I need to fangirl with my fellow fans. Please just scroll past this and don't mind me gushing over my ult groups. It's gonna be long. I just need this space for myself since I don't use twitter.
OPENING: ILAND's Hanbin

Not really a fan of I-Land. But, the dude did pretty well

OPENING VCR: Okay, they started of with JK and then proceeded with the individual groups. It's pretty. They're all in suits, even GFRIEND. The animation is well-done. Then... the leaders of each group stepped out with BTS RM in the middle. There's a narration about the theme of "Connecting". Well-done. Plus, it's nice to see the leaders in one frame.
ENHYPEN (Don't know the songs they performed, I forgot to type it down too)

I think they did well for a month old group. I love the piano solo bit by Jay. I like how they did some twists in their performance. The first set was hauntingly beautiful, the subsequrnt ones were pretty fine (for BigHit standards - they tend to go all put on their production)
I'm so sorry, I don't know them that well. So, I can't really narrate well.

TXT

CAN'T YOU SEE ME - Well done TXT! You can really see how much they improved performance-wise, they carried the dark theme so well.
PUMA - OMG!!!! Yeonjun solo dance break to start the song. Wowwwwww. Yeonjun has always been a stand out for me, and it's nice that he's got that spotlight. Also, I'd like to commend TXT for carrying this wild concept so well. People who aren't fans of them would always associate them with bubbly concepts or image. But for 2020, this comeback has shown that they have a wider range than what people label them.
SOLO DANCES: OMG AGAIN!!! All TXT members have their own solo dance performance. I feel like a proud stage mom. They all did so well with their own dances. I really lived Taehyun's solo dance.... and ofc Yeonjun's (too biased for this one).
WE LOST THE SUMMER - The way they shifted from the dark and fiery stage to the "gamey, nano-themed set". Lol. Also, there's something satisfying with TXT in school uniforms. They fit it so well.
WISHLIST - This is my favorite song from the most recent minisode. The set is cute lol, they literally have this retro car on stage hahaha... and it's moving while being driven by a huge ass teddy bear. Also, Taehyun flexing his vocals for his adlibs. Haha, I'm here for it.
BLUE HOUR - I didn't expect them to perform so many song, I'm so happy. Blue Hour is one of my favorite title tracks released in 2020 (it completed the retro trifecta for me: MAGO - DYNAMITE - BLUE HOUR), I really demand that they upload the dance break version on spotify. I'm so excited for what TXT will be bringing in 2021. Their discography has been so flawless so far.

BUMZU

I'm unfamiliar with the artist, but the set is wow. Saxophones? The song is groovy jazz and fun.
FOREVER YOUNG: His ballads sounds nice. He can sing... and rap???? Wew, he killed those notes LIVE. Need to read more on him after this.
(DIDN'T GET THE TITLE): Great range from the guy. His third song sounds like a fun upbeat song.
BEAUTIFUL: Another ballad. Haha, seriously, the range of this guy. Haha

LEE HYUN (Lowkey adore him. He's the first korean ballad singer I've encountered back then when I was getting into BTS. I always anticipate his OSTs because he has a great voice)

YOU ARE THE BEST OF MY LIFE: I always love hearing him sing this song. This was one of the first songs I've heard from him. Also, I like the live band for the performance.
SLANDER (?, title was written in korean, but I kind of know the song, not sure though)

BTS SUGA SPEECH. I don't know what to feel. It feels like such a long time since I saw him on stage. I know he's not technically performing, but I feel so happy to see him back.
SHIN HAE CHUL STAGE COLLAB STAGES: Okay, this is pretty cool. Members from different groups are performing with a live band. Aaah, this is so cool.
GFRIEND

TIME FOR THE MOONLIGHT (Piano ver): The piano and the live vocals is very soothing to listen to.
Missed a few minutes. Super urgent matters.
INTRO + APPLE: Okay, this solo dance performance is so pretty. I always like watching classical dances, so I really enjoyed it. The red clothes, ooh, fits "Apple" so perfecrly.
MAGO: This has been one of the best retro song this year. I love the set and the clothes... they all look so good! Okay, this dance break is awesome.

NU'EST

Didn't get the title. It's my first time watching them live. Their set has a chess theme, and their outfits looks sleek - military like.
LOVE PAINT
BET BET (Orchestral ver)
SHADOW. There dance looks pretty cool. They look so young, I thought they'd look more "sunbae like" haha. What's the average age of NU'EST members?
I'M IN TROUBLE. One of the member lowkey reminds of EXO Baekhyun. Haha. Btw, this song feels so familiar.
LOVE ME. This one sounds different than the previous songs. It's more upbeat and brighter.
DRIVE. Over all the stage was cohesive. They performed all the songs well, and I feel like they have a wide discography.

GROUP GREETINGS 💕

Ooooh interesting. So some more guys from I-LAND will be debuting next year 👀

BTS!!!!!!!! Ending 2020, and starting 2021 with my ults. 🥲🥲🥲

DYNAMITE. Okay, they own these ruffles. Haha
BEST OF ME. I did not expect this! But this is a perfect song to end 2020. This reminds of BTS concerts... they did the choreography too!!!

DRONE SHOW + COUNTDOWN (IONIQ as bg music hahahahahaha I did not expect that). The drone show is so beautiful BTW.
BTS COLLAB STAGES:

MIC DROP (w/ Steve Aoki): This one has all the dance breaks!!!! Kind of weird seeing Steve dancing on the screen at the back tho. Hahaha. Also, it feels weird seeing Mic Drop with just 6 people 🥲
MAKE IT RIGHT (w/ Lauv): I'm happy Tae got to do the last part. Also, Jimin and JK's adlibs.
BOY WITH LUV (w/ Halsey): The format is so cute hahaha like a zoom performance haha. Lowkey felt like their Jimmy Fallon Dynamite performance with the box screens for each member.
CLOSING MENT with LIFE GOES ON!!!! This is the first time they performed LGO with real Yoongi (not the hologram one lol).

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!!!

Christmas 2020 - "The Glorious Santa Claus Lord ~The Sealed Christmas Present~"

Duration: Dec. 16th (Wed) 18:00 - Dec. 30th (Wed) 12:59 JST
Requirement: Fuyuki Clear

News:

Links:

New Stuff Showcase

Guides:

Rate-Up Schedule

Rate-Up Schedule (JST)	Rate-Up Servant
December 16, 18:00 ~ December 18, 23:59	Vritra, Beowulf, Martha (Ruler)
December 19, 00:00 ~ December 20, 23:59	Vritra, Martha (Ruler)
December 21, 00:00 ~ December 22, 23:59	Vritra, Beowulf
December 23, 00:00 ~ December 24, 23:59	Vritra, Beowulf, Martha (Ruler)
December 25, 00:00 ~ December 26, 23:59	Vritra, Martha (Ruler)
December 27, 00:00 ~ December 28, 23:59	Vritra, Beowulf
December 29, 00:00 ~ December 30, 12:59	Vritra, Beowulf, Martha (Ruler)

FAQ

Which node is most efficient? Where should I be farming?
The Free Quests will gradually get better as the event progresses; as such it is not recommended that you go all out with AP refills as soon as it starts. The highest level node available will always have the best drop rates. Farming the newest node is usually a safe bet. Keep in mind that with the new format of events in 2020, it is likely that there will be a Level 90+ node at the end which drops lotto tickets as well as shop currency.
What are the other event items for?
Black Presents are obtained from lotto boxes and are used to progress the Main Story. Christmas Gongs are used to buy items in the event shop (including copies of the welfare) and extras can be used to do a bonus repeatable quest.
A True Hero Slays By Boxing!

This is one post out of a series celebrating our favorites of trance in 2020. Specifically, this post has to do with the The Best Tracks of 2020. Please click here for the December Mix Competition Information, or click here for results on Best Album, Best Label, etc. and our survey results!

Welcome ladies and gentlemen of trance for the Top 20 Trance Tracks of 2020 Results as voted by you, viewers and listeners of trance!

A few weeks ago, I provided you details and a Google Survey link for voting on the Top Tracks of 2020, and you responded!
Before we get into the full results, a few tracks that just missed out:
25) Heatbeat – Feel Alive
24) Will Atkinson with Cari Golden – Cigarettes and Kerosene
23) Three ‘N One – Pearl River (Karney Remix)
22) Will Atkinson – Kismet Energy
21) Nicholas Gunn featuring Alina Renae – Fallen (Richard Durand Remix)
Before we get into the list....

Our Honorable Mention

This was the track with no restrictions that you felt either didn’t (or couldn’t) make your personal Top 5. This category did allow unreleased bootlegs first played in 2020.
The Honorable Mention for 2020 was tied. The winners are:
Billie Eilish – No Time To Die (Cold Blue’s Golden Leaves Remix)
And
i_o – Castles In The Sky
Rest in peace Garrett Lockhart.
If you want to see all the songs (include some progressive house and other genres) that people felt were superb in 2020, you can check out the Full List Here.
But now let’s get down to business; why we are here today.
Let’s count down the Top 20 detailing the Top 5. Drumroll Please

#5

ilan Bluestone presents Stoneblue featuring Emma Hewitt – Hypnotized
We start the Top 5 countdown with a bit of 138 trance from ilan Bluestone of all people. Premiered at ABGT 350, this is the debut single for Bluestone under his Stoneblue alias.
It’s been a busy year for ilan, with releases for Anjunabeats under his normal moniker and Elysian, the super-trio of Maor Levi, ilan, and Emma Hewitt. While he preps for an album release in 2021 that will most likely feature more of his traditional trance sounds (e.g., Paid For Love), he teased a few higher bpm tracks in 2020, with Hypnotized being the first (and only so far) 138-bpm track released.
The track was released on Monstercat in February:

Prepare for your spirit to leave your body as ilan Bluestone graces Monstercat Instinct to present Stoneblue featuring Emma Hewitt!

#4

Gareth Emery featuring Annabel – You’ll Be OK (Giuseppe Ottaviani Remix)
Gareth Emery is no stranger to the Top 5 on our charts. For years he’s released trance tracks that feature his signature sounds that have made a cannonball-sized splash on charts, radio shows, and podcasts. Similar to Saving Light from a few years ago, You’ll Be OK features a positive message in a time when many have felt despair. Regarding the first single from his album “The Lasers,” Gareth said that he wrote You’ll Be OK while on a plane he felt was going to crash. Combined with the global pandemic, Gareth felt people needed a song stating, simply, “that things will be all right.”
Giuseppe Ottaviani put his own signature touch on a high-energy remix, and that elevated the original melody into a realm only GO can create. Released in March on Create Music Group:

One of the biggest vocals of 2020 [has] got the remix treatment from Giuseppe Ottaviani.

#3

Will Atkinson – Rush
You all knew this was coming. The myth, the legend, the Scottish maestro himself. The man who was given 15 samples which he never heard before by John Askew (and 1 more which he did) and produced an album-worthy song in only 6 hours. The producer who has had a track in our Top 3 songs every single year since 2014. Why should this year be any different? More to the point, not only was it pretty much a safe bet that it would happen again this year, it was a practically-guaranteed lock with the release of his debut artist album, “Last King of Scotland.” While many of his album tracks were voted on this year individually, so far only a few have just barely missed cracking into our Top 20.
Not Rush, though. Not only does it keep Atkinson’s Top 3 streak alive, it was also a welcome relief for so many followers and listeners of Atkinson. Will’s been teasing this song for years, with most remembering it from his Luminosity Beach Festival set back in the summer of 2017. 3+ Years have the Big Bill faithful waited. Many had accepted that this track would forever be a set-exclusive or unreleased ID. One trance user even ended up making their own version from scratch. But at last, the hopeful have been rewarded with a mixed version on the album and a full release a few weeks later. Sure, there have been some changes and tweaks since Luminosity, but it still retains those old school vibes and those emotions that Will has delivered to his listeners time and time again.
Released as a full single on Black Hole Recordings in November, as well as a single on his debut artist album “Last King of Scotland”:

The most anticipated debut artist album of 2020 has arrived, as genius Scottish producer Will Atkinson delivers a seventeen-track LP that’s nothing less than a masterpiece. A body of music that seamlessly fuses trance, techno & drum n’ bass with progressive & poetry, ambient & acid and harmony & hard dance, it immediately vies for the tag of ‘timeless’.

#2

Aly & Fila featuring Plumb – Somebody Loves You
A State of Trance Radio’s Top Tune for 2020 placed in our #2 slot this year. For many, placement of this song in the Top 5 (let alone near the top spot) was all but guaranteed when it was first released. Plumb’s vocal tracks of the past half-decade have been a staple both on trance’s listening and voting lists as well as within the scene in general. And while Paul van Dyk may not be the collaborating artist this time around, who better to take the comforting vocals of Plumb and uplift them to dazzling new heights than Aly & Fila? The Egyptian duo have continued to impress in their releases, their curation of their label, and the spectacular FSOE celebration shows throughout 2020; this track is no exception.
Aly & Fila talked about how this collaboration happened in an interview with Beatport after reaching Beatport’s overall #1:

We have been huge fans of hers as a singer and songwriter since her collaboration with Paul. We went through her music online and found “Somebody Loves You” and fell in love with it from the first time of hearing it. So our management asked her for the stems for a possible remix from us. After we had finished it, they were really happy with our version, and we were then able to release it as a collaboration.

