Rate Report III
Friday Rate Report No. 3
Since Rate Game now has users in 85(!) countries, I am keenly aware that it's no longer Friday for some of you. Therefor I offer my greetings and salutations with a nod to the weekend and whatever day or timezone you're reading this in. We made it! Edition No. 3 of the Rate Report is here. Let's dive in...
Top Rated Games
No surprises here with the Knicks and Sixers playing an extremely competitive and highly entertaining six games where every single game was in the green 🟢 (6.7 or higher). In second we have the Nuggets taking care of business in five games against the Lakers, thanks to Jamal Murray and his two game winners. Fast forward to this week and he's slinging heating pads on the court out of frustration after back to back beatdowns from the Timberwolves. Life comes at you fast in the NBA. The only other series to go green was played between the Clippers and Mavs, who clocked in half of their six games in the go-zone. Interestingly (sadly?) enough, the only series to go the coveted seven game distance, was the second worst series overall. That of the "he who has home court wins" matchup between the Cavs and Magic. Tough watch at the beginning, marginally better at the end. The Cavs even recorded the largest comeback in NBA Playoff history in a Game 7 (18 points), and it was sent to the Vault with a 7.0. Not great folks. Good, but not great. I'd actually go so far as to say that that's a fair assessment of the 2024 Playoffs at large; close games sprinkled atop a sea of mediocrity 🟡.
But fear not! Looking at Round Two we have some early indications that things will be better. With all four series having played two games a piece, the overall Round Rating of 6.9🟢 is .5 higher than the 6.4🟡 of Round One. Albeit on a much smaller sample size (4 games to 49).
Diving a bit deeper we see that the first games of Round Two are dead even with the second games (6.9 AVG Rating 🟢), for which we have every series except Celtics/Cavs to thank. Anthony Edwards' Playoff arrival on a Minnesota team that is somehow toying with the defending champs, has been fascinating to watch. Their defense is so absurd that their freshly minted father (one time) and DPOY (fourth time), Rudy Gobert, got to take the night off in game two with zero effect whatsoever. They surrounded, hounded, and pounced on Jokic the night before he snagged his own trifecta, that of 3 time League MVP.
And then there's the Knicks. The one team who has somehow managed to play in EIGHT STRAIGHT green games. Every single time they take the floor it seems like something goes awry, yet they manage to consistently compete and find ways to win more often than not. Full disclosure: I am a lifelong Knicks fan living in NYC. Thus I will refrain from hijacking the rest of this newsletter with Knicks propaganda and just let the ratings speak for themselves 🟢
Power Users
We can also (finally) acknowledge the Sports Fans who Rated over 60 NCAA March Madness games from March 19th to April 8th aka Club 60
And to cap it all off, we now have first look at the ultra exclusive, extremely rare, hyper elite, Members of Club 100. Just 5 total users have eclipsed the 100 Rated Games mark (myself included). Bravo!
Rate Game for Android
Today is the day. At the time of this writing I have it on good intel that we are through the UAT phase (user acceptance testing) for Android and are full systems go 🟢 for launch. Very excited to welcome a ton of new Sports Fans to the Rate Game Sports universe! I anticipate the user base to 2-3x based on the feedback we've received from @HeatCheck's 631,000+ International NBA Aficionados. I'll be heads down this weekend to ensure their first experience is smooth and seamless 🫡
As we head into an action packed weekend filled with Game 3's and 4's, if you could take 60 seconds to hit us with your feedback (good/bad/otherwise) in the 3 question survey right there👇, it would be very much appreciated!
Thank you and happy Rating!
