Orolbai which I had seen in his last fight. So this might be one to look out for since I have no doubt this one will be just as good as the Khalil vs Jamahal fight. Orolbai is a very good fighter and looks in great shape at the weigh-ins.
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About Haliburton, he said that he is not going to miss this very important event of his life, and he played through even though he was actually hurt in Game 5. I think the real question here is his performance. Will he be aggressive in offense, unlike what happened in Game 5, or will he just be the same as he is? He is the key for the Pacers to dominate again, and with him being aggressive, it will open up a lot of space for his teammates.
Maybe he will be playing afterall. The odds have lowered since yesterday's news of he be will a game-time decision according to Rick Carlisle: https://www.si.com/betting/tyrese-haliburton-game-6-injury-update-betting-impact-for-thunder-vs-pacersHave already put in my bet so am locked in on the Pacers, so even if Haliburton will be cleared to play the odds I got them at will only go lower than the 3.00x that many got them at when the markets were released post game 5.
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We have UFC on ABC: Hill vs. Rountree Jr. this weekend. This will be the first time UFC has an event in Azerbaijan but not the greatest time to be travelling to this part of the world if you know its location. https://www.sherdog.com/news/articles/Stand-and-Deliver-UFC-Baku-197340 Main card (ABC / ESPN+)Jamahal Hill vs. Khalil Rountree Jr. Rafael Fiziev vs. Ignacio Bahamondes Curtis Blaydes vs. Rizvan Kuniev Tofiq Musayev vs. Myktybek Orolbai Nazim Sadykhov vs. Nikolas Motta Muhammad Naimov vs. Bogdan Grad Preliminary card (ESPN2 / ESPN+)Ko Seok-hyun vs. Oban Elliott Ismail Naurdiev vs. Park Jun-yong Melissa Mullins vs. Daria Zheleznyakova Irina Alekseeva vs. Klaudia Syguła Tagir Ulanbekov vs. Azat Maksum Hamdy Abdelwahab vs. Mohammed Usman And look who is on these prelims: https://www.sherdog.com/fighter/Mohammed-Usman-253535Of all place, there is border issue going on there AFAIK just close Nagorno Karaba. If Trump attends the fight night accompanied by his mongering officials, I wouldn't be surprise if war sparks a few weeks after the event. Rountree vs Hill seem a fair match. It would be nice to just watch and bet live. I'd be rooting for Rountree if I have to parlay along with Bahamondes and Blayde. Maybe this 3 will make it. He will not be travelling to this part of the world. Never! Besides, If you haven't noticed he only goes to events that just in the United States. Pakistan already had blocked it's borders just yesterday for asylum seekers. So those closes of borders have already started. It is just weird time to have a card so close to a warzone. People there will be on edge as it is and not have their minds completely into having fun at an event. Khalil Rountree vs Jamahal Hill is a tough match to call. Rountree has made progress and improved. While Jamahal Hill's recent history has been strange. He looked terrible when he fought Pereira. Months later, there were pictures of him looking 50 pounds overweight on the internet. Then he fought Jiri Prochazka and looked fatigued in round 1 but still put up a good fight.
Yeah I completely agree with you there. But look at how Rountree Jr. did against Pereira. Alex Pereira vs Khalil Rountree Jr | FULL FIGHT - official channel of UFC Eurasiahttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFtIa_AEFiAKhalil almost made it to the fifth round with Alex while Jamahal got step-off ko'd by him. 
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Later tonight we have Inter Milan going against Monterrey and Ulsan vs Mamelodi Sundowns.