Released on Future Sound of Egypt in September:

Aly & Fila team up with the incredible singer-songwriter Plumb to deliver one of their biggest releases of the past 10 years, 'Somebody Loves You', one of the most sought-after, spine-tingling trance tracks you'll ever hear.

And now your number 1 song….

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#1

Music plays.

INT. RING MODULE, ENDURANCE

BRAND: Cooper, you can’t ask Tars to do this for us –

INT. COCKPIT, RANGER 2

Cooper puts his hands on the controls.
COOPER: He’s a robot, Amelia. I don’t have to ask him to do anything.

INT. RING MODULE, ENDURANCE

Brand is furious.
BRAND: Cooper, you asshole.
COPPER (over radio): Sorry, you broke up a little there.
TARS (over radio): It’s what we intended, Dr. Brand.

INT. COCKPIT, LANDER

TARS sits at the controls, ready.
TARS: It’s our last chance to save electronic music on Earth. If I can find some way to transmit the electronic beats data I’ll find in there, they might still make it.

INT. RING MODULE, ENDURANCE

BRAND (to herself): If there’s a producer still there worthy to receive it…

EXT. ENDURANCE

The Endurance streaks above the glowing horizon, skirting the blackness beneath.

INT. LANDER

Tars looks out at the dark abyss and checks his instruments and hits the button.
TARS: Fire. Detach. Send.

EXT. LANDER

The engines add a fresh blast of fire, pushing the Lander higher and higher back into the starlight. The ship shudders with exponentially rising gravitational energy as it crosses the horizon, plunging towards the singularity. All wavelengths of light cascading with TARS as the ship plunges into absolute white.

INT. WILL’S BEDROOM – TWILIGHT

Will (thirty) sits on the bed, looking through a nearby telescope. He sees the radiating light; feels the radiating love. He feverishly pulls out his laptop and opens up Ableton.
WILL (to himself): This track will be carved from my soul; it will percolate the cosmos. This will be hard hitting, thought provoking Trance. This will be the debut.

SCENE

Superfluous introduction to the #1 song? Absolutely. But let’s face it, you all knew what it was going to be as soon as you didn’t see the song pop up in the other 24 slots, and it’s too big of a tune to even consider the possibility that it didn’t make our Top 25 this year.
Our tune of the year for 2020:
Will Atkinson – Telescope
What more is there to say?
We’ve talked about Will Atkinson’s mastery of sound year in and year out for 7 years now, and more so just recently a few song positions ago, no less! It’s been hyped as tune of the year material since it was released earlier this year. S3baman said it best, “[The r]ace is pretty much over if you ask me.” Its big riffs are layered with melody and emotions that mix together to create another top-tier track in Will’s discography, which is already a mile long. It’s been considered a throwback to the Anjunabeats and ASOT tracks of 15 years ago. It even went full trance and included a cheesy quote from Interstellar (which was sampled originally, recorded by a separate vocalist for the single release, but then had the original film sample cleared and re-instated for the post-album extended release). For someone who has been in the scene for a decade plus and yet to release an artist album up until this year, Will wanted to make a bold statement with his first album single. He licked that stamp and sent it.
Message received Big Bill, loud and clear.
The track was released on VII in February:

The first single from Will Atkinson's highly anticipated debut artist album has landed and what a fine start to this story it is. Telescope sees Will return to his Subculture roots - with a big riff based anthem that will surely have the true trance fans salivating. Rich in layers of melody and emotion this is set to be a firm favourite with both the cool kids and the DJs they follow.

Congratulations to Will Atkinson on his production for the Tune of the Year 2020 on trance! For additional details and playlists, see the pinned comment.

Or: if you don’t know anything about BTS and at this point you're too afraid to ask, this is the post for you
Making history as the first South Korean idol group to be nominated for a Grammy (two months after becoming the first South Korean idol group to have a Billboard #1 on the Hot 100, and they just debuted a #1 album and single this week too,) if you are a member of this sub, it’s likely you’ve now heard of BTS in some capacity. And it’s almost as likely you have an opinion about them.
This is a comprehensive post dedicated to explaining various aspects of BTS’ music and cultural context in order to serve as an introduction to the group, similar to the old Pop Compass series on this sub.
One of the clearest issues when discussing BTS is a tendency to either gloss over or blow entirely out of proportion BTS’ mistakes, and I’ve done my best to ensure neither of these things happen and that, instead, BTS’ history is covered accurately but with humour and criticism where appropriate.
A brief note to those who are already calling me jobless on Twitter: the members of BTS are, like all of us (except you, Automod, hi babe,) human beings. They have done things that merit criticism. All of this will be explored in this post. But first, let’s cover the basics.

Come be my teacher

This section is intended to introduce you to the seven members of BTS, discuss BTS’ origins in the industry, and clarify a number of terms that may be unfamiliar to you.

As basic as it gets

BTS is an abbreviation of Bangtan Sonyeondan, a romanisation of the Hangul 방탄소년단. Bangtan Sonyeondan roughly translates to ‘Bulletproof Boy Scouts’, though this fact is often ignored, possibly due to the fact that it’s ridiculous and men in the military in Korea think it’s stupid (and they’re right.) BTS are most frequently referred to as BTS, Bangtan, or Bangtan Boys.
Due to the group’s increased international activities, it’s been stated in recent years that BTS can also be an abbreviation for ‘Beyond the Scene’. For the purposes of this post, they’ll be called BTS, unless I slip up and call them Bangtan. Which I definitely will.
In South Korea, the name for fans of an idol group is determined by the group (or more accurately, their label). Blackpink’s fans are called Blinks, a cute portmanteau of ‘black’ and ‘pink’. Fans of Girls’ Generation are called Sones, in reference to their Korean name, Sonyeo Sidae (SNSD). Before their replacement by Blackpink, 2NE1 fans were known as Blackjacks, because 21 is the number of points you cannot exceed in a game of blackjack. GOT7 fans’ ahgase nickname is an alternate spelling of iGot7, their official fandom name. These fandom names make varying degrees of sense, but are hugely important for a group.
BTS’ dedicated fans are known as ARMY (with or without an s added to make it plural), which is another abbreviation, this time for ‘Adorable Representative MC for Youth’ and we’re just going to pretend it’s not. You've probably seen ARMY before, whether on Twitter, Youtube, or someone complaining about them.

Members

Members will be referred to with the Korean naming system, which places the surname (family name) first. I’ll also be using the most common romanisations, but I’ll explain if there are others. Their 'official' name is bolded.

RM

Kim Nam-joon — also known as Rap Monster (formerly), Rap Mon (formerly), RM, Real Me, Joon, Joonie, and Namjoon

BTS' leader (a position that can be difficult to explain, but in RM's case, BTS was essentially built up around him) and one of its rappers, RM is also the member you're most likely to recognise if you watch a lot of BTS' English interviews, given that he's the only member fluent in English and often acts as a translator for the members of BTS when abroad. (In Bon Voyage 4, a travel show featuring BTS and set in New Zealand, there's a scene where BTS are at a car rental and everyone starts saying that they need Namjoon because he speaks English, which really epitomises his role as the face of the group abroad.)
RM also does a lot of production and songwriting for BTS, and has done a great deal to shape BTS' sound and image. He's released two solo mixtapes, most recently Mono. Like the other rappers in BTS, he's done a number of features, including 2020's Winter Flower by Younha.

J-Hope

Jung Ho-seok — also known as J-Hope, Hobi, and Hoseok

J-Hope is another one of the rappers, as well as being BTS' best dancer, and an occasional vocalist. (Check out his robot to get an idea of his incredible body control.) Like RM, he often takes an active role in producing and composing the group's music.
He's easily the most outwardly positive member of the group, and can frequently be seen smiling through all the members' bullshit. Namjoon has suggested that, were he not to be the leader of BTS, J-Hope would easily fulfill the role in his stead.
As a solo artist, he's released the mixtape (or 'hixtape') Hope World. He's also released a collaboration with Becky G, Chicken Noodle Soup (with a soda on the side!)

Suga

Min Yoon-gi — also known as Suga (pronounced like sugar, without the ‘r’), Agust D (his solo alias — backwards, Agust D is DT Suga; D-T is an abbreviation for Daegu, the city he’s from), Minstradamus (for his ability to predict BTS' future achievements) and Yoongi

The last of BTS' main rappers (though others, primarily Jungkook, have sometimes filled this role in live shows), Suga has been with RM for 10 years, and their partnership has made BTS what it is. Known for his stoic demeanor and thin patience for American media, he presents himself as a rags to riches (or peasant to a king) success story.
As a solo artist going by the name Agust D, he's released two mixtapes, Agust D and D-2, the latter of which was released earlier this year, and the lead single (of sorts) from it, Daechwita, is a must-listen if you have any interest in hip hop or phenomenal visuals based on Korean history.
At the time of writing (December 2020), Yoongi is currently not promoting with BTS after undergoing shoulder surgery to treat an injury accrued before his debut, though he's slated to return in January 2021.

Jin

Kim Seok-jin — also known as Jin, Worldwide Handsome and Seokjin

BTS' oldest member (not that anyone gives him any respect for it) and their 'visual' (in idoldom, the visual member is the most attractive member by Korean beauty standards) who was scouted on the street on the way to university, where he studied acting.
He's released a number of solo tracks, including Tonight, written with RM, and is known for his vibrant personality and high degree of confidence.
You might have heard about him in the news recently, as Jin is about to turn 28 (30 under the Korean age system, which is complicated, let's not get into that) in December and thus is reaching the period where he is legally required to enlist in the armed forces, as South Korea has mandatory conscription for able bodied men between the ages of 18 and 28, though a bill was just passed that would allow exceptional artists (like Jin and the other members of BTS) to delay enlistment a further two years.
Jin's enlistment will have major consequences for BTS, as men are required to serve for a minimum of a year (usually, it ends up being a year and a half) and there's a great deal of speculation regarding what approach Big Hit/BTS will take to enlistment. It's entirely possible that several members, or all of them, may enlist at the same time, in order to be discharged at the same time and immediately resume their careers.

V

Kim Tae-hyung — also known as V, Tae, TaeTae, Yeontan’s father (Yeontan is his dog), and Taehyung

Known mostly for his lower vocal range, V is one of the members of BTS’ popular maknae line (more on this below) along with Jimin and Jungkook. The three maknae line members often rank highly in preference surveys and idol brand rankings (essentially, a measure of how much of a household name an idol is, and how valuable they would be as a brand ambassador).
V has released a number of solo tracks, most recently ‘Sweet Night’ (sung entirely in English) for the Itaewon Class (a drama released on Netflix in the US) soundtrack. He's been working on a solo mixtape, and though no release is currently slated, it seems to be coming soon.
In 2016, he made his debut as an actor in the historical drama series Hwarang: The Poet Warrior Youth. (His costar in Hwarang, Park Seo-joon, was the lead of Itaewon Class. Just a fun fact for you.)

Jimin

Park Ji-min — also known as Jimin, Chimmy/Chimchim, and (Baby) Mochi (for his mochi shaped cheeks)

As mentioned, Jimin is part of the hugely successful maknae line, and, in addition to being one of BTS’ most prominent vocalists, he’s also one of their best dancers.
As a solo artist, he’s released three songs as part of BTS releases (including one of my favourite songs on a BTS record, Filter, from 2020’s MAP OF THE SOUL : 7), all of which have the distinction of having been streamed over 100 million times each on Spotify, making him the most successful Korean solo artist on Spotify.

Jungkook

Jeon Jung-kook — are you ready for this? Also known as Jung Kook (this is the official romanisation no one actually uses), Kookie, JK, muscle pig/muscle bunny (for his ‘bunny’ front teeth and the fact he’s like. jacked), golden maknae, Jeongguk (another romanisation of his name; nicknames like ‘Guk’ and ‘Gukkie’ are derived from it), sell out king (because items he wears or has immediately sell out), and Jungkook

The youngest member of BTS, born in 1997, Jungkook is often referred to as their golden maknae because of his ability to do just about everything, from singing and dancing and rapping to filmmaking and athletics. In the documentary Break The Silence, released earlier this year, he expressed feeling like he doesn’t live up to that title, so we should call him what he is, BTS’ very talented youngest member.
As a solo artist, Jungkook has released a few tracks as part of BTS releases, notably Euphoria, and directed the music video for BTS’ newest single, Life Goes On (he makes videos of the members of BTS and uploads them to the Golden Closet Films series, named for his 'Golden Closet' studio, so this isn’t as random as it seems.)
He’s set to release a solo mixtape at some point in the future. It will probably have lots of EDM style production, because he’s an EDM rat, which you can see most clearly on ‘Stay’ from BTS’ most recent album, BE, a track originally intended for Jungkook’s mixtape.

