Flight Rising is a browser-based virtual pet game. Users can breed, fight, and decorate their own elemental clan of dragons. There are also collectables and mini games to participate in. Due to the strain on the site’s servers, Flight Rising has registration windows during which new users may join. The game is run by independent developer Stormlight Workshop, LLC.
History
The concept for Flight Rising started to develop in 2005 when codesmith Darren Hill and artist Jessica Peffer began collaborating. After eight years and the addition of illustrator Dana Pull and programmer Brandon Williamson to the team the game was beta tested. Flight Rising launched a Kickstarter campaign on March 9, 2013 to upgrade their servers in order to support hundreds of users online at the same time. As of March 2014, the site had an estimated 40,000 users. Users can breed any two dragons in their clan as long as they are a male and female pair, have the energy to breed, and are not related within five generations. Genes are passed from the parents to the offspring, allowing for different combinations of colors and traits.
The two main currencies of Flight Rising are treasure and gems. Treasure is earned through exalting or selling dragons, selling items, bonding with familiars, opening chests, and playing mini games.<ref namesiteoverview /><ref nameAequorin /> Users may also get treasure from answering trivia in Tomo’s Trivia Tablet and collecting specific items for Crim’s Collection Cart, both of which are found on the Trading Post page. Treasure is used to buy more slots for the number of dragons allowed in a player’s clan, more nests for breeding, and items in either the Marketplace or Auction House. Gems are a premium currency and can be gained through chests, selling items or dragons in the Auction House, and participation in contests. However, unlike treasure, they may also be bought with real-world money through Paypal. Gems are used to purchase more exclusive items in the Marketplace such as skins and accents to decorate dragons, change username or flight, and any gem-specific items in the Auction House.<ref name=Aequorin />
History
The concept for Flight Rising started to develop in 2005 when codesmith Darren Hill and artist Jessica Peffer began collaborating. After eight years and the addition of illustrator Dana Pull and programmer Brandon Williamson to the team the game was beta tested. Flight Rising launched a Kickstarter campaign on March 9, 2013 to upgrade their servers in order to support hundreds of users online at the same time. As of March 2014, the site had an estimated 40,000 users. Users can breed any two dragons in their clan as long as they are a male and female pair, have the energy to breed, and are not related within five generations. Genes are passed from the parents to the offspring, allowing for different combinations of colors and traits.
The two main currencies of Flight Rising are treasure and gems. Treasure is earned through exalting or selling dragons, selling items, bonding with familiars, opening chests, and playing mini games.<ref namesiteoverview /><ref nameAequorin /> Users may also get treasure from answering trivia in Tomo’s Trivia Tablet and collecting specific items for Crim’s Collection Cart, both of which are found on the Trading Post page. Treasure is used to buy more slots for the number of dragons allowed in a player’s clan, more nests for breeding, and items in either the Marketplace or Auction House. Gems are a premium currency and can be gained through chests, selling items or dragons in the Auction House, and participation in contests. However, unlike treasure, they may also be bought with real-world money through Paypal. Gems are used to purchase more exclusive items in the Marketplace such as skins and accents to decorate dragons, change username or flight, and any gem-specific items in the Auction House.<ref name=Aequorin />
The Americas Champions League is a proposed association football club competition for the Americas.
In August 2015, president of media rights company MP & Silva, Riccardo Silva, announced he was looking to create a 64-team competition with a minimum of US $5 million prize money for each entrant and a prize fund of US $30 million for the winning team.
In September 2015, it was reported that staff previously affiliated with Bloomberg Sports, National Football League, and Soccer United Marketing had been appointed to plan the competition.
Concept
By bringing together the best athletes, passionate fans, global broadcasting, state of the art venues and authentic meaningful competition, Americas Champions League will be the longstanding solution to a desire for the highest level of competitive club football across the Americas. ACL's concept was built to benefit the clubs and fans with elite-level authentic competition, global awareness and full transparency.
All competition rules, commercial and broadcast revenues, and allocation procedures will be made public, and will be governed by an independent ACL governing body. This governing body will includean Advisory Board consisting of respected leaders in sports, law and business from throughout the Americas, led by Paul Tagliabue.
Americas Champions League will be played by the 64 best football clubs from South America, North America, Central America and Caribbean playing a knockout format. The qualifying criteria should be similar to UEFA Champions League, where the best of each country’s league and domestic cup winners to qualify in accordance with country market size.
ACL organizers want to finalize the competition format in collaboration with the clubs, leagues and federations. In the original proposal the Americas Champions League matches should take place on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and should run from February to November, taking into account all domestic and Fifa match dates and considering all operational and sporting factors.
