76ers waive Xavier Silas and Mikky Moore

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76ers training camp Day 2

76ers begin training camp

Sixers Media Day

 

The 76ers roster is down to 16 players after they released guard Xavier Silas and center Mikki Moore on Wednesday.

Silas, a 6-foot-5, 205-pounder, wan an undrafted rookie out of Northern Illinois in 2011. He originally signed with the Sixers in late April and appeared in two games.

Silas "did a nice job for us, but we added Royal [Ivey] and Maalik [Wayns], and the numbers were against him, and I wanted to give him a chance to plan his future," 76ers coach Doug Collins said.

The 7-foot, 225-pound Moore signed before training camp. He has appeared in 564 games with 181 starts across 13 NBA seasons. His career averages are 5.8 points, 3.9 rebounds and 18.2 minutes per game.

Collins said Moore did a good job in camp, but he preferred keeping Dan Gadzuric, another veteran NBA center who the Sixers signed before training camp.

"Dan is more energetic in what we need," Collins said. "Mikki has been around long enough that if you need to pick somebody up in the season, you can."

Collins said he thought that Moore would play in the D-League or, if he is not picked up by an NBA team, overseas.

All on board. Collins said he hopes everybody will be available for Thursday's opening preseason game in Orlando against the Magic.

Everyone practiced on Wedensday, but Kwame Brown was held out of contact due to back spasms.

"It is just a muscle spasm," Collins said. "In training camp, guys start to get beat up and tired."

Collins said that with Andrew Bynum out and if Brown can't go Thursday, one possibility is starting rookie Arnett Moultrie.

"Arnett has responded well this training camp with his energy, and rebounding the ball," Collins said. "His next step, he has to get a little lift on his jump shot because it is a little flat. But I like all the things he is doing."

Source : philly[dot]com

Mike Jensen: In pro soccer, college isn't a required course

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Many of the best college soccer players in the country don't play college soccer.

They are still in college, still of college age, but they also are professionals. Several never played a minute of college soccer.

DREW HALLOWELL /Getty Images

Union goalkeeper Zac MacMath says he wouldn't be in the pros had he not played soccer in college. He spent three seasons at the University of Maryland.

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A number of Union players are in this category. Full salary-drawing professionals but also college students, taking online courses at schools such as Penn State, Community College of Philadelphia, Delaware County Community College, and UCLA.

"It's very similar to actually being in college," Union goalkeeper Zac MacMath said of taking courses online through Penn State. "It's just, you have to teach yourself. You have a teacher but very little contact. They kind of expect you to go about your business and learn the material, then they grade you on their tests, projects. It's not much different than what I did in college."

MacMath, 21, played soccer at the University of Maryland for three seasons before turning pro. He still has about 30 credits remaining to complete his degree. He isn't saying top soccer players shouldn't go to college. He wouldn't be where he is, MacMath said, if he hadn't gone at all. That was especially true for a goalkeeper, since there are fewer opportunities to get on the field with a pro team.

For field players, there is a greater likelihood that turning pro right out of high school, or during high school, is an option. It's harder to make the case against this if players are working on their degrees while playing professionally, not even waiting until their careers are over.

In many ways, the decision is made for players. If Major League Soccer decides that a prospect is worthy of investment, then players increasingly are likely to make the move. NCAA limits on hours allowed to spend on the sport make it hard to argue that college soccer is the better developmental route.

The argument that having a college degree is worthwhile in itself doesn't change. You just don't have to play college soccer to make it happen.

"I've heard people say the best youth players, they won't enter college," said Union team manager John Hackworth, the former U.S. under-17-year-old national team coach. "There's certain cases that's true, but I don't think that's the case at all times, especially in this country. We value that college education, and there's so much more that goes along with that college education, more just getting that degree and going to class."

Hackworth said the Union have pointed conversations with players interested in turning pro without college, along the lines of, "Hey, we need you to be a good overall person. We need you to be well-rounded in everything. Do you have a plan to do that? Why are you thinking this choice is better for you than going to college? Or coming out early is better?"

Hackworth said the Union are looking into starting a program in which somebody outside the technical staff acts as a mentor to the younger players. This is standard practice in the NBA.