Subunits 101

There’s a lot of references to ‘lines’ in Korean pop culture. Lines (or subunits) are essentially smaller groupings within a larger group. Here are the best known groupings in BTS.
Rap Line (the members who rap most frequently): RM, Suga, and J-Hope
Vocal Line (the members who sing most frequently): Jin, V, Jimin, and Jungkook
Hyung Line [in the Korean language, ‘hyung’ is an honourific term (a term used out of respect for seniority) translating approximately to ‘older brother’, used by men to refer to other men who are older than them]: Jin, Suga, J-Hope, and usually RM
Maknae Line [‘maknae’ is more of a position title than an honourific, meaning ‘youngest member’; Jungkook is the youngest member and thus maknae of BTS; the maknae line is the three (or four, when RM is counted) youngest members]: V, Jimin, Jungkook
95 Line: this refers to V and Jimin, who were both born in 1995 (in Korea, you can refer to your birth year as making you a ‘# liner’; for example, V and Jimin are 95 liners)
94 Line: RM and J-Hope were both born in 1994
A number of other lines and pairings exist both officially and within the fandom, including the introvert and extrovert lines, and the subunits based on their former living arrangements (Jimin and J-Hope are sometimes referred to as ‘perpetual roommates’, Suga and Jin are called Sin, Suga and J-Hope’s friendship is called Sope.)
Of course, as with any big fandom there are also ship names, but these follow convention and are portmanteaus of the members involved (eg ‘Taekook’ or ‘Vminkook’ or ‘Namkook’). A primer about these relationships and conspiracies will be made in a future Teatime post.

Big Hit and Bang PD

Big Hit Entertainment is the company/agency (these terms are used interchangeably) in charge of BTS, and Bang PD (also known as Hitman Bang, the hits in ‘Hitman’ being musical hits and not, like, murder) is its founder.
In order to understand BTS’ (and Big Hit’s) history you also need to understand idol culture.

Thou shalt have no idols but BTS

Idol culture is incredibly expansive and has deep roots, but in brief, a basic guide to idoldom:
Every idol begins as a trainee for an entertainment company. Trainees are chosen through auditions (Big Hit held a global audition for their second girl group last year — though we don’t talk about Glam, their first girl group, which dissolved due to a member blackmailing an actor, around here, lol) and enter into a contractual relationship with the company.
They’re often under incredibly restrictive rules at very young ages (Jungkook became a trainee at 13) and live away from their families, taking lessons in and undergoing assessments on a wide range of things, from dancing to media training to Japanese (if part of the target market) and English. In many companies, debuting (the process by which a trainee graduates to become a rookie idol, releasing their debut song) is not guaranteed. Trainees will be ranked and compete with each other on a monthly basis in order to retain their place as a trainee, with the likely majority of idol trainees never debuting.
Some trainees are trainees for a relatively short period of time (no member of BTS trained longer than three years); others may face more difficulty (Bang Chan of JYP Entertainment’s boy group Stray Kids was a trainee for seven years before debuting.)
After debut, idols begin to follow a regimented programme of comebacks, concerts, show appearances, fansigns, and other promotional events. In kpop, a comeback is just a new album cycle, with a new single, rather than the more common definition in English of returning after a long period away. Comebacks are often accompanied by mini albums (equivalent to EPs in the anglophone market) or repackages (deluxe editions, essentially.) Full albums can be rare, best typified by Blackpink’s debuting in 2016 and releasing their first full length album (with eight whole tracks!) in 2020. But Blackpink’s management is fucked up, so let’s not dwell too long on that.
For many years, the biggest agencies in kpop have been ‘the big three’ — SM Entertainment (named after CEO Lee Soo Man, label of iconic groups like Girls Generation and Shinee, and now currently managing Red Velvet, EXO, NCT’s 3904 subgroups, and, recently, Aespa), JYP Entertainment (named for founder Park JY, currently managing Twice, Got7, Stray Kids, and Itzy, among others), and YG Entertainment (known for its dungeon [how fans refer to YG's practice of not promoting their artists, they're put in the dungeon], run by Yang Hyun-suk [known as YG,] and mismanaging Blackpink, Big Bang, Winner, Treasure, and 2NE1 [rest in peace].)
When BTS first debuted in 2013, it’s undeniable they faced difficulties due to being from a then-small company, Big Hit. In Korea, a vital part of promotion for up and coming, newly debuted idol groups is music shows, where idols perform choreography for their comebacks as part of a televised competition. At the end of the show, a winner for that week is chosen based on the voting system, which varies from show to show. This is what people refer to when they discuss a song or group’s ‘1st (first) win’. Winning a music show is an important achievement.
Music shows are run by South Korea’s broadcasting corporations: they are SBS (Inkigayo), KBS (Music Bank), MBC (Show! Music Core), Mnet (M Countdown), MBC Music (Show Champion) and SBS MTV (The Show). Of these shows, SBS’ Inkigayo is arguably the most prestigious.
The big three agencies have connections to these broadcasters and shows that give their artists an advantage. Generally speaking, artists from smaller companies are unlikely to reach notable levels of success, as they usually lack the resources and connections necessary to do so. That’s not to say it doesn’t happen — many successful (mostly girl) groups these days are part of smaller companies.
When BTS debuted, as stated, Big Hit was a small company. This is where the narrative of BTS as the underdogs of kpop because of their company began. In some ways, this narrative holds true. In others, it collapses — BTS’ lack of success during their rookie years has a number of factors that could explain it, including strong competition (most notably from SM’s EXO), their initially being a hip hop oriented group, their subversive lyrics (their first two years of music focused on the failures of the Korean education system and other societal problems), their not meeting idol beauty standards, and Big Hit bring a small company. What’s important to remember is that the beginning of BTS’ career as a group was fairly unremarkable, aside from their accruement of minor accolades and the planting of seeds for what was to come. They didn’t have any music show wins in 2013 or 2014, and wore a lot of eyeliner!
And then 2015 happened. We’ll get to that.

The history of BTS, specifically

BTS was formed, as previously mentioned, around RM. As a teenager, he was involved in the underground rap community in South Korea under the name Runch Randa, which he recently said was due to a friend’s screen name in the hugely popular MMO MapleStory. (We still don’t know what a ‘runch’ or ‘randa’ is, though.) In 2010, after failing an audition for another company, he was mentioned to one of Big Hit’s main producers (and future BTS collaborator) Pdogg by another rapper, and then, after meeting with and auditioning for Bang PD, was subsequently signed to Big Hit as a trainee. Bang PD and Pdogg began crafting a hip hop oriented group around RM.
Yoongi had a similar story to RM, becoming an underground rapper going by the name of Gloss in his hometown of Daegu, also notable for producing for a number of other rappers. Suga entered a competition for rappers that also served as an audition, and despite achieving second place, went on to join Big Hit as a producer and has subsequently joked that he was tricked into joining BTS. He has known/lived with RM for ten years as of 2020.
J-Hope began as a dancer, participating in a dance crew in his hometown of Gwangju, and was considered seriously accomplished on the competition circuit. Due to his dance abilities he entered a dance competition run by JYP, and moved on to auditioning for Big Hit, becoming a trainee alongside RM and Suga.
Jin was first scouted off the street for his good looks (a story he has told many, many times) by a recruiter for SM Entertainment. He thought it was a scam. A few years later, he was scouted again on his way to university, this time by a Big Hit rep, and he was convinced to audition for Big Hit. Ironically, like Suga, he had other intentions when he became a trainee, intending to act, but was added to BTS’ lineup and the rest is history.
Jungkook’s career began in 2011 when he auditioned for the Mnet talent show Superstar K in either Busan, his hometown, or Daegu (different places say different things, corrections welcome.) He was ultimately eliminated, but, as the legend goes, seven separate agencies (including JYP) reached out, interested in recruiting him. He chose to join Big Hit as a trainee due to his admiration for RM, a thread that comes up again and again.
Tae became a trainee by sheer happenstance. After accompanying a friend to an audition for Big Hit in Daegu, a member of staff asked him to audition as well, and, after quickly obtaining permission, he did, becoming the only person to pass the audition that day. (Sorry to Tae’s friend, lmao, but that’s hilarious.)
Jimin was the last member to join Big Hit as a trainee, and had the shortest training time. He was a gifted dancer, and the top of his class in the modern dance department at his arts-oriented school in Busan. With a teacher’s encouragement, he auditioned for Big Hit in Busan, and passed.
Initially, Big Hit planned for the group that would include RM to be a hip hop group, and their debut was slated for 2011. However, for reasons that probably had everything to do with money and less to do with artistry (but thank god), the group was reorganised into a more traditional idol group, and the lineup with RM, Suga, J-Hope, Jin, Jungkook, V, and Jimin was finalised in 2012, with BTS finally debuting on 13 June 2013.
Over the years various people (mostly rappers) have said they were trained to become part of a nine to ten member BTS, including some notable names. Supreme Boi (now a BTS collaborator, working as a producer) was originally part of the lineup for BTS, before becoming a producer instead. Beenzino (who may be familiar to those familiar with Korean hip hop) is rumoured to have been invited to join the nine to ten member lineup, but turned it down.
Now that we’ve discussed BTS’ beginnings, it’s time to talk about what came after their debut.

Okay, so, I just lied

This post has gotten very long and is now beginning to flirt with eyes glazing over territory, so I think it’s best to end it here. In the next post, we’ll cover BTS’ complicated music (and the eras/groupings that go along with them) as well as any controversies.
If you have any questions or comments or concerns about anything listed here, or have any corrections you want to make or things you want to add, please do! What’s the point of a lesson without questions at the end? Nothing. There’s no point.
Feel free to ask anything about kpop that you’re curious about as well, because even if I don’t know it, I bet someone in the comments will.
That’s all for now 💜
Note: Some of my comments are not showing up due to my account age and activity frequency, so I may have replied to you and you can't see it! Feel free to check my profile if you're curious to see what I said.