Format
The Americas Champions will be a 64-team annual tournament featuring the best clubs of the Americas. There is no timetable for the tournament to begin. However MP & Silva has already met with, and received pledges from many of clubs in Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Mexico and North America.
The tournament will have 11 rounds and 1 final, played in a different city every year, like the NFL's Super Bowl. It will feature an exciting knock-out format consisting of 2-leg home-and-away series (mata-mata) and one-game final in an iconic stadium. 50% of the field will play only 2 games earning $5 million in prize money, and 75% of the field will play only 4 games earning $6 million in prize money.
MP & Silva's role
Americas Champions League was created by MP & Silva, the world’s leading sports international media rights company specializing in the management and distribution of world-class sporting events, as well as offering media production and sponsorship activation and consultancy. The MP & Silva rights portfolio covers some of the most iconic sports properties in the world, including Europe’s top football leagues (English Premier League, Serie A, Bundesliga, Ligue 1 and more), Grand Slam tennis, F1 motor racing, NBA, and NFL.
MP & Silva has assembled a world-class executive team with vast knowledge of sports and specifically the football markets throughout the Americas.
Controversies
Some news articles claimed that the creation of the Americas Champions League would force the dissolution of Copa Libertadores. This assumption was denied by Riccardo Silva in different interviews in Latin America. He stated that ACL organizers are working under the premises and the desire that Copa Libertadores will remain. It is a very traditional competition in South America and there is no reason for it to disappear. Although the football calendar in South America is very busy, they are proposing dates for the Americas Champions League matches, without conflicting with Libertadores and with no other competition.
Another controversy around the Americas Champions League is the distance and travelling time. However, travel and distances are always a concern in every competition. This is already a challenge seen in the United States and Canada for league play (MLS, NFL, NHL etc). It is the same in South America for Copa Libertadores, when Mexican teams need to play in Buenos Aires. The same also happens in Europe when Portuguese teams need to play in Kazakhstan for UEFA Champions League. This issue will certainly be addressed through careful, analytical planning and scheduling.
In August 2015, president of media rights company MP & Silva, Riccardo Silva, announced he was looking to create a 64-team competition with a minimum of US $5 million prize money for each entrant and a prize fund of US $30 million for the winning team.
In September 2015, it was reported that staff previously affiliated with Bloomberg Sports, National Football League, and Soccer United Marketing had been appointed to plan the competition.
Concept
By bringing together the best athletes, passionate fans, global broadcasting, state of the art venues and authentic meaningful competition, Americas Champions League will be the longstanding solution to a desire for the highest level of competitive club football across the Americas. ACL's concept was built to benefit the clubs and fans with elite-level authentic competition, global awareness and full transparency.
All competition rules, commercial and broadcast revenues, and allocation procedures will be made public, and will be governed by an independent ACL governing body. This governing body will includean Advisory Board consisting of respected leaders in sports, law and business from throughout the Americas, led by Paul Tagliabue.
Americas Champions League will be played by the 64 best football clubs from South America, North America, Central America and Caribbean playing a knockout format. The qualifying criteria should be similar to UEFA Champions League, where the best of each country’s league and domestic cup winners to qualify in accordance with country market size.
ACL organizers want to finalize the competition format in collaboration with the clubs, leagues and federations. In the original proposal the Americas Champions League matches should take place on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and should run from February to November, taking into account all domestic and Fifa match dates and considering all operational and sporting factors.
Format
The Americas Champions will be a 64-team annual tournament featuring the best clubs of the Americas. There is no timetable for the tournament to begin. However MP & Silva has already met with, and received pledges from many of clubs in Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Mexico and North America.
The tournament will have 11 rounds and 1 final, played in a different city every year, like the NFL's Super Bowl. It will feature an exciting knock-out format consisting of 2-leg home-and-away series (mata-mata) and one-game final in an iconic stadium. 50% of the field will play only 2 games earning $5 million in prize money, and 75% of the field will play only 4 games earning $6 million in prize money.
MP & Silva's role
Americas Champions League was created by MP & Silva, the world’s leading sports international media rights company specializing in the management and distribution of world-class sporting events, as well as offering media production and sponsorship activation and consultancy. The MP & Silva rights portfolio covers some of the most iconic sports properties in the world, including Europe’s top football leagues (English Premier League, Serie A, Bundesliga, Ligue 1 and more), Grand Slam tennis, F1 motor racing, NBA, and NFL.
MP & Silva has assembled a world-class executive team with vast knowledge of sports and specifically the football markets throughout the Americas.
