Culture & Sports

Deadspin’s Takeover on Twitter: What Was the Point?

There’s no denying that Gawker Media has a certain edginess that draws readers in like addicts.

As one of the leading click bait sites, Gawker does a lot of things to give it that reputation: they swear in articles (gasp), they rally against the status quo when others back down, they write lists about everything from Lost characters to pie. They even split fans of America’s pastime and wreaked havoc with the whole Baseball Hall of Fame earlier this year when they bought a vote from ESPN’s Dan LeBatard. They are not strangers to controversy, and people either adore or hate them for it.

Having earned such a strong following (47 million monthly users in the U.S. alone) and extreme levels of engagement, it’s easy to picture some marketing teams spending countless hours stressing over how to tap into that sassy, no bullshit, screw societal norms attitude.

The Atlanta Hawks decided to just eliminate the middle man.

Deadspin’s Drew Magary tries to rebrand the Atlanta Hawks as the “Death Hawks” on their official Twitter account.

Earlier today, the team decided to hand over their Twitter feed to Deadspin (Gawker’s sports site) writer Drew Magary (as well as allowing him to sing both the Canadian and American national anthems before the Hawks game against the Toronto Raptors).

Magary brought his usual balance of wit and astute observational skills to the feed, evidenced by his repeated attempts to make “CAW” the team’s new slogan, as well as his insistence on rebranding the team as the “Death Hawks.”

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Trailblazing Goalie Shannon Szabados Draws Support Across Social Media

Published on Elle Beaver – March 11, 2014

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It’s been a busy couple weeks for Shannon Szabados.

Just over two weeks ago, the 27 year-old was laying at centre ice of the Bolshoy Ice Dome in Sochi with a gold medal around her neck and her 20 teammates standing behind heras Szabados celebrated a second straight Olympic gold medal win.

On Wednesday, Szabados accomplished another remarkable feat: suiting up with the NHL’s Edmonton Oilers for a morning practice. Just two days later, Szabados joined a short list of women who have signed contracts to play for a professional men’s league when she joined the Columbus Cottonmouths of the Southern Professional Hockey League.

Despite the impressive achievement of practicing with the Oilers, it wasn’t quite what some fans wanted. The previous night, users took to Twitter with the hashtag #SzabadosForBackup as they crossed their fingers to witness history. Earlier in the day, the Oilers traded away their backup goalie Ilya Bryzgalov and in turn brought in another goalie, Viktor Fasth, in a separate trade. The problem staring down the Oilers was a big one: with a game the same night that the trade happened, they were without a backup goalie.

Surprisingly, this conflict happens more than expected. Due to a rule in effect from 1966, the NHL requires teams to have two goalies dressed for each game. In the past website producers, beer league veterans, and local hockey coaches have all gotten frantic calls to dress as an emergency backup.

Edmonton’s situation was more unique: they had (a bit) more time to organize a backup goalie, and the city is heavily ingrained into the history of hockey and has a wealth of local talent. Szabados, a native of Edmonton and current starting goalie for the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology men’s hockey team, was a serious contender. Had she got the call, she would have been the first female to dress for a regular season NHL game.

Ultimately, the Oilers dressed Kurtis Mucha, the starting goalie for the University of Alberta’s men’s team. While the hopes of creating history were dashed, the real progress was happening online.

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True Detective: Giving Life To Our Favourite Characters Online

Imagine if you could bring your favourite fictional characters to life. To get a peek into how they live outside of the pages of their novel or behind the scenes of their TV show.

Well, with Nic Pizzolato’s philosophical and metaphorical Rustin Cohle, people have decided to do just that. “Rust,” as his few friends in HBO’s smashing new hit True Detective call him, has captured the minds of the more than 12 million viewers who have tuned in weekly for the past two months. On Sunday, the first season wraps up and Rust will make his last appearance on the silver screen.

Mystery of the Yellow King fake Hardy Boys book based on True Detective

Copyright © 2014 supermercado
This mockup reimagining True Detective as a Hardy Boys book demonstrates how fans are making the show their own. Click the photo for more details on this piece, and on how to purchase your own.

