Welcome to this week's episode of Input 2! We discuss Fox's Rent Live and how it compares to its movie and stage predecessors. How did this movie handle the topics of AIDs and LGBT representation? Find out this and more on this week's episode of Input 2!

Hosted by: Emily Reuben, Jeremy Rogers, Matthew Yapp
Edited by: Brad Killion
Graphic by: Daley Wilhelm

Thumbnail by: Katherine Sinkovics

For more entertainment, tech, and pop culture news be sure to check out bytebsu.com

That was the lead Burris had over the undefeated Delta Eagles at the start of Friday's game. That was also the closest the Owls came to ending the Eagles' win streak. Delta went on a 17-0 run after that basket and finished the first-quarter with a 23-4 lead.

The Eagles came away with an 83-38 victory and became the state's only high school boy's basketball team to finish the regular season unbeaten.

Burris head coach Joseph Anderson brought his team in with the mentality that they were going to win, despite Delta's perfect record.

"Delta is probably the best team we've played all year," Anderson said. "The one thing that I like about their program is that those kids bought into what the coach was saying."

Bracken Karnes led the Owls in scoring with 10 points. Seniors Jackson Adamowicz and Alex Halley followed close behind with eight and seven, respectively.

"My teammates look up to me as one of our scorers, and a lot of times when we can't get things going, they like to hit me and I think they do a great job finding me a lot of times," Karnes said.

Anderson said he appreciated the role Karnes stepped into after Thursday's loss to Blackford.

"I think Bracken competed hard at times," Anderson said. "Jackson [Adamowicz] was just shot after last night's performance, and Bracken stepped up and came out with a lot of energy. I think if he gets himself in the weight room and stays committed, he's going to be hard to deal with next year."

Going into the game, Karnes tried to step up as a leader off the court as well.

"I didn't see a great attitude going into this game with my teammates, so I tried to really pick us up and try to be a leader," Karnes said. "I know that right before the game we love to get hyped up and try to go out there, but sometimes it just falls apart."

Burris struggled in terms of ball handling, recording many turnovers and losing the rebound battle. Anderson said none of what he saw was positive.

With the regular season over, the Owls are looking into sectional play with hopes of making a run.

"I think our sectional is one of the hardest sectionals in the state," Anderson said. "All we can do is prepare to come out and give our best effort against Hamilton Heights."

Karnes said he hopes the Owls can surprise a few teams.

"I'm looking forward to making a name for ourselves because our record isn't the best, but I know that we have the talent and we can put some teams away in sectionals if we step up and take our roles as a team and individually play our best," Karnes said.

The Owls fell to 5-17 on the year and will play Hamilton Heights Tuesday at 6 p.m. at the New Castle sectional.

Contact Evan Weaver with any comments at erweaver@bsu.edu or on Twitter @evan_weaver7.

Ball State scored a team total of 195.000 on the night in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, just short of West Virginia's 195.650 and Pittsburgh's 195.425.

Friday was the first time this season the Cardinals scored at least 195.000, although it ultimately ended in a loss.

"Obviously having our best score of the season was really fun," head coach Joanna Saleem said. "We were able to put together four events for the most part. Seeing them compete on the floor the way they do in practice was really exciting."

After a few matches with low beam scores, the Cardinals stepped up and scored a season-high 48.850 on the beam. This event was led by sophomore Arden Hudson who scored a career-high 9.875.

"We worked all week in practice to make beam fun," Hudson said. "We went out and had fun like we do in practice, and it worked out there for us tonight."

The beam proved to be Ball State's second-best scoring rotation, and a couple of Cardinals seized the top two spots overall. Hudson won the event and was followed by senior Kaitlyn Menzione who earned second place with a score of 9.825.

The strongest rotation of the season thus far has been the vault, and this was the Cardinals' highest rotation score of the evening as well. They tallied a 48.925, and freshman Stefanie Schweikert led the way with a score of 9.875. This score placed Schweikert in second overall individually.

The floor exercise was led by Menzione who scored a 9.825. The total floor score for the team rounded out to 48.775. The Cardinals scored a total of 48.47 as a team on the bars. Freshman Marissa Nychyk led the team with a score of 9.800. This score was followed by a 9.750 from graduate student Jordyn Penny.

Despite grabbing the season-best beam performance, Saleem said there is still room for improvement.

"We were really close to doing a lot more and have a couple little things to fix," Saleem said. "But, I'm really proud of the team, and we're excited to go out Sunday and do it again."

The Cardinals will have one day off before returning to Worthen Arena to take on Southeast Missouri and Illinois State Sunday at 1 p.m.

Contact Drew Pierce with any comments at dlpierce2@bsu.edu or on Twitter @dpierce3cc.

Each year, The Daily News editorial board has the option to endorse a slate or vote no confidence. This year's decision was reached after intense deliberation among members of the board.

This year's Student Government Association (SGA) election features three slates running with a total of 38 platform points between them, each with its own personality, passion and problems.

Every one of these aspects - including platform point feasibility, debate performance and campaigning - were taken into account to determine if and who The Daily News would endorse.

With this in mind, as well as the recent news regarding copyright violations, we have decided to cautiously endorse Elevate.

RELATED: Two Ball State SGA-nominated slates receive fines for campaign violations

Elevate - led by Aiden Medellin, Cameron DeBlasio and Cassidy Mattingly, all of whom currently serve in SGA, and David Sinclair - demonstrates a level of experience.

