title: Zhengzhou

text: Zhengzhou High & New Technology Industries Development Zone was established in 1988, and approved by the state Council of PRC to be a state development zone on Mar.6,1991. It was appraised to be advanced high tech zone of China respectively in 1993, 1998 and 2002. The Zone currently covers a total area of . An extension plan was approved by Zhengzhou Municipal Government, the various construction work started in 2004. Under the development strategy of “multiple parks in one zone”, the Zone has been making great efforts to promote the development of software, information technologies, new materials, bio-pharmaceutical and photo-machinery-electronic industries.


title: Zhengzhou

text: Zhengzhou Economic and Technological Development Zone was approved as state-level development zone on February 13, 2000. The zone has a developed area of Industries encouraged include Electronics Assembly & Manufacturing, Telecommunications Equipment, Trading and Distribution, Biotechnology/Pharmaceuticals, Instruments & Industrial Equipment Production, Medical Equipment and Supplies, Shipping/Warehousing/Logistics and Heavy Industry.


title: Zhengzhou

text: Zhengzhou (Henan) Export Processing Zone was established on June 21, 2002 with approval by the state council. Its planned area is . Zone A is located in Zhengzhou National Economic & technological Development Area and began to operate on June 1, 2004. The area of land developed is at present. Zone B is located in Zhengzhou Airport Area and is adjacent to Zhengzhou Xinzheng International Airport on the north and it covers a planned area of 5 square km with bonded logistics zone, bonded processing zone and supporting industry zone, etc.


title: Zhengzhou

text: The Zhengzhou Metro is a rapid transit metro rail network serving urban and suburban districts of Great Zhengzhou metropolitan. The Zhengzhou Metro system started operation on 28 December 2013. It currently has 5 lines in operation, creating a long network. The first two lines (Line 1 and Line 2) were approved by the National Development and Reform Commission in Feb. 2009. Construction of the two lines started in 2009 and 2010, and were finished in 2013 and 2015 respectively. The Chengjiao Line (planned to be part of Line 9), which is now in through operations with Line 2, allows the system to serve the Zhengzhou Xinzheng International Airport. A total of 21 metro lines have been planned to connect all areas in Great Zhengzhou Metropolitan Area.


title: Zhengzhou

text: Zhengzhou has a bus system with over 5,700 bus vehicles, operated by the Zhengzhou Bus Communication Corporation (ZZB).


title: Zhengzhou

text: The operations of Zhengzhou Bus Rapid Transit commenced in 2009. The system consists of 5 main routes (B1, B2, B3, B5 and B6) with dedicated bus lanes and dozens of branch routes that serve most areas of the city.


title: Zhengzhou

text: Zhengzhou is the junction of the Longhai Railway (Lianyungang, Jiangsu–Lanzhou, Gansu) and the Beijing–Guangzhou Railway as well as a major national railway hub. The main railway station for these conventional services is Zhengzhou railway station, opened in 1904.


title: Zhengzhou

text: Zhengzhou is also on the Beijing–Guangzhou–Shenzhen–Hong Kong high-speed railway and the Xuzhou–Lanzhou High-Speed Railway. The high-speed rail network provides fast train services to most major cities in China, including Beijing (2.5 hours), Guangzhou (6 hours), Xi'an (2 hours), Wuhan (2 hours), Shanghai (4 hours), Nanjing (3 hours), Hangzhou (5 hours), and Hong Kong (6.5 hours). Proposed high-speed railways from Zhengzhou to Chongqing, Hefei, Jinan and Taiyuan are under construction.


title: Zhengzhou

text: The completion of the Zhengzhou–Jinan high-speed railway, planned for 2023, will complete a star-shaped (referred to as a "米"-shaped) network of eight high-speed lines radiating out from the city.


title: Zhengzhou

text: Zhengzhou is also the hub of intercity railways in Henan. Currently there are three intercity railways from Zhengzhou: Zhengzhou–Kaifeng intercity railway, Zhengzhou–Jiaozuo intercity railway and Zhengzhou–Xinzheng Airport intercity railway are in operation.


title: Zhengzhou

text: Zhengzhou East railway station is dedicated to high-speed trains and is one of the largest in Asia and Zhengzhou South railway station is a new high-speed railway hub under construction.


title: Zhengzhou

text: The surrounding area of Zhengzhou, along with the Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta and the Bohai Economic Rim, has the highest highway density nationwide. Zhengzhou is the center of Henan expressway network that provides 1–2 hours road trip to surrounding cities of Kaifeng, Xinxiang, Xuchang, Jiaozuo and Luoyang. Other major cities within the province can be reached in 3 hours. The expressway network and national highways also links Zhengzhou to all major cities in the country.


title: Zhengzhou

text: There are several limited access express roads in the city center to relieve traffic problems. However, heavy congestion is still common in rush hours.


title: Zhengzhou

text: Zhengzhou is primarily served by Zhengzhou Xinzheng International Airport (IATA: CGO, ICAO: ZHCC), which is southeast of the city center.


title: Zhengzhou

text: The airport is a focus city of China Southern Airlines, Lucky Air, West Air and Shenzhen Airlines. It used to be the headquarter for Henan Airlines. In 2017, it was the busiest airport in central China in both passenger and cargo traffic. It is also one of the eight air hubs nominated by the Civil Aviation Administration of China.


title: Zhengzhou

text: Other airports in Zhengzhou include Shangjie Airport (IATA: HSJ) which is for general aviation, and Matougang Airbase which is for military use.


title: Reader's Digest

text: Reader's Digest is an American general-interest family magazine, published ten times a year. Formerly based in Chappaqua, New York, it is now headquartered in midtown Manhattan. The magazine was founded in 1922 by DeWitt Wallace and his wife Lila Bell Wallace. For many years, "Reader's Digest" was the best-selling consumer magazine in the United States; it lost the distinction in 2009 to "Better Homes and Gardens". According to Mediamark Research (2006), "Reader's Digest" reached more readers with household incomes of over $100,000 than "Fortune", "The Wall Street Journal", "Business Week", and "Inc." combined.


title: Reader's Digest

text: Global editions of "Reader's Digest" reach an additional 40 million people in more than 70 countries, via 49 editions in 21 languages. The periodical has a global circulation of 10.5 million, making it the largest paid-circulation magazine in the world.


title: Reader's Digest

text: It is also published in Braille, digital, audio, and a large type called "Reader's Digest Large Print." The magazine is compact, with its pages roughly half the size of most American magazines. Hence, in the summer of 2005, the U.S. edition adopted the slogan "America in your pocket." In January 2008, it was changed to "Life well shared."


title: Reader's Digest

text: In 1922, DeWitt Wallace started the magazine while he was recovering from shrapnel wounds received in World War I. Wallace had the idea to gather a sampling of favorite articles on many subjects from various monthly magazines, sometimes condensing and rewriting them, and to combine them into one magazine.


title: Reader's Digest

text: Since its inception "Reader's Digest" has maintained a conservative and anti-Communist perspective on political and social issues. The Wallaces initially hoped the journal could provide $5,000 of net income. Wallace's assessment of what the potential mass-market audience wanted to read led to rapid growth. By 1929, the magazine had 290,000 subscribers and had a gross income of $900,000 a year. The first international edition was published in the United Kingdom in 1938. By the 40th anniversary of "Reader's Digest", it had 40 international editions, in 13 languages and Braille, and at one point, it was the largest-circulating journal in China, Mexico, Spain, Sweden, Peru, and other countries, with a total international circulation of 23 million.


title: Reader's Digest

text: The magazine's format for several decades consisted of 30 articles per issue (one per day), along with an "Increase your Word Power" vocabulary quiz, a page of "Amusing Anecdotes" and "Personal Glimpses", two features of funny stories entitled "Humor in Uniform" and "Life in these United States", and a lengthier article at the end, usually condensed from a published book. Other regular features were "My Most Unforgettable Character" (since discontinued), the "Drama in Real Life" survival stories. and more recently "That's Outrageous". These were all listed in the table of contents on the front cover. Each article was prefaced by a small, simple line drawing. In more recent times, the format evolved into flashy, colorful, eye-catching graphics throughout, and many short bits of data interspersed with full articles. The table of contents is now contained inside. From 2003 to 2007, the back cover featured "Our America", paintings of Rockwell-style whimsical situations by artist C. F. Payne. Another monthly consumer advice feature is "What [people in various professions] won't tell you," with a different profession featured each time.


title: Reader's Digest

text: The first "Word Power" column of the magazine was published in the January 1945 edition, written by Wilfred J. Funk. In December 1952, the magazine published "Cancer by the Carton", a series of articles that linked smoking with lung cancer and this topic was later repeated in other articles.


title: Reader's Digest

text: From 2002 through 2006, "Reader's Digest" conducted a vocabulary competition in schools throughout the US called "Reader's Digest" National Word Power Challenge. In 2007, the magazine said it will not have the competition for the 2007–08 school year: "...but rather to use the time to evaluate the program in every respect, including scope, mission, and model for implementation."


title: Reader's Digest

text: In 2006, the magazine published three more local-language editions in Slovenia, Croatia, and Romania. In October 2007, the "Digest" expanded into Serbia. The magazine's licensee in Italy stopped publishing in December 2007. The magazine launched in the People's Republic of China in 2008.


title: Reader's Digest

text: For 2010, the US edition of the magazine reduced its publishing schedule to 10 times a year rather than 12, and to increase digital offerings. It also cut its circulation guarantee for advertisers to 5.5 million copies from 8 million. In announcing that decision, in June 2009, the company said that it planned to reduce its number of celebrity profiles and how-to features, and increase the number of inspiring spiritual stories and stories about the military.


title: Reader's Digest

text: In 1990, the magazine's parent company, The Reader's Digest Association, Inc. (RDA), became a publicly traded corporation. From 2005 through 2010, RDA reported a net loss each year.


title: Reader's Digest

text: In March 2007, Ripplewood Holdings LLC led a consortium of private-equity investors who bought the company through a leveraged buyout for US$2.8 billion, financed primarily by the issuance of US$2.2 billion of debt. Ripplewood invested $275 million of its own money, and had partners including Rothschild Bank of Zürich and GoldenTree Asset Management of New York. The private-equity deal tripled the association's interest payments, to $148 million a year.


