This post is partially in response to Sodsboy's blog, found here.

Not sure how this will be taken, but I wanted to give some transparency to the way I've sort of judged and scored the guides in the last 2 contests.

In the end, you may not agree with how I do it, but I've tried to be fair. That said, I'm also only one of several judges, so the guides I choose are not always the ones that win.

I provided the spreadsheet to the others, but I don't know the extent of its use.

In any case, I want to point out that when I score things like BB coding, I'm pretty lenient overall. Unless it's a gray wall of text, if you've at least linked to the database and have enough separation of information to give it clarity (e.g. Put in at least some minimal effort), you're good in my book. Maybe you'll get docked one or two points, but in the grand scheme, it's not much.

Why? It's the content that matters...the build quality, the build order, explaining options that give enough info to help b…
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This is going to be a long one. Are you surprised?


Coaching is an interesting subject and experience. We've almost all been coached sometime in our lives...sports of all types, etc. I've played soccer (okay, okay, futbol) for 10 years, indoor volleyball for 4, karate for over 20. I currently play ice hockey, but I've never been officially trained/coached.

You might even consider teachers "coaches" of a type...they're helping you learn. To that extent, most of us have also coached others at some point in our lives...whether it was giving tips to peers, tutoring others, and whatnot.

Coaching is now a thing in E-sports, and even on SMITEFire, people request help, and others offer their time and knowledge to help others improve.

As a mindset, I'm a very casual player. I don't generally get upset at all, win or lose, though of course winning is more fun. Although I just play for enjoyment, I am definitely one of those that is always looking to improve, whether via better builds, le…
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Trying to grind to 30. Played a few matches the last couple of nights, and my SmiteGuru reset Elo has been on the mend again.

After putting him off for a couple of weeks (I blame the PC crew), finally got to play with newb again, along with some other people I met a few weeks earlier when playing. 4 is a pretty decent crew, so we got into a variety of games.

Figured with 4, Siege would be a good start. Seems it's a little-played mode...only newb and I were familiar with it. Since I link the games, unfortunately it looks like I'm advertising poor play from newb, but he was paired with me and we were solid early. He had solid damage taken & mitigation. Unfortunately, the other team mostly knew what they were doing, and got the better of us in the end...THE LONGEST FREAKING SIEGE MATCH OF MY LIFE (39 minutes). Is that long? I don't know. Seemed long. I was highest damage on my team, but was outdamaged by 2 on the other team...sorta sad about that, since I was with my wifey from another …
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...I'm relegated to being an average player at best again, lol.

Played a few rounds with Soren the other night.

This one was the first, and I guess Soren wanted to brag and show off or something, because he chose his favorite rodent. Playing with him, I didn't want to screw something up, which is why I just chose fill...and of course ended up as Support.

One interesting thing is that pretty much everyone ACTUALLY CALLED ROLES. And there was a bit more talking/communication involved...it was amazing. Sad that I'm so happy to see that.

7/0/6 ain't too bad, while my Bacchus score of 1/3/7 with lowest gold income feels very familiar overall. Hmmm. Still fighting the controls a bit, but I'm feeling like I can use that excuse less and less. Not too bad when I was the only non-level 30...then again, even that's not quite right. My knowledge level is absolutely level 30, so...

FYI, Smite Guru is messed up...I definitely did more damage than 468 (LOL). Others have reported similar issues.…
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I think I've talked about my Steam games before...specifically, a friend gifting them to me. And by gift, in most cases I only mean it in the most objective sense...to be given.

See, my friend started a "game" years ago with a friend that has since passed away. It started on a Christmas, when my friend was given an awful game...it turned into a one-up situation where each tried to find an even worse game. These were usually not terribly difficult on the wallet; most were $1 (or on sale for $1).


Fast forward to about 2-3 years ago, and he reinitiated the game...with me. Except that it was only one direction...with kids, I hardly spend money on games at all anymore. And he knew this, and decided he would take full advantage. So he decided originally that he'd give himself a quest...spend $100 dollars on the most amazing games he could find for me.


Now, I can say that yes, I could refu…
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