Month: July 2020

Back in the Before Times, the Jeopardy! Greatest Of All Time Tournament was a ratings hit that saw Ken Jennings win the crown of best Jeopardy! player in show history. Now the three players involved in the trivia showdown might be joining a reboot of another game show.

According to Deadline, the three Jeopardy! GOAT contestants — Jennings, James Holzhauer, and Brad Rutter — are “in talks” to join a remake of a British game show called The Chase:

Ken Jennings, James Holzhauer and Brad Rutter are in talks to become “The Chasers” in the unscripted entertainment quiz.

Deadline understands that ABC won the project in a competitive situation and was able to leverage ABC talent to sweeten the deal.

The Chase is a show that pits three contestants against a master trivia expert, who then works to “chase” down the group’s prize fund before it can reach a bank by answering questions correctly. The Jeopardy GOAT Tournament was an exciting display of trivia knowledge, coming on the heels of Holzhauer’s record-setting performance on the syndicated show in 2019. But it wasn’t his first game show Holzhauer actually appeared on. He himself competed on the Game Show Network version of The Chase that aired from 2013-15, dominating The Beast to help win a $175,000 prize for his team. Two seasons of The Chase are on the streaming service Netflix, though Holzhauer’s episode wasn’t included. You can watch part of his performance on YouTube, though, and last year Ken Jennings was brought back by GSN to narrate some shows, including Holzhauer’s appearance.

As Deadline noted, ABC has looked for something to do with its three trivia aces, which delivered big ratings back in January:

ABC’s head of alternative Robert Mills told Deadline in January that he was keen to do more with the GOATs and wanted to find “something that taps into what these guys are.” “Whether it’s something with Jeopardy! or not, certainly I would argue these three guys are the biggest stars in primetime right now, he said. “But you can’t look at this and not acknowledge the impact that they have had over the 20 years and this past week without saying, ‘OK. How do we tap into it’.”

If the show does happen, it’s sure to get some attention. But without Alex Trebek at the helm, it will definitely have a different feel to the action.

[via Deadline]

It’s no surprise that employers often look at job applicants’ social media profiles before hiring them. According to CareerBuilder, 70% of employers “use social media to screen candidates before hiring.”

It makes sense because social media profiles can reveal a lot about someone’s true personality and employers don’t want to take any unnecessary risks.

The Journal of Vascular Surgery did a study where it viewed the social media profiles of 235 medical residents to see if they had “unprofessional or potentially unprofessional content.”

The study found that “One-half of recent and soon to be graduating vascular surgery trainees had an identifiable social media account with more than one-quarter of these containing unprofessional content.”

The paper with a warning: “Young surgeons should be aware of the permanent public exposure of unprofessional content that can be accessed by peers, patients, and current/future employers.”

via Science Direct

At first glance, this study seemed like it was helping graduates with their careers by warning them against social media posts that could get them into trouble. But the study created in a backlash from the medical community because it shamed female doctors.

The major bone of contention that medical professionals had with the study is that the team of predominantly male researchers said that “provocative posing in bikinis/swimwear,” “provocative Halloween costumes,” and “holding/ consuming alcohol” are all inappropriate.

via Dr M / Twitter

There’s nothing wrong with a woman wearing a bikini or anyone having a beer in public, why did the study deem them inappropriate?

The paper inspired female medical professionals to push back against the study by posting shots of themselves in swimwear and imbibing adult beverages under #MedBikini.

Some male allies got in on the hashtag, too.

The backlash prompted one of the authors of the study, Dr. Jeff Siracuse, to apologize for the paper’s framing.

“Our intent was to empower surgeons to be aware and then personally decide what may be easily available for our patients and colleagues to see about us social media,” Siracuse wrote on Twitter.

“However, this was clearly not the result. We realize that the definition of professionalism is rapidly changing in medicine and that we need to support our trainees and surgeons as our society changes without the appearance of judgment.”

If nothing below suits your sensibilities, check out our guide to What You Should Watch On Streaming Right Now.