title: Reader's Digest

text: On August 24, 2009, RDA announced it had filed with the US Bankruptcy court an arranged Chapter 11 bankruptcy to continue operations, and to restructure the US$2.2 billion debt undertaken by the leveraged buyout transaction. The company emerged from bankruptcy with the lenders exchanging debt for equity, and Ripplewood's entire equity investment was extinguished.


title: Reader's Digest

text: In April 2010, the UK arm was sold to its management. It has a licensing deal with the US company to continue publishing the UK edition.


title: Reader's Digest

text: On February 17, 2013, RDA Holding filed for bankruptcy a second time. The company was purchased for £1 by Mike Luckwell, a venture capitalist and once the biggest shareholder in WPP plc.


title: Reader's Digest

text: RDA offers many mail-order products included with "sweepstakes" or contests. US "Reader's Digest" and the company's other US magazines do not use sweepstakes in their direct-mail promotions. A notable shift to electronic direct marketing has been undertaken by the company to adapt to shifting media landscape. In the mid-20th century, phonograph record albums of popular classical and easy-listening music, bearing the magazine's name, were sold by mail. "Reader's Digest" also partnered with RCA to offer a mail-order music club which offered discount pricing on vinyl records.


title: Reader's Digest

text: In 2001, 32 states' attorneys general reached agreements with the company and other sweepstakes operators to settle allegations that they tricked the elderly into buying products because they were a "guaranteed winner" of a lottery. The settlement required the companies to expand the type size of notices in the packaging that no purchase is necessary to play the sweepstakes, and to:


title: Reader's Digest

text: The agreement appeared to adversely affect "Reader's Digest" circulation in the U.S. Its 1970s peak circulation was 17 million U.S. subscribers.


title: Reader's Digest

text: The UK edition of "Reader's Digest" has also been criticized by the Trading Standards Institute for preying on the elderly and vulnerable with misleading bulk mailings that claim the recipient is guaranteed a large cash prize and advising them not to discuss this with anyone else. Following their complaint, the Advertising Standards Authority said they would be launching an investigation. The ASA investigation upheld the complaint in 2008, ruling that the "Reader's Digest" mailing was irresponsible and misleading (particularly for the elderly) and had breached three clauses of the Committee of Advertising Practice code. "Reader's Digest" was told not to use this mailing again.


title: Reader's Digest

text: International editions have made "Reader's Digest" the best-selling monthly journal in the world. Its worldwide circulation including all editions has reached 17 million copies and 70 million readers. "Reader's Digest" is currently published in 49 editions and 21 languages and is available in over 70 countries, including Slovenia, Croatia, and Romania in 2008.


title: Reader's Digest

text: Its international editions account for about 50% of the magazine's trade volume. In each market, local editors commission or purchase articles for their own markets and share content with U.S. and other editions. The selected articles are then translated by local translators and the translations edited by the local editors to make them match the "well-educated informal" style of the American edition.


title: Reader's Digest

text: Over the 90 years, the company has published editions in various languages in different countries, or for different regions. Often, these editions started out as translations of the U.S. version of the magazine, but over time they became unique editions, providing material more germane to local readers. Local editions that still publish the bulk of the American "Reader's Digest" are usually titled with a qualifier, such as the Portuguese edition, ("Selections from Reader's Digest"), or the Swedish edition, ("The Best of Reader's Digest").


title: Reader's Digest

text: The list is sorted by year of first publication. Some countries had editions but no longer do; for example, the Danish version of "Reader's Digest" () ceased publication in 2005 and was replaced by the Swedish version; as a result, the Swedish edition covers stories about both countries (but written solely in Swedish).


title: Reader's Digest

text: The first "Reader's Digest" publication in the Arab World was printed in Egypt in September 1943. The license was eventually terminated.


title: Reader's Digest

text: The second effort and the first "Reader's Digest" franchise agreement was negotiated through the efforts of Frederick Pittera, in 1976, an American entrepreneur, who sold the idea to Lebanon's former foreign minister, Lucien Dahdah, then son-in-law of Suleiman Frangieh, President of Lebanon. Dahdah partnered with Ghassan Tueni (former Lebanon ambassador to the United Nations, and publisher of newspaper, Beirut) in publishing "Reader's Digest" in the Arabic language. It was printed in Cairo for distribution throughout the Arab world under title . In format, was the same as the U.S. edition with 75% of the editorial content. Philip Hitti, Chairman of Princeton University's Department of Oriental Languages and a team of Arabic advisers counseled on what would be of interest to Arabic readers. The publication of was terminated by "Reader's Digest" in April 1993.


title: Reader's Digest

text: The Canadian edition first appeared in July 1947 in French and in February 1948 in English, and today the vast majority of it is Canadian content. Nearly all major and minor articles are locally produced or selected from Canadian publications that match the "Digest" style. Usually, there is one American article in each issue.


title: Reader's Digest

text: "Life's Like That" is the Canadian name of "Life in These United States." Most of the other rubrics are taken from the American publication.


title: Reader's Digest

text: The Indian edition was first published in 1954. Its circulation then was 40,000 copies. It was published for many years by the Tata Group of companies. Today, the magazine is published in India by Living Media India Ltd, and sold over 600,000 copies monthly in 2008 under the then editor Mohan Sivanand, who retired in 2015. It prints Indian and international articles. According to the Indian Readership Survey Round II of 2009, the readership for "Reader's Digest" was 3.94 million, second only to "India Today" at 5.62 million. That has since declined. In the 2017 Survey, the India edition had fallen to ninth position with a readership of 1.354 million, and in the latest Survey (Quarter 1 of 2019), it is not seen in the Top 10 list of English-language magazines published in India.


title: Reader's Digest

text: "Reader's Digest" Australia has an any issue readership of 1.5 million (according to Nielsen) and a circulation of over 200,000. The magazine has a guaranteed audience with a 90% subscription rate. The group editor is Louise Waterson.


title: Reader's Digest

text: "Reader's Digest" publishes bi-monthly a series of softcover anthologies called "Reader's Digest Select Editions" (previously known as "Reader's Digest Condensed Books"). During the 1970s, there was also a Reader's Digest Press, which published full-length, original works of non-fiction.


title: Reader's Digest

text: In Germany, Reader's Digest runs an own book-publishing house called which not only publishes the German edition of the "Reader's Digest" magazine. Since 1955, it has published (a German edition of "Reader's Digest Condensed Books"). Besides publishing the magazine, the publisher is especially well known in Germany for the science fiction anthology ("The Road to Tomorrow"), consisting of 50 hardcover volumes of classic science fiction novels (such as Robert A. Heinlein's "Stranger in a Strange Land", Arthur C. Clarke's "", or Ray Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451", usually two novels per volume) published between 1986 and 1995. More recent book series by the publisher include ("Reflections of the Times", a series of recent newspaper or magazine reports) and ("World Literature Classics").


title: Reader's Digest

text: As well, Reader's Digest re-printed classic literature in long-wearing colored board cover hardcovers. "Rebecca" by Daphne Du Maurier, "Roughing It" by Mark Twain, and "My Antonia" by Willa Cather were among this run of books.


title: Curtis Hanson

text: Curtis Lee Hanson (March 24, 1945 – September 20, 2016) was an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. His directing work included the psychological thriller "The Hand That Rocks the Cradle" (1992), the neo-noir crime film "L.A. Confidential" (1997), the comedy "Wonder Boys" (2000), the hip-hop biopic "8 Mile" (2002), the romantic comedy-drama "In Her Shoes" (2005), and the made-for-television docudrama "Too Big to Fail" (2011).


title: Curtis Hanson

text: For his work of "L.A. Confidential," Hanson won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay in 1998, for co-writing with Brian Helgeland, along with additional nominations for Best Picture, Best Director, and for winning the Palme d'Or at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival, and became one of the five directors (alongside Quentin Tarantino, Steven Soderbergh, David Fincher, and Barry Jenkins) to ever sweep "The Big Four" critics awards (LAFCA, NBR, NYFCC, NSFC). An active member of the Directors Guild of America, he was a member of the Creative Rights Committee, the President's Committee on Film Preservation, and the Film Foundation.


title: Curtis Hanson

text: Hanson was born in Reno, Nevada, and grew up in Los Angeles. He was the son of Beverly June Curtis, a real estate agent, and Wilbur Hale "Bill" Hanson, a teacher. Hanson dropped out of high school, finding work as a freelance photographer and editor for "Cinema" magazine.


title: Curtis Hanson

text: Hanson began screenwriting in 1970, when he co-wrote "The Dunwich Horror", a film adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's short story. Hanson wrote and directed his first feature, "Sweet Kill" starring Tab Hunter, in 1973. Then in 1978, he wrote and produced "The Silent Partner", starring Elliott Gould and Christopher Plummer. From the early 1980s into 1990s, Hanson directed a string of comedies and dramas. He directed thrillers, too: many of them deal with people who lose their sense of control or security when facing danger or under threat of death. Some, like the financial executive in "Bad Influence" and the police officers in "L.A. Confidential," unexpectedly walk into violence and disaster.


title: Curtis Hanson

text: In the 1990s, Hanson found box-office success with "The Hand That Rocks the Cradle" and "The River Wild", and received significant critical acclaim for his 1997 film "L.A. Confidential", an adaptation of the James Ellroy novel. The film was nominated for 9 Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director, and won two — Best Adapted Screenplay (a credit Hanson shared with Brian Helgeland), and Best Supporting Actress (for Kim Basinger). Hanson's later works included "In Her Shoes", "Wonder Boys", "8 Mile", and "Lucky You".


title: Curtis Hanson

text: Hanson said that he was heavily influenced by the directors Alfred Hitchcock and Nicholas Ray. In an interview with the New York Times in 2000, Hanson stated that Ray's film "In a Lonely Place" was among many that he watched in preparation for the filming of "L.A. Confidential". In "8 Mile", Kim Basinger's character watches Elia Kazan's "Pinky" on television. The film is about a mixed-race girl who passes as white; the reference to it in Hanson's film functions as an homage to the themes of racial mixing and boundary-crossing that are features of much of his work.


title: Curtis Hanson

text: In 2011, Hanson made "Too Big to Fail", based on the 2009 Andrew Ross Sorkin book of the same name about the beginnings of the financial crisis of 2007–2010. The film, produced by Hanson's production company Deuce Three Productions for HBO, featured among its cast William Hurt as Treasury Secretary and former Goldman Sachs CEO Henry Paulson, and Cynthia Nixon as his liaison to the press; James Woods as Richard Fuld of Lehman Brothers; and Paul Giamatti as Ben Bernanke. His last film was "Chasing Mavericks" in 2012, but he was unable to finish the film due to ill health. Michael Apted replaced him as director during the final days of shooting.