What a guy is Sergio Ramos, nearby to 40 years young and still making important goals, what a player, hate or love him but nobody can deny he is a beast. Disaster game by Inter, you can not win against Monterrey.... seems like they are already carrying in his head with the final game from champions league and dont suit good the new coach. Sergio Ramos is a beast if he is that old and still producing goals when they matter most to his team. He humbled Inter Milan that match and lets see if Lautaro Martínez can score again and actually win them a match this time. @arallmuus That Real Madrid match was a pure embarrassment to the team. They could of won the match with that penalty kick but they managed to bottle it right at the end. That was the only disappointment from the matches played yesterday as Manchester City won convincingly and Juventus winning with an impressive 5-0 score. Today's matches scheduled for later: https://sportsbet.io/sports/soccer/international-clubs/club-world-cup/matches
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Heroic announced a roster change. They said that Turkish player xFloud is on the bench and open to offers. Honestly, xFloud might be the best player in Heroic after tn1r. I don't understand why such a decision was taken. Heroic seems to be updating the squad after the failures, although not completely as a Swedish squad. When we look at the remaining players, we need a player to replace awper and xFloud. I wonder who they will take as awper. Many experienced players are currently available but it is a matter of curiosity whether they will join them.
Maybe they are planning on trading him to Aurora. They are an all Turkish team and if they get someone else on loan to fill in on the Heroic squad it just might work out better for them. Just like what happened to Faze Clan and S1mple from Falcons. https://www.hltv.org/news/41999/heroic-bid-farewell-to-saw-sunpayusI don't think so, I don't think Aurora's roster will change at the moment, if anyone will change it will be IGL Maj3r. I don't see a problem in the firepower of the team. We will wait and see how xfloud will follow his path, but there is of course a chance that he will return to Eternal Fire, but he has the potential to play in better teams now. So he might not come back. Yeah agree with you there. And if xfloud is not IGL material then I can not see him joining Aurora's ranks. Even if he is a Turkish CS2 player and would make the best sense too. Today we see the return of Austin Major gameplay with Team Spirit vs MOUZ and FURIA vs paiN gaming. The headlines are Donk, S1mple and Zywoo to take battle at BLAST! https://www.hltv.org/news/42004/s1mple-donk-and-zywoo-talk-battle-of-the-best-ahead-of-austin-major-playoffs
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We have UFC on ABC: Hill vs. Rountree Jr. this weekend.
This will be the first time UFC has an event in Azerbaijan but not the greatest time to be travelling to this part of the world if you know its location.
I think it is good when UFC moved to other countries outside United States, and that is why this time we have more fighters from surrounding regions in this card. I suggest tuning live early, prelims are starting with good heavyweight clash between Mohammed Usman and Abdelwahab. Main event should be interesting, and Hill has reach advantage, but I am giving slight advantage to Khalil Rountree this time. The good thing with doing this the start times are very early. This one the main card begins in the mid afternoon. So the prelims are around noon. So the entire card is done a little after your done your dinner. Khalil should win this fight with some difficulty. Hill will only win this fight if he is lucky enough to find a knockout blow. If Khalil knows how to get in and out of the fight with the blows, Hill will lose again and will be forgotten until he gets into a new controversy.
Many are saying a Khalil knockout win because of his durability in his last fight and Hill already got slept by that same opponent. So it will be very interesting to see what happens in this main event. Weigh-ins are in the regions local time but Ceremonial weigh-ins are in about 28 hours from now: UFC Baku: Ceremonial Weigh-Inhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8pnqgC5ays
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^^ Very good to know what The International prize pool distribution is and when the tournament was going to begin. So many thanks for this information @passwordnow Still several months away but qualifiers are still in progress so we will know what the final lineups will be closer to that September start date of this Dota Major. Heroic announced a roster change. They said that Turkish player xFloud is on the bench and open to offers. Honestly, xFloud might be the best player in Heroic after tn1r. I don't understand why such a decision was taken. Heroic seems to be updating the squad after the failures, although not completely as a Swedish squad. When we look at the remaining players, we need a player to replace awper and xFloud. I wonder who they will take as awper. Many experienced players are currently available but it is a matter of curiosity whether they will join them.