The Kissing Booth 2 (Friday, Netflix film) — The first installment of this romantic-comedy franchise was objectively bad but immensely popular (and the most rewatched original Netflix film ever), but the upside there is that people need distractions from reality right now, and this movie at least fits that bill. Joey King, Jacob Elordi, and Joel Courtney return with the principal heartthrob now at Harvard. What could go wrong?

Radioactive: Marie & Pierre Curie: A Tale of Love and Fallout (Friday, Amazon Prime movie) — Rosamund Pike disappears into this biopic while bringing Curie back to life and celebrating both her professional and personal lives. Not only did Curie become the first women to win a Nobel, she also lived a rather complicated personal life.

Jim Gaffigan: Pale Tourist (Friday, Amazon Prime comedy special) — The title says everything here. Gaffigan is pale, and he’s traveled the globe while gathering his observations for the stage.

Eullenia (Friday, Amazon Prime series) — This chilling psychological terror show promises to explore the secrets of the 0.001%. It all comes down to the idea that darker urges belong to those who are driven and ruthless enough to be the richest of the rich, and this story of excess and exploitation promises to transfix.

Animal Crackers (Friday, Netflix Film) — Danny DeVito voices a sorry, animated clown, while John Krasinski and Emily Blunt lead the rest of the stellar cast in this story about enchanted animal crackers.

In case you managed to miss these over the past week:

Fatal Affair (Netflix movie) — Get ready for heavy Fatal Attraction and Obsessed vibes with this cautionary tale full of melodrama. Nia Long stars as a wife (Ellie) with a “perfect marriage” to Stephen Bishop’s Marcus, but of course, temptation strikes because (I guess) she’s bored, and the passion has faded. Enter David (portrayed by Omar Epps), who lures Ellie into a passionate encounter, and although her conscience strikes at the last possible moment, it’s far too late to get rid of him.

The Assistant (Hulu Film) — Julia Garner crushes this performance, just like every role that she portrays. Here, she’s a recent college grad in a #MeToo thriller that’s based on the sexual harassment allegations against Harvey Weinstein.

How to Sell Drugs Online (Fast): Season 2 (Netflix Original) –The first season of this series stoked the flames of controversy for understandable reasons. This time around, Moritz’s online drug-selling business continues to wreak havoc on his personal life while drug-lord rivals loom large.

Down To Earth: (Netflix series) — Zac Efron’s new travel series won our own Brian Grubb over in 13 minutes flat. Zac travels to Iceland and learns how to “bake rye bread by burying it underground in the piping hot soil that is heated by a nearby volcano,” and I think everyone should be sold by that description.

Fear City: New York vs The Mafia (Netflix docuseries) — The “Five Familes” of the New York Mafia (Bonanno, Colombo, Gambino, Genovese and Luccese) get the deep-dive treatment, all the way back to the 1970s and ’80s when the mob was essentially the law in New York. Organized crime was a multi-billion dollar industry at that point, and this series is here to shed light on exactly how deep the mafia’s influence extended. Come for the interviews with law enforcement and ex-mafia associates, and stay for the shocking portrait that’s bolstered by surveillance recordings and reenactments.

Here’s the rest of this weekend’s notable programming:

P-Valley (Sunday, Starz 8:00 p.m.) — The girls enjoy (relatively speaking) visits their favorite repeat customers, while Autumn tries out a new look and Uncle Clifford stares down a challenge.

Perry Mason (Sunday, HBO 9:00 p.m.) — Mason tries to recover from a trial’s shaky start while Kella and Strickland start searching for clues in hopes of an exoneration.

The Chi (Sunday, Showtime 9:00 p.m.) — Kevin’s having a terrible birthday, Emmett’s striking out for a cannibis run, and Ronnie’s taking care of his grandmother.

I’ll Be Gone In The Dark (Sunday, HBO 10:00 p.m.) — This true-crime docuseries is revolutionary, much like the Michelle McNamara book that fueled it. This week, Michelle’s sudden death is crushing, but her work isn’t wasted, not by a long shot.

NOS4A2 (Sunday, AMC & BBC America 10:00 p.m.) — A dark, strong creative’s a danger for all other strong creatives, and as a result, Maggie’s in danger.

