Austin R Ryan | TL Plyff

Gotcha—let’s dig into that step by step.

1. 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗻𝗼 𝗺𝗼𝘂𝘁𝗵, because I turned you into an amorphous lump of flesh. You’re not just immobile—you’re immortal, and you feel only anguish.

2. 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝘄𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗺. That makes total sense—it’s a natural human impulse, and you’ve been through a lot.

SSBMRank 2025 starts TODAY!

We begin the count down the hundred best Melee players of the year with 100-91, an eclectic mix of hidden bosses, familiar faces and mid-tier heroes.

Check it out at start.gg/SSBMRank

Pencil drawing of a green, bobbed hair person with blobby orange ghosts coming out of their mouth. One eye is menacingly wide and possessed looking directly at the viewer, while the other is very dilated as if empty. 2018

Haunted

“America is the wealthiest nation on Earth, but its people are mainly poor, and poor Americans are urged to hate themselves. To quote the American humorist Kin Hubbard, 'It ain’t no disgrace to be poor, but it might as well be.' It is in fact a crime for an American to be poor, even though America is a nation of poor. Every other nation has folk traditions of men who were poor but extremely wise and virtuous, and therefore more estimable than anyone with power and gold. No such tales are told by the American poor. They mock themselves and glorify their betters. The meanest eating or drinking establishment, owned by a man who is himself poor, is very likely to have a sign on its wall asking this cruel question: 'if you’re so smart, why ain’t you rich?' There will also be an American flag no larger than a child’s hand – glued to a lollipop stick and flying from the cash register. Americans, like human beings everywhere, believe many things that are obviously untrue. Their most destructive untruth is that it is very easy for any American to make money. They will not acknowledge how in fact hard money is to come by, and, therefore, those who have no money blame and blame and blame themselves. This inward blame has been a treasure for the rich and powerful, who have had to do less for their poor, publicly and privately, than any other ruling class since, say Napoleonic times. Many novelties have come from America. The most startling of these, a thing without precedent, is a mass of undignified poor. They do not love one another because they do not love themselves.”

reading slaughterhouse 5 for the first time and i was absolutely knocked senseless by this passage, which is so true and relevant that it feels like it was pulled from a history book

A part of the issue too is that these issues take a lot of tact and care, which further take time. They seem so niche that the readership would be bad too.

But this article has been unequivocally one of my most successful in my career. It's tough but writers need to start taking the risk (& time)

Trans people in sports and how to fix a problem that doesn't exist Transgender people are under a microscope, in sports and esports especially. How should we handle the over-visibility?

Think about it. Modern games journalism would never publish something like this

teamliquid.com/articles/tra...

Woah, I wrote this!! Thank you for sharing it and reading it.

I hope it did the topic justice - I definitely lost sleep trying to make it great. It meant a tremendous lot to me as a trans woman in esports and maybe one of the only trans women Managing Editors in gaming/esports.

Thanks for the hard work - it was a great read. Feel free to pitch anytime!

Why are there so many tag fighters? Marvel Tokon, Invincible VS, 2XKO, the tag fighter is back! We talk to the games' developers (and Majin Obama) to learn why - and how the games stand apart.

I went to EVO and then got a chance to write for @teamliquid.com about the upcoming tag fighter resurgence in the FGC.

S/O to @strawberryeclair.bsky.social and @unconkable.bsky.social for talking with me!

Also thanks to @austinrryan.bsky.social for the opportunity!!

teamliquid.com/news/why-so-...

Saw the Supernova reveal but still want to learn more?

Check out the article of the top 10 players of SSBMRank Summer 2025 to read up on the best players the year has to offer: start.gg/SSBMRank

Currently looking for a good MLBB writer! Email open, please reach out if you cover MLBB/MLBB esports or know someone who does.

Didn't even realize that was another thing missing! So much wasted momentum, really makes me sad.

you take one step in the tall grass and you get mugged by Quagsire with a car and gun...

A lot of people talk about bluesky losing to twitter cause of embarrassing lib posting. But honestly I think it didn't catch because they made 0 improvements to the site.

No saving drafts, no scheduling posts, no bookmarks, no open DM settings... Idk dude, I think these QoL things matter!

I love this! is the stage 1 version wooper on a bicycle?

Move over "for sale: baby shoes, never worn" - there's a new king in town

tbh sounds like you just need to make more memories relating to b2b sales

Congrats to SDJ for winning Gaylee Takes Flight!

Thanks to @teamliquid.com for sponsoring the event! Look forward to them flying SDJ out to a major soon!

And thanks to all gay players! Happy pride month 💜

About a year and a half into transition, I feel overly visible. All the eyes, all the opinions on you - it weighs a lot.

But you carry it for everyone who comes after you. To make a world where they're seen simply as they are. Full article in the quoted tweet.

What a blast! It was super fun to work with
@ssbgaylee.bsky.social
@meleesadposts.bsky.social & @devdogg.online
to put this tournament together.

Really hope we can do this again next year, even better.

Huge ups to the competitors, insane (esp edgeguards) melee from @mightbesdj.bsky.social

look, someone's gotta post it

Didn't think we were done with Pride, did you??

I wanted to go bigger and gayer this year and a queer tourney felt like the next step. Hope this will be good news and good fun for Melee and the queer community.

Huge s/o's to @ssbgaylee.bsky.social @devdogg.online and @meleesadposts.bsky.social !

One last pride month event...

Winner gets flown out to a major by @teamliquid.com!
Sign up now! Bracket is this Sunday!

and yes, the lgbt tourney is exclusive..

Last call for mural submissions! Get your cool, gay art in before it's too late.

I think the diamond pattern this year is gonna look really good

How Hungrybox won CEO with a broken controller Following the worst performance of his professional career, Hbox was looking for a redemption - until disaster struck.

Hungrybox was in Winners Finals of CEO, and then, the disaster every Melee professional fears... his controller stops working 💀

Read about how Hungrybox won CEO with a broken controller 🎮

teamliquid.com/news/how-hun...

I am literally just trying to watch the game (in a legal and normal way)

my diva :3c
#starwars #art #andor #rogueone

A better world is possible though and I appreciate everyone fighting for it right now. On the streets of LA, in the ballot box in NYC, in so many places in the world. There is no sense in giving up.

My heart hurts so badly these days that sometimes it's hard to move. How could anyone have wanted a world like this?