Hello all! This is an anonymous account that I plan to keep for posting on this sub. In fact, this is my first post on Reddit ever. I’m mostly a reader and find myself coming back here often, it’s so reassuring to find others like me!
I thought about putting this post elsewhere like AITA or some other relationship issues sub, but there’s so much of it centered on being childfree, and I also feared that if posted outside of the childfree subreddit, I would be shot down immediately.
Apologies in advance as this will be a long one, so I suggest making a cup of tea for this ;) I promise it will be a good story. If you want to skip the backstory, skip down to Christmas 2019, or the TLDR.
I’ve talked at length with my husband and younger siblings over this piece of family history, but it’s keeping me awake at night sometimes, especially two issues I mention at the end, and I wanted to have a rant and hear the opinions of my people - you lovely childfree people!
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I (32f) decided back when I was 16 that I didn’t want kids. At that age, I went to the doctors on my own to ask about getting sterilised. I was sympathetically laughed at, told I would change my mind, and was handed a pack of condoms and the pill. At 32, I’m still adamant I do not want children.
I’m awkward with kids and not good with them. I've never had that feeling of wanting to fuss over them. When I hold babies (a rare occasion, officially child-holding free for 5 years), I don’t feel anything. I'm not broody or maternal.
As a kid, I always disliked the inaugural visit we did when there was a newborn in the family. Once there, I would be made to hold the baby and all the females in the room would make comments about how I should be feeling, how I will have babies of my own one day. I’ve been somewhat vocal about it since a young age, but now I’m trying to live more honestly in my adult years and I’m following through with actions.
Although I feel like this, I still try my best to get along with babies and children. Because they are innocent in all this and I don’t want to hurt their feelings. So in my awkward way, I try to engage with them - and sometimes this doesn’t go down so well due to inexperience on my part, and the age of the child (I've been known to high-five babies) - but it does get easier for me as children get older, when they reach the age of ten or so.
I have 3 siblings, my older sister (34), my younger brother (31) and my younger sister (26). Me and my younger siblings do not have children. I’m certain kids are not for me, while my younger sibs are on the fence, optimistic it will happen one day, but it can wait and they have better things to do right now.
I’m living in the South, my brother is living way up North, and the rest of my family is in the middle. I came to the South for uni, but I’ve been living here for 13 years now. I have a good job, a husband, great friend network etc.
If I go ‘home’ to see my family, it’s a 5 hour drive, if I have a car (I had one for a few years, currently I don’t). Otherwise it’s a 6-8 hour train ride, or a 10-12 hour coach journey. Despite this distance, I do make a fair effort to go home at least once a year, on average 2-3 times, and one year I managed 4 trips. My family on the other hand, don’t reciprocate this effort, and I would love for my family to come see me more often. I understand money is tight, but my older sister in particular has visited twice in the 13 years I’ve lived here. She has a car btw, and I have a spare bed.
My older sister has 2 children, my niece (9) and nephew (1). She followed in my parent’s footsteps of having kids, buying a house and getting married in her early 20s. Me and my siblings enjoy our child-free lives, two of us having gone to uni, all of us starting up our own businesses / being self-employed, doing lots of travelling. She has become a stay at home mum with various health issues.
My older sister was always big on babies and kids. She would constantly play with dolls as a kid. She would try to get me to play with her, but being a tom-boy, I was more into climbing trees with my brother. When our younger sister was born, (I was 7 at the time, my older sister was 8) my older sister practically treated her like a living doll. She became a second mother with feeding, cleaning, changing her etc. My response to my younger sister being born was “ok, cool” and I did not get involved in any of that.
As we became teenagers, I became more and more estranged from my older sister who would often bully me and my brother. We became polar opposites in our personality: she wanted to be popular, wear the latest fashion trends etc, I was happy gaming in my room listening to rock music. Eventually she moved out, and I shortly moved out too and went to uni. Over the years, we kept in touch on a very light basis. I would see her if I went home, and we would occasionally call each other up - but it was very superficial conversation. As time went on, we don’t call each other anymore, just text occasionally when it’s a birthday or such, and when we meet in person, it’s always in short bursts for a family meal or cup of tea.
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When I was 24, my older sister gave birth to her first child, my niece (who is now 9). I was genuinely happy for her, because she had a lot of trouble conceiving, had a few miscarriages and desperately wanted a child. I was asked to be her godmother (which I agreed to but now regret).
In my niece’s early years, despite my childfree stance, I really tried to make an effort. I would play with her on my level (not over the top make believe play), buy her interesting gifts (not toys, but things that would spark creativity and cognitive thinking, or books). However, with living on the other side of the country, I didn't often have a lot of time to spend with her, even though I would make regular trips. A lot of these trips are usually focused on a family occasion or festive event, so meetings are high-pressured and short lived, with lots of other family to see and get around. I never get to just ‘hang-out’ casually or even babysit, so I’ve never developed a natural relationship with her. I’m also not very confident to take her out by myself for trips out, but will happily go along when other adults are present.
At this point, I’d also like to state that I’m the type that doesn’t believe in “Blood is family. Family is all.” I’m very much into the concept of your family are those who are constant in your life. The ones who keep in touch. You can choose your family. Blood relation does not guarantee an instant relationship, and it certainly doesn’t entitle you to love. Any relationship requires work for there to be love. If I don’t see you or hear from you all that much, there’s not going to be a lot of love between us - whether related or not. This realisation has come from living away from my family for so long, and witnessing how little they keep in touch or visit. I’ve been through some pretty tough times over the years, and I know who has been there for me, and who hasn’t.
As my niece has gotten older, I’ve found it harder and harder to connect with her. She’s become this spoiled pink-princess of a child. She’s obsessed with screens, YouTube celebrities and videos of unboxing toys. She’s very self-centered and cannot see beyond her own wishes and desires. My mother assures me that she’s a very loving, caring and smart child, but I am yet to witness this side of her - but I could understand that maybe I just haven’t spent enough time with her.
Me and my husband do a lot of hosting via Couchsurfing, and we had a family stay with us last year: parents with a 10 year old daughter. I was nervous about having a kid in our home, but it was just an overnight stay and she was older, so agreed to hosting them. I was amazed at how much I connected with this stranger-child in one evening, compared to the lifetime with my own niece. This girl was so switched on about the world around her, the environment, political issues, had read lots of books etc. It was evident this had come from a great nurturing of her parents, who reflected the same values. I’ve asked my niece similar questions in the past and just received shoulder shrugs. I guess what I’m trying to say is that the influences in her life are turning her into a very closed-minded person, and she is starting to reflect the personality of my older sister. I feel like this is starting to cause a drift between me and my niece, similar to what happened with me and my older sister.
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Moving the backstory along. In Feb 2019, me and my partner (now husband) decided to elope and marry in secret. We decided that with all the family issues we both had, a private and intimate wedding was the way forward for us. We also didn’t want to splash a load of money when we have bigger priorities in life. We had a trip planned to visit my brother in April 2019, and decided to add our wedding to it, get hitched in his town with him as a witness. It was a great low-key day, and we made some great personal memories that day, it was fantastic!
In May 2019, we travelled ‘home’ to break the news to the rest of my family. Staying at my parent’s place, I cooked an amazing spread of food for a little family celebration, and invited my sisters round to break the news to them. The news was a shock of course, but they accepted it and were happy for us. However, upon hearing our news, my older sister decided to break some news of her own: she was pregnant again. Of course I congratulated her and was happy for her, but later I started to feel a little miffed at her ‘spotlight’ hogging. We didn’t want a big wedding, but what little celebration we had planned with my family was trumped by her announcement. It still irks me, but in comparison of other events about to happen, I don’t really dwell on it much anymore.
In November 2019, I had to go ‘home’ again, this time under unfortunate news that my grandma had passed. During this visit, I was sitting on the sofa at my parent’s place with my brother, and my older sister arrived with my niece. My niece walks in and looks at me with a strange look, this is the first time she’s seen me on this occasion. I said hello, she said hello back but she was still acting weird. My brother asked her “Do you know who this is?” referring to me. My niece shrugged her shoulders and said “Your new girlfriend?”. I honestly felt my heart sink at this point. I had a harsh realisation that the effort I was putting into the relationship with my niece was not going far enough. That with the physical distance between us, and her personality starting to reflect her mother’s, we were no longer connecting.
I raised this later with my older sister. Her response was that it’s hard for her to remember me because my weight fluctuates so much and I change my hairstyle too often, and that she’s only nine years old. I would like to point out that my weight can fluctuate between 9-10.5 stone (depending on how I’m training at the time), but the last time I was home was 6 month earlier, and I’d hardly gained or lost weight. Plus my hairstyle has been the same for years. I also believe that 9 isn’t an age when a child would struggle to remember someone. But okay then.
During this visit also, we all went to visit a cousin who had recently given birth. Cue the passing around of the baby for everyone to hold. I politely declined the offer, and the baby was passed on to my brother. He was enjoying the cuddle to be fair, but then it started. All the women in the room started with their “Oh are you broody? Oh you’d made a great dad. Oh he’s smitten. Oh when are you going to have a baby?” I had to say something. I loudly (probably louder than I should have) asked them to leave my brother alone, and to stop badgering him with these remarks, that not everyone wants children and they should respect that. It made the atmosphere a little icy, and their response was “We're only teasing him!”.
- + - + - CHRISTMAS 2019 - + - + -
Roll on a month later, and my older sister is due to give birth to her second child, my nephew. Due to her health issues, she was scheduled in for a c-section. I was down South during this time, and I suddenly became very ill with flu-like symptoms. I was under a duvet for a week, off work, not looking at screens, very out of it. During this time, I remembered she was due soon, but I hadn’t heard anything from anyone in the family. I checked Facebook (I don’t use it much) and looked at her profile. Sure enough, a day prior, she had posted the arrival of her son. I ‘liked’ the post and texted her my congrats, apologised for being late due to illness, and I went back to sleep.
I later heard from my younger sister, who informed me that my older sister was pissed at me for not checking in sooner. Apparently, I was supposed to be either psychic, or have the date on my wall like some countdown clock, eager for the arrival of the child. She was especially upset because “birth can be dangerous and who knows what could have happened”, and the least I could have done was checked in sooner. No. You went in for a scheduled c-section, in a very safe hospital environment, this isn’t the middle-ages. Yes, there is risk, but I felt this was clearly blown out of proportion with a “WHAT-I-FISM”. I felt bad for being late with the congrats, but I did apologise for that and I was very ill / out of it. Plus, someone in my family could have messaged me directly, rather than throwing it up on social media?
Anyway. I decided to travel ‘home’ with my husband for Christmas that year. Because a child has been born and it felt like the pilgrimage must be done. I was very nervous about this trip, because of the fact a newborn would be around, but I felt like my family was starting to finally understand where I stood on children, and I could handle it. This however, became the fuse for the subject line of this post. Here is my recollection of events.
The first few days, I spent with my younger sister and seeing my parents. On the third day, it was Christmas Eve and I had been out with my husband, showing him more of my home-town (it was his 2nd visit). We were on our way back to my parent’s place, it was around 4pm and the bus was going to be passing near my older sister’s house. I decided I needed to go see my older sister now, otherwise it would start to get tense. So I quickly texted, asking if we could pop round for a cup of tea and say hello. She text back instantly and said to come round.
We arrived at her house, and I found my parents were actually there too. On first entering the house, my niece and the family dog were causing a lot of chaos, but the first thing I did was go over to the baby’s basket, awkwardly wave at the sleeping baby who is barely a few weeks old and just say a casual “hello!” to him. That’s about as much as any baby will get from me, blood-related or not.
This was the first time I was seeing my older sister and niece on this visit, so we’re talking about everything and anything. My niece is in full-on show-off mode, trying to get me to look at her smartphone game, interrupting the conversation. I oblige her requests but I do also occasionally say “hold on a moment, I’m just chatting, I’ll come look in a moment” because she is thrusting the phone in my face.
I’m sitting near the baby’s basket, occasionally remarking about how quiet he is. But that’s all I’m doing. I didn’t ask her about the birth, the hospital, how he’s feeding, is he sleeping, is he gaining weight etc. All the usual questions I guess a mum is asked on the birth of a child. I’m assuming as it’s a few weeks now, she’s been asked these questions to death. Also, I’m not particularly interested in the answers, and would rather use the time to ask about what else they’ve been up to, how is my niece at school etc rather than feigning an interest if the baby’s bowel movements. This is my standard behaviour, and I’ve been the same way with friends of mine who have decided to have children; and afterwards they have even thanked me for focusing the conversation on other things rather than the baby, because it’s made them feel more human.
At one point, my niece turns to me and says in front of my family “I bet you’re really excited to meet my brother. Do you want to hold him?” I gently refuse and say to her “Oh, no, that’s okay… I’m not very good with children so I’m okay just looking at him.”
We had a quick cup of tea, and barely an hour has passed when it’s time to excuse ourselves so that Christmas Eve can happen for them. Just before leaving, I asked my older sister if I could just pop upstairs and see her cat, which she obliges to and then we leave.
I see them next on Boxing Day (26th for non-UKers). They arrive and hugs are exchanged. We’re all hanging out at my parent’s house and we have a big Christmas meal. My niece has brought some of her new toys which I play with her. Me, my husband and my younger siblings also play a board game, which my niece joins in too. I pass her my phone so she can choose some music on my Spotify account to play during this. Later, I’m a bit braver and ask a bit more about my nephew as he’s awake and wriggling about. When it’s time to leave, my niece gives me a hug and I jokingly say “Ew are you wiping bogies on me!” and she laughs.
I’m only ‘home’ for another day, and I considered squeezing in one more visit to my older sister, but decided against it and that in this short visit, we had seen each other plenty already.
In February 2020, I was invited to a hen-do which, although was rather expensive and I didn’t really want to partake, the location of it would mean that I would be a short train journey away from my brother up North. So I decided to go, kill two birds with one stone, and extend the hen-do weekend into a week with my brother too, which made the trip more financially viable for me.
During this time, I remarked to him that I hadn’t heard from my older sister in a while, even though I had messaged her birthday wishes since Christmas. His response was “Well, she’s not talking to you apparently for how you were at Christmas, and how you reacted with the baby. Apparently you were more interested in seeing her cat than him, and you ignored him the whole time”.
This was the first I had heard of this. I thought the whole Christmas occasion had passed with no remarks, no tense feelings, no tears. I honestly thought it had gone well and that my behaviour around children had finally been accepted. Apparently not. I recollected my version of events with my brother, the crux of it being that, yes, I had asked to briefly see the cat, but I didn’t ignore my nephew. We agreed that maybe I wasn’t the warmest, but when babies are not my thing, how else could I react? I felt like I stood by my values and reacted honestly for once, rather than forcing myself to be someone I wasn’t. My brother wasn't fussed by my behaviour, and agreed that she was being overly sensitive.
So I started drafting a message to her. It took me a while to get my thoughts down into words, I wanted to explain why I behave in the way that I do around kids, using a similar explanation like earlier in this post. I was reading this message over and over again, and I even sent it to a friend of mine to read over, who is also a mother, to just sense check it so that I wasn’t going to be perceived as angry or aggressive. She gave it the all-clear.
However, with Covid-19 came the UK-wide lockdown in March. As I mentioned before, my older sister has a lot of health issues, some of them mental. My parents are always requesting me and my siblings to be careful with what we say to her, or how we behave, that she’s sensitive and we should be mindful of that. So I parked my message for now, and decided to wait a little while before sending it to her.
It also came to me that I hadn’t actually heard this ‘fact’ of her not talking to me directly from her yet. I was acting on some hear-say from my brother. So I decided to test the water. Mother’s Day came by, so I sent her a message of ‘Happy Mother’s Day!’ - but no response. My younger sister informed me that my older sister’s dog had died, so I sent a message of condolences - no response still.
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Then I got an email from her. And boy was it some email. At this point you might want to go get a second cup of tea.
It took me some time to read the email in full. Not only was it long, but each and every sentence had my heart pounding, my anxiety was spiking and I had to close it down a few times and walk away to digest parts of it. I couldn’t focus on my work, and I couldn't sleep.
She opened with a sucker-punch of a line of “my reason for developing postnatal depression was linked to you not acknowledging your nephew, rejecting your niece’s affection and upsetting her over Christmas by ignoring her baby brother.”
This is her account of how the Christmas visit went:
It was rude of me not to visit her and her newborn baby first. They should have been my number one priority on arriving in the city. But instead, I waited three days and decided to visit late on Christmas Eve, which was also rude. I should have known that Christmas Eve was a special time for her and her children, and that they had plans of baking cookies, watching movies, and having a special night. I would like to remind you, dear reader, it was 4pm at the time I went round, I checked if it was okay with her before arriving, my parents were already visiting, and we stayed barely an hour.
When I arrived, I supposedly didn’t congratulate them, and I didn’t acknowledge her newborn son, not even glancing towards the baby’s basket. Ever. In the entire visit. I’m not sure how she recalls it this way, because I definitely said hello to the child, and my husband confirms. I can only imagine in the chaos of arriving, my niece shouting, and the dog barking, it was all missed. Also, how many times does someone need to be congratulated? I had already done this on the birth, weeks prior?
Apparently, when my niece asked if I would like to hold my nephew, it was cruel of me to refuse her. And afterwards when I left, this caused her great confusion and she couldn’t understand why I, as their auntie, didn’t want to hold her baby brother, or talk to him like everyone else who had visited had done so. I also didn’t play with her as much as she wanted me to. This caused my niece to cry, which caused my older sister to cry, and I apparently ruined their Christmas Eve.
The icing on the cake was when I asked to go and see her cat just before I left. That is, how dare I ask to see the cat, when I was meeting my newborn nephew for the first time, and I paid the cat more attention than him. Again, a reminder of how it actually went: this was a brief request of 20 seconds to pet the cat before we left.
Because of the events on Christmas Eve, my niece was apparently very anxious about seeing me on Boxing Day, and didn’t want to go round to her grandparent’s house, because I would be there. She took a lot of coaxing to agree to going there. When finally there, I apparently continued to ignore my niece and nephew. Somehow my older sister doesn’t recall me playing with my niece and her new toys, playing board games and even talking more about my nephew. Also - as someone who is a long-term sufferer of anxiety, I sensed no uneasiness with my niece whatsoever. She arrived with a big hug, and not an ounce of shyness or worry. I don’t think a nine year old would have the ability to hide such strong emotions she was supposedly feeling. At this point, I strongly believe my older sister was projecting her own anxiety and emotions on to her daughter.
When they went to leave, and we exchanged hugs again, apparently I violently pushed my niece away from me (remember the bogie joke I made?) - that my older sister witnessed this, and so did my parents.
She goes on to instruct me that I need to work on my issues here, that they are my niece and nephew, blood related, and I’m cruel to treat them in this way. That I need to work on my anxiety around children and “If you can't do that for your flesh and blood then I'm sorry I can not be connected with you.”
She’s supposedly heard that I’ve apparently been faking my relationship with my niece this whole time, which I believe has been incorrectly paraphrased by my brother - I’ve spoken with him at length at how I don’t feel a connection has been happening with my niece, and it’s getting worse. My older sister has taken this as I’ve been faking it.
She asks why am I fine with other people’s children, such as that of an ex-boyfriend's nieces and nephews in a previous relationship, and the kids of my friends, and that I’m always talking about them. She claims she’s seen photos of me on Facebook enjoying social occasions with them. I can only imagine it’s because I’m in the frame with them, literally just sitting near them, and she’s reading way too much into it, creating her own narrative and story.
Aside from these gripes, she goes into details about our relationship breaking down as kids / teenagers due to the fact that she was under a lot of pressure back then. She claims to have experienced a lot of stress due to finding out our mother was having an affair and that my cousin sexually abused her - which she also goes on to say she wishes I was the one who was sexually abused and not her. At this point, I start thinking that she’s not quite mentally stable, that she must be having a particularly low episode and she is just looking to lash out at someone or something for the situation she’s now in - and I happen to give her the easiest punch bag in reach. Oh boy.
----
So I start drafting another message. It takes me 3 days to write something down and send it, after carefully reading it over and over again, just like the first message I was attempting.
In the email, I explained my point of view, why I’m childfree and how I don’t really relate with any kids. I acknowledged that I do keep my niece at some distance, but my intentions are always friendly and I’ve never been intentionally cruel or would do anything to cause her upset. I explained that I engage with her as much as I can in the short and chaotic time frame we have. I play with her sometimes, but I agree, not all the time - because there are boundaries and limits and she is not the only person I’m there to see.
I mention that I’m maybe marginally better with my friends’ children, but I would think it’s because I have a good relationship with those parents and I see them more often. My friends have a good understanding that children aren’t for everyone. They don’t try to force anything, respect boundaries, and have no expectation on how people should engage with their children.
On the subject of Christmas, I stated she could have always refused us calling round on Christmas Eve if it was such a precious time, but I apologised if I caused any inconvenience. I apologised for upsetting my niece by not playing with her enough on that occasion, but I did explain that I had more time to play with her on Boxing Day.
As for upsetting her for not holding her brother, I said to my sister that this was her opportunity to explain that not everyone wants to hold babies, and not everyone is great with children, and not everyone wants children, and that’s fine - some people are just like this. I go on to state that I believe children are able to comprehend complex human differences such as disability, sexuality, race - this is no different. I apologise that this upset her, but I would rather be honest and refuse to hold the baby, than lie and fake something.
I explained for the past nine years I’ve really tried to make an effort to get to know my niece. This has been difficult because of the distance. Although I try to visit as often as I can, it’s always under a tense and chaotic condition like a holiday or family event, and the time spent is very short and pressured. It’s not the best conditions to build a relationship, but I try in my awkward way to get to know her. I’ve tried my best to be part of her life with the time limitations and the distance between us, but it’s evident that I’m not doing enough, and there’s little more I can do.
I recognise in the email that I'm never going to be auntie of the year and I'm fine with that. I also tried to compare my relationship with my niece, as being similar to my relationship with an uncle of ours. This particular uncle was my godfather and I rarely saw him as a kid because he lived a small distance away. But when I did see him, it was friendly, fun and civil. I didn’t expect him to play with me all the time, cuddle me, or shower me with attention, and he would put me in my place when I was overstepping the mark as a child. But perhaps because he was a man, there was no expectation on him to be more involved or behave in a certain way. I feel that as a woman, it’s deemed socially unacceptable for me to be this way, and it’s expected of me to be more involved - an unfair gender bias but that’s evidently what society believes.
I go on to mention how I put in a lot of effort to visit them frequently, but the effort is little returned. I explained how it’s a financial strain on me, estimating to have forked out over £4,000 across the last 13 years with all my trips. However, I do it because I still want to see my family, and I prioritise this spending. I remarked that this effort is starting to feel one-sided and it’s unbalancing my relationship with the whole family.
My closing statement is that all this upset she experiences, comes from her own expectations of me, and how I don’t meet those expectations. That I understand she loves her children deeply, they mean the world to her and they are her number one priority - but they are not my number one priority and she should not expect that of me either. If she can lower her expectation of me, then there will be less chance that I will disappoint her. If she could do this one thing, she will save herself a lot of grief.
I agree to go no contact on her suggestion from the last email, and wish her well, requesting that she seek professional help.
----
It took me three days to draft this email. Her response came back within 4 hours, full of spelling and grammar mistakes, which leads me to believe she took no time in digesting what I had to say and just went straight for keyboard diarrhoea.
She opens with “You go on about my expectations of you. Have you addressed your expectations of myself? You're telling me how to parent my child!”. It really sets the tone for where this email is heading.
She goes on to excuse the behaviours of my niece, the obsessive screen time, attention demanding etc. She points out that I was a child once too and just the same as her.
She mentions how my brother is able to have a good relationship with her, even when living a great distance away, and why can’t I be more like him and take my niece out to places like he does.
She also tries to compare me to a friend of hers, who doesn’t like other people’s children but has two of her own??? Somehow that’s the same as being childfree? She says that this person “has no family with kids, doesn’t like kids, but if her sister was to have some, that would be different and she would make more of an effort for family kids!” and continues on to say “she attended my baby shower, she came when he was born to congratulate us, looked at him and asked questions about him and my wellbeing since birth! You did none of these things!”. Somehow, I, a childfree woman, should be able to act and behave in the same way as this woman who is a mother, has experienced childbirth, but doesn’t like other people's children. Yeah, totally the same.
On noting her baby shower, which I didn’t attend, she understands that I didn’t attend it due to distance and finances. But then she mentions how it’s funny I was able to go on a hen-do in the North (the one that coincided with seeing my brother) and that I went abroad for a christening. I’d like to point out this was the christening of my husband’s niece, who he was godfather to and part of the ceremony, plus this was my opportunity to meet his family for the first time. Kind of a big deal. But no, I apparently got my priorities all wrong and I should have attended a baby shower in my hometown instead.
In the same breath, she explains that I shouldn’t expect her to visit me, because I chose to move away. She’s seen my city twice, and that’s enough, there’s nothing else for her to see there. She has other places she wants to see and travel to, and I can’t dictate how she should be spending her time and money. I just love the irony of this. She also states it’s difficult for her to travel with the kids. Whereas I have many reasons to keep visiting my hometown, and it’s much simpler for me to visit. And so I ponder - if I did have a child of my own, would she still expect me to visit her so frequently, and she not at all? I also believe that if I lived somewhere more exotic, I would probably see them more often as it would be deemed a more suitable holiday destination and thus worthy of her time and money.
She ends with: if I want to have a relationship with my niece, like I had with my uncle, I have to at least try. Oomph.
----
And that’s where this story ends. I didn’t bother to reply to her, because it would only add more fuel to the fire. I said what I needed to say, in a very calm and collected manner. I wasn’t going to open myself up for more of her rambling rants and wild accusations. I’m giving her the time to chill out and who knows, maybe we will talk again in the future, but she needs help for sure.
I worry that my niece is now being told things that are untrue, that I’m a horrible person or something. I can only hope that when she’s older, she will understand and perhaps we will reconnect. I’m concerned for her though, because I can see a lot of my sister’s mental health issues rubbing off on her, with my older sister projecting her thoughts and feelings onto her children, behaving in such a way and being so entitled. I think this mental instability will cause friction in their relationship in her teenage years.
Over the last few months, my parents have occasionally put pressure on me to be nice, to make more of an effort with her, apologise etc, and that “oh you know what she’s like”, providing excuses for her behaviour. Whenever I chat with them, they have a habit of updating me on how the kids are and what she’s up to: and I have to remind them that we are no contact, that I don’t think my sister would be happy to know you’re updating me with the latest, and I hope they aren’t doing the same with her and my recent activity.
My younger siblings agree that she’s just not right at the moment, and there have been other instances in the last few months when her behaviour has gone off the rails. The latest was she threatened my brother that she would not allow him to see the kids again if he refused to answer a phone call from her. Yep.
----
If you’ve made it this far, I applaud you and you have my biggest thanks. I hope it was a good read, it’s been a particular crazy time for me!
I’m interested in hearing your opinions on any of the above, whatever you have to say. In particular, I’d appreciate any feedback on two occasions coming up that are stressing me out right now...
As Christmas is coming up, and so is the first birthday of my nephew, I’m unsure on what to do and starting to feel anxious that I should do something? I had the same anxiety over my niece’s birthday a few months back, I thought about sending a message but decided against it due to the rule of no contact. So the occasion came and went, unremarked. As a minimalist / non-consumer, I don’t do presents, but this year I’m planning on baking some cookies and sending them out to family, and unsure whether to include my older sister’s family on this list. Thoughts?
A more larger concern: my younger sister is getting married next year, and with all the Covid restrictions happening, this will probably be the first time I will see my family since that Christmas event. I know I’m placed on a table with my younger brother and older sister, along with our spouses and probably my niece and nephew. I don’t want to stress my younger sister out by requesting to be sat on another table (she’s already stressing about telling older sister she’s not a bridesmaid and how she will react). My plan is to not stay at my parent’s house, but rent a airbnb near the wedding venue. This will lower the risk of seeing her outside from the wedding at my parent's house, but also so I can leave the wedding quickly and easily if something was to happen. Also, I plan to only sit at the table for the meal, and will spend the rest of the wedding mingling with other tables. So that’s like an hour at most? But I’m unsure how to behave with her at that time. Short, civil and courteous? She’s the sort of person that will make a remark if you don’t do something, but will also find fault at the attempts you do make. It’s like I can’t win. I thought about contacting her prior to the event to set some ‘ground rules’ but not sure how well that will be received.
So TLDR: With on-going clashes between me and my older sister, me being childfree and her being a mombie; I ruined her Christmas last year, and apparently gave her postnatal depression for not praising the birth of her newborn child. Now we are no contact. I have a family occasion coming up and not sure what to do when I’m next in close proximity with her and her family. Thoughts? AITA?

