Rate Report V
Friday Rate Report No.5
Hello, Sports Fans! It's been a looong time coming, but for the first time ever, we welcome those of you with green text messages. That's right, just hours after edition No. 4 of this very newsletter 14 days ago, we were finally approved on the Google Play Store. An entire world of Sports Fans has now been unlocked π. Forever. So rejoice and be merry; after six days of no games, 2+ months of one operating system, and one Woj bomb later (condolences to JJ Redick), we made it. With the NBA Finals now upon us, let's have a gander at the week(s) that was...
Top Rated Games
Round Three, aka the Conference Finals, will go down as two fairly entertaining yet lopsided showings from the bi-coastal cohorts. In the East we saw the Celtics continue their (bizarrely) dominant run with a clean sweep of the Pacers and a return to the promised land. I say bizarrely because when each of your opponents is missing their best player(s) at some point in the series, three times in a row, it's not normal. The latest victim was Tyrese Haliburton, who blew a tire at the end of Game 2, thus sealing Indiana's fate for a one way ticket to Broomtown π§Ή. Despite the injury, the Pacers managed to put up a fight in Games 3 & 4, giving us a solid Series Rating of 7.3 π’. Β Out West we were treated to four straight greenies before a Game 5 meltdown that was such a blowout, so quickly, it was sort of entertaining. Much can be said about whatever transpired in front of those poor Minnesotans on May 30th (Mr. "1,500 shots" Karl Anthony Towns certainly has some s'plainin' to do), but you can't argue with their future potential if they can keep their core together. At 22 years old, Anthony Edwards is but a Wolf pup, he'll be back. With an 8.1 π’ Series Rating, the Dallas Mavericks return to their first NBA Finals since the Dirk Days, and all hope rests on the shoulders of the Slovenian Sensation; Luka DonΔiΔ.
New round, same team (and player) holding down the TRG. And this one was simply phenomenal. The iso on the DPOY with the clock running down, the patented slow motion step back, the obscenity laced chirping. Luka Magic, indeed. Jaden McDaniels knew what was coming, but could only smirk as he drifted across the camera on the baseline into Memeland π - IYKYK.
But where does it rank amongst the rest of the TRGs for the NBA? After 84 games (including last night's Game 1 blowout Β of The Finals), it still plays second fiddle to Jamal Murray's buzzer beater in Round One. Perhaps the most fascinating data point to date is the fact that the two Overall TRGs belong to identical game winners from teams representing the State of Colorado. Shoutout KJ Simpson for holding down the NCAA until November, at the very least.
Though we were robbed of the drama that comes with a sixth and seventh game in series play, the Conference Finals packed a punch with a .9 increase from Round Two. 7 out of 9 games went green for a Round Rating of 7.7 π’ π Will be interesting to see if The Finals can hold serve after last night's Boston Three Party.
MLB
After much anticipation and planning, we are slated to release the MLB sometime this weekend/early next week. I say sometime because it all depends on how the dreaded App Review process goes π€π€π€. Up to this point, the only sport in RateGame's short history has been basketball. That time is coming to an end, and with it, so too are the days with zero sports games on The Slate. Yes, the dog days of baseball summer were always meant to serve as a bridge to the biggest, baddest sport of them all; Football. I anticipate that a small portion of the current user base (5-10%) will be Rating baseball games. In fact I am fully prepared to see games with sub 10 total ratings. But that's OK. The show must go on. Though it will be impossible to watch them all, I will Rate every game myself if I have to. The Vault must be built for purposes of posterity and Sports History π«‘
RateGame Roadmap
Next up on the Feature Backlog is the highly requested and equally complex "threads" or "comments" functionality. Current design sessions have revolved around two best in class platforms; Reddit and YouTube. The key differentiator when it comes to RateGame, is that in order to participate in thea discussion, you must first Rate the game in question. The thought here is that this will organically prevent, or at least reduce, the efforts of those who only wish to troll other users. The dark side of social media, with its nameless, faceless users, will have no place in RateGame. If you don't agree with a Rating, you must first contribute your own for counter debate. Plain and simple. So begs the question....
Questions, feedback, ideas? You know that to do π Have a great weekend and as always:
Rate to remember, so you never forget π