Maybe they are planning on trading him to Aurora. They are an all Turkish team and if they get someone else on loan to fill in on the Heroic squad it just might work out better for them. Just like what happened to Faze Clan and S1mple from Falcons. https://www.hltv.org/news/41999/heroic-bid-farewell-to-saw-sunpayus
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An interesting trivia is that there was the F1 movie presentation recently in New York City where the premiere was aired, and the only 2 drivers that were missing were Max Verstappen and Fernando Alonso. The rest all attended and suited up. Im pretty sure that this was an official event and they were pretty much forced to go but these 2 did not bother. I have always thought they are similar in talent and also the way they carry themselves being a bit of a villain character but also fun. I think they have respect for each other and are the top talent in the circuit right now. Probably they smoke competition if they had McClarens.
That is quite interesting and didn't notice them not there because I remember seeing a bunch of them being interviewed at the same time so though I might have missed them. But you are correct, they did not appear at the premiere for the F1 Movie. The other drivers might be obligated under contract to attend and talk about their experience. There was a really good trailer released of some more shots of the action scenes for the upcoming movie. F1 The Movie | Extended Clip https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2us2HNjr68They are saying it is this year's Top Gun Maverick and that one was a very good movie made by the same director.
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I have lost the game 5 with Pacers but that doesn't mean that I am going to leave them for game 6. This is a do-or-die game for them. They need two straight wins to end the series with that championship title. OKC is at advantage on this but they are also thinking the same that they need to end this while they can because the Pacers are good at clutch games. Going with the Pacers on 6 @3.00.
I think alot of people will be placing bets on this game scheduled for tomorrow because this might be the last match for the finals if OKC win it. The odds are high even if Indiana are at home because there is a high chance their star player will not be able to play. Haliburton missed alot of minutes during game 5 due to sustaining an injury to his right calf. https://www.nba.com/news/tyrese-haliburton-status-game-6-nba-finalsIt was a strain to that part of his leg when he was going in to the basket to make a shot. From the looks of it he pulled up and tried to return later in the game with a heavy icepack on bench but couldn't continue. The status of whether he will play or not will be up to their head coach so the odds might change from that sweet 3x you got.
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So there you go for those wondering about the raffle results with even 1000 tickets, they are difficult to win and you have to have some luck on your side inorder to receive a prize. No matter how small that maybe. On to the next round of matches for today scheduled with a few familiar teams that we would imagine will breeze by their competition: https://sportsbet.io/sports/soccer/international-clubs/club-world-cup/matchesPersonally I will be inclined to put Manchester City, Real Madrid and Juventus in a CWC acca. The combined odds are decent with the favorites winning their games lately in the competition.
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We have UFC on ABC: Hill vs. Rountree Jr. this weekend. This will be the first time UFC has an event in Azerbaijan but not the greatest time to be travelling to this part of the world if you know its location. https://www.sherdog.com/news/articles/Stand-and-Deliver-UFC-Baku-197340 Main card (ABC / ESPN+)Jamahal Hill vs. Khalil Rountree Jr. Rafael Fiziev vs. Ignacio Bahamondes Curtis Blaydes vs. Rizvan Kuniev Tofiq Musayev vs. Myktybek Orolbai Nazim Sadykhov vs. Nikolas Motta Muhammad Naimov vs. Bogdan Grad Preliminary card (ESPN2 / ESPN+)Ko Seok-hyun vs. Oban Elliott Ismail Naurdiev vs. Park Jun-yong Melissa Mullins vs. Daria Zheleznyakova Irina Alekseeva vs. Klaudia Syguła Tagir Ulanbekov vs. Azat Maksum Hamdy Abdelwahab vs. Mohammed Usman And look who is on these prelims: https://www.sherdog.com/fighter/Mohammed-Usman-253535
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I dont check it yet, but is not gonna be a surprise, i mean they are so many tickets and the chance was not that big.
Well if Trofo isnt up there then I guess most of us probably are not going to end up on the list. He probably has the most tickets compared to any of us Just 2 days left for first round of battle royale and atleast 50 players have qualified, i didnt manage to but hoping to get a win today or tomorrow.