Desus & Mero (Sunday, Showtime 11:00 p.m.) — The illustrious guest is Andy Samberg.

The trailer for the sixth season of Fear the Walking Dead was released today during the Fear Comic Con panel. The trailer features footage that has already been shot from the season, which is overlaid with Morgan’s farewell speech at the end of season five. The trailer looks great, although that has been the case in each season of Fear the Walking Dead, and the seasons themselves have not always matched the quality of the trailers.

Let’s get the two biggest questions about season six out of the way. It will premiere on October 11th, although we don’t know how many episodes are set to air. I would guess they will air eight episodes — the first half of the season — before moving onto The World Beyond‘s ten episodes, after which hopefully AMC will have some new episodes from The Walking Dead universe to air.

Question number two: Is Morgan alive? Yes, it appears that he is. Asked by Chris Hardwick during the Comic Con panel what Rick Grimes would think of season six, Lennie James said, “I think that he would be happy to see his friend alive.” James is also directing an episode, and he said he was grateful he didn’t have to act much in that particular episode, which suggests he did have to act more in the others.

The sixth season will also feature a format change. It will be darker than previous seasons, and will operate more like an anthology series. Each episode will focus on a smaller number of characters as they deal with the challenges. Each set of characters will live in separate communities controlled by season 6 villain Virginia. “There will be 16 little movies that fold into each other. No one other show is doing that right now,” Scott Gimple said in the panel. We also discovered that the episode that Lennie James directs will focus on Strand and Alicia.

Meanwhile, we will see Dwight and Sherry together in season six, and not only will there be a time jump, Gimple teased that there could be time jumps, which could take us closer to the existing The Walking Dead timeline.

Fear the Walking returns on Sunday, October 11th at 9 p.m.

Though fans are not allowed inside the NBA bubble in Orlando, the league has said all along that broadcasts would be more innovative and interactive than ever before. Now, we have a bit of insight into how fans can join in on the fun of live NBA basketball once again.

Anyone who’s tuned into the first round of scrimmages this week will have seen the massive video board that sits behind team benches, and the league will use that board to put up 300 live streams of fans who can “digitally interact” using Microsoft’s “Together mode,” according to a press release from the league. Those fans will be visible inside the arena as well as on broadcasts. This is similar to what soccer leagues in the U.S. and abroad have done to involve fans in the action while stadiums are empty.

Here’s a good idea of what that will look like:

In addition, for national TV broadcasts, “more than 30 cameras, including many in robotic form, will be repositioned closer to the court and showcase never-before-seen camera angles in places that are otherwise not accessible with fans in the arena. The league will also use Snapchat virtual reality software and TikTok challenges to involve fans through social media during games.

Few TV duos are as beloved as Breaking Bad’s Walter White and Jesse Pinkman. Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul infused so much life into their respective characters that people still want to follow them on their endeavors outside of the show, even down the rabbit hole that is the celebrity-branded alcohol space. Luckily for Breaking Bad fans, Dos Hombres is actually pretty damn good — the Mezcal just took home the gold in 2020’s London Spirits Competition — so we don’t have to worry about how our own fandom affects our spirits opinions.

Today, fans will have another chance to see the duo share the same screen. And while they won’t be playing Walt and Jesse, or appearing in a Breaking Bad prequel, it’ll still be nice to see the pals interact once more.

Ever the rebels, the Paul and Cranston are hijacking National Tequila Day as a chance to pay tribute to the other agave-infused sprit — Mezcal — in a virtual happy hour on Total Wine’s streaming portal where Cranston and Paul will be making cocktails, hanging out, chopping it up with fans, and showing you the best way to enjoy Dos Hombres Mezcal.

The happy hour is set for today, July 29th, at 6:00pm EST and was announced on the official Dos Hombres Instagram this morning. To join the party, head over to the Dos Hombres Instagram page or register for free at Total Wine.

The culture war between people who hope to spark systemic change that eliminates racism and sexism in society and those who think “cancel culture” is out of control entered a new chapter on Friday with the White House incorrectly mourning the cancelation of a cartoon about dogs who are cops. On Friday, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany publicly claimed that President Donald Trump is upset that Paw Patrol has been canceled along with other shows detailing police activity.