The Daily News determined that five of Elevate's 15 platform points were achievable, giving it more feasible points than Empower and United combined.

The slate's points - including an additional blue loop bus, which was tested Thursday because Elevate reached out to Ball State's Transportation Services - are clear and well-researched.

While a few of Elevate's platform points may aim too high - such as commuter Living Learning Communities access, big entertainment at Emens and a peer mentor program - the slate as a whole manages to outperform United and Empower.

RELATED: How feasible are the 3 Ball State SGA 2019 Election slates' platform points?

While Empower may have a passion to better the lives of the students around them, the lack of SGA experience and basic research into platform points is concerning.

On the other hand, United does have experience, with all four members serving in SGA in some capacity. This experience, however, is not reflected within the slate's platform points, as many are vague and improbable.

RELATED: A guide to all three slates of the 2019 SGA election

Looking at the level of research, experience and ambition, Elevate stands out as the obvious choice.

However, The Daily News vehemently stands against copyright infringement, an act for which Elevate must now pay $100 in fines after using Ball State's logo without permission.

It is concerning that anyone pursuing a career in government - student or otherwise - does not understand copyright laws.

Therefore, while understanding its platform points, experience and ambitions, we exercise caution in our endorsement of Elevate.

Continuing from where the previous episode left off, Giorno has been almost completely frozen over by White Album's ice and it's up to Mista to take on Ghiaccio. After managing to break from the ice, Giorno uses Gold Experience to form a makeshift snowboard out of grass for Mista, which he uses to sled on White Album's ice in one of the episode's most absurdly awesome scenes. Ghiaccio promptly melts the ice and leaves Mista in the water, where he has a higher chance of being frozen. Giorno urges Mista to escape while Ghiaccio is unconscious, but after noticing a breathing hole on White Album, Mista decides that he should kill him sooner by aiming for it. However, this proves unsuccessful as Ghiaccio reveals his stand's secret ability, Gently Weeps, which allows him to freeze the air solid and deflect the bullet back at Mista.

Fun fact about White Album, its ability "Gently Weeps" is a reference to the Beatles song "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," which appeared on, you guessed it, The White Album. Despite White Album being renamed to White Ice in the Crunchyroll subs, "Gently Weeps" remains unchanged despite being just as blatant of a Beatles reference. The English localizations have always been weird and wishy-washy with what names get changed (keeping explicit references to REO Speedwagon and "Knocking on Heaven's Door," but changing stand names that are as nonspecific as Echoes or Kiss, for example) so I'm not too surprised, but it's still weird that they changed the name to avoid getting in legal trouble with The Beatles yet they kept a reference to one of their songs.

Out of all the fights in Vento Aureo thus far, White Album is by far the most entertaining. There are so many creative setpieces that make the fight incredibly entertaining, the snowboarding scene, in particular, is a huge highlight. Compared to the Grateful Dead and Babyface arcs, the progression of this fight is near perfection. There's a lot going on in the fight to keep viewers entertained, but none of it feels too padded or rushed. It also helps that Ghiaccio himself is one of the part's most memorable antagonists thanks to his eccentric personality and entertaining rants.

The episode is also visually impressive. The Jojo anime has always been infamous for switching color palettes for dramatic effect, and this episode uses that motif to its full effect. To match with White Album's freezing abilities, certain scenes shift to a cooler color scheme with blue as the predominant color. When Giorno steps in to finish Ghiaccio off, the color scheme shifts again to a warmer color scheme as the sun rises, which is one of the most clever uses of shifting color schemes in the series. The animation is also really solid, with movement feeling especially fluid during certain action scenes. The art direction in this episode is absolutely phenomenal and showcases why David Productions is the best equipped to adapt this story.

Aside from the spectacular fight scene, this episode also shows the rest of Mista's backstory, like when Bucciarati bailed him out of jail and he first joined Passione. It elaborates on the aftermath of the backstory shown during the Kraftwerk fight and shows how he has come to view Team Bucciarati as family. After the fight is over, the episode ends with Giorno attempting to heal Mista's multiple - and by multiple, I mean more than any normal human would be able to withstand- gunshot wounds by turning the bullets into flesh. While searching for the two, Narancia gets a glance at Giorno healing Mista, gets the wrong idea about what's going on due to missing context, and pretends to be oblivious. Needless to say, this is possibly the first time "Freek'n You" has been 100% fitting as the ED for the series.

After the credits, we get our first glimpse of the boss as he prepares the final mission for Team Bucciarati. Up to this point, the boss's identity has been one of the biggest mysteries of the part thus far and now that we're finally getting a glimpse of him, it's a sign that the part is beginning to reach its climax. Right now the series is more or less at its halfway point, so it makes sense that the stakes are going to be ramped up in the latter half as the gang gets closer to confronting the boss, which is what Vento Aureo has been building up to for most of its runtime. Regardless, it's going to be interesting to see how the series is going to play out moving forward as we get closer and closer to the climax.

Images: Crunchyroll

Featured Image: Jojo Animation

For more entertainment related content, visit us at Byte BSU!

Tonight: Mostly Cloudy skies with a possible rain shower into the late night. Temperatures will be in the mid 30's with a low of 34 with a east wind 5-10.

Weekend: This weekend we will have storms on Saturday with possible downpours in the stronger cells. Winds will also be a concern as these storms make their way through. Temperatures will be in the low 50's with a high of 53.