Christmas 2020 - "The Glorious Santa Claus Lord ~The Sealed Christmas Present~"

Duration: Dec. 16th (Wed) 18:00 - Dec. 30th (Wed) 12:59 JST
Requirement: Fuyuki Clear

News:

Links:

New Stuff Showcase

Guides:

Rate-Up Schedule

Rate-Up Schedule (JST)	Rate-Up Servant
December 16, 18:00 ~ December 18, 23:59	Vritra, Beowulf, Martha (Ruler)
December 19, 00:00 ~ December 20, 23:59	Vritra, Martha (Ruler)
December 21, 00:00 ~ December 22, 23:59	Vritra, Beowulf
December 23, 00:00 ~ December 24, 23:59	Vritra, Beowulf, Martha (Ruler)
December 25, 00:00 ~ December 26, 23:59	Vritra, Martha (Ruler)
December 27, 00:00 ~ December 28, 23:59	Vritra, Beowulf
December 29, 00:00 ~ December 30, 12:59	Vritra, Beowulf, Martha (Ruler)

FAQ

Which node is most efficient? Where should I be farming?
The Free Quests will gradually get better as the event progresses; as such it is not recommended that you go all out with AP refills as soon as it starts. The highest level node available will always have the best drop rates. Farming the newest node is usually a safe bet. Keep in mind that with the new format of events in 2020, it is likely that there will be a Level 90+ node at the end which drops lotto tickets as well as shop currency.
What are the other event items for?
Black Presents are obtained from lotto boxes and are used to progress the Main Story. Christmas Gongs are used to buy items in the event shop (including copies of the welfare) and extras can be used to do a bonus repeatable quest.
*Why is the next story quest locked? *
Check to make sure that it is not timegated. If the time gate has already lifted, then you may not have the required number of Black Presents to proceed. The first timegated story quest requires 5 Black Presents to unlock. You can get these by rolling the lotto and by doing special story quests (black banners) with Christmas Gongs. Doing the first special quest will yield 3-4(?) Black Presents, after which you can roll the remainder to unlock the first story/FQ.
A True Hero Slays By Boxing!