"One thing we have put on our list is [to] make sure our players at least enter an online course," Hackworth said, "so that when they leave here, they still have something they're working toward. That's something we're working on with our homegrown players specifically."

In MLS, "homegrown players" must have lived with their parents in a team's "homegrown territory" for at least a year before college.

Union forward Jack McInerney, 20, said it was an easy decision to turn pro right out of high school.

"The way I looked at it, if I went to college, maybe I'll never get the opportunity again," McInerney said. "I could go to college and get injured or something like that. It was a once-in-a-lifetime thing, and I felt like I had to take advantage of it."

McInerney said he has been taking one or two online classes a semester through Delaware County Community College. Right now, he said, he is taking a financial accounting class.

Amobi Okugo, a California native who played one season at UCLA before being taken by the Union in the 2010 MLS SuperDraft, is taking classes at Community College of Philadelphia. "Hopefully, they'll transfer back to UCLA," the 21-year-old Okugo said. If not, he'll look at transferring to a local school such as Temple or Drexel.

"Sometimes it's tough to get it done. You have to deal with deadlines, and after a tough practice, you might want to rest when you know you have to do some homework on the side," said Okugo, a defensive midfielder who is taking a computer systems and a marketing class.

Another former UCLA player, Chandler Hoffman, played three years in college. That was a no-brainer, the 22-year-old said. He wasn't a pro prospect out of high school in Alabama but scored 18 goals his junior year at UCLA, then was drafted 12th overall by the MLS in the last offseason.

He is part of a "Generation adidas" program, he said, that pays for him to finish his degree. A communications major, he is taking courses through UCLA.

"There are some guys who can't handle coming straight into a professional environment," Hoffman said. "I think college definitely matures you as a player and a person. I think it's case-by-case. Do they need more time to mature?"

That's the real bottom line. For soccer players who have the ability to go pro, it's no longer an educational decision. Union midfielder Zach Pfeffer has been a pro for almost two years, and he's only 17.

"His family has told me," Hackworth said, "he will get a college degree."

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Contact Mike Jensen at mjensen@phillynews.com. Follow @Jensenoffcampus on Twitter. Read his "Off Campus" columns at www.philly.com/offcampus

 

Source : philly[dot]com

Mists of Pandaria Pushes Warcraft Subs Over 10 Million

The release of World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria has caused the game's subscriber numbers to climb back over the 10 million players mark.

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It’s been gratifying to see the results of all of the work we put into this expansion and to hear all of the positive feedback from players so far.

When Blizzard last revealed how many subscribers its MMO behemoth had back in August, we found out that the number of players had fallen to 9.1 million. That all seems to have been reversed now though, with the company reporting sub numbers are once again rising towards the level we saw back in March.

Blizzard also revealed that 2.7 million copies of the game were sold in its first week between September 25 and October 2. As the game didn't release in China until after this period, the 2.7 million figure refers to copies sold elsewhere in the world.

Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime said, "It’s been gratifying to see the results of all of the work we put into this expansion and to hear all of the positive feedback from players so far."

World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria adds a range of new features to the game including the Pandaren race and the new land of Pandaria, as well as a raised level cap of 90.

To keep up to speed with our thoughts on the fourth expansion for World of Warcraft, be sure to check our review in progress.

Luke Karmali is IGN's UK Editorial Assistant and has lost more hours in Azeroth than he'd care to admit. You too can revel in mediocrity by following him on IGN and on Twitter.

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Football Manager 2013 Release Date Announced

SEGA has revealed the latest instalment in the Football Manager franchise will release on November 2 worldwide.

If you can't wait until then though, the company is offering keen players who pre-order the chance to get into the game earlier.

Anyone who pre-orders a physical or digital copy of the game will receive a code that will grant access to a single-player beta version of the game about two weeks before the full game becomes available. This beta will remain playable until November 5, and all saved games and progress made during the pre-release period will be fully compatible with the final release.

Speaking about the decision to offer earlier access, Sports Interactive’s studio director Miles Jacobson said, "Our fans are very good at letting us know what they want and the one thing that’s consistently at the top of their wish list is an earlier release date. While we can’t, strictly speaking, offer them exactly what they want, this Beta version is the next best thing… a fully playable Football Manager they can get their hands on around two weeks before the finished game hits the streets."