Sunday will be windy. We have a high wind advisory in effect for the viewing area until 10PM Sunday night. Winds will be ranging from 25-30 mph with gust reaching 50mph. Temperatures will be in the mid 40's with a high of 44.

7-Day Forecast: Saturday and Sunday are the most activate days of the week with storms and winds. Wednesday we could see some rain that transitions over into snow on Wednesday. Friday we are tracking another small systems that could bring some rain chances for the afternoon.

-Weather Forecaster Tyler Ryan

Follow us on Twitter @NLIWeather for breaking weather updates.

NewsLink Indiana is a proud Ambassador for the NOAA Weather-Ready Nation program.

Ball State

The Hoosieroons visit to Miami was a key matchup for the team and saw the team almost win. A 16-4 run in the final seven minutes of the game would bring Ball State within one possession, but an early hole dug would set the team a step too far back. Redshirt senior guard Tayler Persons shot from just outside half court, to tie the game, fell short at the buzzer.

The game saw the Hoosieroons shooting poorly again. While Persons did lead with 16 on the night, he would shoot for a low 38 percent from field goal range. Redshirt junior forward Tahjai Teague struggled going 1-5 from close to finish the night with just five points.

At the free throw line, the Hoosieroons had a lot of opportunities, but didn't capitalize shooting 17-26 to the RedHawks 18-20. Miami would go 6-0 in the final minute in a half of the game at the line alone. Team leaders Persons and redshirt junior guard K.J. Walton would find most of their points at the line, going 5-8 and 5-6.

The loss put a BYE seed out of target for the Hoosieroons and are currently tied for ninth with Northern Illinois. A win would not move Ball State up anymore, as they have one more loss then the teams battling for sixth. A loss would most likely lock up the 10 seed for the Hoosieroons going into the final two weeks of the regular season.

Central Michigan

The Chippewas are in a very different situation. Central Michigan is riding a two game win streak coming off of a 10 point victory over Kent State on Tuesday. The Chippewas are currently on the outside looking in of a BYE seed as they are currently one game ahead of the race for sixth, but one game behind fourth at fifth place.

In Tuesday's win, Shawn Roundtree lead Central Michigan with 20 points, going 8-9 at the line. Roundtree is currently in fifth for scoring in conference play, averaging 17 points per game. Alongside his strong shooting at the line, Roundtree also went 4-7 from deep, contributing to the overall cause at 9-17 from three point. Roundtree is third in the MAC from deep, knocking in 47 percent of his shots from outside the arc.

On defense, Rob Montgomery and Kevin McKay had the bulk of the pulldowns at eight and nine. Mckay is tied for 11th in rebounding in the MAC, with seven boards per game.

As a team, the Chippewas have one of best offensive teams and one of the worst defensive teams in the MAC. Central Michigan is third in the MAC ins scoring, putting up 79 points pert game. However, the team is second to last in 11th in defense as they allow an average of 79 points per game. The team is also winning games by a narrow margin in the conference holding a 0.8 margin of victory.

The matchup

This will be the second time these teams meet this season as Ball State was victorious over Central Michigan, 83-72, in Mount Pleasant on Jan. 19. The win snapped a three game losing streak for the Hoosieroons. Senior center Trey Moses went all out in the second half to lay in all 13 of his points.

ESPN has the Hoosieroons with the advantage to win at a 76.3 percent chance of victory. Ball State will also be celebrating its Centennial as players will be wearing Ball State Hoosieroons jerseys during the game.

The game can be watched on ESPN+ and listened to on 96.7 WBKQ or 104.9 WLBC. Tip off is scheduled for Saturday Feb. 23 at 2 p.m. inside Worthen Arena in Muncie.

Contact Jack Williams with any comments at jgwilliams@bsu.edu or on Twitter @jackgwilliams

Tetris 99, lovingly dubbed by the gaming community as Tetris: Battle Royale, amps up the survival aspect of the game by making a fully competitive Tetris game, but is missing too much in terms of everything else to make itself more than just another Tetris game.

Line them up and knock them down

The core gameplay of Tetris 99 is very much still Tetris. The player must stack falling blocks to clear lines and survive against 98 other players. The mechanics are unchanged from other Tetris titles: you can still T-spin and create some pretty crazy combos, and the best results typically come from long combos of twos and threes as opposed to getting a Tetris (similar to Puyo Puyo Tetris), but otherwise, it's Tetris. If you have played any of the games in the series before, you know what to expect in terms of the regular gameplay.

The twist comes in the form of battle royale. As you clear your board, you are competing to attack and defend against 98 other players, who all have their boards appear on the sides of the screen. Through either quick auto-selections through the right analog stick or manual selection through the left analog stick, you can choose what person to specifically target with junk blocks that are created through clearing lines on your own screen. If your junk blocks push your target above the top of their screen, they are out of the game and you get a KO. And of course, if you get pushed over the top, you get KO'd yourself.

This plays on the already offensive and defensive nature of regular competitive Tetris battles on a massive scale, and can lead to some pretty close duels if you and another player stay targeted on each other for a long period of time. In the same vein, it can be pretty stressful to load into a game and instantly have five to ten people targeting you at once, but even that can be fun as you start racking up KO's quickly by comboing faster and better than all of the people targeting you. As you get down to the final ten players, everything in the game speeds up to ludicrous levels, and it gets even more intense. All of this leads to a gameplay loop that is even more addictive than the average battle royale, as matches and queues are quick, and it's just Tetris. Tetris is just still plain fun, regardless of how many games have been made with it.