Christmas 2020 - "The Glorious Santa Claus Lord ~The Sealed Christmas Present~"

Duration: Dec. 16th (Wed) 18:00 - Dec. 30th (Wed) 12:59 JST
Requirement: Fuyuki Clear

News:

Links:

New Stuff Showcase

Guides:

Rate-Up Schedule

Rate-Up Schedule (JST)	Rate-Up Servant
December 16, 18:00 ~ December 18, 23:59	Vritra, Beowulf, Martha (Ruler)
December 19, 00:00 ~ December 20, 23:59	Vritra, Martha (Ruler)
December 21, 00:00 ~ December 22, 23:59	Vritra, Beowulf
December 23, 00:00 ~ December 24, 23:59	Vritra, Beowulf, Martha (Ruler)
December 25, 00:00 ~ December 26, 23:59	Vritra, Martha (Ruler)
December 27, 00:00 ~ December 28, 23:59	Vritra, Beowulf
December 29, 00:00 ~ December 30, 12:59	Vritra, Beowulf, Martha (Ruler)

FAQ

Which node is most efficient? Where should I be farming?
The Free Quests will gradually get better as the event progresses; as such it is not recommended that you go all out with AP refills as soon as it starts. The highest level node available will always have the best drop rates. Farming the newest node is usually a safe bet. Keep in mind that with the new format of events in 2020, it is likely that there will be a Level 90+ node at the end which drops lotto tickets as well as shop currency.
What are the other event items for?
Black Presents are obtained from lotto boxes and are used to progress the Main Story. Christmas Gongs are used to buy items in the event shop (including copies of the welfare) and extras can be used to do a bonus repeatable quest.
A True Hero Slays By Boxing!

Christmas 2020 - "The Glorious Santa Claus Lord ~The Sealed Christmas Present~"

Duration: Dec. 16th (Wed) 18:00 - Dec. 30th (Wed) 12:59 JST
Requirement: Fuyuki Clear

News:

Links:

New Stuff Showcase

Guides:

Rate-Up Schedule

Rate-Up Schedule (JST)	Rate-Up Servant
December 16, 18:00 ~ December 18, 23:59	Vritra, Beowulf, Martha (Ruler)
December 19, 00:00 ~ December 20, 23:59	Vritra, Martha (Ruler)
December 21, 00:00 ~ December 22, 23:59	Vritra, Beowulf
December 23, 00:00 ~ December 24, 23:59	Vritra, Beowulf, Martha (Ruler)
December 25, 00:00 ~ December 26, 23:59	Vritra, Martha (Ruler)
December 27, 00:00 ~ December 28, 23:59	Vritra, Beowulf
December 29, 00:00 ~ December 30, 12:59	Vritra, Beowulf, Martha (Ruler)

FAQ

Which node is most efficient? Where should I be farming?
The Free Quests will gradually get better as the event progresses; as such it is not recommended that you go all out with AP refills as soon as it starts. The highest level node available will always have the best drop rates. Farming the newest node is usually a safe bet. Keep in mind that with the new format of events in 2020, it is likely that there will be a Level 90+ node at the end which drops lotto tickets as well as shop currency.
What are the other event items for?
Black Presents are obtained from lotto boxes and are used to progress the Main Story. Christmas Gongs are used to buy items in the event shop (including copies of the welfare) and extras can be used to do a bonus repeatable quest.
*Why is the next story quest locked? *
Check to make sure that it is not timegated. If the time gate has already lifted, then you may not have the required number of Black Presents to proceed. The first timegated story quest requires 5 Black Presents to unlock. You can get these by rolling the lotto and by doing special story quests (black banners) with Christmas Gongs. Doing the first special quest will yield 3-4(?) Black Presents, after which you can roll the remainder to unlock the first story/FQ.
A True Hero Slays By Boxing!

Christmas 2020 - "The Glorious Santa Claus Lord ~The Sealed Christmas Present~"

Duration: Dec. 16th (Wed) 18:00 - Dec. 30th (Wed) 12:59 JST
Requirement: Fuyuki Clear

News:

Links:

New Stuff Showcase

Guides:

Rate-Up Schedule

Rate-Up Schedule (JST)	Rate-Up Servant
December 16, 18:00 ~ December 18, 23:59	Vritra, Beowulf, Martha (Ruler)
December 19, 00:00 ~ December 20, 23:59	Vritra, Martha (Ruler)
December 21, 00:00 ~ December 22, 23:59	Vritra, Beowulf
December 23, 00:00 ~ December 24, 23:59	Vritra, Beowulf, Martha (Ruler)
December 25, 00:00 ~ December 26, 23:59	Vritra, Martha (Ruler)
December 27, 00:00 ~ December 28, 23:59	Vritra, Beowulf
December 29, 00:00 ~ December 30, 12:59	Vritra, Beowulf, Martha (Ruler)

FAQ

Which node is most efficient? Where should I be farming?
The Free Quests will gradually get better as the event progresses; as such it is not recommended that you go all out with AP refills as soon as it starts. The highest level node available will always have the best drop rates. Farming the newest node is usually a safe bet. Keep in mind that with the new format of events in 2020, it is likely that there will be a Level 90+ node at the end which drops lotto tickets as well as shop currency.
What are the other event items for?
Black Presents are obtained from lotto boxes and are used to progress the Main Story. Christmas Gongs are used to buy items in the event shop (including copies of the welfare) and extras can be used to do a bonus repeatable quest.
*Why is the next story quest locked? *
Check to make sure that it is not timegated. If the time gate has already lifted, then you may not have the required number of Black Presents to proceed. The first timegated story quest requires 5 Black Presents to unlock. You can get these by rolling the lotto and by doing special story quests (black banners) with Christmas Gongs. Doing the first special quest will yield 3-4(?) Black Presents, after which you can roll the remainder to unlock the first story/FQ.
A True Hero Slays By Boxing!

I posted this list in the other thread but no reply other than a mod-bot telling me to clean up my language. In any case... PvP is riddled with bugs, many of them outright game/match breaking. In the other thread, I only saw 2-3 people mention anything about PvP bugs so I wanted to make a new thread for GBL specifically.

Many of these are NOT lag related, but a small amount of these might be able to be attributed to small lag spikes or packet loss, but I think most the fault is actually on Niantic's end. My reasoning is that I tried my own WiFi, the WiFi of 3 friends, over phone data, different mobile devices - same bugs occur most any time of day on any [Android] device I played on. I setup a ping from my PC to hit my router, modem, and direct PC to phone to try to pinpoint any local lag so anything caused by client lag I did not list below (e.g. you being unable to attack while the opponent wails on you is YOUR connection problem, and not listed below).

Given how high octane and how razor thin many matches are won by 1-3 taps, "smaller" bugs such as (3) and (4) still cause the dramatic effect of eating a loss instead of taking a win. These bugs are extremely frustrating to someone that pretty much only plays Pokemon Go for the battling.

Bug 1: Starting the match with 0.5 quick attack speed.

Restart the game to fix. Otherwise all subsequent matches will suffer from this bug
Repro rate is sometimes 0/25, sometimes ~3/25. Anecdotally this usually happens (though not exclusively) when I'm playing between 11pm-4am, and I highly suspect it has something to do with server updates since it most often happens around midnight and after I restart the game there are new notifications or items in the shop

Impact: Auto-loss.

Bug 2: Part way through a battle, suddenly start doing 0.5 quick attack speed

Same as Bug 1, just occurs MIDWAY through the battle even if all was normal beforehand

Impact: If it happens any time in the first 90% of the fight, it's an auto-loss. If it happens at the very tail end of a fight, you might survive if your advantage was already very high and winning was only a few taps away

Bug 3: Trying to use charge attack only for 2-3 more quick attacks to come out

Often allows your opponent to fire off a charge they otherwise would not have got. Obviously screws with timings, the flow of battle, and can cause losses
I notice this 2-ish times per 5 battle set, so 10/25? Occurs at any time, not only at critical moments

Impact: Ranges from inconsequential, to altering the flow of the match (potentially the outcome changes as shields must be used to compensate or you don't get your charge attack and lose a Pokemon instead of the enemy losing a pokemon), or in some cases it happens during absolute critical moments and causes a loss

Bug 4: Your Pokemon failing to switch out on time

Makes you eat 2-3 more quick attacks and sometimes an enemy charge you were trying to absorb with a different Pokemon
I suspect the same root cause as Bug (3) but the user path is less frequent

Impact: Same as Bug 3.

Bug 5: Switch commands and enemy charges - unpredictable behaviour

Inputting a switch command slightly before or near the same time your opponent uses a charge move will sometimes cause your Pokemon to switch out AUTOMATICALLY AFTER the enemy's charge attack is done
This could be an intentional buffer but it's very inconsistent because sometimes your Pokemon will NOT switch out automatically after the enemy charge is over

Impact: Sometimes you're actually saved by this, sometimes you lose such an advantage that the match is basically over for you. Combo this bug with Bug 4 and it's extremely frustrating to have to shield (lose shield advantage), think to yourself "well it's better if i fight it out now", only for you to automatically lose your switch advantage. Basically match-over.

Bug 6A: Charge Attack priority not being respected

In a charge move draw scenario, when PokémonA has two charges stacked and has a higher attack stat, sometimes PokemonA can shoot off both its charges before PokémonB gets their turn
Given the above conditions, the sequence should always be A > B > A. This situation doesn't happen often but I'm betting the repro-rate is pretty high

Bug 6B: Charge Attack priority not being respected

In a charge move draw scenario, PokemonA can win the first draw but somehow lose the next draw to PokemonB. The mechanic is supposed to be higher attack stat always wins in a timing draw, so PokemonB should never be able to go first in this scenario
Most easily noticeable during mirror matches

Bug 6C: Charge Attack priority not being respected

In a charge move draw scenario, PokemonA clearly has the higher Attack value (e.g. Gengar vs Swampert) yet PokemonB goes first
You can tell this bug occurs because without further taps, your previously buffered charge attack will fire immediately after the enemy's did (indicating a draw scenario)
Probably the same root cause as Bug 6B and maybe 6A

Impact for 6ABC: Wildly unpredictable gameplay, your 'correct' judgments are invalidated and you're at a disadvantage now or imminent loss. Can obviously swing the match both ways but I'd just prefer the expected predictable outcomes, please.

Bug 7: Charge attacks does 0 damage unshielded

This is NOT referring to a similar visual bug. A charge attack can actually do 0 damage
This is very rare, I've seen it ~3-4 times over ~1800 battles. When it does happen it's when you start the charge sequence, finish the mini-game, but the Pokemon doesn't fire the charge attack until ~15-20 seconds after
I'm 90% sure it has to do with lag, but I'm unsure if it's server lag, PlayerA's lag, or PlayerB's lag

Impact: Can cause a disadvantage or a loss depending on how far along the match is when it happens. But again, this is extremely rare so there are bigger bugs to fry

Bug 8: Enemy charge attack doing ~2x damage

Also extremely rare, only have seen it twice but am 100% sure it happened and there were no stat modifiers at play
The first time I saw it was a few months ago, Charizard Blast-Burning (NOT Overheating) my 75% HP Alolan Golem for a kill. I thought maybe I misread my HP values and forgot about it until...
A couple weeks ago in an Umbreon mirror, the enemy's first Last Resort did 2x damage on my Umbreon. Their subsequent LR's did normal 1x damage

Impact: Can cause a disadvantage or a loss depending on how far along the match is when it happens. But again, this is extremely rare so there are bigger bugs to fry

Bug 9: Faded Pokeball icons can become out of sync when Users do near-death switching

Sometimes a Pokemon you thought you killed gets switched in, back from the "dead", even though there's clearly only 1 Pokeball intended for the enemy Pokemon that just got switched out
OR all 3 Icons are greyed out, indicating you've won, but a "dead" Pokemon has come back with 1-4 quick attacks worth of life remaining
For enemy icons this happens anywhere from 0/25 to as high as 5/25. For my own icons, I've only seen this once ever and was surprised when my previously thought dead Dragonite appeared on the field

Impact: Surprise Pokemon like this often - but not always - cause a loss. Scenario 1: You stop tapping the screen because you think the match is over, then the 'zombie' Pokemon appears, taps you 2-3 times and you die, or got off an extra charge attack and you die. Scenario 2: Imagine tapping to fire off your final charge attack to seel the win, then - SURPRISE - a 'zombie' Pokemon switches in to absorb your attack. Very well-timed by the enemy, but impossible for you to know they had this option. Knowing the former scenario, you can't stop tapping which opens you up to the latter scenario.