title: Curtis Hanson

text: Hanson later retired from film work and was reported to have frontotemporal dementia. He died of natural causes at his Hollywood Hills home at the age of 71.


title: Sam Howell

text: Sam Howell (born September 16, 2000) is an American football quarterback for the Washington Commanders of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at North Carolina, setting school records for most touchdown passes in a single season (38) as well as career passing yards (10,283) and touchdown passes (92) prior to being drafted by the Commanders in the fifth round of the 2022 NFL Draft.


title: Sam Howell

text: Howell was born in Waynesville, North Carolina, on September 16, 2000, and grew up in Union County. He attended and played football for Sun Valley High School, where he threw for 13,415 yards and 145 touchdowns while rushing for 3,621 yards and 60 touchdowns during his time there. The second-ranked recruit in North Carolina, Howell originally committed to attend and play college football at Florida State University (FSU) but flipped to the University of North Carolina (UNC) after FSU offensive coordinator Walt Bell left the program to pursue other coaching opportunities and Mack Brown was hired as UNC's head coach.


title: Sam Howell

text: Howell enrolled at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in January 2019. He won an open competition to become the Tar Heels' starting quarterback. He became the first true freshman at the school to win the starting quarterback job in his first year. In his debut, he passed for 245 yards and two touchdowns in a season-opening 24-20 victory over South Carolina. Against NC State, Howell threw for 401 yards and three touchdowns in a 41–10 victory.


title: Sam Howell

text: Howell finished the regular season completing 234 of 388 passes for 3,347 yards with 35 touchdowns and seven interceptions. He threw for 294 yards and three more touchdowns in the 55–13 win over Temple in the 2019 Military Bowl. He earned Military Bowl MVP honors for his performance, which also included a touchdown reception on a trick play. Howell's 38 touchdown passes was a single-season FBS record for a true freshman quarterback, and he was named ACC Rookie of the Year for his stellar performance that season. His yardage and touchdown totals were also the highest in the conference on the year, earning third-team All-ACC honors in addition.


title: Sam Howell

text: Howell was included on watchlists for the Maxwell, Manning, and O'Brien awards prior to his sophomore season. He earned ACC Player of the Week honors after throwing for 443 yards against Virginia. Against Wake Forest two weeks later, Howell threw for 550 yards and 6 touchdowns, both school records, while rushing for another touchdown. Howell would recorded his second career touchdown catch in a 62–26 victory over the Miami Hurricanes. He would finish the season throwing three touchdowns in the Orange Bowl and would earn second-team All-ACC honors in the process. 2020 would be Howell's most successful season as Tar Heel starting quarterback, leading the team to an 8-4 record and a final ranking of 18 in the AP poll.


title: Sam Howell

text: Much like his sophomore year, Howell received significant hype going into his junior campaign, being named to multiple award watchlists, and was also considered one of the top quarterbacks in the nation. Against Georgia State in week two, Howell threw for 352 yards and three touchdowns and rushed for 104 yards and two more scores, becoming the second quarterback in Tar Heel history to throw for over 300 passing yards and 100 rushing yards in the same game. The following week against Virginia, Howell threw for 307 yards and five touchdowns while also rushing for 112 yards, joining Lamar Jackson as the second Power 5 quarterback to post back-to-back games of over 300 passing and 100 rushing yards since 2004.


title: Sam Howell

text: On the last play of overtime against Pittsburgh, he suffered an injury to his non-throwing shoulder which caused him to miss the following game against Wofford. He made his return the following week in a 34-30 loss to NC State, throwing for 147 yards, one touchdown, and an interception alongside two rushing touchdowns. He finished the season throwing for 3,056 with 24 touchdowns while rushing for 828 yards with 11 touchdowns. He graduated in December 2021 and announced that he would forgo his remaining college eligibility to enter the 2022 NFL Draft. Howell would finish his Tar Heel career throwing for 92 touchdown passes and 10,283 yards, both school records. He threw at least one touchdown pass in every game he played in college.


title: Sam Howell

text: Despite predictions of being an early pick in the 2022 NFL Draft, Howell would not be selected until the fifth round when he was drafted 144th overall by the Washington Commanders. He signed his four-year rookie contract on May 6, 2022.


title: Sam Howell

text: Howell is part Korean; his American grandfather met his Korean grandmother while stationed there in the late 1960s. He has never eaten any beef or seafood, with chicken being the only meat in his diet.


title: Final Fantasy V

text: The game begins as a wanderer named Bartz investigates a fallen meteor. There, he encounters several characters, one of whom reveals the danger facing the four Crystals that control the world's elements. These Crystals act as a seal on Exdeath, an evil sorcerer. Bartz and his party must keep the Crystals from being exploited by Exdeath's influence and prevent his resurgence.


title: Final Fantasy V

text: "Final Fantasy V" has been praised for the freedom of customization that the player has over the characters, achieved through the greatly expanded Job System. Despite being released only in Japan, the Super Famicom version sold more than two million copies. The PlayStation version has earned "Greatest Hits" status, selling more than 350,000 copies.


title: Final Fantasy V

text: "Final Fantasy V" includes many standard role-playing elements as well as renovated features introduced in earlier "Final Fantasy" games. Players navigate from a top-down perspective; a traversable overworld connects the various towns, dungeons, and other points of interest. The player can traverse the overworld by foot, Chocobo, hydra-guided ship, wind drake, or airship, depending on the situation. Most towns contain scattered inns for resting, shops for purchasing equipment, and people from whom the player can gain information. The player may also embark on several side quests that become available as the story progresses. Characters grow in strength by gaining experience points from random encounters with monsters on the overworld or in a dungeon. Experience culminates in a "level up", in which character attributes such as hit points and magic power increase. A menu-based management system allows the player to equip, heal, and change each character's selected job outside of battle as well as to save the game's progress.


title: Final Fantasy V

text: "Final Fantasy V" is the second "Final Fantasy" game to use the Active Time Battle (ATB) system, in which time flows continuously for both the player and enemies during combat. This system was first established in "Final Fantasy IV", but in that game, there was no way to visibly anticipate which character's turn would come up next. In "Final Fantasy V", the player can see which playable character's turn is next in battle, in the form of a time gauge—or "ATB Bar"—which fills according to a character's speed. When the selected character's turn arrives, the player can execute one of several commands, such as attacking the enemy with an equipped weapon, using a special ability or item, or changing the character's row position. The ATB mechanic with a gauge, as seen in "Final Fantasy V", would be used in the four following main titles in the series and remains a staple mechanic of the franchise.


title: Final Fantasy V

text: The main feature of the gameplay of "Final Fantasy V" is the Job System. Players can freely select jobs (also called "classes") for their characters to master, allowing each character to gain special abilities and potentially master all 22 jobs (26 in the Game Boy Advance version). Each character begins with only the "Freelancer" class; to gain access to new jobs, players must acquire crystal shards. This system is an improved version of the one in "Final Fantasy III"; several older jobs were either reused or revamped for "Final Fantasy V", such as the Black Mage and Thief. The game also introduces several classes to the series, including the Blue Mage, Time Mage, and Mime. Each of these classes has been featured in numerous "Final Fantasy" installments since.


title: Final Fantasy V

text: Once the player gains access to the job system, characters begin to earn a separate form of experience—Ability Points—in conjunction with regular experience points. Characters gain job levels after accumulating AP; as with regular levels, the required amount of experience increases after each job level. AP and job levels do not transfer from class to class. As job levels increase, new skills become available for the character to use in a new form of customization; characters learn job-specific abilities that may be transferred to a new job. For example, a character with the Knight job who has also earned job levels as a Black Mage may set Black Magic as a secondary command, enabling both Black Mage and Knight abilities in battle. The nature of these abilities varies; while some serve as special commands in battle, others may be innate to the class or activated automatically when conditions are met, such as the Thief's "Caution" skill, which prevents rear attacks from enemies. This system allows for deeper customization of characters.


title: Final Fantasy V

text: The backstory of "Final Fantasy V" is revealed in phases through cutscenes and interactions with non-playable characters. One millennium before the events of the main story, a powerful mage named Enuo imperiled the world using the power of an evil entity called the "Void". The people retaliated by using twelve legendary weapons to vanquish Enuo; however, the Void itself could not be destroyed. Consequently, the people split the world's four elemental Crystals into two sets, effectively creating two worlds. The Void then became sealed in a dimensional cleft between the two worlds.


title: Final Fantasy V

text: Nearly a thousand years passed without incident, and both worlds prospered due to the powers of their Crystals of Wind, Water, Fire, and Earth. New kingdoms and towns flourished, and travel by ship acted as a critical means of commerce and communication. However, a sinister force was stirring in the second world—ever since the Void incident, malicious demons had been sealed inside a tree in the Great Forest of Moore. The corrupted amalgamation of spirits emerged as Exdeath, the game's primary antagonist. When Exdeath attempted to claim the world for himself, a group of heroes called the "Four Warriors of Dawn" (Galuf, Xezat, Dorgann, and Kelger) sealed him within the first world using its Crystals, and peace returned for another thirty years.


title: Final Fantasy V

text: "Final Fantasy V" features five player characters, though only up to four are playable at any given time:


title: Final Fantasy V

text: During the story, the player characters encounter many non-player characters. The other Warriors of Dawn, Dorgann Klauser (Bartz's father), Kelger Vlondett, and Xezat Matias Surgate, play important roles. Supporting characters also include engineer Cid Previa, his grandson Mid Previa, and turtle sage Ghido. One of Exdeath's henchmen, Gilgamesh, is a recurring mini-boss in the second half of the game. Gilgamesh has appeared in several "Final Fantasy" titles since.


title: Final Fantasy V

text: Yoshitaka Amano designed concept art for the player characters. He has offered such artwork for every main "Final Fantasy" installment since the original.


title: Final Fantasy V

text: King Tycoon departs to investigate the weakening of the Wind Crystal at the Wind Shrine. Bartz witnesses a meteorite plunge to the planet's surface. He encounters Lenna, King Tycoon's daughter; Galuf, an amnesiac old man; and Faris, a pirate captain. They make their way to the Wind Shrine pursuing Lenna's father. There the shards of the shattered crystal grant them new powers. An image of King Tycoon appears, saying the crystals have chosen the four adventurers as their protectors.