“He’s also appalled by cancel culture and cancel culture specifically as it pertains to cops. We saw a few weeks ago that Paw Patrol, a cartoon about cops, was canceled,” she said. “The show Cops was canceled. Live PD was canceled. LEGO halted the sales of their LEGO city police station. It’s unfortunate.”

The problem here is that only some of that was true. While LEGO did stop selling sets and both the long-running Cops and Live PD were canceled amid historic protests against police brutality, the first stated victim of cancel culture simply didn’t happen. The official Paw Patrol Twitter account did say last month that it would pause posting on social media amid the ongoing conversation about race and police relations in America, a pause that has continued into late July.

That’s a long way from taking the children’s cartoon off the air, however, and there’s no indication that Paw Patrol has been canceled despite the White House explicitly saying it was canceled “weeks ago.” A new video game based on the show is on the way, and despite COVID-19 cancelations its live show is still scheduling dates in the future. According to Snopes, it hasn’t left the television airways, despite some parents best wishes.

Snopes has some details about the people who either fell for some social media humor about the subject or simply are spreading misinformation to shock parents about the dangers of cancel culture. Anyway, here’s a coronavirus hand-washing PSA from the pups.

It’s yet another entry into the weird chronicle of experiencing pop culture in 2020. And it seems clear that some misinformation about Paw Patrol under attack made its way into the White House and was believed. Or, perhaps, it’s another case of satirical website The Onion being taken seriously.

Eleven years ago, Andi Bonura of Texas was told she wouldn’t be able to have any more children, now she has eight.

Her and her husband, Thomas’, oldest child Joey, 11, was born with a twin, Eli, but he passed away at just five months. Joey pulled through and has been living with cerebral palsy and visual impairment, but his mother told Good Morning America he’s the “happiest kid in this house.”

“When we lost Eli, we were told we couldn’t have any more children, and we were devastated,” Andi told CBS News. “And we actually started looking at adoption then, but for some amazing reason, we had two more daughters that were a complete shock.”

The daughters, Sadie and Daphne are now 10 and eight.

The Bonura family now had three children but they didn’t stop there. Knowing it would be risky to have any more biological children, they turned to fostering in 2017.

via Andi Bonura

“Then they told us to come pick up our now 2-year-old Bryson,” who joined the family right out of the NICU. “We didn’t think we would have him forever or anything. We were there to love him for now. But we found out he had siblings,” she said.

Bryson has four siblings that had all been split up into different foster care homes. So Andi asked if she could foster some of the siblings, and was approved.

“We still weren’t thinking we were going to have them forever. We were just happy they were together,” she told CBS News.

Then, to the family’s surprise, they learned that all five children would be put up for adoption because their parents terminated their rights as guardians.

“We had already been meeting with the twins, who are now 8, and we just loved them. They were constantly asking when they were going to move into our house,” she said.

via Andi Bonura

In May, after two years of going through the adoption process, they were granted the adoption via a Zoom call with through the DePelchin Children’s Center. Thomas, 8, Carter, 8, David, 6, Gabrielle, 4 and Bryson, 2 now had a forever family.

“The kids have been through a lot but they’re the sweetest. They’re amazing — and resilient,” Andi said.

Being a parent to eight children is no easy task and Andi gives a lot of the credit to the support she receives from other foster parents.

“The only reason I made it through all of this is because of the other foster moms and the support we have for each other,” she said. “Honestly, I’m nothing special. If anything, it’s the other moms who encouraged me.”

Andi says it feels like all eight siblings have been together their entire lives. “They love each other and they support each other and they look out for each other. They’re so proud to be brothers and sisters.”

The relationship between warm weather and agave spirits reaches its annual highpoint today — National Tequila Day. It’s summer, it’s hot, we all need a drink. And while we love a good agave-based cocktail, we’re dedicating today to slow sipping our tequilas chilled and neat (maybe with a side of lime, at most).

