Cecilia D'Anastasio

Celebrity Philadelphia Flyers mascot and orange ??? Gritty made an appearance at the Philadelphia Fusion’s Overwatch League match tonight

I Lost A Bet In Smash And Now I Have To Keep A Sexy Picture Of Yoshi On My Phone

This isn’t so much a “diary” as it is an explanation. It is an explanation as to why, throughout the last week’s day-to-day obligations and engagements, I have had the affect of a melting globule of salted snail. My mood has been poor, maybe worse than when I got rejected from my first-choice college, and…

If You Don’t Love Bulbasaur, ‘Bulbasaur Propaganda’ Might Change Your Mind

A word typically reserved for stoic World War II posters and modern Russian cable TV takes on new meaning with the delightful Pokémon-themed Twitter account Bulbasaur Propaganda. @BulbaGanda is a nonstop feed of Bulbasaur, Ivysaur and Venusaur facts, fan art, memes, heartwarming images, and general cheerleading for Pokémon’s vegetation-based starting monster. If ever you had…

Cecilia’s doing a late night Smash Ultimate stream with some friends at home! Drop by and say hello at 9:20 p.m. ET.

What It Means When We Dream About Video Games

The optimal system for chopping, arranging, and serving cucumber sushi in Overcooked 2 exists only in my dreams. Lately, I’ve had those dreams a lot. Even if I’ve only played an hour of the strategy cooking game before bed, by the time I get into REM sleep I’m frantically dumping my sous-chef’s hot rice on…

Twitch Streamer And Game Studio Employee Arrested In Child Sex Sting

Thomas Cheung, an employee of game studio Hi-Rez (Paladins) and a partnered Twitch streamer, was arrested last weekend in Brookhaven, Georgia in connection with a Super Bowl weekend child sex sting. Police charged him with using a computer service “to seduce, solicit, lure or entice” a child, which is a felony in Georgia. Cheung, 32,…

The Best Sports Event This Weekend Was A Smash Ultimate Tournament

Right after the world’s most blah Super Bowl mercifully wrapped itself up, 124,000 viewers tuned in to Twitch to watch something way more exciting: the Oakland Super Smash Bros. tournament Genesis 6. The event was one hype moment after another, and its players looked so capable that, at times, I wondered what devil they’d promised…

Smash Ultimate’s Piranha Plant Is Sluggish But Fun

Last night, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate got Mario’s Piranha Plant, the platform fighter’s first downloadable fighter, and it’s a doozy. Piranha Plant’s moveset is a radical departure from what we’ve seen in prior Smash games, but thankfully, unlike those games’ downloadable fighters, this one isn’t overpowered. Smash Ultimate players can get Piranha Plant by following…

We’re streaming Smash Ultimate’s newest addition, Piranha Plant, on our Twitch channel at noon, ET. Come in and eat your vegetables….

Top Smash Bros. Commentator Is No Longer Accepting Feedback On Her Speaking Voice

Victoria “VikkiKitty” Perez had been competing at Super Smash Bros. 4 for five months when local tournament organizers plucked her out of the contender’s pool and threw her on stage to commentate. Over the PA one 2015 tournament in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, everybody heard the words, “Victoria, come into the stream room.” It wasn’t a…

Don’t Forget To Unlock Smash Bros. Ultimate‘s Piranha Plant Before Friday

I think all of us are curious about how a literal piranha plant is going to hold its own against the likes of Solid Snake in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. The new, downloadable fighter releases sometime before February 15—we’re not exactly sure when yet—and if you own the game, you’re going to want to give…

Dragon Ball Z will be getting a new action role-playing game this year, Bandai Namco announced yesterday. Dragon Ball Project Z will land on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC and, right now, its initial footage looks stellar.

Overwatch Is No Longer My Third Place

Nobody ever asks why anyone stopped playing Halo 2. No response would merit it. The game came out in 2004, and three years later, there was Halo 3. At some point, it got old. Another game came along. Friends moved on. It was just a thing you did, and then you went and did something…

Survey Of 4,000 Game Developers Says Half Of Them Want To Unionize

In a survey of nearly 4,000 game developers published today by the Game Developers Conference, half of developers surveyed said they thought game industry workers should unionize. Unionization has been a hot topic among game developers over the last few years, as anecdotes of 100-hour work weeks and $28 million CEO salaries circulate among game…

Anime Movies Are Finally Getting The U.S. Theatrical Releases They Deserve

Just a couple decades ago, anime fans would pore over Japanese dictionaries to hand-translate subtitles for their favorite anime films, which they’d disseminate over IRCs and password-protected forums. Over the last couple of years, those same fans to see marquee displays for “SPIRITED AWAY” and “YOUR NAME” hanging above their local brick-and-mortar movie theater. More…

As Spreadsheet Of Accused Abusers Spreads, Anime Conventions Get Their MeToo Movement

A spreadsheet containing the names of alleged abusers and harassers who attend U.S. anime conventions is making its way around social media as part of a small #MeToo movement in the niche community. After a days-long social media discussion among U.S. convention-goers naming alleged harassers, who are accused of anything from preying on minors to…

A Gamer’s Guide To Not Getting Hacked

If you play video games, you are an ideal target to get wrecked by hackers. Sure, you’re tech savvy—you know what a hard drive is and have seen an HDMI cable or two in your day. Still, there are some unassailable, totally exploitable truths about gamers: They are very online. They log in to a…

Yesterday, Riot Games updated its company manifesto, which, according to Kotaku’s report, was a contributing factor to its sexist culture. Released in 2012, Riot’s values “served us well for many years, but didn’t evolve along with us,” the website reads. The new manifesto has removed points like “Take Play Seriously” and “Challenge Convention” and added…

Smash Ultimate Online Won’t Let You Taunt, So Everyone’s Teabagging Instead

Nintendo’s removal of the “taunt” option in Smash Ultimate online play has sparked an outbreak of one of gaming’s most notorious behaviors: teabagging. In Nintendo’s latest Smash game, players can’t use their fighters’ taunts when they’re playing online in Quick Play mode. In all other modes, the taunt move is typically mapped to the D-pad,…

Peach Is A Monster In Smash Ultimate, Pros Say

Gonzalo “Zero” Barrios, regarded as the best Smash 4 player in the world, recently needed a safe approach against Ezra “Samsora” Morris Jr., who was playing Peach. It was their both of their final stocks at last weekend’s Smash Ultimate tournament, Smash Conference. Barrios tried hard to bait Morris’s white gown-wearing Peach as she fluttered through…