By: Alannah DeAngelis, Contributor
Dates can be a fun way to get to know your partner better and try new things together. Between school, catching up on all your Netflix shows and hanging out with your friends, it can be tough to make time for date nights. Try out these five date ideas where you can stay on campus and avoid breaking the bank!
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Planetarium Show
The W. J. McCallion Planetarium, in the basement of BSB, is an out-of-this world date idea! Shows run Wednesday nights and there is a new theme each week. Learn about outer space, stars, planets, comets and more. For more information, check out the McMaster Planetarium website.
Cost: $7 per person.
Photo by Matty Flader / Photo Reporter
Video Game Room in Lyons New Media Centre
Get your game on in the Video Games room on the 4th floor of Mills to find out which of you is the “Mario Kart” champion! There are five game consoles that you can choose from: Wii, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS3 and PS4. They offer many games to play, all of which are available to rent for free. Bookings for this space can be made for up to 2 hours per day for all McMaster students.
Cost: Free! Just bring your student card to rent the controllers and games.
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McMaster Museum of Art
Check out some cool art with your partner at the McMaster Museum of Art right on campus. The museum is recognized internationally for its European paintings, drawings and prints. It is also known for its specialist collection of early 20th century German prints. This highly notable museum is just steps away from the Student Centre.
Cost: Pay what you can (suggested donation is $2).
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Trivia Night at the Phoenix
Test your knowledge at the Phoenix Bar and Grill’s Trivia Night, which happens every Tuesday at 7 p.m.. The theme changes each week, so you are sure to never be bored. Top teams will win gift cards to the Phoenix; perfect to use for another date night!
Cost: Free when you purchase food or drinks.
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Hike at Cootes
McMaster is surrounded by beautiful hiking trails with breathtaking views. Go for a hike at Cootes (start at the trail behind the Alpine tower) and explore what nature has to offer in McMaster’s backyard. Notably, the Sassafrass trail includes a lookout platform onto Lake Ontario. Who knows, maybe you will even see some deer along the way!
Cost: Free!
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By: Coby Zucker
In week one of the College League of Legends tournament, McMaster’s team was rated 11th overall by ESPN. That’s 11th out of 350 teams across North America.
“We didn't expect it to be that high,” said coach Pedro “Photograph” Ribeiro. “We knew that we had to make a name for ourselves because a lot of teams, typically when they see McMaster, they underestimate our ability just because a lot of these other schools on these rankings do have esports programs at their schools.”
Ribeiro and the team let the pressure fuel them throughout their strong 5-1 regular season performance, only dropping games in their set loss to York University. The hiccup in their otherwise dominant season meant they had to face off against the Rochester Institute of Technology in the first round, while other playoff teams were granted an automatic bye into the second round.
“It was a pretty thrilling series,” said Ribeiro. “I've never really been through something like that.”
The first game in the series against Rochester went Mac’s way in a fairly one-sided victory. In the next game, the team’s collective focus wavered, and Rochester snapped up a quick response to level the score at one game apiece.
Game three was a 42-minute slugfest that eventually went in the favour of Rochester. After the game, Mac put in their substitute Jungler in an effort to shake something loose. The result was an assertive win to put the series score at 2-2. More than four hours into the series, the last game of McMaster’s season began.
“I don't know how to describe that final game,” said Ribeiro. “It was just a really exceptionally played game by both sides, and it was a true skill match up. They were definitely on par with our abilities which, going into it, we didn't expect them to actually put up too much of a fight. But they really did give it their all.”
The early exit for the highly-touted squad was particularly difficult as a number of players and staff are graduating this year, including Ribeiro and the team’s Support player, Marty “Diminish” Kyorskis. Nonetheless, Ribeiro thinks that the remaining players will be back with a vengeance.
“That’s unfinished business,” said Ribeiro. “They want to avenge us next year. At least some of the guys, that's what they're saying. I know they're probably going to go hard and try to make up for the mistakes and get better.”