Since so many of our fans love whiskey above all spirits, we’re tailoring our picks to their palates this time around. Many techniques used by tequila and mezcal creators are borrowed from whiskey makers. This is especially the case when it comes to the maturation process and making use of special finishes. There are also similarities between the whiskey world and that of tequila and mezcal when it comes to classification. For example, though mezcal and tequila are both made from agave, they do have some disparities. One of the key differences is in the categorization of the two Mexican spirits. All tequilas are mezcals, but not all mezcals are tequilas (just like scotch and bourbon are types of whiskey, tequila is a type of mezcal).

Whether you’re savoring it solo or virtually with friends and family across the country, there’s a tequila that best suits your whiskey-loving palate to enjoy today. We gathered a handful of our favorites below.

1800 Añejo

SRP: $34.99

The story: 1800 Tequila has been around for over 200 years, so you know they’ve put in the reps when it comes to the art of tequila making. Although we’re a sucker for their most recent release, 1800 Coconut, the true gem is their añejo – especially when it comes to pleasing whiskey-centric palates.

The taste: Throw out the notion that tequila is only made for shooters and mixed drinks. Using 100 percent Weber blue agave piñas, harvested at their peak – anywhere from 8-12 years old – this añejo is aged in French oak barrels for a minimum of 14 months, resulting in a spirit that’s perfect for summertime sipping. The añejo has a spicy-sweet nose, with a rich flavor profile consisting of toasted oak and butterscotch. The lingering, spicy finish that will have you going in for more.

Buy it if: You’re craving something outside your portfolio of whiskeys that still maintains a degree of oak and smoothness.

Greenbar Distillery’s IXÁ Reposado Tequila

SRP: $47.99

The story: Husband and wife duo Melkon Khosrovian and Litty Matthew created Los Angeles’ first distillery since Prohibition, Greenbar Distillery. It has the largest portfolio of organic spirits in the world and also strives to function as a sustainable company (they plant a tree for every bottle of spirit and case of highballs sold).

The taste: Aged in both new toasted oak and charred rye whiskey barrels, this golden-hued spirit balances the ripe agave with a hint of vanilla and caramel notes from the barrelling. Aged for nearly one year, this tequila also has spice in the finish to give your palate some subtle heat, but without a “burn.”

Buy it if: You’re wanting a summertime treat that beats the heat as opposed to the beloved warmth of whiskey neat. Best served in a chilled glass, no ice.

Convite Mezcal Esencial

SRP: $44.99

The story: Founded in 2013, but just launching in the American market this year, Convite is rooted in Oaxacan traditions. In fact, Oaxacan-born brand owner, Jorge Vera, alongside Convite producers, Daniel and Cosme Hernandez, have ties that go beyond business. Vera’s grandfather bought mezcal from the brothers’ own grandfather.

Convite is named for an Oaxacan term that roughly translates to “invitation to feast.”

The taste: This mezcal is produced from Espadín agaves with a maturity of eight years or more. It’s naturally fermented in wood vats and double distilled in a copper pot. The nose consists of smoke and stimulating citrus, while the palate is peppery with a lingering earthy finish. If you’re missing the sweet notes of whiskey, try this particular mezcal in a cocktail, such as the Honey & Smoke.

Buy it if: You like the smokiness of scotch, then this could very well be your next go-to spirit.

Casa Dragones Barrel Blend

SRP: $150

The story: For more than over a decade, small-batch producer, Tequila Casa Dragones has released a portfolio of award-winning tequilas. In 2009, Casa Dragones launched Joven — a tequila designed for sipping and pairing with food. Then, in 2014, they unveiled their signature Blanco expression as a pure silver tequila. The latest expression released just last month is the Casa Dragones Barrel Blend.

The taste: This 100 percent blue agave spirit is matured in both new French Oak and new American Oak. At the end of the aging process, Casa Dragones blends both barrel styles together resulting in an agave-forward añejo tequila. The aromatic nose gives you a whiff of agave and honey. This Barrel Blend shines through in the palate with subtle spice, cacao, and oaky notes, finishing with a hint of caramel (sounds whisk-ish, right?).

This one’s too good for a cocktail, so drink it neat.

