the oddest thing about the wait wait live show last night

annathepiper and I went to the live show of Wait Wait Don't Tell Me at the Moore last night, and it was pretty entertaining. And it was about two hours, with a longer monologue, and all that, and generally we had a good time. The Moore is a lot better venue for shows like that than it is for music, so the sound was good.

But the weirdest thing was that the California joke not at California's expense got a roar of approval. 45's administration has made us actual allies. You don't have to be that old to remember when that was just unthinkable.

What the fuck, world? What the fuck.

widowmaker training academy

A couple of months ago, I found a Widowmaker-only custom game in progress in Overwatch, and tried to join up, but something was broken and I bailed out. (I don't remember what, but it was, like, actually broken, and in some weird state. Some sort of server issue, I imagine.)

Then, pretty much immediately, I discovered that deathmatch free-for-all (no teams, all players against all players) made a good training environment. I think of it as an intentionally unfair live fire training exercise, and I've been playing a lot of that, supplemented by headshot aim reinforcement with Annabots.

But OP-as-fuck-on-PS4 Moira - a situation far worse in deathmatch than it is regular play, for reasons I can detail, and which is far worse than on PC - made Deathmatch FFA pretty heavily unfun, and they set Deathmatch FFA to a single level only for this week, so I've given the Widowmaker-only headshot-only games another go.

I wish I'd gone straight here. I have learned so much so very quickly. Not that regular FFA hasn't taught me some good things, because wow I can get the fuck away from people so much better now. I'm glad to have these new skills. But these custom games combine headshot aim training with Widowmaker-specific skills in some pretty amazing ways.

Let's have a couple of examples. Once in a great while, I've found a Widowmaker who can pull off this particular style of headshot so quick neither I nor my housemates could figure out how it happened. I literally couldn't get my sight up as quickly as she could and shoot. Now, I've figured it out. I can do it. I've done it in regular play. It's a timing trick and you have to do it just so, but it's intentional. It's a weaker shot, but as a headshot, it's good enough for lower-HP characters, or any character already wounded, and it cuts almost half the time off the first shot.

There's a quick short-scope-movement trick I hadn't understood, when your scope is already up, and you need to adjust it. It's for small movements of the scope, but they're incredibly quick. I understand it now. I'm still trying to incorporate it in my play, but I'll get there.

It can still be discouraging. I am very much the n00b at the academy - but I'm starting to be one of the Widowmakers that the leaders wave at when the situation is right. And I was in a game yesterday - scrimmage style, 6v6, but all Widowmaker headshot-only - and I was really unhappy with my play, and my aim, and my kill rate (perceived), and then I accidentally popped up the stats board...

...and I was bronzing in kills against an entire team of gold-guns. I wasn't last - I was third.

And suddenly, I wasn't getting killed at will by enemy team leader - suddenly, we were splitting kills 50/50 against each other, and she was coming at me first for - I don't know. Revenge. Maybe - just maybe - the challenge. And I finished the round with a silver.

I am not the Widowmaker I want to be. In straight all-Widowmaker headshot-only FFA, I do not win. But... I will be in the top six. (These are generally 12-player games.) I have taken the lead more than once, halfway through the game. I can't keep it, but I can take it, when I get hot. (Then I get cold and everything goes to hell. I'm streaky as fuck and I need to fix it, somehow. I'm still getting inactivity-timed-out in games because I stop being able to land the headshot, and might I take this opportunity note that PUTTING THE FUCKING WARNING UP ON TOP OF YOUR RETICLE SO YOU CAN'T AIM ANYMORE IS THE SHITTIEST PLACE TO PUT AN INACTIVITY WARNING EVER, BLIZZARD. Just stop the fucking clown horn and boot me directly, it'd be less humiliating.)

Right now - as I mentioned above - open deathmatch FFA, the one in the arcade, is locked onto my worst level, by far, Chateau Guillard. (Yes, yes, my own home is my worst play level, it's a terrible Widowmaker level and that's frankly kind of hilarious.)

I am now regularly finishing in the top four, which earns you bonus points. You're finishing above the line, as it were.

I feel like... I feel like I'm finally in the academy. I feel like I'm finally - finally - starting to get it. There's a long way to go, but when things click... hoo. Things clicked yesterday and I shot Pharah out of the air on sight four times in a row in the last standard-mode game I played.

Hide from me, Pharah. I will shoot you down before your first rocket even lands.