Day 745

• Team Echo of Germany has won, on the 19th day of the race, the Race to World First for the first Mythic clear of World of Warcraft's Sepulcher of the First Ones 11 boss run.  About an hour and a half after USA's Team Liquid finally and irrevocably tapped on the whole mess, Team Echo cleared The Jailer.  Look, America...  It's time to basically admit that if you want to be in tune with the rest of the world in "professional" video-gaming, it has to be a full-time full-support job -- up to and including governmental oversight.  That the USA still plays fast and loose, especially on the latter part, is indicative of why they fall just short.
• That said, this run was clearly out of control.  I had watched a number of streams over the course of at least ten days of this run.  This wasn't a run tuned to the top 1%, 0.1%, 0.01%...  This was a FULL-TIME PROFESSIONAL RUN.  And when Team Liquid finally tapped out (as a result of logistical problems and complete and utter final player burnout), it was because they could not, even with a full LAN setup and at least a play at full backing, keep the players going for almost three weeks at 16 hours a day at that level.
• Sorry, Blizzard.  This was too much if you're not going to dip into your money and give a six-figure prize pool for these professional guilds.   You offer your professional PvP players $700,000 to prove who's the best.  When you tune this that literally one death can wipe a run on several of these bosses -- and often not immediately -- why are you not stepping up?  Too hard for just bragging rights.
• This is strange.  Entering play today, and this is probably the highest percentile I have ever or will ever reach for the end of any round, I am officially at 99.6%ile on the ESPN bracket (on my First Feel bracket - the one where I have Duke being rigged to win the championship).
• The fact that, for the first time in history, we have a 15 seed in the Elite Eight (and an 11 besides!) may have a lot to do with that!
• Christian Eriksen has returned to his national side, Denmark, a year after his scary heart attack on the pitch at Euro 2021.  He scored two minutes after being subbed in against the Netherlands in a friendly.
• And now, at the end of the first two games of the Elite Eight, my "Research" bracket is completely drawn out.  No further points, and will probably finish in the lowest 15% or so.
• My "First Feel" Bracket, however, is now in 14,584th place (that is well within the top ONE-TENTH of one percent).  Now that won't be much to anybody (and doesn't matter in the first place -- the only prize is the previously-mentioned drawing prize), except there are over 17 MILLION brackets.  Get this down now -- especially if North Carolina wins tomorrow over St. Peter's, I don't expect that to hold.