Visually and musically simplistic, but no longer in a charming way

Tetris has always been a relatively simple game visually and musically. The iconic "Type-A" theme is something no Tetris game can escape, even though I was always personally more a fan of "Type-B," and, of course, a remix of that theme is in this game. It's also one of the three music tracks this game actually has. The music changes during both the top fifty and top ten portions of the game, and while the tracks are still good, they aren't anything special. It would be an incredible addition to have some different types of soundtracks to select from in the options menu, rather than the barebones options you do have. In fact, all this game has is the regular game mode, with its one visual style and set of music tracks. It's serviceable, especially since this game is free-to-play with the Switch Online service, but underwhelming.

Visually, Tetris 99 is just another Tetrisgame. It has a computerized, digital style to it, but that's about it. Compared to the variety of visual options in games like Tetris Effect or Puyo Puyo Tetris, it's amazing how little there is to actually choose from. Even just having a different tileset for the Tetriminos would be nice to have. I imagine, since this is a free-to-play game, microtransactions are likely in the works. Maybe they'll even have a Fortnite-like "Battle Pass" for the game. I'd love to be able to have a little Tetrimino dancing on someone else's screen when you KO them.

It sure is Tetris, alright

The biggest problem with Tetris 99 is its lack of options, settings, game modes, music and graphical styles to choose from. It feels like a half-baked experience, regardless of how much fun it is to just play Tetris again in a new way. If they add these things in future updates, the game will feel so much better to play just by having a little bit of customization in it. It's definitely still worth checking out if you are already paying for Nintendo Switch Online, but it's not something to go out of your way to play. If you just want Tetris, Puyo Puyo Tetris or Tetris Effect are much more well-rounded modern Tetris experiences. But if you really want to get that Tetris royale, this isn't a game you'd regret trying out.

Featured Image: Nintendo

Images: Nintendo

For more entertainment related content, visit us at Byte BSU!

Tonight: Tonight will be mainly cloudy with a chance of showers late. Low will be 33 the winds will be out of the East at 10 mph. Make sure if you're going out to bring a jacket or an umbrella with you.

Tomorrow Night: Showers will continue through Saturday night turning windy however, lows will be around 39. Winds out of the east at 20-2 mph.

Weekend: On Saturday it will be showers around most of the day, high will be 54. It begins to dry out on Sunday but it will very windy. There will be a high wind warning in effect until Monday morning. Winds could gust up to as high as 45 mph.

7 day Forecast: Saturday will be wet and windy, it will be the warmest day of the 7 days. Sunday will be very windy with a high of 43. Winds will gust as high as 45 mph. Things will dry out in the early part of the week with highs seeking out in the mid 30s.

Ball State junior Ashley Vega has found some beautiful opportunities within her love for music and concerts. Her passion for music has brought her a whole group of friends and even decided her career path.

Ashley has been to more than 20 concerts, and she has traveled for about 15 of those. She spends a lot of time camping out for shows so that she can get in and find her favorite spot on the barricade for the show, and spend time with her friends in line.

Image by Ashley Vega

She has also dedicated a lot of her concertgoing time to one artist, Hoodie Allen, whose concerts she says brought her most of her concert friends. Through her dedication, she has also gotten to know Allen as well as his crew and band over the years.

"The best part is making friends and getting lost in the music, also forming relationships with the artists. The worst part is the cost and how mentally and physically taxing it is. Losing all that sleep and doing all of that traveling is extremely exhausting, but well worth it for the experiences," she said.

While Vega does not think there is necessarily a culture, the way people go to concerts has certainly evolved over the years. Seeing how people camp out, interact with artists, and dedicate time and money to the concert experience, I would argue that there is a culture surrounding modern concerts.

Image by Ashley Vega

"…So I think avid concert-goers participate in a certain culture whether or not they mean to. People who travel hundreds of miles, or camp out for hours or days, or wait after the show to meet people, or know every lyric, or never miss a chance to see a certain artist, are all a part of concert culture…" said one of Vega's concertgoing friends, Sarah Wolf, 17.

Concerts in current times have gotten a lot easier to attend. They have also become safer. With technology and and the rapid spread of information, concertgoers are able to sustain themselves while camping outside of venues for hours and traveling long ways to see their favorite artists.

Even with the ease of concertgoing nowadays, Vega says she would have participated in this lifestyle, regardless of the era.

"I would totally still choose to do it if it were like it used to be, nothing can come between me and live music, whether that's a long line for tickets or service fees over $20. I'm here for a good time and some good memories," said Vega.

With more safety and easier access to resources, concert culture has changed, allowing people like Vega to pursue the concertgoing passion and lifestyle while making lifelong connections along the way. As mentioned before, Vega has met a whole group of friends through doing so and feels passionate about music. Her passion for music has even influenced her career decisions.

"Going to concerts has had a big impact on my career choice. As someone who knew I wanted to go into music in high school, once I started going to concerts on a regular basis I realized it's the one place I feel most alive and truly myself. Music has brought me people and experiences I would've never had, and it's given me a whole different perspective on life. I have friends all over the country and even the world, and it's all because we listen to some of the same music," Said Vega. "Also, becoming close with my favorite artists has made me realize that I want to work with people like that every day because they have so much to say and so much knowledge to spread. A career in music is really the only thing I can see myself doing and the concert lifestyle that I lead is a big part of why."