Football Manager 2013 will be available on PC and Mac from November 2, and includes new features such as a Classic mode and short-term challenges.

Luke Karmali is IGN's UK Editorial Assistant. You too can revel in mediocrity by following him on IGN and on Twitter.

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Pick a Card, Any Card With Might & Magic: Duel of Champions

It's no secret that free to play titles are becoming increasingly sophisticated. Both independent studios and behemoth publishers are experimenting with different ways of reeling in new players and holding their attention. In doing so, they are becoming ever more adept at striking the enticing balance between valuing the player’s investment of time with coaxing them to dip into their pocket. There will always be those poorly-considered, thinly-veiled attempts to grab your cash, but the industry appears to be getting a handle on what makes the free to play model appealing rather than abhorrent.

Ubisoft is a company trying hard to get this right and the publisher-slash-developer has a robust free to play line-up launching over the coming months. This is evidenced by none more strongly than its Might & Magic franchise, which the publisher has been in charge of for close to a decade: there's the immediate smash and grab gratification of Might & Magic: RaiderZ; the more considered option of Might & Magic Online; and the specialised nature of Might & Magic: Duel of Champions. It’s this last title that I’ve been tinkering with since its open beta launched earlier this month and I’m a little surprised to say that this card battler is gratifyingly deep and undiluted.

Decks are constructed around a single hero, of whom there are four for each of the primary factions: Necropolis, Inferno, Haven and Stronghold. Each faction has creatures loyal to it and can be boosted by the game’s fifth, neutral faction, which has no heroes of its own and exists only to supplement the dominant four. In addition to factions there exist seven schools of magic, the use of which is dictated by the hero at the centre of the deck, and each hero is typically able to wield cards from two or three of these schools. Added to the spell cards are trap and fortune cards that affect both the opponent and/or the hero, as well as event cards that sit outside of the battlefield and are changed each turn, potentially affecting the flow of play on a turn-by-turn basis.

There’s a lot to get your head around, but one of Duel of Champions’ most fundamental concepts (and where it varies most from the granddaddy of card trading games, Magic: The Gathering) is battlefield position. Creatures are placed on either the front or back line depending on their attributes and can then either attack enemy creatures directly opposite them or move to a vacant field position to block incoming attacks. Depending on how the attributes of different decks stack up against each other and the skill of the players, duels can last anywhere from five to forty minutes.

The starting decks are adequate, but it won’t be long before you’ll want to venture to the shop to spend the spoils of war or exchange real world cash for in-game currency. The cards that form the lifeblood of the game come in an assortment of varied flavours. There’s the quick gratification of the smallest, two-card pack costing 2,000 gold (representing around two to four online duels or approximately 30 euro cents), all the way up to multi-pack boxes that can only be purchased with Seals, which are obtained by levelling up or by purchase, and cost 1,000 seals for 120 cards or 3,000 for 384 cards (approximately €15 - €35).

In playing to level 5 over several hours, I earned enough in-game currency for around four 8-card Heroic packs, a 12-card Reinforcement pack and enough Seals for the 120-card box; a total of around 164 cards on top of the starting deck of 56, of which 140 or so were unique. The community against which to wield these cards seems to be fairly bustling, meaning you rarely wait more than 15 or 20 seconds for a duel. This is just as well, because the open beta campaign fought against the AI is limited to a handful of introductory missions, making online duelling the only way to earn in-game currency.

Deck building is initially confusing due to a sparse interface and lack of guidance or feedback, but once mastered it proves to be a rewarding time sink and invites frequent revisits to tinker with your line-up in between duels. Meanwhile, duels can feel a little overwhelming as you get to grips with different effects and mechanics, but you can take a closer look at any of the cards on the battlefield or discard piles. This helps reveal why your seemingly flawless master plan to conquer your opponent fell apart just as you were about to deliver the crushing blow or why a card you were sure was invincible fell to a low-level runt.

There have been some complaints from the community about the balance of the game, with one faction in particular accused of being overpowered from the start. However, prolonged play suggests that while some factions are indeed easier to get to grips with, others have the edge in longer duels. It is likely a case of Ubisoft tweaking the starting contents of certain decks to redress the balance in the early stages of the game, which is exactly what beta testing is intended to uncover.