title: Final Fantasy V

text: The party discovers the crystals make their planet habitable and also seal away Exdeath, an evil sorcerer. The party attempts to save the crystals of Water, Fire, and Earth. Each time, they fail but gain new powers from the crystals' shards. Having been freed, Exdeath defeats the party and returns to his homeworld. King Tycoon, who was controlled by Exdeath to destroy the last crystal, sacrifices himself to save the others.


title: Final Fantasy V

text: Galuf's granddaughter Krile arrives by a meteorite, restoring Galuf's memory completely. He recalls he originated from the same world as Exdeath, and resolves to pursue him back home with Krile. Bartz, Lenna and Faris travel with them.


title: Final Fantasy V

text: On Galuf's world, Exdeath is already wreaking havoc in pursuit of that world's crystals. The party wins a victory against Exdeath's lieutenant Gilgamesh, but are blown to a distant continent when a magical barrier is activated during their escape. They deactivate the barrier with help from Galuf's allies. The party then travels to Moore Forest in an attempt to protect the world's crystals there. Exdeath deceives them into destroying the crystals' guardians and takes the crystals for himself. Krile arrives to help but is herself trapped by the warlock's powers. Galuf saves the others from Exdeath at the cost of his own life. His abilities pass to Krile, who joins the party in his place. The party pursues Exdeath to his castle, where they defeat Gilgamesh again and then Exdeath himself. The crystals shatter, reuniting the split worlds.


title: Final Fantasy V

text: For a time, it seems Exdeath has been truly destroyed, and the party celebrates in Tycoon. However, a thorn leaps from Krile's palm, manifesting as Exdeath, now resurrected and fully in command of the Void. With it, he removes entire towns and kingdoms from existence, tossing them into an interdimensional rift.


title: Final Fantasy V

text: The reunification of worlds has opened the pathways to ancient sites where powerful artifacts are hidden. So armed, the party enters the rift. With help from a reformed Gilgamesh, they find Exdeath at the center of the rift seeking the power of the Void. They fight Exdeath, first in his demonic tree form, and then after he transforms into Neo Exdeath, intent on destroying all reality, including himself. The heroes defeat Exdeath and use the crystal shards' power to seal the Void once more and restore the reunified world and its crystals.


title: Final Fantasy V

text: The game's ending varies based on how many party members are still alive at Neo Exdeath's defeat, detailing the events after the world's resurrection. In the end, the remaining group visits Moore Forest and find that the fallen party members have returned to life.


title: Final Fantasy V

text: "Final Fantasy V" was directed by "Final Fantasy" series creator Hironobu Sakaguchi who, prior to the release of "Final Fantasy IX", called it his favorite "Final Fantasy" game. The character, image, and title logo designs were created by series illustrator and image designer Yoshitaka Amano, while the actual character sprites were designed by Kazuko Shibuya. The monsters were designed by Tetsuya Nomura. Amano has stated that he counts his depictions of both Faris from "Final Fantasy V" and Terra from "Final Fantasy VI" among his favorite "Final Fantasy" designs. The writing of the scenario text was a collaborative effort between Sakaguchi and Yoshinori Kitase. Sakaguchi conceived the plot and was in charge of it, while Kitase tried to include more humor to lighten up the relatively serious story. The Job System was designed by Hiroyuki Ito, who worked on the game as a battle planner alongside Akihiko Matsui. Mode 7 effects were used in the airship sequences, which moving in the airship would cause the planet to rotate on its axis. In total, Square employed a team of 45 people to create the game, and 16 Mbits of space were used to accommodate the sprites, animations, and detailed background. According to "GamePro" in a May 1993 issue, the Japanese authorities had asked Square not to release the game during a school day because schoolchildren would skip class to wait in line for the game.


title: Final Fantasy V

text: The official English translation of "Final Fantasy V" began shortly after the release of the Japanese version. The game was to be titled ""Final Fantasy III"" in North America, but the project fell through. Square then announced that due to its differing tone and much higher difficulty from the rest of the series, they would be releasing it in North America as a standalone game with a yet-to-be-determined title, rather than part of the Final Fantasy series. This plan was quickly aborted. Translator Ted Woolsey explained in a 1994 interview, "["Final Fantasy V" is] just not accessible enough to the average gamer". Rumors circulated that a second attempt at localization would be made and that the game would be titled "Final Fantasy Extreme", but this attempt was also canceled. A third attempt was made to port the game to Microsoft Windows-based personal computers for North American release by developer Top Dog Software, but this was canceled. Another attempt to port the game to Windows for North America was "handled by Eidos Interactive" circa 1998 (but it is unclear whether this is the same version Top Dog Software was working on or an actual fourth attempt). The continual canceling of the localization angered fans and led to "Final Fantasy V" becoming one of the first games to receive a complete fan translation.


title: Final Fantasy V

text: The game's soundtrack was composed by Nobuo Uematsu and consists of 56 tracks. A two-disc album was released alongside the game totaling 67 tracks. Uematsu had originally calculated that the game would require more than 100 pieces of music, but he managed to reduce the number to 56. The song "Dear Friends" would become the title piece in the 2004 concert tour "Dear Friends -Music from Final Fantasy-", chosen to reflect Uematsu's appreciation for his music's worldwide fan support. The song "Clash on the Big Bridge" would later be arranged by Hitoshi Sakimoto for the "Final Fantasy XII Original Soundtrack" in 2006.


title: Final Fantasy V

text: The album "Final Fantasy V: 5+1" was released in 1992 and contained five songs from the original score as well as a previously unreleased Super Famicom version of "Matoya's Cave" from the original 1987 "Final Fantasy" for the Nintendo Entertainment System. A collection of arranged tracks, "Final Fantasy V Dear Friends"; a 13-track disc, "Piano Collections Final Fantasy V"; and a short series of remixes, "Final Fantasy V: Mambo de Chocobo", were all released in 1993. Finally, many of the original songs were included on the North American "Final Fantasy Anthology Soundtrack", together with the two-game compilation.


title: Final Fantasy V

text: "Final Fantasy V" was ported by Tose to the Sony PlayStation and re-released in Japan on March 19, 1998; it was included in the 1999 release of "Final Fantasy Collection", alongside "Final Fantasy IV" and "Final Fantasy VI". The PlayStation version boasted two new full motion video opening and ending sequences and a "memo-save" feature, but the game otherwise remained unchanged. Square released 50,000 limited edition copies of the collection which included a "Final Fantasy"-themed alarm clock. In the same year, Square released the PlayStation compilation "Final Fantasy Anthology" in North America, which included "Final Fantasy V", as well as the PlayStation version of "Final Fantasy VI". This would mark the first time the game was published outside Japan, nearly seven years after its initial release. As early as July 1998 there was media coverage of a port to the PC by Square Enix Europe (then Eidos Iteractive) that was never officially released. Screenshots of the cancelled Eidos version include English dialogue that appears to be based on the North American localization that would not be released until September 1999. In 2002, Square released this version of the game in Europe and Australia, this time alongside "Final Fantasy IV". The English version of the game received changes from its original format — most notably, Faris was given a Cornish "pirate" accent and there was a different interpretation of character names, such as the names "Bartz" as opposed to "Butz" and "Gill" as opposed to "Guido", the official romanizations in Japan. On December 18, 2012 the port was re-released as part of the "Final Fantasy 25th Anniversary Ultimate Box" Japanese package.


title: Final Fantasy V

text: Following the release of the PlayStation 2, Sony reported that the new system had compatibility issues with the "Final Fantasy V" half of "Final Fantasy Anthology". The game experienced a bug where if players attempted to save their games, a graphical error would occur. Square then released a statement that only the look of the save screen was corrupted, and saving was still possible, and if players wished, repeatedly going into and out of the save screen would make a normal screen eventually appear. This incompatibility was fixed for the PAL and Greatest Hits releases of "Final Fantasy Anthology".


title: Final Fantasy V

text: "Final Fantasy V" was ported a second time by Tose to the Nintendo Game Boy Advance as "Final Fantasy V Advance", which was released on October 12, 2006, in Japan, November 6, 2006, in North America, and April 20, 2007, in Europe. Similar to the Game Boy Advance re-releases of its predecessors, this version features updated graphics, though the changes are very subtle. Additional features include four new jobs (Gladiator, Cannoneer, Necromancer, and Oracle), a new dungeon called "The Sealed Temple", and a new optional boss from the backstory of "Final Fantasy V", Enuo, which was designed by Tetsuya Nomura, the monster designer of the original game. In addition, the game included a bestiary, a quick save function, music player, and additional equipment in the style of previous Game Boy Advance re-releases. Like the remakes of its predecessors, "Final Fantasy V Advance" featured a new English translation.


title: Final Fantasy V

text: The original version of the game was released on the Virtual Console in Japan in January 2011 for the Wii, in March 2014 for the Wii U and August 2017 for the New 3DS, and the PlayStation version of the game was re-released on the PlayStation Store as a PSOne Classic in Japan on April 6, 2011, in Europe on April 13, 2011 and in North America on November 22, 2011.


title: Final Fantasy V

text: On April 27, 2010, Square Enix producer Shinji Hashimoto stated that the development of a remake of "Final Fantasy V" for the Nintendo DS is at present "undecided" due to "technical issues". However, on June 24, 2010, he added that a remake for the Nintendo 3DS is being considered, but he would first have to "look and see how 3DS does, how it evolves, and then make a decision". In December 2012 Square Enix announced that a remastered version of the game would be released on iOS. The enhanced port, which was developed by Matrix Software, was released on March 28, 2013 on the Apple App Store for iOS devices, with an Android release via the Google Play Store on September 26. The game features new high-resolution graphics with sprites designed by Kazuko Shibuya, who did the original game's artwork, new gameplay features such as movement in eight directions and auto-battle, and contains the Sealed Temple and super-boss Enuo from the Game Boy Advance release. In September 2015 the remaster was released on PC via Steam.


title: Final Fantasy V

text: In 2015, Tetsuya Nomura, director of "Final Fantasy VII Remake", expressed interest in remaking "Final Fantasy V" and "VI". Kitase, who produced "Final Fantasy VII Remake", also expressed a desire to remake "Final Fantasy V" in 2020.


