As the Big East enters the halfway point of conference play, fans are beginning to forget the catastrophe that was the conference’s performance against out-of-conference teams. Now every team is seemingly beating up on each other in a conference race that still has a long way to go. Pitt is the odds-on favorite to get to the BCS bowl game. After that, Syracuse and West Virginia appear to be battling for a trip to Orlando, Fla. And the teams in the middle of the Big East pack are hoping Notre Dame doesn’t get to seven wins so they all can ultimately go bowling. Here is an early look from The Daily Orange into how it will shake down come the holidays:AdvertisementThis is placeholder text Jan. 1: Fiesta Bowl, Glendale, Ariz.: Pittsburgh — Big East Champion Who would have thought before the season began that the game at the Carrier Dome between Syracuse and Pittsburgh would be the pseudo-Big East championship game? With the home game for West Virginia in this year’s edition of the Backyard Brawl, the Panthers will cruise into a slot in a BCS game. The most likely destination for a team that will be ranked between No. 15 and No. 20: Fiesta over Orange. Dec. 28: Champs Sports Bowl, Orlando, Fla.: Syracuse — No. 2 Big East Syracuse won’t win out. But even if the Orange does, it will not be enough for a BCS game. Pitt won’t lose two games. West Virginia has a much tougher Big East schedule the rest of the way than the Orange. With just one WVU loss, SU should feel comfortable that they will get to Orlando, even if there is a long way to go. Dec. 31: Meineke Car Care Bowl, Charlotte, N.C.: West Virginia — No. 3 Big East It’s an uphill battle for the Mountaineers back to a BCS bowl. The good news is they can still defeat Pitt and have a legitimate shot to get there. The bad news is that game is at Heinz Field. The even worse news is that if Notre Dame gets to seven wins, WVU will have to settle for the Big East’s fourth bowl, which would be a supreme failure. Dec. 30: Pinstripe Bowl, New York City: Rutgers — No. 4 Big East It seems like every year Rutgers somehow slips into a solid bowl game after a dull season, making a trip to a bowl that is much more worthy than the team itself. For some reason, I think it’s going to happen again this year. And it will be the ideal situation for Rutgers head coach Greg Schiano, as the Scarlet Knights will be slotted to stay home at Yankee Stadium, thanks to a tie with the other two 6-6 Big East teams. Dec. 21: Beef ‘O’ Brady’s Bowl, St. Petersburg, Fla.: South Florida — No. 5 Big East Speaking of staying home, if USF, Rutgers and Louisville all beat up on each other in the middle pack of the Big East, USF won’t have to travel anywhere. Skip Holtz will be content with that in his first year. Jan. 8: Birmingham Bowl, Birmingham, Ala.: Louisville — No. 6 Big East As the least appealing team in the New York City and Tampa markets, Louisville will stay down south. The main team Charlie Strong should be worried about for a bowl bid is Utah. If the Utes slip up versus Notre Dame, UL will be the team left out of the selection process, thanks to the two hometown hosts for Rutgers and USF, as Notre Dame needs seven wins to steal one of conference’s bowl slots. aolivero@syr.edu Jan. 1: Fiesta Bowl, Glendale, Ariz.: Pittsburgh — Big East Champion The Backyard Brawl will likely determine the winner of the Big East, and I see Pitt defeating West Virginia in Pittsburgh. Even if Pitt loses to any conference team not named WVU, it appears it will still claim the top spot in the conference. Two losses in-conference and the league is suddenly wide open. Dec. 28: Champs Sports Bowl, Orlando, Fla.: Syracuse — No. 2 Big East If Syracuse wins out, this would be a worst-case scenario. Doug Marrone referred to a bowl talk as a ‘four-letter word,’ but I’m guessing SU’s place in the Big East standings is something that plays on his mind. A loss this weekend would obviously be a hit but not necessarily a major setback. Dec. 31: Meineke Car Care Bowl, Charlotte, N.C.: West Virginia — No. 3 Big East West Virginia may still finish No. 1 or No. 2 in the conference, despite a loss last weekend. WVU needs to win out and hope SU falls at least one more time to claim the top spot. But the thinking here is that the Mountaineers will lose at least one more game and finish No. 3 in the conference. Dec. 30: Pinstripe Bowl, New York City: South Florida — No. 4 Big East Though SU fans might like to see the Orange in the first ever bowl hosted at the new Yankee Stadium, finishing No. 4 would obviously be a step back from its current ranking. Still, can you imagine all the Syracuse support at that potential game? I see USF landing here, especially after taking down Cincy. Dec. 21: Beef ‘O’ Brady’s Bowl, St. Petersburg, Fla.: Cincinnati — No. 5 Big East Just one year removed from running the table in the Big East, Cincinnati has had much different results this year. Quarterback Zach Collaros might be out this weekend and beyond, which doesn’t bode well for a team that has struggled even with him in the lineup. Jan. 8: Birmingham Bowl, Birmingham, Ala.: Rutgers — No. 6 Big East Grabbing the final spot is the Scarlet Knights, which has been up and down this season. Connecticut and Louisville both have a legitimate chance of becoming bowl-eligible but have not played nearly consistent enough to finish any higher than No. 6. aljohn@syr.edu REBUTTAL: Andrew L. John Goin’ Hog wild Comments BLOG POST: Tony Olivero Purify the colors Published on October 27, 2010 at 12:00 pm Facebook Twitter Google+
