Category: Viral
Category Added in a WPeMatico Campaign
Major eSports tournaments featuring games like League of Legends and Overwatch will soon be available for bettors in Nevada to wager on as the rules on what can be bet on at sportsbooks in a world currently without sports continue to expand. While futures bets on the NFL and NFL Draft may remain popular, the actual list of things you can bet on in Vegas remains slim compared to the usual sports-plentiful April calendar, and it seems competitive video games will attempt to fill the need for some.
ESPN reported on Tuesday that Nevada Gambling Control has approved betting on three major eSports tournaments, including League Of Legends’ European and North American championships, a major move in an industry that’s struggled to find things to let people wager on as live sports continue to be on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic.
After Tuesday’s announcement, Nevada sportsbooks will be allowed to offer wagering on Overwatch League, League of Legends European Championship and the North America League of Legends Championship.
Nine matches in Overwatch League are scheduled this week, featuring teams from Atlanta, Los Angeles and Boston, among others. League of Legends events in Europe and North America also take place this week.
The move is perhaps less credited to the continued rise of eSports than the relative dearth of things bettors can actually gamble on in the wake of live sports essentially put on the shelf in the wake of COVID-19 and its spread as a global pandemic.
The story quoted a bookmaker from William Hill as saying “pingpong is the star of the show,” a reference to betting on international table tennis that would be hilarious if not for how clearly it displays the lengths to which sports bettors will go to find wagers. Nevada had already approved wagers on eSports like Dota 2 and Counter Strike, so it makes sense that the rules are expanded as live sports sit on the shelf. Other eSports like NASCAR’s iRacing events have been on the books in Nevada, New Jersey and West Virginia, and with other leagues like Call of Duty up and running again ,we may see it considered by books as well.
American Psycho is one of Christian Bale’s best works, and two decades later it’s still a fascinating and brutal movie that’s style has impacted countless films. Some of its scenes have endured as memes even today, and it’s easy to say it’s made a big impact on the business card industry. But the 20-year anniversary of its release has brought to light new details about its crucial death scene. Namely, that Jared Leto had no idea what was coming, which is why his reaction to his impending brutal axe death at the hands of Bale looks so realistic.
The story comes via Entertainment Weekly, which spoke to American Psycho director Mary Harron. In the piece, the director revealed that Leto’s Paul Allen, who (spoilers?) is murdered by Christin Bale’s Patrick Bateman, didn’t know Bale’s violent and abrupt killing blow was coming when they finally set down to film the real thing.
“We decided to shoot the rehearsal of the actual murder without telling Jared,” reveals director Mary Harron. “Christian held back his performance until then so that it would be a real surprise. When he screams ‘Hey Paul’ and Jared turns around and sees Christian running towards him with the axe, he looks genuinely shocked.”
The shoot was an all-night affair, a lot of which involved Leto laying in a pool of fake blood while Bale does his thing and celebrates his personal victory. But the last look Leto’s Paul Allen gives the camera while he’s alive certainly had a lasting effect, while some cinema magic did the rest.
“It was one of those scenes where everything does fall into place,” says Harron. “By accident, the blood spray only hit one side of Christian’s face. When you look at him head-on, his face seems covered in blood. But when you look at him from the side, his face looks quite clean. It was a perfect metaphor for the Jekyll-and-Hyde aspect of Bateman: pristine on the outside, bloody and psychotic on the inside. And it all happened by chance.”
The rest of the interview is fascinating, as Harron described the grueling session that followed (and can be seen above) by simply saying “it’s not easy to do an ax murder.” That’s a funny enough line to have made it into the satirical work in the first place, honestly.
It’s important to note this is not the most recent thing to surprise Leto, however, as he may have been the last person in the world to know a global pandemic was in the process of killing hundreds of thousands of people because he was on a silent retreat earlier this year as things were getting worse. So perhaps a bit of a surprise while filming a movie is the least notable thing that’s happened to him recently, but it did make for a good scene at the time.
After Disney-owned ESPN stepped in and put a halt to the whirlwind that included Dana White apparently reserving native land in California for UFC fights and working to secure a private island for more long-term bouts (aka FIGHT ISLAND), the UFC president is working toward a resolution.
According to ESPN’s Brett Okamoto, White is turning his attention to hosting an event on May 9 at an undisclosed location. Target fights include the following:
- Tony Ferguson vs. Justin Gaethje
- Henry Cejudo vs. Dominick Cruz,
- Amanda Nunez vs. Felicia Spencer
- Francis Ngannou vs. Jairzinho Rozenstruik
- Donald Cerrone vs. Anthony Pettis
- Greg Hardy vs. Yorgan de Castro
There’s been no confirmation as of this writing where the fights would be held, but Okamoto reports Ferguson-Gaethje and Cerrone-Pettis have been verbally agreed upon should the card go through.