title: Final Fantasy V

text: In 1994, Square released an original video animation sequel to "Final Fantasy V", simply titled "Final Fantasy". Produced by animation studio Madhouse, the anime was released in four 30-minute VHS tapes in Japan and was set two hundred years after the game. The story focuses on four warriors, one of them the descendant of Bartz, protecting the Wind Crystal from the villain Deathgyunos, who pursues it to achieve godhood. It was localized by Urban Vision in 1998 and released in two VHS volumes for North America under the title "Final Fantasy: Legend of the Crystals".


title: Final Fantasy V

text: Within a day of its release in Japan, "Final Fantasy V" sold about 900,000 cartridges for ( at the time, or adjusted for inflation), selling about as many copies as what "Final Fantasy IV" (1991) sold on its first day and close to the sold by "Dragon Quest V" (1992) on its first day. "Final Fantasy V" topped the Japanese sales charts in December 1992 and January 1993, selling 2 million copies during its first two months of release. It was Japan's fourth multi-million seller released in 1992 (following "Street Fighter II", "Super Mario Kart", and "Dragon Quest V"), and ended the year as the second best-selling game of 1992 in Japan (below "Dragon Quest V").


title: Final Fantasy V

text: "Final Fantasy V" went on to sell a total of 2.45 million units for the Super Famicom in Japan. It was also a commercial success overseas in South Korea, where it was the second best-selling game of 1992 (below "Street Fighter II"). The Japanese Game Boy Advance version has also sold nearly 260,000 copies as of December 2007. "Final Fantasy Collection" sold over 400,000 copies in 1999, making it the 31st best selling release of that year in Japan. The North American release of "Final Fantasy Anthology" sold 364,000 copies as of 2004.


title: Final Fantasy V

text: The original Super Famicom version received a positive critical reception upon release, with "Famitsu"s four reviewers scoring it 34 out of 40, and the first "GameFan" Golden Megawards awarding it for Best Import Game and Best Music (Import Game) of 1992. Retrospectively, 1UP's staff stated that, while the game's story was very weak, the gameplay was "another story", heavily praising the job system and the feature to combine abilities from different job classes, and gave it a score of B−. Allgame's retrospective review shared similar sentiments regarding the storyline and job system, adding praise for the addition of hidden events and items for players to search for, giving the game a score of 3.5 out of 5. RPGamer gave it a mixed retrospective review, stating that the game improved on the visual presentation, menu system, and overall field navigation of "Final Fantasy IV", but the "maddeningly high encounter rate", "average sound selection", and "washed out" color palette hurt the game's presentation, giving it a score of 5/10.


title: Final Fantasy V

text: Critics gave generally positive to mixed reviews for the "Anthology" version of the game. GameSpot praised the job system for being "one of the series' most in-depth and detailed game systems," but criticized the game for having "paper-thin characters" and a clichéd plot, augmented by a lack of character development during the game's fetch quests. They went further to say that the translation was poor and overshadowed by the two previous fan efforts. IGN called "Final Fantasy V"<nowiki>'</nowiki>s graphics "dated" but cited "incredibly engrossing" job system as the game's highlight and praised its music. "Electronic Gaming Monthly" repeated the sentiments towards the job system, adding that while the game suffered from long load times periodically, "Final Fantasy V" was the main reason to buy the collection.


title: Final Fantasy V

text: In comparison, reviews of the Game Boy Advance re-release of the game were mostly positive. GameSpot's review regarded the game more favorably than its PlayStation counterpart, calling it "better than ever" and citing the strong localization of the script and extensive special features. They further stated that while the game's characters seemed unlikable and that the plot felt "predictable or trite", they felt the game was still more sophisticated than most games at the time, giving the game a score of 8.5. "Nintendo Power" stated that "while playing "Final Fantasy V" is a chore on the PlayStation, it's good fun on the GBA because of the vastly improved translation and new features", further calling it the "definitive" version of one of the series' best titles. IGN gave the game a score of 8.5, calling it a "must-own" for the portable system and describing it further as always an "entertaining and surprisingly deep role-playing game". 1UP.com stated the port of the game from the Super Famicom to the Game Boy Advance was "rock solid", and added that while the game's story started off at a slow pace, it gradually improved. The review further praised the addition of features and removal of questionable ones that had been added to the "Anthology" version of the game. GameDaily gave the game a score of 7/10, noting that while enjoyable, the high encounter rate, the necessity to constantly engage in battle to gain abilities through the job system, and other aspects made the game feel repetitive at times.


title: FIFA Men's World Ranking

text: The FIFA Men's World Ranking is a ranking system for men's national teams in association football, led by Brazil . The teams of the men's member nations of FIFA, football's world governing body, are ranked based on their game results with the most successful teams being ranked highest. The rankings were introduced in December 1992, and eight teams (Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain) have held the top position, of which Brazil have spent the longest ranked first.


title: FIFA Men's World Ranking

text: A points system is used, with points being awarded based on the results of all FIFA-recognised full international matches. The ranking system has been revamped on several occasions, generally responding to criticism that the preceding calculation method did not effectively reflect the relative strengths of the national teams. Since 16 August 2018, the ranking system has adopted the Elo rating system used in chess and Go.


title: FIFA Men's World Ranking

text: The ranking is sponsored by Coca-Cola; as such, the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking name is also used. Coca-Cola also sponsors the FIFA women's counterpart.


title: FIFA Men's World Ranking

text: In December 1992, FIFA first published a listing in rank order of its men's member associations to provide a basis for comparison of the relative strengths of these teams. From the following August, this list was more frequently updated, to be published most months. Significant changes were implemented in January 1999 and again in July 2006, as a reaction to criticisms of the system. Historical records of the rankings, such as listed at FIFA.com, reflect the method of calculation in use at the time, as the current method has not been applied retrospectively to rankings before July 2006. Membership of FIFA has expanded from 167 to 211 since the rankings began; 211 members are currently included in the rankings. The Cook Islands were temporarily removed from the ranking in the period from September 2019 until February 2022, after not having played any matches between 4 September 2015 until 17 March 2022.


title: FIFA Men's World Ranking

text: The ranking formula used from December 1992 until December 1998, was devised by two Swiss lecturers from University of Zurich (Markus Lamprecht and Dr. Hanspeter Stam). The first formula was the most simple one, compared to later revisions, but it still required complex calculation. The main concept was to award points for matches played between all FIFA-affiliated national A teams, based on their results over the past eight years in FIFA-recognised matches (friendly matches, qualifying and finals matches for the World Cup, and qualifying and final matches for a Continental championship):


title: FIFA Men's World Ranking

text: Results were not included from matches played by the FIFA association's: B teams, C teams, League XI teams, Women, U17, U20, U23 and futsal teams.


title: FIFA Men's World Ranking

text: In example, despite being undefeated for all matches played in 1994, the world ranking of England still dropped seven places from December 1993 to December 1994, because the team only scored points from six lower factored friendly games (as per rule 4). England did not play a single competitive match in 1994, because they had failed to qualify for the 1994 FIFA World Cup and neither played qualifiers for the UEFA Euro 1996 as an automatically qualified host.


title: FIFA Men's World Ranking

text: The calculated results for the rankings published throughout 1992–1998, was at some point of time also rounded to the nearest integer by the official FIFA website, although other websites opted to publish the unrounded points of the ranking.


title: FIFA Men's World Ranking

text: In January 1999, FIFA introduced a revised system of ranking calculation, incorporating many changes in response to criticism of inappropriate rankings. For the ranking all matches, their scores and importance were all recorded, and were used in the calculation procedure. Only matches for the senior men's national team were included. Separate ranking systems were used for other representative national sides such as women's and junior teams, for example the FIFA Women's World Rankings. The women's rankings were, and still are, based on a procedure which is a simplified version of the Football Elo Ratings.


title: FIFA Men's World Ranking

text: A contemporary website, described the 1999-revision of the calculation formula to be something that ""slightly modified and more finely tuned the tried and tested method of calculation"", with the most impactful revisions being that from now on only the seven best matches annually are taken into account (removing the previous advantage of playing additional matches) along with an adjustment of the regional strength factors for confederations and the match importance factors for various competitions.


title: FIFA Men's World Ranking

text: The changes made the ranking system more complex, but helped improve its accuracy by making it more comprehensive.


title: FIFA Men's World Ranking

text: FIFA announced that the ranking system would be updated following the 2006 World Cup. The evaluation period was cut from eight to four years, and a simpler method of calculation was used to determine rankings. Goals scored and home or away advantage were no longer taken into account, and other aspects of the calculations, including the importance attributed to different types of match, were revised. The first set of revised rankings and the calculation methodology were announced on 12 July 2006.


title: FIFA Men's World Ranking

text: This change was rooted at least in part in widespread criticism of the previous ranking system. Many football enthusiasts felt it was inaccurate, especially when compared to other ranking systems and that it was not sufficiently responsive to changes in the performance of individual teams.


title: FIFA Men's World Ranking

text: In September 2017, FIFA announced they were reviewing the ranking system and would decide after the end of the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification whether any changes would be made to improve the ranking. FIFA announced on 10 June 2018 that the ranking system would be updated following the 2018 World Cup finals. The calculation method to be adopted will be closely modelled after the Elo rating system and rankings of its member associations will be updated on a game-by-game basis. The weighting designated for each confederation for ranking purposes will be abolished. However, the new methodology does not account for home or away games and margin of the victory, as Elo rankings.


title: FIFA Men's World Ranking

text: FIFA had intended to introduce the new ranking system in July 2018, but with no matches scheduled between the July and August ranking dates, delayed until August 2018. There was speculation from football journalists such as ESPN's Dale Johnson that this was because projections of the new rankings had seen relatively little change in positions, with Germany – who had been eliminated in the first round of the World Cup – remaining as the top ranked team. FIFA had originally planned to use existing world ranking points from June 2018 as the start value, but when the August rankings appeared, the starting points had been changed to an equal distribution of points between 1600 (Germany, as the previously top ranked team) and 868 (Anguilla, Bahamas, Eritrea, Somalia, Tonga and Turks and Caicos Islands, which had 0 points in June), according to the formula:


title: FIFA Men's World Ranking

text: where R is the rank in June 2018. When two or more teams had equal ranks, the following team received the next immediate rank possible, e.g. if two teams had R=11, the following team had R=12, not 13. Then the rating changes according to the games played after previous release were calculated. This produced a more dramatically altered ranking table, with Germany falling to 15th and 2018 World Cup champions France moving to the top of the ranking.