Bug 10: Quitting match early [very rarely] causes a UI issue where you're constantly brought back to the backend battle arena

I've had this happen 3 or 4 times to me. Might have something to do with closing your game down as your final Pokemon is about to faint. Just a guess based off memory though

Impact: Need to reinstall your game. Further battles won't start, you'll just be constantly brought to the backend battle arena before you can select your Pokemon. I tried 'resetting' this bad state by going into Pokemon menu, Item Backpack, Friends list, but the game will just keep taking you back to the arena. Clearing game-data also did not work. Re-install was in fact required.

Bug 11: Quick attack animations can become out of sync, said animations can be 'missed'

Can't put an exact repro number on this but thankfully I'd say it's "less often" than often. Though it does tend to happen especially around charge attack camera changes, and with quicker-animated quick attacks

Impact: It becomes difficult to know enemy energy levels. More often occurs during camera switch sequences, so you don't know if only 3 mud shots happened or 5, or if 5 bubbles happened or 6, etc. You may need to 'safety' shield yourself against something you could have easily tanked, changing the flow (and potentially the outcome) of the match

Bug 12: Starting a queue but no cancel button appears, or appears too late for you to use it

Can't put a number on this either but I want to say 1/5 times or 1/2 times you queue up. I rarely mis-select my team so I don't notice this bug as much

Impact: If you accidentally queue you can be forced into a battle without your desired line up. IF I realized I've done this, I immediately close the app as this guarantees you won't start the next battle

Bug 13: Server lag that freezes both Pokemon, then rapidly unloads all the actions both players performed during that lag window

E.g. Servers lag 5 seconds, all the quick taps both players are doing are getting stored and will rapidly execute in a 1~2 window
Yes this is SERVER lag as if it were either you or your opponent, the match would freeze temporarily, then let the non-lagger attack the lagger freely

Impact: Obviously this screws with any timing maneuver either player had up their sleeve. In fact, when I see this happen, I start queuing up OTHER commands I want to happen, so I use this server lag as an advantage (e.g. start tapping for a charge or a switch)

Bug 14: Very rarely, the enemy's beginning throw-in animation just keeps repeating until the battle is over

Strictly a visual bug, and again is pretty rare. Only seen twice

Impact: You can't tell what quick attacks are coming or if the opponent is doing a legit switch.

Bug 15: Tapping to switch out your Pokemon while a charge attack is occurring will make it seem like no damage was dealt

Strictly a visual bug. Damage was dealt but the life bar of the switched-in Pokemon appears before you see the damage take on the previous Pokemon

Impact: None. Maybe mental impact if you weren't aware of this bug and you think your opponent got away free.

MAYBE BUG 16: POTENTIALLY life enemy life bars being out of sync

Could be related to bug (9) but I swear sometimes a Pokemon that switched out will sometimes come back in with more health than I remember them exiting with. Since I'm not 100% sure on this I won't consider it 'real' unless someone corroborates.

Impact: If a real bug, can range from game losing (you think the enemy has less life on remaining Pokemon, and use that false information for decisions) or irrelevant

MAYBE BUG 17: POTENTIALLY your selected Pokemon line up not making it into the battle, instead getting the garbage "recommended" line up

I've seen this happen 6ish times but I'm not 100% it's not my own mistake. I'm pretty sure it's not my mistake but I'll treat this as not 'real' unless someone corroborates.

Impact: If a real bug, can cause a loss (sub-optimal to hot-garbage team selected for you) or you can tough it out and still maybe win

There you have it. As mentioned before, battles are high octane and can be won/lost on a razor's margin. As someone who plays Pokemon solely for battling, it is extremely frustrating that these bugs exist even AFTER the GBL 'revamp'. Now stack these bugs onto requiring Elite Charge TMs to be competitive most of the time (https://gamepress.gg/pokemongo/problem-legacy-moves <-- not my article), the fact you gotta GRIND HARD for dust and candies and the exact right Pokemon to build or adjust your team, I have to say that the game overall is not worth it. I very much intend to quit after this GBL season is over and I feel very cheated I spent money on those damn community day boxes to obtain those Elite Charge TMs (and let's be honest, that's the only reason to plunk down those 1400 coins).

For some details about me: Started PoGo in 2016 for a few months, never did any hardcore grinding or GPS cheating back then, then stopped until I got back into PoGo very early September 2020 and had basically nothing useful for PvP. Grinded HARD from level 26-38 between then and now (lost motivation when they announced Legacy level 40 since I would have needed 250k xp/day to make it) to make Pokemon worthy of GBL. My current Great League win rate was 60% on the dot, and honestly probably would've been 66-70% if not for the above bugs. Ultra Premier league I'm not ashamed to say I am sucking in and my win rate has tanked to 56.75% while I try to figure out a good team. Matches played is just over 1800.

If any of the above bugs are "as designed", by all means call them out. However, I will re-iterate I'm positive most of them aren't, and while some may be caused by minute lag factors, they can't all be explained away and perhaps at the very least Niantic should put in some lag fail-safes.

Edited in: Bugs noted from other Users
From AmericanRL

Matches that for some reason start without the 3-2-1 countdown. If you get a bad lead, you are inevitably eating some undesired fast moves; (OP note: I have definitely seen this multiple times. I've also seen it where PlayerA starts ~1 second later than PlayerB, and vice versa)
Charged moves going through the shield (this is the most infuriating) (OP note: Can't say I've seen this personally but have read in other threads about it)

From MegaSharkReddit

Frame skipping (not lag) in most devices that were upgraded from Android 9 to Android 10 despite having powerful enough SoCs (e.g., Snapdragon 845).

From IngcognitoGuy666

'Error 6' matchmaking bug

In the start of a battle, both users receive Error 6, triggering the 'white screen of death'. Users must reboot the game and return to the map; however, while on map, the Error 6 message appears every few seconds, and attempts to access GBL during this time fails (throwing you back to map). This bug disappears on its own (after 15–30 min), and players may be able to get rid of it by battling another Trainer or PvE character. It's still annoying having to deal with it occasionally.

Christmas 2020 - "The Glorious Santa Claus Lord ~The Sealed Christmas Present~"

Duration: Dec. 16th (Wed) 18:00 - Dec. 30th (Wed) 12:59 JST
Requirement: Fuyuki Clear

News:

Links:

New Stuff Showcase

Guides:

Rate-Up Schedule

Rate-Up Schedule (JST)	Rate-Up Servant
December 16, 18:00 ~ December 18, 23:59	Vritra, Beowulf, Martha (Ruler)
December 19, 00:00 ~ December 20, 23:59	Vritra, Martha (Ruler)
December 21, 00:00 ~ December 22, 23:59	Vritra, Beowulf
December 23, 00:00 ~ December 24, 23:59	Vritra, Beowulf, Martha (Ruler)
December 25, 00:00 ~ December 26, 23:59	Vritra, Martha (Ruler)
December 27, 00:00 ~ December 28, 23:59	Vritra, Beowulf
December 29, 00:00 ~ December 30, 12:59	Vritra, Beowulf, Martha (Ruler)

FAQ

Which node is most efficient? Where should I be farming?
The Free Quests will gradually get better as the event progresses; as such it is not recommended that you go all out with AP refills as soon as it starts. The highest level node available will always have the best drop rates. Farming the newest node is usually a safe bet. Keep in mind that with the new format of events in 2020, it is likely that there will be a Level 90+ node at the end which drops lotto tickets as well as shop currency.
What are the other event items for?
Black Presents are obtained from lotto boxes and are used to progress the Main Story. Christmas Gongs are used to buy items in the event shop (including copies of the welfare) and extras can be used to do a bonus repeatable quest.
*Why is the next story quest locked? *
Check to make sure that it is not timegated. If the time gate has already lifted, then you may not have the required number of Black Presents to proceed. The first timegated story quest requires 5 Black Presents to unlock. You can get these by rolling the lotto and by doing special story quests (black banners) with Christmas Gongs. Doing the first special quest will yield 3-4(?) Black Presents, after which you can roll the remainder to unlock the first story/FQ.
A True Hero Slays By Boxing!

Christmas 2020 - "The Glorious Santa Claus Lord ~The Sealed Christmas Present~"

Duration: Dec. 16th (Wed) 18:00 - Dec. 30th (Wed) 12:59 JST
Requirement: Fuyuki Clear

News:

Links:

New Stuff Showcase

Guides:

Rate-Up Schedule

Rate-Up Schedule (JST)	Rate-Up Servant
December 16, 18:00 ~ December 18, 23:59	Vritra, Beowulf, Martha (Ruler)
December 19, 00:00 ~ December 20, 23:59	Vritra, Martha (Ruler)
December 21, 00:00 ~ December 22, 23:59	Vritra, Beowulf
December 23, 00:00 ~ December 24, 23:59	Vritra, Beowulf, Martha (Ruler)
December 25, 00:00 ~ December 26, 23:59	Vritra, Martha (Ruler)
December 27, 00:00 ~ December 28, 23:59	Vritra, Beowulf
December 29, 00:00 ~ December 30, 12:59	Vritra, Beowulf, Martha (Ruler)

FAQ

Which node is most efficient? Where should I be farming?
The Free Quests will gradually get better as the event progresses; as such it is not recommended that you go all out with AP refills as soon as it starts. The highest level node available will always have the best drop rates. Farming the newest node is usually a safe bet. Keep in mind that with the new format of events in 2020, it is likely that there will be a Level 90+ node at the end which drops lotto tickets as well as shop currency.
What are the other event items for?
Black Presents are obtained from lotto boxes and are used to progress the Main Story. Christmas Gongs are used to buy items in the event shop (including copies of the welfare) and extras can be used to do a bonus repeatable quest.
*Why is the next story quest locked? *
Check to make sure that it is not timegated. If the time gate has already lifted, then you may not have the required number of Black Presents to proceed. The first timegated story quest requires 5 Black Presents to unlock. You can get these by rolling the lotto and by doing special story quests (black banners) with Christmas Gongs. Doing the first special quest will yield 3-4(?) Black Presents, after which you can roll the remainder to unlock the first story/FQ.
A True Hero Slays By Boxing!

Christmas 2020 - "The Glorious Santa Claus Lord ~The Sealed Christmas Present~"

Duration: Dec. 16th (Wed) 18:00 - Dec. 30th (Wed) 12:59 JST
Requirement: Fuyuki Clear

News:

Links:

New Stuff Showcase

Guides:

Rate-Up Schedule

Rate-Up Schedule (JST)	Rate-Up Servant
December 16, 18:00 ~ December 18, 23:59	Vritra, Beowulf, Martha (Ruler)
December 19, 00:00 ~ December 20, 23:59	Vritra, Martha (Ruler)
December 21, 00:00 ~ December 22, 23:59	Vritra, Beowulf
December 23, 00:00 ~ December 24, 23:59	Vritra, Beowulf, Martha (Ruler)
December 25, 00:00 ~ December 26, 23:59	Vritra, Martha (Ruler)
December 27, 00:00 ~ December 28, 23:59	Vritra, Beowulf
December 29, 00:00 ~ December 30, 12:59	Vritra, Beowulf, Martha (Ruler)

FAQ

Which node is most efficient? Where should I be farming?
The Free Quests will gradually get better as the event progresses; as such it is not recommended that you go all out with AP refills as soon as it starts. The highest level node available will always have the best drop rates. Farming the newest node is usually a safe bet. Keep in mind that with the new format of events in 2020, it is likely that there will be a Level 90+ node at the end which drops lotto tickets as well as shop currency.
What are the other event items for?
Black Presents are obtained from lotto boxes and are used to progress the Main Story. Christmas Gongs are used to buy items in the event shop (including copies of the welfare) and extras can be used to do a bonus repeatable quest.
*Why is the next story quest locked? *
Check to make sure that it is not timegated. If the time gate has already lifted, then you may not have the required number of Black Presents to proceed. The first timegated story quest requires 5 Black Presents to unlock. You can get these by rolling the lotto and by doing special story quests (black banners) with Christmas Gongs. Doing the first special quest will yield 3-4(?) Black Presents, after which you can roll the remainder to unlock the first story/FQ.
A True Hero Slays By Boxing!