Images: Ashley Vega

Featured Image: Ashley Vega

For more entertainment, tech, and pop culture related content visit our site at Byte BSU!

If there's one video game genre that defines the second half of the 2010s, it's battle royale. Coming out of nowhere with mods of games, like Minecraft: Hunger Games or the Arma 3 mod that later became PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, it quickly became wildly popular. The genre was massive on Twitch, with PUBG having millions of concurrent players despite being a fairly rough game in terms of mechanics. The genre would later completely explode through Epic Games' Fortnite: Battle Royale, which is certainly the winner winner, chicken dinner of the genre… or is it?

Recently, a true challenger has arrived to take on Fortnite and is actually giving it a run for its money. That challenger is Apex Legends, a game from Respawn (developers of Titanfall) that released out of nowhere and quickly gained quite the audience. The game has found a playerbase of 25 million within its first week, and completely eclipsed Fortnite in terms of viewership on Twitch. Epic finally has a fire under its butt to start delivering on even more player demands, and competition is definitely healthy. And then, even more out of nowhere, Nintendo announces Tetris 99 during their February 2019 Nintendo Direct, a Tetris-flavored battle royale game.

Yes, you read that right, Tetris, but a battle royale. And it actually works way better than it has any right to work. It's honestly incredible to see something so strange as a puzzle battle royale, but it makes you think: what other games/genres would work for battle royale? I've rattled my brain and scratched out some amazing ideas, and have come up with a few games that would be perfect as battle royales. And don't worry developers, if you take my ideas, you don't even need to call me. We'll both know where it came from, even if no one else does.

Forza Horizon

Image from Forza Horizon

Starting with one of Microsoft's four amazing first-party franchises, Forza Horizon should be a battle royale. A racing battle royale? Okay, that makes sense, but the game doesn't have car combat mechanics of other franchises like Mario Kart or Twisted Metal, both of which would work better. Ah, but you see, that's not thinking outside the box. How can you make Forza a battle royale within the mechanics of Forza? Simple, you play on the idea of the storm closing in on you.

Picture this: 100 cars line up to traverse a treacherous, massive racecourse in line with Forza Horizon 4's United Kingdom. The race starts, and shortly after a quick headstart a powerful storm follows the racers. If you're too slow, you get devoured by the storm. Racers need to not only focus on their own racing, but also the people around them. Car upgrades will be placed around the track as ways to upgrade your car's stats to be more defensive. If your car is stronger than another car, you can simply run them off the road and into the storm. Combine that with traps and roadblocks littered throughout the map, and you have a racing experience that is tense and addictive. And, since it's still a race, the winner is either the person who lasts the longest or the one to reach the finish line first. If you're unable to cross the finish line, you don't actually place. It's ingenious, and you could have a ton of different maps and locations for this, as long as they all fit 100 cars. Or, maybe even a modest 30 cars. Actually, scratch the cars, have it be 30 people running on foot. And the storm is a giant lizard firing meteors. Or a shark. Now THIS is a truly original idea, never before seen.

Infamous: Second Son

Image from Push Square

Infamous: Second Sun was a disappointing game, I'm not gonna lie. It was okay, for sure, but it's nowhere near as solid as either of the first two Infamous games, mostly because of the protagonist and his boring Conduit power. Delsin Rowe can steal another person's power by touching them, and therefore has tons of potential in what he can do, but ends up with a set of powers that is just kind of underwhelming. So, how is that at all relevant to battle royale? Look at Delsin's power again: he can have a full loadout of different powers.

The game starts with each person dropping into a city, whether it's Empire City or New Marais or Seattle. The player can find and drain certain power sources to pick up a variety of powers that have their own set of abilities. Some can be defensive powers, some can be more offensive powers, some can even be fully utility powers. Each different type of power has an energy meter that can be refilled by draining various power sources or downed players. A fire fight in the game could have one person using ice powers to try and pin down another player dashing around with Neon, looking for a sniping angle. The storm in this game is a giant storm similar to ones created by The Beast. There would need to be less players and probably some kind of limit to how many powers someone can hold, but an endgame battle between two fully-powered up titans would be something that could be a legendary viewer experience.

It's a shame Sucker Punch killed the Infamous series, and we'll likely never see this kind of game be made. Maybe we'll get Ghost of Tsushima: Battle Royale.

Super Mario Maker

This one is a no-brainer, right? Nintendo needs a battle royale, and Nintendo doesn't ever do anything normal and, let's be honest, Super Mario Maker 2 will need a winning game mode that isn't as bland as the random level mode from Super Mario Maker. The solution is, of course, battle royale. This idea is similar in terms of players outrunning a storm, but it's not an auto-scroller, since auto-scrollers are bad. It's a purely endurance experience. To give a video that paints a picture of what I'm thinking, here's a video created by Patrick LeMieux using footage of many different Super Mario Bros. runs done by Andrew Gardikis.

The video, if you can't tell what it is, shows a cloud of Marios running through the level. That cloud is actually hundreds of Super Mario Bros. runs layered on top of each other in one video. Whenever Andrew G. would reset a run, that clip is removed from the video. So how relevant is this to Super Mario Maker: Battle Royale? Well, this is how the game would look. You are running against 99 other ghost Marios in a user generated level. The game would operate in rounds, with you competing against other people to see how many random levels you can clear without dying. Once you die, you get removed from the run and can either watch people battle it out or (more than likely) rage quit and queue up again. As a sudden death round, you could bring in a firey auto-scroller mechanic, or simply put in a high-death count level to try and kill the remaining players. There are enough bad Kaizo levels to kill off unprepared players. It could be a great twist on the typical Mario format, and one that I think would be perfect.