title: FIFA Men's World Ranking

text: Starting with the April 2021 rankings, the teams' points are now rounded to two decimal points, instead of being rounded to the nearest integer.


title: FIFA Men's World Ranking

text: When the system was introduced, Germany debuted as the top-ranked team following their extended period of dominance in which they had reached the three previous FIFA World Cup finals, winning one of them. Brazil took the lead in the run up to the 1994 FIFA World Cup after winning eight and losing only one of nine qualification matches, while on the way scoring twenty goals and conceding just four. Italy then led for a short time on the back of their own equally successful World Cup qualifying campaign, after which the top place was re-claimed by Germany.


title: FIFA Men's World Ranking

text: Brazil's success in their lengthy qualifying campaign returned them to the lead for a brief period. Germany led again during the 1994 World Cup, until Brazil's victory in that competition gave them a large lead that would stand up for nearly seven years, until they were surpassed by a strong France team that captured both the 1998 FIFA World Cup and the 2000 European Football Championship.


title: FIFA Men's World Ranking

text: Success at the 2002 FIFA World Cup restored Brazil to the top position, where they remained until February 2007, when Italy returned to the top for the first time since 1993 following their 2006 FIFA World Cup win in Germany. Just one month later, Argentina replaced them, reaching the top for the first time, but Italy regained its place in April. After winning the Copa América 2007 in July, Brazil returned to the top, but were replaced by Italy in September and then Argentina in October.


title: FIFA Men's World Ranking

text: In July 2008, Spain took over the lead for the first time, having won UEFA Euro 2008. Brazil began a sixth stint at the top of the rankings in July 2009 after winning the 2009 Confederations Cup, and Spain regained the title in November 2009 after winning every match in qualification for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.


title: FIFA Men's World Ranking

text: In April 2010, Brazil returned to the top of the table. After winning the 2010 World Cup, Spain regained the top position and held it until August 2011, when the Netherlands reached the top spot for the first time, only to relinquish it the following month.


title: FIFA Men's World Ranking

text: In July 2014, Germany took over the lead once again, having won the 2014 FIFA World Cup. In July 2015, Argentina reached the top spot for the first time since 2008, after reaching both the 2014 FIFA World Cup Final, as well as the 2015 Copa America Final. In November 2015, Belgium became the leader in the FIFA rankings for the first time, after topping their Euro 2016 qualifying group. Belgium led the rankings until April 2016, when Argentina returned to the top. On 6 April 2017, Brazil returned to the No. 1 spot for the first time since just before the 2010 World Cup, but Germany regained the top spot in July after winning the Confederations Cup.


title: FIFA Men's World Ranking

text: In the summer of 2018, FIFA updated their rating system by adopting the Elo rating system. The first ranking list with this system, in August 2018, saw France retake the top spot for the first time after nearly 16 years, having won the 2018 FIFA World Cup. One month later, for the first time, two teams were joint leaders as Belgium reached the same ranking as France. This lasted only one month as Belgium regained sole possession of the top spot in September 2018 and kept it for nearly four years until the end of March 2022, with only Brazil and Spain ever holding it longer uninterrupted. On 31 March 2022, Brazil returned to the top of the list.


title: FIFA Men's World Ranking

text: The rankings are used by FIFA to rank the progression and ability of the national football teams of its member nations, and claims that they create "a reliable measure for comparing national A-teams". They are used as part of the calculation, or the entire grounds to seed competitions. In the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification tournament, the rankings were used to seed the groups in the competitions involving CONCACAF members (using the May rankings), CAF (with the July set of data), and UEFA, using the specially postponed November 2007 ranking positions.


title: FIFA Men's World Ranking

text: The March 2011 ranking was used to seed the draw for the 2012 CAF Men's Pre-Olympic Tournament second qualifying round.


title: FIFA Men's World Ranking

text: The rankings are also used to determine the winners of the two annual awards national teams receive on the basis of their performance in the rankings.


title: FIFA Men's World Ranking

text: The (English) Football Association uses the average of the last 24 months of rankings as one of the criteria for player work permits.


title: FIFA Men's World Ranking

text: To determine the seeding of teams in certain instances like FIFA World Cup qualification, FIFA occasionally releases a list of special rankings for a particular confederation to determine the seeding of the teams. For instance, the seeding for the third round draw for AFC qualifiers was based on a special release of the FIFA World Rankings for Asian teams on 18 June 2021.


title: FIFA Men's World Ranking

text: Since their introduction in 1992, the FIFA World Rankings have been the subject of much debate, particularly regarding the calculation procedure and the resulting disparity between generally perceived quality and world ranking of some teams. The perceived flaws in the FIFA system have led to the creation of a number of alternative rankings from football statisticians.


title: FIFA Men's World Ranking

text: The initial system was very simple, with no weighting for the quality of opponent or importance of a match. This saw Norway reach second in October 1993 and July–August 1995, a ranking that was criticised at the time. The rankings were adapted in 1999 to include weightings based on the importance of the match and the strength of the opponent. A win over a weak opponent resulted in fewer points being awarded than a win over a much stronger one. Further adaptations in 2006 were made to reduce the number of years' results considered from 8 to 4, with greater reliance on matches from within the previous 12 months.


title: FIFA Men's World Ranking

text: Still, criticisms of the rankings remained, with particular anomalies being noted including: the United States rise to fourth in 2006, to the surprise of even their own players; Israel's climb to 15th in November 2008, which surprised the Israeli press; and Belgium's rank of world number 1 in November 2015, even though Belgium had only played in one tournament final stage in the past 13 years.


title: FIFA Men's World Ranking

text: Further criticisms of the 2006-2018 formula included the inability of hosts of major tournaments to retain a high place in the rankings, as the team participated in only lower-value friendly matches due to their automatic qualification for the tournament. For example, 2014 FIFA World Cup hosts Brazil fell to a record low ranking of 22nd in the world before that tournament, at which they then finished fourth. 2018 FIFA World Cup hosts Russia had the lowest ranking (70th) at the tournament, where they reached the quarter-finals before bowing out to eventual finalists Croatia on penalties.


title: FIFA Men's World Ranking

text: In the 2010s, teams realised the ranking system could be 'gamed', specifically by avoiding playing non-competitive matches, particularly against weaker opponents. This was because the low weighting of friendlies meant that even victories could reduce a team's "average" score: in other words, a team could win a match and lose points. Before the seeding of the 2018 World Cup preliminary draw, Romania even appointed a ranking consultant, playing only one friendly in the year before the draw. Similar accusations had been made against Switzerland, who were a seeded team at the 2014 FIFA World Cup having played only three friendly matches in the previous year, and Poland before the 2018 FIFA World Cup.


title: FIFA Men's World Ranking

text: The use of regional strength multiplier in the ranking formula before 2018 was also accused of further reinforcing and perpetuating the bias for and against certain regions.


title: FIFA Men's World Ranking

text: On 10 June 2018, the new ranking system was approved by the FIFA Council. It is based on the Elo rating system and after each game points will be added to or subtracted from a team's rating according to the formula:


title: FIFA Men's World Ranking

text: "Team of the Year" is awarded each year to the first ranked team in the December-edition of the FIFA World Ranking. Except in 2000 and 2001, where a different calculation method determined the award instead should be given to: The national team with the highest average points score in their seven best matches of the recent year ended on 31 December.


title: FIFA Men's World Ranking

text: Belgium are the most recent Team of the Year for the fifth time in the 29-year history of the rankings. Brazil hold the records for most consecutive wins (seven, between 1994 and 2000) and most wins overall (twelve). The table shows the three best teams of each year:


title: FIFA Men's World Ranking

text: The Best Mover of the Year is awarded to the team who made the best progress up the rankings over the course of the year. In the FIFA rankings, this is not simply the team that has risen the most places, but a calculation is performed in order to account for the fact that it becomes progressively harder to earn more points the higher up the rankings a team is.


title: FIFA Men's World Ranking

text: The calculation done for the years 1993–2006, the era before the major FIFA World ranking calculation revision in July 2006, is the number of points the team has at the end of the year ("z") multiplied by the number of points it earned during the year ("y"). The team with the highest index on this calculation received the award. The 1993–2006 table shows the top three best movers for each year.


title: FIFA Men's World Ranking

text: In the years from 1993 until 2006, an official "Best Mover Award" was handed over to the coach of the winning national football team at the annual FIFA World Player Gala. For example, the coach of the Slovenia national football team (Srečko Katanec) received this official award at the "FIFA World Player 1999 Awards Gala", with the award granted a few days after the year had ended on 24 January 2000. The award has not been an official part of the annual FIFA awards gala show, The Best FIFA Football Awards, since the show for 2006.


title: FIFA Men's World Ranking

text: While an official award has not been made for national team movements since 2006, FIFA has continued each year to release a list of the 'Best Movers' in the rankings. An example of the informal on-going "Mover of the Year" award is the recognition made by FIFA to Colombia in 2012 in an official press release.


title: FIFA Men's World Ranking

text: After implementation of the major FIFA World ranking calculation revision in July 2006, the calculation methodology to decide the "Mover of the Year" ranking also changed in 2007, to simply the difference between the FIFA world ranking points by the end of the year compared to 12 months earlier. The Best Mover results for all subsequent years are based on the same methodology.


title: Landform

text: A landform is a natural or anthropogenic land feature on the solid surface of the Earth or other planetary body. Landforms together make up a given terrain, and their arrangement in the landscape is known as topography. Landforms include hills, mountains, canyons, and valleys, as well as shoreline features such as bays, peninsulas, and seas, including submerged features such as mid-ocean ridges, volcanoes, and the great ocean basins.


title: Landform

text: Landforms are categorized by characteristic physical attributes such as elevation, slope, orientation, stratification, rock exposure and soil type. Gross physical features or landforms include intuitive elements such as berms, mounds, hills, ridges, cliffs, valleys, rivers, peninsulas, volcanoes, and numerous other structural and size-scaled (e.g. ponds vs. lakes, hills vs. mountains) elements including various kinds of inland and oceanic waterbodies and sub-surface features. Mountains, hills, plateaux, and plains are the four major types of landforms. Minor landforms include buttes, canyons, valleys, and basins. Tectonic plate movement under the Earth can create landforms by pushing up mountains and hills.