White has plenty to be confident about the proposed card following an announcement from the state of Florida deeming the WWE “essential business.” The governor of Florida’s office told ESPN that it added “employees at a professional sports and media production with a national audience” to its list of essential workers because these businesses “are critical to Florida’s economy.” National sports and media productions are only allowed to run in locations “closed to the general public,” which could open the door for the UFC to hold a no-fans event in Florida should it seek to.
Rosario Dawson really wants to tell fans of The Mandalorian something, but what exactly that is still can’t be confirmed. It’s the latest news that reports Dawson is involved in the Disney+ series are true, and that the much-hyped role she’s supposedly playing may actually be true.
Reports indicate that Dawsom will play Ahsoka Tano, a fan-favorite character who is the Padawan apprentice of Anakan Skywalker. In an interview with Variety, Dawson was asked about the still-unconfirmed rumors of her Mandalorian character and couldn’t say much, other than that she’s “very happy” something will be confirmed “at some point.”
While it was reported that Dawson is already set to show off her Force powers as Ahsoka Tano in Season 2 of “The Mandalorian,” the actor was tight-lipped on joining the Disney Plus series, though she credited fans for fueling the momentum for her casting.
“That’s not confirmed yet but when that happens, I will be very happy. I’m very excited for that to be confirmed at some point,” she said, adding it would be “a million and one percent because of the fans.”
Dawson made it clear she’d love to work in the Star Wars and Star Trek universe, so knocking one of those out with a beloved role would certainly be worth celebrating.
“The two universes, ‘Star Trek’ and ‘Star Wars.’ I get in those two, I’m telling you, man, that’s it. I will just retire. And then I can just concentrate on going to school and running for office. That would be it,” Dawson revealed to Variety on the “Variety After-Show.”
As our own Josh Kurp noted in March, there’s plenty of enthusiasm for the casting from both Dawson and the many fans who want to see Tano’s role in the universe further fleshed out.
Ahsoka made her Star Wars debut in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, but because that movie isn’t any good, let’s pretend it was in the Clone Wars series, which aired for six seasons on Cartoon Network, one season on Netflix, and one season on Disney+. She’s also appeared in Star Wars Rebels, under the codename “Folcrum,” and her voice can be heard “speaking” to Rey in The Rise of Skywalker, along with fellow Jedis Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Yoda, Mace Windu, and Adi Gallia, among others.
As noted by Slashfilm, “In 2017, a fan tweeted at Rosario Dawson, asking her to appear in a Star Wars movie as Ahsoka, and the actress responded, ‘Ummmm… yes, please?! #AhsokaLives’ This tweet spurred groups of fans to campaign for her to play the role.” Dawson was even asked about the fan-casting on GMA, where she said, “It would be amazing!” Dreams do come true. (I’m going to shoot my shot and say I, too, would like to be in a Star Wars property. I expect to hear back from a casting director any minute.)
It’s fascianting to see an actor’s ambitions almost certainly becoming reality here,
Earlier in April, it was announced that the schedule for golf’s major championships would shift, with The Masters moving to November and The Open Championship cancelled entirely for 2020. With that in mind, the first event firmly scheduled on the PGA Tour calendar was the PGA Championship from Aug. 6-9 at TPC Harding Park but, on Tuesday evening, word surfaced from Golf Digest that there are plans in the works to resume the PGA Tour season beginning on June 11 with the Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth.
The reporting indicates that fans will not be permitted to attend the proceedings, and “other early tournaments also are expected to be played without spectators.” According to the report, discussions “remain ongoing and fluid” but, if all goes according to the latest talks, the season would continue with the Travelers Championship from June 25-28 and proceed from there with what amounts to a full schedule through the season’s first (rescheduled) major in August.
To this point, nothing has been officially announced by the PGA Tour but, if this comes to fruition, it could be potentially represent the first major sports league to resume regularly scheduled play in the United States — UFC is currently working towards a hopeful May 9 fight card. In some ways, golf would be a logical choice given the individual nature of the sport and the potential for social distancing, to the point where many courses across the country remain open for play at this juncture. Still, it is another thing entirely for the tour to sanction full-scale events, even without spectators, and many details will need to be sorted before this can happen.
Many are looking for a light at the end of the tunnel when it comes to the absence of live sports, though, and it appears that golf could be on its way back at the highest levels by June.