To put it in the most simplistic way possible, the character of Cohle is deep, dark, and complex. Matthew McConaughey, the actor who took on the challenge of capturing Cohle – and has done an incredible job, according to just about everyone – went so far as to create a 450-page graph to trace Cohle’s life, and many personalities, over the 17 years spanned on the show. These multiple distinct personalities, and a knack for questioning the meaning of life and the universe in utter poetic language, have set Cohle apart as one of the most memorable television characters we’ve seen in this millennium.

People have eaten it up. If “true” television success is to be measured by engagement rather than pure ratings in today’s media environment, True Detective is successful in every way.

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Dodge Ventures Into New Sponsorship Territory on Twitter

On first glance, sports branding seems to have filled every crevice in broadcasting imaginable. Dodge has managed to find one sitting right under our noses.

Screenshot of Bob McKenzie's Twitter account from March 4, 2014

Notice the “TSN TradeCentre Tweets Presented by Dodge Ram.” Taken March 4, 2014

ESPN leads the way on this front, as their “Sunday NFL Countdown” has six companies with branded segments, while “Monday Night Football” programming has 14. Their college football pre-game show comes complete with a coach bus that drives around splattered with The Home Depot’s logo.

Maybe it shouldn’t be any surprise that ESPN’s sister station to the north has upped the ante.

TSN’s one-day TradeCentre program, which basically provides breaking news, analysis, and predictions on the NHL’s annual trade deadline, is one that has helped the network stand out as a premier hockey authority. Featuring a panel of some of the top hockey analysts, often seen furiously typing away on their smartphones, it’s not surprising the show draws sponsorship.

Seeing the massive following that their analysts have amassed on Twitter (as a result of their hockey authority and knowledge, mind you), Dodge has decided throw their sponsorship behind individual tweets and “personal” accounts.

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Ryerson Exact Revenge; Rout Thunderwolves in Grudge Match

Published on The CIS Blog on January 19, 2014.

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One of the most anticipated series of the month took place this weekend, when the No. 8 Ryerson Rams traveled north to Thunder Bay to face the No. 9 Lakehead Thunderwolves with first place in the OUA West on the line.

After Lakehead squeaked out a 4-3 Friday win on a Ryan Magill goal with just twenty-three seconds left in regulation, Ryerson came out insistent that they wouldn’t go home without splitting the series, blowing out the home side on Saturday 7-1 in front of over 2,500 fans.

It was obvious the Rams felt this grudge match was a must-win, as they came out flying and it didn’t take long for them to get on the board. The nation’s top point-getter and goal-scorer, Jamie Wise, ripped a hard slapshot top shelf to put Ryerson up just over four minutes in.
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Ravens Survive Gee-Gees in Capital Battle

Published on The CIS Blog on January 12, 2014.

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The stands were packed, the benches fired up, and the referees’ whistles put away in this past weekend’s big matchup between heated cross-city rivals #9 Carleton and Ottawa. And while the cliché of “the game being closer than the score reveals” is used a lot, it was certainly true in this one. Despite Ottawa outplaying the Ravens for much of the opening period, Carleton were able to escape with a lead after twenty minutes before opening up a 4-0 lead in the second, en route to a monstrous 5-2 victory.

Kyle Brown

The highly anticipated, crushingly physical game got off to a flying start for the Gee-Gees, who tested Carleton’s backup goaltender Francis Dupuis early and often. Within the first seven minutes of play, the garnet and grey had created a flurry around the Raven net, outshooting the home side 7-0.

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OUA Men’s Hockey Mid-Season Wrap-up

Published on The CIS Blog on January 2, 2014.

It’s been thirty years, but the Queen’s Golden Gaels finally find themselves back in the CIS Top 10 with OUA teams set to hit the ice again and enter the second half of the season. As the games begin to mean more and we come out of the turn and into the final stretch of the playoff push, here’s five of the biggest storylines from the conference over the first half, and that are worth watching as we begin the second.

Gaels on Top

It took until the eighth week for Queen’s to finally crack the top ten and take the eighth spot. In spite of three other OUA teams placing ahead of them in the voters’ eyes, the Gaels find themselves atop the conference standings with a two-point lead on #5 McGill. More impressively, despite racking up two losses in overtime and three as a result of shootouts, the Gaels remain undefeated in regulation, the only team in the OUA who can claim that (the only other in CIS is the #1 Calgary Dinos).

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