title: Landform

text: Oceans and continents exemplify the highest-order landforms. Landform elements are parts of a high-order landforms that can be further identified and systematically given a cohesive definition such as hill-tops, shoulders, saddles, foreslopes and backslopes.


title: Landform

text: Terrain (or "relief") is the third or vertical dimension of "land surface". Topography is the study of terrain, although the word is often used as a synonym for relief itself. When relief is described underwater, the term bathymetry is used. In cartography, many different techniques are used to describe relief, including contour lines and triangulated irregular networks.


title: Landform

text: Elementary landforms (segments, facets, relief units) are the smallest homogeneous divisions of the land surface, at the given scale/resolution. These are areas with relatively homogeneous morphometric properties, bounded by lines of discontinuity. A plateau or a hill can be observed at various scales, ranging from a few hundred meters to hundreds of kilometers. Hence, the spatial distribution of landforms is often scale-dependent, as is the case for soils and geological strata.


title: Landform

text: A number of factors, ranging from plate tectonics to erosion and deposition (also due to human activity), can generate and affect landforms. Biological factors can also influence landforms— for example, note the role of vegetation in the development of dune systems and salt marshes, and the work of corals and algae in the formation of coral reefs.


title: Landform

text: Landforms do not include several man-made features, such as canals, ports and many harbors; and geographic features, such as deserts, forests, and grasslands. Many of the terms are not restricted to refer to features of the planet Earth, and can be used to describe surface features of other planets and similar objects in the Universe. Examples are mountains, hills, polar caps, and valleys, which are found on all of the terrestrial planets.


title: Landform

text: In onomastic terminology, toponyms (geographical proper names) of individual landform objects (mountains, hills, valleys, etc.) are called "oronyms".


title: Landform

text: Landforms may be extracted from a digital elevation model (DEM) using some automated techniques where the data has been gathered by modern satellites and stereoscopic aerial surveillance cameras. Until recently, compiling the data found in such data sets required time consuming and expensive techniques involving many man-hours. The most detailed DEMs available are measured directly using LIDAR techniques.


title: Neffex

text: Neffex (stylized as NEFFEX) is an American music project by Bryce Savage (also known as Brandon Horth) that originally included Cameron Wales. They produced remixes and original songs characterized by a mixture of electronic and rap genres. Before Savage continued the project on his own, he wrote lyrics and sang while Wales created instrumentals and performed editing. They have released many of their songs royalty-free (no-copyright) to assist content creators.


title: Neffex

text: Savage and Wales first met in high school when they were 15 years old. At that time, they were involved in a punk rock band. Thereafter, both exited the band and started making their own music. However, this was not yet the creation of Neffex. After high school, Wales moved to Los Angeles and got distant from Savage during college. When Savage was in the last year of college, he talked to Wales and they noticed both were making music in their free time. After college, they got together again, in Orange County, and created the name "NEFFEX" and the fox symbol.On his YouTube channel Savage exclaimed that the fox symbol was not the original intention, instead, he wanted to make something that was easy to replicate similar to the infamous "cool S" style, hence why it consists of three triangles.


title: Neffex

text: In 2017, the duo set up a challenge for releasing 100 songs in 100 weeks. All songs released for this challenge are royalty-free.


title: Neffex

text: On October 16, 2019, they released their first EP titled "Q203", named after the apartment where they recorded their first songs. The album has six songs: When I Was Young, Without You, It's My Life, Sunday, Primal, and Want Me.


title: Neffex

text: On September 25, 2020, they released their debut album titled "New Beginnings" featuring ROZES, Jez Dior, and MASN. The album has 16 songs: Sometimes, Be Somebody, New Beginnings, Scars, I've been Let Down, Hell Won't Take Me, I Wanna Play A Game, Don't Hate Me, Mind Reader, Unavailable, When It Flows, WOW!, Worst of You, Closer to Heaven, Space, and I'll Be Fine.


title: Neffex

text: On July 6, 2021, they mutually decided to part ways and each one focus on solo projects and Wales left NEFFEX.


title: Neffex

text: On July 7, 2021, Savage set up a challenge for releasing 100 songs in 100 weeks again and same as before, all songs released for this challenge are royalty-free.


title: Vic Mensa

text: Victor Kwesi Mensah (born June 6, 1993), known professionally as Vic Mensa, is an American rapper and singer. He was a member of the group Kids These Days, which broke up in May 2013, after which he released his debut solo mixtape "Innanetape". He is currently signed to Roc Nation.


title: Vic Mensa

text: Mensa is also a founder of the hip-hop collective Savemoney which includes frequent collaborator Chance the Rapper. He also is the founder of the SavemoneySavelife foundation, whose mission is to use art and entertainment to foster sustainable change, and funds three programs in Chicago centered on health and the arts. Mensa's debut single "Down on My Luck" was released in June 2014 by Virgin EMI. His debut studio album "The Autobiography" was released in July 2017.


title: Vic Mensa

text: Victor Kwesi Mensah was born on June 6, 1993. His father is from Ghana and his mother is a white American. Mensa grew up in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago. He attended Whitney M. Young Magnet High School and while a freshman, met Chancelor Bennett in passing (Bennett would later be known as Chance the Rapper).


title: Vic Mensa

text: Mensa began his career when he formed a band called Kids These Days in 2009. The band would eventually release two projects, an extended play titled "Hard Times" in 2011, and a mixtape titled "Traphouse Rock" in 2012.


title: Vic Mensa

text: Following the band's split up in May 2013, Mensa performed with Gorillaz frontman Damon Albarn at Albarn's 2014 performance at the Governors Ball Music Festival, where he performed the track "Clint Eastwood", filling in for MC Del the Funky Homosapien. When announcing a tour for 2015, Mensa said that he has plans to collaborate with Albarn sometime in the near future.


title: Vic Mensa

text: On September 18, 2013, it was announced, that Mensa would be joining J. Cole and Wale on the What Dreams May Come Tour. Mensa would eventually release his debut mixtape, "Innanetape", which was released on September 30, 2013.


title: Vic Mensa

text: Following the end of the What Dreams May Come Tour, he toured Europe with Danny Brown, for the beginning of February 21, 2014 and ending on March 8. To cap off his rise to stardom, Mensa was chosen to be on the cover of "XXL" for the Freshman Class of 2014. Mensa's debut single "Down on My Luck" was serviced to urban contemporary radio in the United Kingdom on May 12, 2014. On the same day, the music video for the song was released. "Down on My Luck" was then released for digital download in international markets on June 6, 2014, by Virgin EMI Records.


title: Vic Mensa

text: On February 12, 2015, Kanye West debuted a song, titled "Wolves" at his Adidas Originals showcase. The song featured Mensa himself, along with Sia. Mensa later performed "Wolves" alongside West and Sia on Saturday Night Live's 40th Anniversary Celebration three days later. Mensa would later release an official collaboration with Kanye West, titled "U Mad" on April 10. Eleven days later, Roc Nation announced that Vic had signed to its label, and a video of Mensa signing the deal alongside Jay-Z backstage at his On the Run Tour in Chicago was released on Tidal. Later on in 2015, Mensa received a nomination for Best Rap Song at the 58th Grammy Awards as a songwriter for co-writing Kanye West's single "All Day".


title: Vic Mensa

text: On February 8, 2016, it was announced that Mensa, along with Travis Scott and iLoveMakonnen, will be a part of Alexander Wang's "WANGSQUAD" campaign. On February 19, Mensa released a single, titled "No Chill" onto iTunes with Skrillex. It was produced by Skrillex and Jahlil Beats. Mensa's collaboration on Kanye West's "Wolves", would eventuality be released after West updated the album's Tidal track list off his seventh studio album "The Life of Pablo" with a reworked version of "Wolves", which included previously removed guest vocals from Mensa and Sia, and separated Frank Ocean vocals into a separate track on March 16, 2016.


title: Vic Mensa

text: On June 3, 2016, Vic Mensa released his second extended play titled, "There's Alot Going On". With only one guest feature from Ty Dolla Sign, the EP tackled issues such as the Flint water crisis, the murder of Laquan McDonald, and self-inflicted wounds. Mensa's EP debuted at number 127 on the US "Billboard 200" chart.


title: Vic Mensa

text: He and his friends were stopped by police for assumed stealing after his spending spree at Barney's of $4,000. He has performed as the opening act during Justin Bieber's Purpose World Tour in Europe.


title: Vic Mensa

text: Leading up to the release of Mensa's debut studio album, he released his third extended play, "The Manuscript" on June 8, 2017. Three days later, Mensa announced and revealed the album's title of his debut studio album titled, "The Autobiography". Mensa would release the lead single titled, "Wings" featuring Pharrell Williams and Saul Williams on July 13. "The Autobiography" was released on July 28, 2017, through Roc Nation. The album featured guest appearances from Weezer, Syd, The-Dream, Chief Keef, Joey Purp, Pharrell Williams, Saul Williams, Ty Dolla Sign, and Pusha T. The album debuted at number 27 on the US "Billboard 200" chart with first-week sales of 15,000 copies first week.


title: Vic Mensa

text: Mensa later went on and released his fourth extended play titled, "Hooligans" on December 14, 2018. The extended play was supported by the singles: "Reverse" featuring G-Eazy and "Dark Things".


title: Vic Mensa

text: In January 2019, Mensa formed a punk rock and rap band named 93Punx, they later released a cover of The Cranberries song "Zombie". 93Punx later released their debut single, "Camp America", featuring children in cages in an ICE-inspired video. The singles "3 Years Sober" with Travis Barker and "It's a Bad Dream" featuring Good Charlotte was followed up and released in July and August 2019 respectively. Their self-titled album was released on August 23, 2019.


title: Vic Mensa

text: Mensa returned in August 2020 with his first single of the year, "No More Teardrops", featuring Malik Yusef and Wyatt Waddell, a song tackling police brutality, street crime, corruption and the prison system. The song appeared on Roc Nation's compilation album, "Reprise". Mensa would later release his fifth extended play, "V Tape", on August 21, 2020 which features from Snoh Alaegra, SAINt JHN, BJ Chicago Kid, Peter Cottontale and Eryn Allen Kane.