World of Warcraft

Image from Alt Char

Now, you may be thinking, "wait, you mean like a PVP mode? That wouldn't be so bad! Each class can drop and pick up spells and duel other players like in traditional PVP. It would just be PVP with extra steps, but it might be okay!" And sure, that's a perfectly terrible idea. Because here's the thing: if you're playing World of Warcraft right now, as Blizzard dies around it, you ARE playing the battle royale.

Look around you, the community is fleeing and bleeding out. Updates are releasing and still aren't fixing the problems in the game. Battle for Azeroth has problems within the story that may never end up being fixed. Heroes of the Storm lost most of its funding for esports and development in general, and the cracks in the world are starting to form. And these layoffs make it clear your game is no longer the success it once was. If you hold it together for the longest amount of time, sticking to the game even as the once populated landscapes become barren around you, you can win this battle royale. The last player on the server before it permanently shuts down is the winner. And then, you gain the ownership of a private server of the game, and it becomes a simulator of running an MMO. It's a game with so many layers.

The ultimate twist? Once the playerbase of your new MMO begins to plateau, the battle royale begins anew. It literally never ends.

Wall Street Kid

Image from The Vintage Game Spot

And here it is, the ultimate battle royale experience: Wall Street Kid VR: Battle Royale. It's a VR game based on the hit NES classic, Wall Street Kid. You're a young person and receive a sizable amount of money from a dead relative. Of course, instead of splurging on way too much avocado toast, you decide to invest in the stock market. The competition is tough, as you compete against thousands of other people to make the most money and live the best life while still paying for your family and their frivolous expenses. You watch as your demands for more profits destroy once great companies while you reinvest in strange products and other things. The market shifts without your control, and one bad investment can send you into the red.

Here's the twist: once you go broke, your game doesn't end. You have to live in a simulation of being in debt, with no options and no way out. You can't close the game; you are trapped in the simulation. There aren't too many options to exit the simulation, but you can turn the world upside-down in a whole new fight for survival for those still playing the stock market: the revolution. It's time for those who went broke to fight those who are living a life of luxury. It's time for the hungry to start eating the rich. Arm yourself, and become the storm closing in on those making as much profit as they can before the world falls apart around them. This is the future of battle royale, and would likely kill the genre, so please don't release this unless you are prepared for the consequences. Because those consequences will bring the battle royale experience right to your doorstep.

It's fun for the whole family!

Sources: The Verge, Kotaku, Dexerto, Vimeo, Youtube

Images: Forza Horizon, Push Square, Alt Char, The Vintage Game Spot

Featured Image: Roy Wood

For more entertainment, tech, and pop culture related content visit us at Byte BSU!

Byte Managing Editor Matthew Yapp sits down with Ball State student and filmmaker Connor Rush to discuss what went into the making of his music video FHL, what inspired the video, and the charitable cause the video promotes.

Interview: Matt Yapp
Video: Jeremy Rogers
Video Editing: Emily Reuben
Audio Editing: Jeremy Rogers

For more entertainment related content, visit us at Byte BSU!

MUNCIE, Ind. - Cornerstone Center for the Arts and Muncie Public Library are making a collaborative effort to give adults the chance to be kids again.

Since May 2016, the organizations have been collaborating to host Bad Art Night. Bad Art Night encourages adults to create their own artwork without any expectations of perfection. At the end of each event, awards are even given out for the worst art, best art and crowd favorite.

"I really love that Bad Art Night - people come here with no expectations and have a chance to be free," says Sarah Shaffer, Cornerstone Center for the Arts' Education and Marketing Coordinator and Visual Arts Instructor.

On Wednesday, Cornerstone Center for the Arts hosted about 20 adults. They turned their blank canvases into collages, abstracts and even paintings of dogs in bikinis.

This idea initially got started almost three years ago because the organizations felt that there were many art programs for children, but none for adults. Cornerstone Center for the Arts and Muncie Public Library recognized that they couldn't use quite the same process for an adult art program.

"Kids are great because you can just put kids in a room with art supplies and go, 'Have fun,' and you'll get a thousand different things," says Dan Allen, Muncie Public Library's Idea Studio Technology Coordinator. "With adults, if you tried that same technique, you'd end up with a thousand people really nervous and no one quite knowing what to do."

Maring-Hunt Library will host the next Bad Art Night on March 14 at 6 to 7:30 p.m. The event is open to anyone over the age of 18. It is free to attend, but the organizations encourage participants to donate five dollars to help cover the cost. Participants can also donate art supplies.

Empower will receive a $50 fine for campaigning early on its social media. The Board found Empower had not committed any trademark violations with their logo.

According to the Elections Board hearing transcripts, the statement said, "We did not create our own logo. This was created by a Ball State alumni, and so we assumed it would be all right. The flying bird icon used by both parties is similar but not identical."

The bird logo could be found on a website called Affinity Design. "Additionally, the name Empower Fitness was trademarked, whereas the bird was not. Even if the logo was trademarked, Empower 2019 and Empower Fitness do not operate in the same sphere so there is no concern for confusion," the statement said.