The season might be over, but Kyorskis still has much to be proud of at the end of his collegiate career. As a progenitor of the McMaster Esports club, Kyorskis was able to help start legitimizing competitive League of Legends and the rest of the esports scene at Mac. He feels that even more can be done in the coming years.
“I think [McMaster] is reluctant to support gaming, as they see themselves as more of an academic institution,” said Kyorskis. “They think that it's going to affect their image, for example. But as the sort of train departs the station, more schools will say, ‘Okay, we need to get on this because it's a big thing’. It is a thing. And we don't want to look like that school that's stuck in the past.”
Kyorskis would encourage anyone interested to take the same dive into the world of collegiate esports that he made in his first year at Mac.
“Work hard at it,” said Kyorskis. “It's not a walk in the park. It's a serious commitment. You're going to have to put in a lot of work and you're going to have to be able to balance your life around getting better at the game and surviving school, because naturally we don't want to give up academics in favour of playing the game. The potential is there because we've set up the structure. So work for it, earn it, and you can do it.”
So what’s next for Kyorskis and Ribeiro after they graduate? Kyorskis, as one of the best Support players in North America, seriously considered pursuing a career as a pro-gamer before deciding that it was not for him. Instead he is going to work on growing his Twitch.tv following to stay involved with the game.
Similarly, Ribeiro can see himself involved with pro or semi-pro League of Legends but feels that he will more likely keep up his competitive League of Legends presence by supporting the McMaster team as an alumnus.
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Jay Scherer
The bright colors, exotic weapons and beautiful landscapes captivated all of us when we first stepped into Azeroth.
World of Warcraft is still delivering wonder and awe, expansion pack after expansion pack. Developer and publisher Blizzard Entertainment has always taken turns with respect to the themes in their games, and their latest announcement at their annual convention in Anaheim is sure to have some people scratching their heads.
It’s evident that nothing will top the sheer silliness of the newest expansion pack revealed at BlizzCon 2011. The Pandaren, the newest race unveiled by Blizz, are here to kick ass and chew bamboo. I should have learned to expect the unexpected from Blizzard long ago.
As we gamers reminisce back to the days of Diablo II, we all remember portals to the secret cow level and the renowned cow king. Surely, I could not expect Blizzard to do anything other than take a black and white animal, stand it on two legs and hand it a weapon. If my prediction is accurate, we should see Zebras yielding spears in the near future.
Blizzard makes a great game and they never shy away from eccentric ideas. I first started playing WoW as a Tauren warrior. In true Blizz fashion, the Tauren are a race of bipedal cows. I played as a cow week after week and it soon became my favorite toon.
So if the Pandaren seem strange, don’t worry, they will probably grow on you. The Pandaren were a race in World of Warcraft III and rumors circulated the WoW community that they would return in the Burning Crusade. Instead, Blizz introduced the Draenei of the Alliance and the Blood Elves of the Horde.
Wrath of the Lich King was announced on Aug. 3at Blizzcon ‘07 and released Nov. 13, 2008, when players were introduced to a new class of character, the Death Knight, a class infamous for spreading death and decay in previous editions.
Death knights were a formidable ally and fearsome foe. In the following expansion, Cataclysm, we were introduced to the Goblins of the Horde and the Worgen of the Alliance. Although the Worgen won’t huff and puff and blow your house down, they may tear you to shreds, transforming from human to werewolf as the player chooses.
The new expansion, Mists of Pandaria, allows gamers to now play as the Pandaren, while also including the monk class. When you put them together, you basically get Jack Black’s character from Kung-fu Panda.
Unlike other Warcraft races, you do not start out by picking a faction. You play the Pandaren until level 10, getting a feel for the character, and then only deciding on what faction you will align with.
The idea of the Pandaren expansion is to introduce a more relaxed feel into the game environment, and for that reason, I applaud Blizzard. Surely, we can all use a little break after raiding the Firelands and finishing off Deathwing in patch 4.3.
Good luck all, and see you in Azeroth!