title: Vic Mensa

text: Also in 2020, Mensa would take a leap into acting in the TIFF film Akilla's Escape, in which he played the character Prince. The film would go on to be nominated for 8 Canadian Screen Awards subsequently winning 5 of them, including Best Original Screenplay


title: Vic Mensa

text: On March 26, 2021, Mensa put out the album I Tape, again under Roc Nation. The album further explored the themes of the American Dream that riddled his prior works, discussing the shattering of expectations brought on by the reality of systematic abuse. The album quickly garnered commendation from rap news outlets for its unabashed condemnation and meditation on racial injustice in America and its message of prison reform. With tracks featuring Chance The Rapper and Wyclef Jean, the album saw a good wave of popularity in the underground scene, and signaled a return to form for the rapper from a critical standpoint.


title: Vic Mensa

text: Off the heels of I TAPE's praise, he would go on to release the 4 song EP Vino Valentino on Valentine's day 2022.


title: Vic Mensa

text: In October 2018, as part of his BET Hip Hop Awards Cypher, Mensa dissed late rapper XXXTentacion, referencing his domestic abuse charges and mocking his murder. Subsequently, he received backlash on social media as well as from other artists. Additionally, Vic Mensa was criticized as hypocritical by radio host Charlamagne tha God, as Mensa had previously admitted to choking a woman. Mensa later apologized on Instagram for dissing XXXTentacion in front of his mother, but stood by the lyrics, saying: "Recently, I did a freestyle for the BET [Hip Hop] Awards cypher addressing and condemning rappers who unabashedly abuse women and those who stand up for them and even call them legends, I stand behind those statements. It was pre-recorded weeks ago, and I had no idea a grieving mother would be in the audience to honour her lost son. I never intended to disrespect her, and I offer my deepest condolences for her loss at the hands of gun violence. However, I vehemently reject the trend in Hip Hop of championing abusers, and I will not hold my tongue about it. I don’t give a fuck about getting attention. I care about bringing awareness and holding people accountable for their actions".


title: Vic Mensa

text: On January 15, 2022, Mensah was arrested at the Washington Dulles International Airport by the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority Police after U.S. Customs and Border Protection discovered a cache of drugs including LSD and psilocybin mushrooms, capsules and gummies. He was charged with felony narcotics possession charges.


title: Vic Mensa

text: In interviews with "XXL" and "Complex", Mensa cited hip hop artists such as Jay-Z, Kanye West, Earl Sweatshirt, A Tribe Called Quest, Timbaland, Eminem, Biggie Smalls, Missy Elliott, Lupe Fiasco, UGK, J Dilla, The Pharcyde, DMX, Nas, 2Pac, Hieroglyphics, De La Soul, Wu-Tang Clan, Lil Wayne, Kid Rock, and Snoop Dogg as musical influences. In 2013, "XXL" called his breakthrough mixtape "Innanetape" "lyrical nourishment" and commented on his ability to "bend words at will, cramming syllables into lines with obvious glee."


title: StarCraft (video game)

text: StarCraft is a 1998 military science fiction real-time strategy game developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment for Microsoft Windows. The game spawned the "StarCraft" franchise, and became the first game of the video game series. A Classic Mac OS version was released in 1999, and a Nintendo 64 adaptation, co-developed with Mass Media, was released in 2000.


title: StarCraft (video game)

text: Blizzard started work on the game shortly after "", another real-time strategy game, was released in 1995. The first incarnation debuted at the 1996 Electronic Entertainment Expo, where it was unfavorably compared to "Warcraft II". As a result, the project was entirely overhauled before being showcased to the public in early 1997, at which time it received a far more positive response. The game's multiplayer is particularly popular in South Korea, where players and teams participate in , earn sponsorships, and compete in televised tournaments.


title: StarCraft (video game)

text: Set in a fictitious future timeline during the 25th century AD in a distant part of the Milky Way galaxy known as the Koprulu Sector, the game revolves around three intelligent species fighting for dominance: the Terrans are humans exiled from Earth who are now skilled at adapting to any situation; the Zerg are a race of insectoid aliens in pursuit of genetic perfection and obsessed with assimilating other races; the Protoss are a humanoid species with advanced technology and psionic abilities who are attempting to preserve their civilization and strict philosophy about their way of life from the Zerg.


title: StarCraft (video game)

text: Many journalists of the video game industry have praised "StarCraft" as one of the most important, and one of the greatest video games of all time. The game is also said to have raised the bar for developing real-time strategy (RTS) games. With more than 11 million copies sold worldwide by February 2009, "StarCraft" became one of the best-selling games for the personal computer. It has been praised for pioneering the use of unique "factions" in RTS gameplay, and for having a compelling story.


title: StarCraft (video game)

text: "StarCraft" has had its storyline adapted and expanded through a series of novels published between 2000 and 2016, the expansion pack "", and two officially authorized add-ons, and "Retribution". A sequel, "", was released in July 2010, along with two expansion packs and a campaign pack between 2013 and 2016, while of the original and its expansion pack was released in August 2017. The original game, along with the expansion, was released for free in April 2017.


title: StarCraft (video game)

text: Blizzard Entertainment's use of three distinct races in "StarCraft" is widely credited with revolutionizing the real-time strategy genre. All units are unique to their respective races, and while rough comparisons can be drawn between certain types of units in the technology tree, every unit performs differently and requires different tactics for a player to succeed.


title: StarCraft (video game)

text: The psionic and technologically adept Protoss have access to powerful units and machinery and advanced technologies such as energy shields and localized warp capabilities, powered by their psionic traits. However, their forces have lengthy and expensive manufacturing processes, encouraging players to follow a strategy of the quality of their units over the quantity. The insectoid Zerg possess entirely organic units and structures, which can be produced quickly and at a far cheaper cost to resources, but are accordingly weaker, relying on sheer numbers and speed to overwhelm enemies. The humanoid Terrans provide a middle ground between the other two races, providing units that are versatile and flexible. They have access to a range of more ballistic military technologies and machinery, such as tanks and nuclear weapons.


title: StarCraft (video game)

text: Although each race is unique in its composition, no race has an innate advantage over the other. Each species is balanced out so that while they have different strengths, powers, and abilities, their overall strength is the same.


title: StarCraft (video game)

text: "StarCraft" features artificial intelligence that scales in difficulty, although the player cannot change the difficulty level in the single-player campaigns. Each campaign starts with enemy factions running easy AI modes, scaling through the course of the campaign to the hardest AI modes. In the level editor provided with the game, a designer has access to four levels of AI difficulties: "easy", "medium", "hard", and "insane", each setting differing in the units and technologies allowed to an AI faction and the extent of the AI's tactical and strategic planning. The single-player campaign consists of thirty missions, split into ten for each race.


title: StarCraft (video game)

text: Each race relies on two resources to sustain their game economies and to build their forces: minerals and vespene gas. Minerals are needed for all units and structures, and they are obtained by using a worker unit to harvest the resource directly from mineral nodes scattered around the battlefield. Players require vespene gas to construct advanced units and buildings, and they acquire it by constructing a gas extraction building on top of a geyser and using worker units to extract the gas from it. In addition, players need to regulate the supplies for their forces to ensure that they can construct the number of units they need. Although the nature of the supply differs between the races—Terrans use physical supplies held in depots, Protoss use psionic energy channeled from their homeworld via pylons, and Zerg are regulated by the number of controlling overlord units present—the supply mechanic essentially works in exactly the same way for each race (just with differing impacts on gameplay), allowing players to create new units when there are sufficient resources to sustain them.


title: StarCraft (video game)

text: Protoss and Zerg building construction is limited to specific locations: Protoss buildings need to be linked to a power grid, while almost every Zerg structure must be placed on a carpet of biomass, called "creep", that is produced by certain structures. Terran buildings are far less limited, with certain primary base structures possessing the ability to take off and fly slowly to a new location. Terran buildings, however, require the worker unit to continue construction on the building until it is completed. Also, once a Terran building has taken a certain amount of damage, it will catch fire and can eventually burn to the ground without further enemy action if repairs are not performed by a worker unit. The Protoss, by contrast, only require a worker unit to begin the process of transporting a building to the theater of operations via warp, and their buildings' shields (but not their structure) are regenerative. The Zerg worker unit physically transforms into the structure created, which is capable of slowly healing itself.


title: StarCraft (video game)

text: Multiplayer on "StarCraft" is powered through Blizzard Entertainment's Battle.net Internet service. Through this, a maximum of eight players can compete in a variety of game modes, including simply destroying all other players (which may be competitive, as in Ladder play, or non-ranked, as in melee play), to king of the hill and capture the flag objective-based games. In addition, the game incorporates a variety of specialized scenarios for different types of game, such as simulating a football game, using the Terran hoverbike unit to conduct a bike race, or hosting a Zerg hunting competition. "StarCraft" is also one of the few games that include a spawn installation, which allows for limited multiplayer. It must be installed from a disc, and requires a product key to work just as the full version does. However, one product key can support up to eight spawned installations with access to Battle.net. Limitations of a spawned installation include the inability to play single-player missions, create multiplayer games, or use the campaign editor. Newer releases of the game available through Battle.net or discs that include the Windows Vista label don't support the spawn installation.


title: StarCraft (video game)

text: "StarCraft" takes place in a science fiction universe created by Chris Metzen and James Phinney for Blizzard Entertainment. According to the story presented in the game's manual, the overpopulation of Earth in the early 24th century has caused the international governing body, known as United Powers League (which was later succeeded by United Earth Directorate), to exile certain members of the human race, such as criminals, the cybernetically enhanced, and genetic mutants, to colonize the far reaches of the galaxy. An attempt to colonize a nearby solar system goes wrong, resulting in humanity's arrival in the Koprulu Sector. In the distant Koprulu Sector of the galaxy, the exiles form several governments, but quickly fall into conflict with each other. One government, the Confederacy of Man, eventually emerges as the strongest faction, but its oppressive nature and brutal methods of suppressing dissidents stir up major rebel opposition in the form of a terrorist group called the Sons of Korhal. Just prior to the beginning of the game, in December 2499, an alien race possessing advanced technology and psionic power, the Protoss, makes first contact with humanity by destroying a Confederate colony world without any prior warning. Soon after this, the Terrans discover that a second alien race, the insectoid Zerg, has been stealthily infesting the surface of several of the Terran colonies, and that the Protoss are destroying the planets to prevent the Zerg from spreading. With the Confederacy threatened by two alien races and internal rebellion, it begins to crumble.