"Per the email sent by Empower Fitness, we see that the company is drafting a legal document granting permission for Empower 2019 to have a limited use of this logo. This document has not been completed, however, and as such, it has not been provided to the Elections Board," according to the Elections Board from the hearing documents.

Julian Simmerman, presidential candidate for Empower, said that before the campaign, the slate reached out to an alumni known by slate members.

"He came to us with like, nine different design ideas," Simmerman said after the hearing. "And we mixed two of them together, and we came up with that logo."

The Board asked Empower to cease its use of there bird logo until Empower Fitness completes the document giving Empower limited use.

The logo was used on several posts on the slate's social media.

Elevate was fined $100 for their use of the Ball State logo without getting permission from Ball State. According to the documents, Elevate said it never sought the university's permission.

The logo appeared in a post on the slate's Twitter account, naming the six standing SGA committees and the five caucuses.

"We take full responsibility. The graphic was pulled from Canva, an infographic-making software. This may be a trademark violation from Canva or it may be free-for-use," the slate said in its official statement.

Cameron DeBlasio, vice presidential said that Elevate understood they committed a violation, but the slate was "a little surprised" that the fine was $100.

"We've [Elevate] kind of discussed ways to go about having a discussion with them [Elections Board] about how they came to that number." DeBlasio said after the hearing.

This story will be updated.

Contact Charles Melton with comments at cwmelton@bsu.edu or on Twitter @Cmelton144.

HARTFORD CITY, Ind. (NewsLink)- Hartford City was relatively unknown before Luke Brown started draining buckets from anywhere on the basketball court. He soon became the fastest player in Indiana State history to 1,000 career points.

What no one saw coming was the inception of the Blackford High School's own sports network. It started with Steve Hurd just using his phone to stream games on Facebook Live, but then he started getting equipment until he went all in.

Now Hurd is joined by Cody Crouse and Grant Banter on basketball broadcasts where they each have their own headset, a two-camera broadcast, and even sponsors.

Hurd wants Blackford Sports Network to continue to grow and cover more and more Blackford sports and he shows no signs of slowing down. With over 1,200 YouTube subscribers and counting, BSN continues to gain support as Brown continues to make history.

Though he graduated a few years ago, James Wells said he is following the current SGA election "very closely."

As the mayor's neighborhood advocate for the near-east side of Indianapolis, Wells has remained active in politics since his term as SGA president in the 2016-17 school year.

The potential for a runoff election has "spurred his interest," he said, which he's shown in his attendance of this year's All-Slate Debate.

In the past few weeks leading up to the election, Wells said he had been reflecting on how he might have improved on his time here, including his slate Summit's platform points and how they worked with SGA senate.

"I think I should have done a lot of outreach," Wells said, referring to helping his senators write legislation.

This is something the sitting SGA president, Isaac Mitchell, also said when reflecting on his term with Amplify, though he said he later met with senators each week to help them on legislation.

"I tried to keep that separation between the president and senate," Mitchell said. "But I think that from the feedback I've heard from senators, they wanted me to play a bigger role in the beginning of the year."

The notion of mentoring and educating is also close to former SGA president Jack Hesser, now a middle school science teacher in Indianapolis Public Schools.

In his 2015-16 term, Hesser said he realized some committees and commissions within administration at Ball State have seats built in for students to serve on them.

"I would bet some money that if you were to look at it right now, not every single one of those slots are filled," Hesser said.

Encouraging senators and cabinet members to fill these slots is something both Hesser and Mitchell tried to do in their terms. However, Hesser said he didn't train these students to fully use their influence.

"We never sat down and were like, 'Hey, every single student that is now appointed, we need to make sure that you're trained and understand what this committee's real purpose is,'" Hesser said.

Aside from placing students in roles outside of SGA, Hesser said combating sexual assault, something the slates running for office now say they prioritize, was front-and-center when his slate, Atlas, was elected nearly four years ago.

Hesser said his slate worked with hall councils to fund sexual assault programming, collaborated with former peer victim advocate Allison Wynbissinger and created an SGA cabinet position for a secretary of social justice, among other initiatives.

"I was very happy with the work that we started and was a little disappointed to see that other slates after our year ... there wasn't as much of an emphasis [on sexual assault prevention], because that is an incredibly important and serious issue that requires competent student leaders to dig in and try to actually enact change," Hesser said.

Looking ahead, Wells said SGA should be more proactive in handling issues that might arise, like in response to the John Schnatter controversy, and that opportunity is ripe for the upcoming slate to rise to the occasion.

"Give it your all," Wells said.

Contact Sara Barker with comments at slbarker3@bsu.edu or on Twitter at @sarabarker326.

MUNCIE, Ind. (NewsLink) - There are now over 30 new naloxone distributors in the Muncie community. Wednesday night, the Indiana Recovery Alliance (IRA) was at Bridges Community Service offering a free training on the opioid overdose drug naloxone.

Naloxone, which is the generic name for Narcan, is an overdose reversal drug that only works against opioids like heroin. It reverses the life-threatening effects of opioid overdose that cause the lungs to stop working and the drug user to stop breathing.

The opioid issue is a growing issue within the United States. Jessica Cochran, the IRA's Northern Indiana Overdose Prevention and Harm Reduction Coordinator, says that in 2018, over 70,000 people experienced a fatal overdose.

"So, if you break that down, really it's the equivalent of a 747 [airplane] crashing and everybody on board dying every single day," Cochran said.