Christmas 2020 - "The Glorious Santa Claus Lord ~The Sealed Christmas Present~"

Duration: Dec. 16th (Wed) 18:00 - Dec. 30th (Wed) 12:59 JST
Requirement: Fuyuki Clear

News:

Links:

New Stuff Showcase

Guides:

Rate-Up Schedule

Rate-Up Schedule (JST)	Rate-Up Servant
December 16, 18:00 ~ December 18, 23:59	Vritra, Beowulf, Martha (Ruler)
December 19, 00:00 ~ December 20, 23:59	Vritra, Martha (Ruler)
December 21, 00:00 ~ December 22, 23:59	Vritra, Beowulf
December 23, 00:00 ~ December 24, 23:59	Vritra, Beowulf, Martha (Ruler)
December 25, 00:00 ~ December 26, 23:59	Vritra, Martha (Ruler)
December 27, 00:00 ~ December 28, 23:59	Vritra, Beowulf
December 29, 00:00 ~ December 30, 12:59	Vritra, Beowulf, Martha (Ruler)

FAQ

Which node is most efficient? Where should I be farming?
The Free Quests will gradually get better as the event progresses; as such it is not recommended that you go all out with AP refills as soon as it starts. The highest level node available will always have the best drop rates. Farming the newest node is usually a safe bet. Keep in mind that with the new format of events in 2020, it is likely that there will be a Level 90+ node at the end which drops lotto tickets as well as shop currency.
What are the other event items for?
Black Presents are obtained from lotto boxes and are used to progress the Main Story. Christmas Gongs are used to buy items in the event shop (including copies of the welfare) and extras can be used to do a bonus repeatable quest.
*Why is the next story quest locked? *
Check to make sure that it is not timegated. If the time gate has already lifted, then you may not have the required number of Black Presents to proceed. The first timegated story quest requires 5 Black Presents to unlock. You can get these by rolling the lotto and by doing special story quests (black banners) with Christmas Gongs. Doing the first special quest will yield 3-4(?) Black Presents, after which you can roll the remainder to unlock the first story/FQ.
A True Hero Slays By Boxing!

Christmas 2020 - "The Glorious Santa Claus Lord ~The Sealed Christmas Present~"

Duration: Dec. 16th (Wed) 18:00 - Dec. 30th (Wed) 12:59 JST
Requirement: Fuyuki Clear

News:

Links:

New Stuff Showcase

Guides:

Rate-Up Schedule

Rate-Up Schedule (JST)	Rate-Up Servant
December 16, 18:00 ~ December 18, 23:59	Vritra, Beowulf, Martha (Ruler)
December 19, 00:00 ~ December 20, 23:59	Vritra, Martha (Ruler)
December 21, 00:00 ~ December 22, 23:59	Vritra, Beowulf
December 23, 00:00 ~ December 24, 23:59	Vritra, Beowulf, Martha (Ruler)
December 25, 00:00 ~ December 26, 23:59	Vritra, Martha (Ruler)
December 27, 00:00 ~ December 28, 23:59	Vritra, Beowulf
December 29, 00:00 ~ December 30, 12:59	Vritra, Beowulf, Martha (Ruler)

FAQ

Which node is most efficient? Where should I be farming?
The Free Quests will gradually get better as the event progresses; as such it is not recommended that you go all out with AP refills as soon as it starts. The highest level node available will always have the best drop rates. Farming the newest node is usually a safe bet. Keep in mind that with the new format of events in 2020, it is likely that there will be a Level 90+ node at the end which drops lotto tickets as well as shop currency.
What are the other event items for?
Black Presents are obtained from lotto boxes and are used to progress the Main Story. Christmas Gongs are used to buy items in the event shop (including copies of the welfare) and extras can be used to do a bonus repeatable quest.
*Why is the next story quest locked? *
Check to make sure that it is not timegated. If the time gate has already lifted, then you may not have the required number of Black Presents to proceed. The first timegated story quest requires 5 Black Presents to unlock. You can get these by rolling the lotto and by doing special story quests (black banners) with Christmas Gongs. Doing the first special quest will yield 3-4(?) Black Presents, after which you can roll the remainder to unlock the first story/FQ.
A True Hero Slays By Boxing!

Christmas 2020 - "The Glorious Santa Claus Lord ~The Sealed Christmas Present~"

Duration: Dec. 16th (Wed) 18:00 - Dec. 30th (Wed) 12:59 JST
Requirement: Fuyuki Clear

News:

Links:

New Stuff Showcase

Guides:

Rate-Up Schedule

Rate-Up Schedule (JST)	Rate-Up Servant
December 16, 18:00 ~ December 18, 23:59	Vritra, Beowulf, Martha (Ruler)
December 19, 00:00 ~ December 20, 23:59	Vritra, Martha (Ruler)
December 21, 00:00 ~ December 22, 23:59	Vritra, Beowulf
December 23, 00:00 ~ December 24, 23:59	Vritra, Beowulf, Martha (Ruler)
December 25, 00:00 ~ December 26, 23:59	Vritra, Martha (Ruler)
December 27, 00:00 ~ December 28, 23:59	Vritra, Beowulf
December 29, 00:00 ~ December 30, 12:59	Vritra, Beowulf, Martha (Ruler)

FAQ

Which node is most efficient? Where should I be farming?
The Free Quests will gradually get better as the event progresses; as such it is not recommended that you go all out with AP refills as soon as it starts. The highest level node available will always have the best drop rates. Farming the newest node is usually a safe bet. Keep in mind that with the new format of events in 2020, it is likely that there will be a Level 90+ node at the end which drops lotto tickets as well as shop currency.
What are the other event items for?
Black Presents are obtained from lotto boxes and are used to progress the Main Story. Christmas Gongs are used to buy items in the event shop (including copies of the welfare) and extras can be used to do a bonus repeatable quest.
*Why is the next story quest locked? *
Check to make sure that it is not timegated. If the time gate has already lifted, then you may not have the required number of Black Presents to proceed. The first timegated story quest requires 5 Black Presents to unlock. You can get these by rolling the lotto and by doing special story quests (black banners) with Christmas Gongs. Doing the first special quest will yield 3-4(?) Black Presents, after which you can roll the remainder to unlock the first story/FQ.
A True Hero Slays By Boxing!

Christmas 2020 - "The Glorious Santa Claus Lord ~The Sealed Christmas Present~"

Duration: Dec. 16th (Wed) 18:00 - Dec. 30th (Wed) 12:59 JST
Requirement: Fuyuki Clear

News:

Links:

New Stuff Showcase

Guides:

Rate-Up Schedule

Rate-Up Schedule (JST)	Rate-Up Servant
December 16, 18:00 ~ December 18, 23:59	Vritra, Beowulf, Martha (Ruler)
December 19, 00:00 ~ December 20, 23:59	Vritra, Martha (Ruler)
December 21, 00:00 ~ December 22, 23:59	Vritra, Beowulf
December 23, 00:00 ~ December 24, 23:59	Vritra, Beowulf, Martha (Ruler)
December 25, 00:00 ~ December 26, 23:59	Vritra, Martha (Ruler)
December 27, 00:00 ~ December 28, 23:59	Vritra, Beowulf
December 29, 00:00 ~ December 30, 12:59	Vritra, Beowulf, Martha (Ruler)

FAQ

Which node is most efficient? Where should I be farming?
The Free Quests will gradually get better as the event progresses; as such it is not recommended that you go all out with AP refills as soon as it starts. The highest level node available will always have the best drop rates. Farming the newest node is usually a safe bet. Keep in mind that with the new format of events in 2020, it is likely that there will be a Level 90+ node at the end which drops lotto tickets as well as shop currency.
What are the other event items for?
Black Presents are obtained from lotto boxes and are used to progress the Main Story. Christmas Gongs are used to buy items in the event shop (including copies of the welfare) and extras can be used to do a bonus repeatable quest.
*Why is the next story quest locked? *
Check to make sure that it is not timegated. If the time gate has already lifted, then you may not have the required number of Black Presents to proceed. The first timegated story quest requires 5 Black Presents to unlock. You can get these by rolling the lotto and by doing special story quests (black banners) with Christmas Gongs. Doing the first special quest will yield 3-4(?) Black Presents, after which you can roll the remainder to unlock the first story/FQ.
A True Hero Slays By Boxing!

https://us.diablo3.com/en-us/blog/23548757/season-22-shades-of-the-nephalem-begins-november-20-11-6-2020

New Season Theme

During Season 22, activating a Shrine or Pylon will spawn in a shadow clone of your class. The clone's power will scale with your character and will last for one minute or until death.

Haedrig’s Gift

Completing Chapters 2, 3, and 4 of the Season Journey will reward you with three of Haedrig’s Gifts. Each Gift contains a few pieces from one of your Class Sets. Players can only unlock one Class Set in this manner per Season across Hardcore and Non-Hardcore, so choose wisely!
The set you receive depends on the class of the character you’re playing when you open each Haedrig’s Gift. To collect a full Class Set, you’ll need to open all three on the same character.
Here are the sets granted by Haedrig’s Gift in Season 22:

Barbarian - Horde of the Ninety Savages
Crusader - Aegis of Valor
Demon Hunter - Gears of Dreadlands
Monk - Patterns of Justice
Witch Doctor - Mundunugu’s Regalia
Wizard - Typhon’s Veil
Necromancer - Masquerade of the Burning Carnival

Patch Notes 2.6.10

Season 22 will run on Patch 2.6.10, full list of changes is here:

https://us.diablo3.com/en-us/blog/23548757/season-22-shades-of-the-nephalem-begins-november-20-11-6-2020#PatchNotes

Season Start

Q: When does Season 22 start?
A: Season 22 will begin on Friday, November 20th at 5:00 p.m. PDT in North America, 5:00 p.m. CET in Europe, and 5:00 p.m. KST in Asia. For time zone conversions, [see this site]. For countdowns, please visit https://d3resource.com/journey/.
Q: When do Seasons go live for players on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Switch?
A: Seasons go live for all console players globally Friday, November 20th at 5:00 p.m. Pacific Time, regardless of which regional version of the game you may have. Please note that Seasonal Leaderboards for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Switch are still separate by hardware platform.
Q: I'm returning player, what is happening?
A: Please stop by at this awesome Season 20 mega-guide: https://www.reddit.com/diablo3/comments/fheop3/season_20_mega_guide/
Q: What to do at the start of the season?
A: Please read this great mini-guide https://www.reddit.com/diablo3/comments/jukg04/my_season_22_start_mini_guide/
Q: How to find a powerlevel efficiently?
A: At the start of the season everybody will be busy but your best bet is to use in-game communities: https://www.reddit.com/diablo3/comments/5egcol/quick_guide_to_getting_a_fast_powerlevel/

Bet Angel - Topic: Countdown timer

bet countdown 2020

bet countdown 2020 - win

@AFP: America on Sunday kicked off the one-year countdown to Election Day 2020, with President Donald Trump betting an "angry" Republican surge can deliver him a second term, and Democratic candidates battling for a chance to win back the White House https://t.co/MZMUdbe1va

BigHit's NYE Concert Discussion Thread

[JP Event] Christmas 2020 - "The Glorious Santa Claus Lord ~The Sealed Christmas Present~"

Christmas 2020 - "The Glorious Santa Claus Lord ~The Sealed Christmas Present~"

News:

Links:

New Stuff Showcase

Guides:

Rate-Up Schedule

FAQ

Best of r/trance 2020 - Official Top 20 Tracks of 2020

Welcome ladies and gentlemen of trance for the Top 20 Trance Tracks of 2020 Results as voted by you, viewers and listeners of trance!

Our Honorable Mention

#20

#19

#18

#17

#16

#15

#14

#13

#12

#11

#10

#9

#8

#7

#6

#5

#4

#3

#2

And now your number 1 song….

#1

INT. RING MODULE, ENDURANCE

INT. COCKPIT, RANGER 2

INT. RING MODULE, ENDURANCE

INT. COCKPIT, LANDER

INT. RING MODULE, ENDURANCE

EXT. ENDURANCE

INT. LANDER

EXT. LANDER

INT. WILL’S BEDROOM – TWILIGHT

SCENE

A Very (Very, Very) Comprehensive Guide to BTS

Come be my teacher

As basic as it gets

Members

RM

J-Hope

Suga

Jin

V

Jimin

Jungkook

Subunits 101

Big Hit and Bang PD

Thou shalt have no idols but BTS

The history of BTS, specifically

Okay, so, I just lied

Sister blames me for her postnatal depression, because I didn’t worship the birth of her child - and I ruined Christmas!

[JP Event] Christmas 2020 - "The Glorious Santa Claus Lord ~The Sealed Christmas Present~"

Christmas 2020 - "The Glorious Santa Claus Lord ~The Sealed Christmas Present~"

News:

Links:

New Stuff Showcase

Guides:

Rate-Up Schedule

FAQ

[JP Event] Christmas 2020 - "The Glorious Santa Claus Lord ~The Sealed Christmas Present~"

Christmas 2020 - "The Glorious Santa Claus Lord ~The Sealed Christmas Present~"

News:

Links:

New Stuff Showcase

Guides:

Rate-Up Schedule

FAQ