Published on March 15, 2018 at 10:11 pm Contact Tomer: tdlanger@syr.edu | @tomer_langer Fortnite was officially released on Sept. 26 for PC, XBOX and PlayStation. It’s a 100 Player vs. Player battle-royale style game that mimics the storyline of “The Hunger Games.” All 100 players get dropped into the same map with nothing but a pickaxe. They then search for weapons and building supplies, such as wood or bricks, all while a deadly storm shrinks the playable map and forces spread-out players to come closer together. The last player alive wins. There are three game modes: Solo, duos and squads, which allow teams of up to four.Bridget Slomian | Senior Design EditorThe casual sports fan might have just heard of Fortnite for the first time when late Wednesday night turned to early Thursday morning, right after the Orange beat Arizona State in a play-in game. Music stars Drake and Travis Scott, along with Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster, teamed up to play the game with “Ninja,” a former eSport athlete who now streams himself playing video games on a platform called Twitch.The stream garnered over 600,000 concurrent viewers, smashing the Twitch record. The story of the unexpected team gained traction from major outlets, including ESPN and CNN, and was shared often on social media. Many of the players, including Washington and Syracuse forward Matt Moyer, watched parts of the stream when they heard about it.“It was cool to see that it’s not just us playing Fortnite,” Moyer said. “A lot of other people are.”Washington, sophomore Tyus Battle and walk-on forward Patrick Herlihy were the first to discover the game, each finding out about it through outside friends at some point in mid-October.Battle said he downloaded the game at first, but didn’t play it much. Then the game started gaining popularity and Syracuse players started spreading the word — Howard introduced Brissett, Battle showed Moyer — and it quickly became one of the team’s favorite activity.“That’s probably number one, honestly,” Battle said when asked where Fortnite ranks in the team’s off-court activities. “Because we’re usually too lazy to go out, bowling and whatever else. Everyone loves playing video games.”Herlihy said that he, Battle, Brissett, Moyer, Washington and Paschal Chukwu are the ones who regularly play the most. Generally, they’ll play together in four-person squads with whoever is available at the time. The players will sometimes post Instagram stories of themselves playing, including whenever they pull off the difficult feat of winning the game.The team had different answers when asked who the best player was. Washington chose himself, Battle and Brissett. Moyer said that it was Battle, and then added it that it could have been Herlihy. Brissett said that Battle and Washington are, but that he was a close third. Battle said outright that he was the best player on the team. That prompted junior guard Shaun Belbey, who was sitting next to Battle, to shake his head.Chukwu, who said he recently got into the game during the ACC Tournament, didn’t include himself in the list of best players. He said his main focus right now is to hone his building abilities.Bridget Slomian | Senior Design EditorFortnite released a new limited-time edition of the game that features five 20-person squads playing against each other. Chukwu said the goal is for the entire team to compete in that mode at some point when everyone is back on campus.Nearly every SU player who plays Fortnite agreed with Battle in saying that it’s the team’s number one off-the-court activity.“If it’s not basketball,” Brissett said, “we are definitely at home playing Fortnite.”CORRECTION: In a previous version of this post, Shaun Belbey was misnamed. The Daily Orange regrets this error. Comments UPDATED: March 15, 2018 at 10:52 p.m.DETROIT — Oshae Brissett had seen the video game a few times. Howard Washington, his roommate, kept playing it despite Brissett thinking it was boring.Then Washington brought his Playstation 4 down for the game at Miami in mid-February. Washington told Brissett that he just needed to try it again.“I started to get into it playing on his PS4,” Brissett said. “And then, once we got home I downloaded it and got hooked.”That video game is called Fortnite Battle Royale, and it’s not just Brissett who’s been hooked. Fortnite, a free download, was released in late September and by early-February, it set a record with 3.4 million concurrent players. Many of No. 11 Syracuse’s (21-13, 8-10 Atlantic Coast) players have been caught up in the Fortnite craze as well, as it’s become the most popular team activity off the court.AdvertisementThis is placeholder text“It’s like a team-bonding kind of thing we do to have fun,” Washington said. “Come to practice and talk about it. We watch videos on our phones, like we’re watching film for basketball.”MORE COVERAGE: Syracuse men’s basketball opponent preview: What to know about No. 6 seed TCU10 fun facts you need to know about TCU3 things TCU head coach Jamie Dixon said at his pre-Round of 64 press conference Facebook Twitter Google+