As of 2017, drug overdoses are the leading cause of accidental death in America.

The purpose of Wednesday's training was to educate attendees about harm reduction, opioid overdose and naloxone administration. There were almost 40 people in attendance and one that was particularly affected by the opioid issue is Adran Foley. Foley had a friend who he revived after the starting signs of an overdose without having access to naloxone.

"He kinda started falling out and his breathing went shallow and his lips turned blue and I had to give him sternal rubs and keep talking to him and talking to him until he finally was breathing non-shallow enough on his own that I felt comfortable to sit with him and he was talking to me," Foley said.

One of the things that Cochran said within the training was that the stigma around opioid use is one of the biggest factors in overdoses because it makes people not want to talk about their using. Foley and the IRA both hope this will change.

"Really, I hope the stigma really changes around drug use in general for people because that's the only way they're gonna get the help they need, if they want the help, or if they don't want the help and they wanna use drugs... you know harm reduction is a big thing," Foley said.

Foley and the other participants from the training are now naloxone distributors under the IRA, and the IRA is planning to hold more trainings like this soon. Anyone interested in future naloxone training or other harm reduction techniques can visit indianarecoveryalliance.org for general info or go to the local harm reduction center, Bridges Community Services, located at 318 W Eighth St in Muncie.

House Bill 1253, a bill that would have allowed firearms to be carried on school grounds but was altered through amendments made during the Senate House Education Committee reading, does not achieve this goal, Armstrong said.

"I don't see a single thing in this bill that protects my son in school," said Armstrong, whose son was attending the middle school during last year's school shooting that left a student and a teacher injured. "I'm saddened our elected officials haven't chosen to listen to their constituents."

As authored, the bill would have eliminated all schools as gun-free zones, a measure strongly criticized by the Indiana State Teachers Association and State Superintendent Jennifer McCormick. It also would have provided immunity to any justified use of force on school property. The amendment, passed 11-2, preceded the bill's hearing.

Rep. Jim Lucas (R-Seymour) introduced the bill and fielded testimony that was largely in opposition to the proposed law for nearly two hours.

After being amended, the bill is now a plan to make state funds available to provide volunteer training for teachers and other school employees who are allowed to carry firearms on school property.

"Teachers and staff are the true first responders," said Lucas, who cited police response times for school mass shootings in Newtown, Connecticut, and Parkland, Florida, as reasons for the alarming amount of casualties. "[Teachers] are the ones that we need to enable and train to be able to react in a situation such as this."

The training program is modeled after the active-shooter training police officers receive.

The bill, which passed out of committee 8-2, received several unsuccessful amendments during the full-House vote.

One proposed amendment by Rep. Edward DeLaney (D-Indianapolis) would have forbidden any former student from legally carrying a gun on school grounds if they were removed or expelled for disciplinary reasons from that school within the previous two years.

This was proposed as an effort to keep out former disgruntled students from coming back to their old school and potentially killing someone.

The amendment was shot down 57-31.

The law currently on the books leaves the decision to allow guns to individual school corporations. So far, three school districts in the state allow teachers to have guns in the classroom. All of them are rural school districts that are worried police would not be able to respond to a school shooting in time.

"We did not make this decision lightly," said Jeremy Gully, superintendent of Jay School Corporation, who presides over one of those districts. "In our rural school district, this is the last line of defense to protect innocent life and stop the carnage."

The bill is one of a slew that are aimed to strengthen school safety in light of the school shootings last year in Richmond and Noblesville.

Emily Cole, a senior student activist at Noblesville High School, pleaded to committee members to vote against the bill, specifically calling out Lucas and Rep. Chuck Goodrich (R-Noblesville), who was among the 72 representatives who voted in favor of moving the amended bill to the Senate.

"Rep. Goodrich, I sat and cried with your daughter on that day," Cole said. "We were so scared. We could hear the SWAT team banging on the doors. This bill would only have increased tensions that day."

She asked Goodrich to "use common sense" adding, "If not for me, do it for your daughters and sons."

Contact Riley Eubanks with comments at rjeubanks@bsu.edu.

Student. Government. Association.

This simple term brings about a big hype for two weeks every February as the student body deliberates on what group of four individuals will be the voice for students in the university governance system.

This year, we have three slates running for executive office in SGA: Empower, Elevate and United. I cannot and will not speak for or about my worthy opponents, but rather, I wish to speak on why United is the best choice to represent Ball State students.

First, we're the slate that has the most experience. Our slate has extensive experience in both the executive and the legislative sides of SGA. I've had the honor of serving as the Parliamentarian for SGA this year on top of a year of serving as a senator. Jalen Jones is the current Treasurer for SGA and is very eager to continue his work next year. Both James Schwer and Elizabeth Latham have chaired multiple caucuses and committees within SGA and have shown great leadership within the legislative process of SGA.

Second, we have the best platform. Our platform was built, not simply out of our own ideas, but out of real face to face conversations we've had with students about the changes they need here on campus. This is a platform that is built to create change now, and to ensure lasting change for generations to come.

It has been a pleasure and an honor to serve the Ball State community thus far, and win, lose or draw, I give you my solemn word that we will continue to serve this University.

Thank you for taking the time to read my humble words, and thank you to The Daily News for their impeccable coverage of the election. We hope you vote United on Feb. 25 and 26.

- Jake Biller, Presidential Candidate, United, 2019 Student Government Association Slate