June 3, 2023 News and Notes

• To do consistency, doing the comparative Summer Games Done Quick final early morning totals, with one day of games to go, about 1:15 AM Eastern on the Saturday:
• This year:  $1,108,728.  They literally just made the $20,000,000 plateau for Summer Games Done Quick's history just minutes ago, about an hour into their final day.
• However, last year the total was $1,703,025 -- meaning they are effectively $600,000 short year over year (about 35%).
• Last year, the final total was $3,053,827.  At that rate of decrease, there is actually a realistic chance that, even with the Twitch dump which will come late in the marathon, the event may be the first SGDQ since 2017 not to raise $2,000,000.
• So what was it?  Doing it Memorial Week not conducive to the money?  The economy?  Some are going to ask after a $770,000 (22%) drop in AGDQ whether "Get Woke, Go Broke" is in play...  (I've spotted one Alpha Male Gamer on YouTube who thinks so, and was saying it in a screed before AGDQ, protesting the walkout from Florida.)
  
• I think I've spotted one problem.  If you look up the schedule for the event, there is a column devoted to game setup time.  Now, obviously, with dozens and dozens of runs, it'll add up.
• But THIRTY-EIGHT HOURS?  And COUNTING???
• To give you an idea of how poorly they were doing:  They had a $30,000 incentive for several hours to make a race of Kingdom Hearts: Final Mix into a Level 1 race, where the characters could not level up.  Even after nearly 40 minutes of stalling after the previous game, the incentive failed by nearly $10,000.
• 10:15 AM:  Just over $1,200,000 -- now $670,000 below last year's total at this time.  This has definitely reached "the bank's problem" level.
• The Churchill Downs stoppage has come after the number of horse deaths has now reached a dozen.
• 85 ejections now in the MLB season.
• Oakland:  Loses 4-0 to Miami Friday to go to 12-47, current pace is 33-129, eight games worse than the record.
• 8,582 in Miami for that one.  And Miami is now actually two games over .500!  3 1/2 back of Cobb County in the division, tied with the Mets.  Both would make the wild card slots in the playoffs (2nd and 3rd) if the season ended today -- yeah, it's June, but to make the point that Oakland isn't the only team with questionable attendance.
• That's two for Manchester City.  They have a domestic double, winning the FA Cup 2-1 in a Manchester derby over Manchester United.  They go for the treble with the UEFA Champions League next Saturday in Instanbul when they face Inter.