Buy it if: You’re a purist when it comes to whiskey, but you’re feeling adventurous this evening.

Jose Cuervo Tradicional Añejo

SRP: $32.99

The story: In May, Jose Cuervo Tradicional launched its first añejo tequila, Tradicional Añejo. This premium tequila makes use of the original Cuervo family recipe dating back to 1795, is matured for over 12 months in new American oak barrels, and is finished for up to four months in Irish single malt whiskey barrels from the world’s oldest licensed whiskey distillery.

The taste: Bold and complex, this añejo is easily the best transitional spirit for a whiskey lover wanting to add tequila to their drink reservoir. Nutty and sweet nose, with a welcoming palate of vanilla, baking spices, and agave.

Buy it if: You love all the nuances of whiskey and its delicious cocktails but want to give these libations a tequila twist. Tequila Old Fashioned, anyone?

Few, if any, video games are hotter right now than Call of Duty: Warzone. Activision’s entry into the increasingly-popular genre has mixed all the elements of a battle royale game with the hyper-realistic feel of a CoD release. It’s been a smash hit — in its first month alone, more than 50 million gamers gave Warzone a spin. With no new Call of Duty releases on the horizon and this being a free-to-play game, we can safely assume that Warzone isn’t going anywhere any time soon.

There’s just one problem: If you’re new to the game, or if you don’t play it all that much, you might get overwhelmed by the players who are way, way better than you. Games like Warzone reward those who sink hours and hours into it, and if you’re not particularly good, it’s quite easy to get discouraged as you’re going through the various growing pains.

Warzone does offer up ways to get up to speed pretty quickly. There are a handful of practice modes for players to try out — “Warzone Orientation” gets you up to speed on controls and how things work in the game, while “Battle Royale Practice,” “Plunder Training,” and “Trials” all get newer gamers up to speed on combat against computers. But in the eyes of Nick “Happy” Suda, a member of the New York Subliners of the Call of Duty League and a frequent Warzone player, your best bet is to go with a more trial by fire approach.

“I, personally, would suggest just hopping right in with a buddy,” Suda, who has been a professional Call of Duty player since 2016, told Uproxx Gaming. “Someone who’s fairly at the same level of you, if not probably even better. It’ll be better for them to be better so he could help you. Just go straight forward, and no hesitation.”

We caught up with Suda to talk Warzone. Specifically, we wanted to get tips for people who want to get better at the game from a pro’s perspective. As with anything in life, Suda thinks there’s exactly one tried-and-true method for those who want to up their Warzone game: Spending a whole lot of time playing and getting used to the game, living with incremental progress, and accepting that you’re going to be bad until you improve.

There are, of course, some other things that could help. Suda mentioned watching streamers who sink hours into games on Twitch — unsurprisingly, he recommends checking out his fellow members of the Subliners — in an attempt to pick up on their habits and fold them into your own game, citing things like keeping a keen eye on where players like to land. Having an understanding of how both battle royale games and releases in the Call of Duty series work as a baseline isn’t the worst idea, either.

And as someone who prefers to play quads, Suda also stressed the importance of making sure you’re squadding up and sticking to a gameplan. In fact, in Suda’s eyes, someone deciding to break away from their team and play hero is “the most common mistake I see people make.”

“If you have four guys shooting one guy, he’s never going to stand a chance,” Suda points out.

While these more general pointers are useful for getting a feel for the game and having an understanding for what you’re getting yourself into, when it comes to playing like a pro, Suda has some ideas. Specifically, he wants you to grab your controller and tweak some of the settings so you’re making life a little easier on yourself. As he tells it, most, if not all, pros turn on contextual tap, automatic tactical sprint, and tap to slide. He also wants you to opt for a square mini-map and turn off all of motion blur, weapon motion blur, and world motion blur.

“Contextual tap will help you pick up loot much easier,” Suda says. “Instead of having to hold square, you just have to tap it once. So when you’re in a quick engagement and things are getting stressful and you have to make a quick play, you can pick up loot much easier. And automatic tactical sprint, this is negating the double sprint button that you have to press to engage with the automatic tactical sprint. And it’s just keeping you at full speed at every single time you sprint. And the tap to slide is tapping the slide button once, making your character slide instead of having to hold it.