Controversies
Some news articles claimed that the creation of the Americas Champions League would force the dissolution of Copa Libertadores. This assumption was denied by Riccardo Silva in different interviews in Latin America. He stated that ACL organizers are working under the premises and the desire that Copa Libertadores will remain. It is a very traditional competition in South America and there is no reason for it to disappear. Although the football calendar in South America is very busy, they are proposing dates for the Americas Champions League matches, without conflicting with Libertadores and with no other competition.
Another controversy around the Americas Champions League is the distance and travelling time. However, travel and distances are always a concern in every competition. This is already a challenge seen in the United States and Canada for league play (MLS, NFL, NHL etc). It is the same in South America for Copa Libertadores, when Mexican teams need to play in Buenos Aires. The same also happens in Europe when Portuguese teams need to play in Kazakhstan for UEFA Champions League. This issue will certainly be addressed through careful, analytical planning and scheduling.
TTh (or sometimes TTH or T-TH) is used as an unofficial short-hand for «Tuesdays & Thursdays» in school schedules. It is used by schools on all levels when discussing and creating schedules, but is more common on the high school and college levels where students do not have the same schedule every day. It is used when columns need to be very narrow on scheduling tables and the comma plus extra space will create an unintended new row or other unwanted formatting issues.
In many colleges in the US the standard three credit semester course meets either on Monday, Wednesday and Friday or on Tuesday and Thursday. The former often is written in schedule bulletins as simply MWF, the latter TTh. The version with a hyphen (T-TH) can be confusing as the hyphen means inclusive whereas a comma creates a list. For example, M-F means Monday thru Friday, but T, TH means Tuesday & Thursday only.
In many colleges in the US the standard three credit semester course meets either on Monday, Wednesday and Friday or on Tuesday and Thursday. The former often is written in schedule bulletins as simply MWF, the latter TTh. The version with a hyphen (T-TH) can be confusing as the hyphen means inclusive whereas a comma creates a list. For example, M-F means Monday thru Friday, but T, TH means Tuesday & Thursday only.
Channel value proposition is a business model used by suppliers to attract members of its channel. This is made up of many elements, depending upon the sophistication of the supplier and channel members, and the intensity of competition for share of the channel. According to Julian Dent in his book "Distribution Channels", the most important elements are:
1) Growth - emphasizing the level of demand for the supplier's products or services and the investment it will make in stimulating demand.
2) Profitability - showing the margins, contributions, utilisation of overheads and net profitability that selling the supplier's products or services will deliver to the channel member. This can be augmented by special funding and other payments made by the supplier for activities carried out by the channel member (putting items on display or emphasizing them in marketing materials, etc.) or for performance (achieving volume thresholds, reaching a specific segment of the market, etc.)
3) Return on capital - demonstrating the productivity of the channel member's investments in inventory, working capital or fixed assets will be improved by engaging with the supplier. For example, a fast turning product will accelerate the channel member's inventory turns, increasing the productivity of its warehouse, shelf space or website.
4) Brand - showing how the association with the supplier will empower the channel member's own brand, or allow it to "borrow" or leverage the supplier's brand. For example, often seen when small dealers and retailers post "authorized reseller" or similar badges on their letterhead and premises to demonstrate credibility to the end customer.
Skilled suppliers research their channel members' needs to ensure that they tune their channel value proposition to these needs to gain more traction in winning share of the channel and to minimize the cost of so doing.
1) Growth - emphasizing the level of demand for the supplier's products or services and the investment it will make in stimulating demand.
2) Profitability - showing the margins, contributions, utilisation of overheads and net profitability that selling the supplier's products or services will deliver to the channel member. This can be augmented by special funding and other payments made by the supplier for activities carried out by the channel member (putting items on display or emphasizing them in marketing materials, etc.) or for performance (achieving volume thresholds, reaching a specific segment of the market, etc.)
3) Return on capital - demonstrating the productivity of the channel member's investments in inventory, working capital or fixed assets will be improved by engaging with the supplier. For example, a fast turning product will accelerate the channel member's inventory turns, increasing the productivity of its warehouse, shelf space or website.
4) Brand - showing how the association with the supplier will empower the channel member's own brand, or allow it to "borrow" or leverage the supplier's brand. For example, often seen when small dealers and retailers post "authorized reseller" or similar badges on their letterhead and premises to demonstrate credibility to the end customer.
Skilled suppliers research their channel members' needs to ensure that they tune their channel value proposition to these needs to gain more traction in winning share of the channel and to minimize the cost of so doing.