I also didnt manage to qualify yet. What a shame to be out in the first cut hahaha. Qualified for the first round already and I still have 1 more bets to go on Real Madrid betbuilder. Pretty sure I could even nail this as well. Anyway the list has been updated to 99 players the last time I checked. Im expecting this to reach 150 players atlesat I guess because we still have 6 more games to go before the first round is over From his initial post regarding this raffle, he did mention he was slowing down abit on his accumulation of tickets. But who knows, maybe he went on a run and got more and closer to that 1000 maximum amount any one player can receive. Yeah Real Madrid plays tomorrow so best of luck to you but I can see it being an easy one for them. @darxiaomi Yeah same here, looking forward to the matches and only have had a few zero goal games so that is a relief. More goals means more action happening. Later tonight we have Inter Milan going against Monterrey and Ulsan vs Mamelodi Sundowns.
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Usman is back! After losing last three fights against Chimaev and Edwards he is finally back on track, and I think he deserved to win against Buckley. Question now is who is going to be his next opponent, but he is asking for winner between Makhachev and Maddalena.
Many are saying his next opponent should be Belal due to already having a past. They hate each other and have said so during interviews. They both have been announcers of the UFC while not being on an active roster. It is just that Belal had that crazy run for the title and won it in the past two years while Usman was unceremoniously just forgotten because he was a desk jockey for that time watch his career pass him by, Until this last weekend where he looked good against a rising fighter in Buckley. Yes, and this happens to practically all fighters. There are even those who create content, but this content is very low or they don't post it very often. I think the UFC should take care of all this, or at least give fighters a way to create this content on other platforms. Because if fighters can create content outside of the fights, everyone wins, especially the UFC with a larger audience.
Maybe it was Demetrious Johnson or I don't know but I remember that one fighter from UFC said that Dana White suggested all of us to create social media profiles and be very active there by uploading a new content because when these fighters retire, they need to earn money to not be homeless and this fighter thanked Dana White for this advice. Usman is back!
I read: Umar is back!He is really back with his new interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDYvaWzgf48Umar still doesn't respect Merab. He said that he won 3 rounds in that fight. By the way, he revealed a very interesting information. According to Umar, Islam moved up because UFC wanted it. UFC wants Ilia Topuria as the champion at 155lbs because he will sell fights better than Islam in Lightweight division. If Belal would win, then the match between Islam and Topuria would happen. Remember Suga Sean O'Malley driving around that pink lambo? He might not needing to be working if he decides to call it quits and just retire from the sport. But guys that haven't made much money from fighting in the UFC will have to find another way to make a living after their prime years of fighting are over. I think I recall from a past interview with either Geoff Neal or Kevin Holland they said they were delivery drivers inbetween fights if they needed money to survive. Because we all know you need to work to pay the bills. And neither of these guys will ever make enough bank in the UFC to retire comfortably. Unless you win a title in the UFC you are not making those millions for daddy Dana to pay you enough.
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This week-end's highlight - at least until now - was Le Mans 24h race. It's a race I usually miss, but this year I've watched quite some hours of it and I've seen a lot of interesting F1 related names (Mick Schumacher, Nyck DeVries, Kevin Magnussen, Antonio Giovinazzi, Jenson Button and - the grand winner - Robert Kubica). I am unsure if I'll get to watch the entire F1 race (it's a bit late), but I see Max has a fair chance this time (so @stompix may actually get to win) I think that the Ferraris may have not shown the full potential in Quali, and the Mercs' performance was better than expected; so the results of this race may be actually quite open.
It was the best chance for him to get this win as you can see from the odds posted right before the race started. But Russell having the oddsmaker giving him @3.75x got away with it! Rusell is just really good and he showed he was better shape than Hamilton for years, for as long as I can remember (I stopped watching F1 for some years when Hamilton was dominating because I found it boring and the cars sounded like vacuum cleaners, at least this improved now). In the more recent era, Russell has shown more consistency than Hamilton, and now Leclerc is also surpassing Hamilton often. In this occasion Leclerc did a mistake and Hamilton placed ahead, but looking at the numbers Leclerc seems to place better on average. Also another good performance by Alonso shows that Aston Martin continues to make good progress. Verstapped as always surprising and pushing the car to the limit continues to be a nightmare for McClaren. Good race tonight. I've got 1st PIA, 2 VER, 3 RUS.