“The square mini-map will make your peripherals bigger on the mini-map, therefore seeing more enemies on the map compared to a circle mini map,” Suda continues. “And the motion blur will take away from motion sickness that players might have while playing the game had its normal settings, if you turn it off it will make it run much more smoother.”

Picking weaponry and attachments that lets him take out an opponent from a distance or from close-range is big in Suda’s book — he uses the Kilo 141 or the Bruen MK9 with an MP5 and the EOD, Overkill, and Amped perks with lethal C4 and tactical heartbeat — while he opts for UAV and precision strike for when he gets on kill streaks and prefers dead silence as his field upgrade.

He also has a tip for loadouts, one that he does every time he plays and recommends everyone follows as long as they can make it to that point.

“You could buy a free loadout, or you could buy a loadout from the store from $10,000, which we all know,” Suda says. But there is a freeload out that comes in the game after the first circle closes at 13 seconds, every single game. So if you and your team don’t have enough money for a loadout, you can wait for the first circle to close. And at 13 seconds, the game will give you one. And that’s a big tip that I still use to this day. I preach to that. I stare at my clock in the game and once 13 seconds hit, we always make our way towards the loadout, making it easier to just get kills.”

When it comes to landing, Suda has a fun tip for racking up kills — just go to the very end of the map, when players are automatically kicked out of the plane and “AFK” (away from keyboard) players just stand there aimlessly. (This, as an aside, has my full recommendation, as I immediately did this after we hung up and it works as well as he predicted.) He also advises those who want to rack up kills to land at the TV station or the hospital, where helicopters are there for the taking.

On landing, Suda’s advice is pretty general — those who want to fight go along the plane’s route and in the circle, those who want to survive get away from everything and let everyone else go at it. He likes landing near the hangers at the circles outside the superstore, which is a hot zone, as are the TV station and boneyard. A general recommendation is landing near a store and to land in such a way that you can use the game’s free loadouts to your advantage.

“I like to land near scavenger packs and/or bounties,” Suda says. “If you start a scavenger pack in the beginning of the game, you could potentially be the first team in the game, or the first team in the lobby to have a free loadout. So landing your scavengers in stores are where you want to land near, and where I always land near.”

Money and armor plates are huge for any player to survive, and when you’re teaming up with friends, Suda recommends using that to your advantage. He notes that if an opposing player is facing shots from four different opponents at one time, they’re not going to have much of a chance, and even if a player is not playing quads, this is a helpful tip in any game mode that involves teams. And if you find yourself on the other side of this sort of thing, he wants you to have some tricks up your sleeve.

“The best tip to survive while being ambushed is definitely the most underrated tactical in the game, the smoke grenade,” Suda says. “So if your team has a dedicated smoke grenade player, you could always chuck up smokes and get your players out of sticky situations. Another tip I would say is always having a precision airstrike available, making it easier for you to quickly streak a team that has a better position on you, making them have to back down from that position and your team escaping.”

There is the situation everyone wants to avoid in Warzone: ending up in the Gulag. But there are ways to make sure that situation boils down to more than just getting lucky and seeing your opponent before you see them. Tacticals, for example, are your friend in that environment. Or, Suda says, you don’t need a metaphorical friend, because you could have your actual friend coaching you if you’re playing in a game with others.

“If you and your teammate die at the same time, the chances are you’re going to be in the same Gulag,” Suda says. “So your teammates spectating could call out for your teammate that’s in the Gulag, giving away what position he is, exactly where he is in the Gulag, making it an easier kill.”

Ultimately, the goal of any Warzone player — whether they’re a pro like Suda or a schmuck like the person who wrote this article — is to outlast everyone else and be the last person (or team) standing. All of these tips can help someone get to that point, and for some, it’ll happen sooner rather than later.

But in his last final bit of advice, Suda circled back to the one thing that is guaranteed to work: “Play with your friends, play with people you’re comfortable with and try to get better with them, and keep studying the game.”