Russell was trying to get Verstappen that race ban with that stunt right at the end under the safety car almost having him rear end him with braking so hard for no reason: https://x.com/cytrusf1/status/1934358565667352956I am unsure if I'll get to watch the entire F1 race (it's a bit late), but I see Max has a fair chance this time (so @stompix may actually get to win.
Well, what was I saying a few days ago? Nope, not at all, I have zero expectations and zero confidence in RB, the team, the car, the staff, my bet is that there is no way McLaren or their drivers won't make a mistake all season, they will do one! And with my luck, I am also quite willing to bet that in the first race both Piastri and Norris end on the dirt, it will be Leclerc that wins I just mistook Leclerc for Russell... One time McLaren flops and that's when somebody else than Max gets the cheese, eh, it is what it is! I will just have to pile it on, I don't see any problems if he keeps being at 6-7 before the practices, if he is 2.5-3 and fails, that might become expensive. And if anyone is tired of Max's drama, now we have Norris. Let's see how McLaren deals now with the whole thing, all pilots are equal, please give his place back and so on! Popcorn! Then Russell and Max were friends again so no drama between friends right?  Only after both getting a swift talking to leaving from a post race meeting in the stewards office.  https://x.com/ChrisMedlandF1/status/1934381141630288187Currently there is the F1 The Moive World Premiere in Times Square from New York going on. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qdsuh99dRGsAlot of the drivers are there and had interviewed on the gray(?) carpet including Norris & Sainz. Movie is out in just over a week on June 25th.
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Breaking: SEC Could Soon Approve Solana ETFs As Agency Directs Issuers To Amend S-1s https://coingape.com/sec-could-soon-approve-solana-etfs-as-agency-directs-issuers-to-amend-s-1s/US SEC signals potential approval for Solana-based ETFs, requesting updates to S-1 forms, with approval possible by mid-summer. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is signalling potential approval for Solana-based exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Sources said the agency has asked issuers of Solana ETFs to submit amended S-1 registration forms within the next week. This request may set the stage for approval within a few weeks, possibly by mid-summer. SOL has actually been a good choice for an ETF because of good usecase for businesses. It use to be Ethereum but it is more streamlined and seems to handle transactions on-chain alot easier. I think it is going to be the ETH-Killer that everyone was waiting to emerge from the countless other clones of ethereum. But Solana just operates different and has already been tested in countless way already. So battle tested and approved if this ETF does infact get greenlit. But this news just broke about the SEC. Who dropped their case against Justin Sun and began a company with Eric Trump SRM entertainment. This dumped its stocks earlier today because they were found to have injected $210m worth of tokens which sounds shady to begin with: source: https://www.ft.com/content/13a6cead-af71-4811-9b90-553f233ac45f
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Are we ready for tonight lads ?
The first two series are already done with Mouz and MongolZ getting their third win and booking their spot for the playoffs. VP vs. paiN is still ongoing with paiN currently in the lead after winning their map pick and leading by a round 5-4 in VP's map pick (Inferno). This should go to a third map, but if VP crumbles in the CT side then this could be a wrap for paiN. Did anybody see that match last night with G2 going up against these MongolZ? That was just an insane match were they finally ended the map with a 28-25 win for the mongolians. That was a record for CS2 having 53 total rounds for a map.  I actually started watching it when they were 14-16 so that was alot of based CounterStrike played by MongolZ to 2-0 G2 Esports. For their team, which I haven't watched them play since m0nsey left, I didn't recognize a single player on their roster expect for hunter when he was talking post match about the loss to a hot Mongolz team who many were saying before the tournament started were the favorites in taking this major in Austin for BLAST! 
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