Might & Magic Duel of Champions is a satisfying card battler whose depth belies its free to play status and it appears entirely possible to play the game without spending much, if any, real world cash. That said, the mark of well-designed game of this ilk is not how adequately its initial glut of cards perform, but how satisfying it is to open those virtual, shiny foil packets to reveal the potentially precious contents inside. In that respect, Duel of Champions has the power to transport us all back to school, to those days of coveting the cards of our friends and opponents; it’s just a shame we can’t play swapsies.

Stace Harman is a freelance contributor to IGN and is convinced that zombies will one day inherent the Earth. You can follow him on Twitter.

Source : feeds[dot]ign[dot]com

World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria Now Live

Mists of Pandaria, the newest expansion for World of Warcraft, is available now, offering a new class, new continent, new level cap and more. Players will be able to step into the shoes (well, paws) of the Pandaren race, plus expand their character up to level 90. New features also include scenarios (a new PvE trial), challenge modes, a new talent system, a pet battle system, high-prestige awards for beating new five-player dungeons and much more.

Pandaria is available for $39.99 at retail or digitally, and a Collector’s Edition with a soundtrack CD, behind-the-scenes DVD, hardback artbook, mouse pad and more is available for $79.99 in stores. "Mists of Pandaria takes players back to the roots of World of Warcraft -- exploration, discovery, and the epic conflict between the Alliance and the Horde," Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime said today. "It also contains the widest variety of content that we've ever added in an expansion, and we're excited to be able to share it with players around the world this week in our first truly global launch."

Blizzard has a full Mists of Pandaria survival guide running through all the new features, including the new talent system and how it changes each class.

Not sure if you want to play Mists? We’ll be live streaming the new content today at noon PST, plus you can read our Mists of Pandaria review in progress for our impressions as we play.

Will you be buying Mists of Pandaria? Let us know in the comments below.

Andrew Goldfarb is IGN’s associate news editor. Keep up with pictures of the latest food he’s been eating by following him on Twitter or IGN.

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Medal of Honor Warfighter Beta Announced, Exclusive to 360

EA has announced a multiplayer beta for Medal of Honor Warfighter. In early October, Xbox 360 players will be able to try a new multiplayer mode called HotSpot, which lets players attack and defend randomly-selected areas of Sarajevo Stadium, a map set in Bosnia. Players will team up using the game’s co-op Fireteam system, playing in pairs to win.

Anyone who downloads the beta will also get one hour of double XP when the full version of Warfighter launches. EA also announced that if three million players download the beta, Linkin Park’s “Castle of Glass” music video will be unlocked early.

Medal of Honor Warfighter launches on October 23rd. The first print run of the game is the Medal of Honor Warfighter Limited Edition, which includes a free map pack based on Bin Laden assassination film Zero Dark Thirty. For more on Warfighter’s multiplayer, read our hands-on impressions, plus more details in our Medal of Honor Warfighter wiki guide.

Andrew Goldfarb is IGN’s associate news editor. Keep up with pictures of the latest food he’s been eating by following him on Twitter or IGN.

Source : feeds[dot]ign[dot]com

Dollar Dash Turns Friends Into Frienemies

Like any good party game, Dollar Dash plays by the KISS principle: Keep It Simple, Stupid.

You and any combination of three other players – be they bots, local friends or online pals – collect scattered cash from around each of the game’s 31 maps and return it to the getaway car. Whoever collects the most coin wins, so even though you all arrived at this crime scene as brothers in illicit arms, it’s ultimately every man for himself. Simple enough, right?

Yep, and that’s the point. Dollar Dash is meant to be a pick-up-and-play party game, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t without clever nuance. For instance, because loot weighs you down, you’ll need to decide on your strategy. Will you make frequent, speedy trips to the drop-off point? Or will you instead opt to gather more dinero and make a slower stroll back to the getaway car that leaves you more vulnerable to attacks from your frienemies?

And attack they will. When your competitors lay traps or shoot pellets at you, you’ll start spraying change as if you were the punchline of a Daniel Tosh stand-up bit. Change that said competitors are free to then collect for themselves. But power-ups will help you even the odds. Tools like speed shoes can help negate the effects of being flush with stacks of greenbacks, while a shop system allows you to purchase upgrades that affect the gameplay. Weapon upgrades like Nuke+ mean you’ll be immune to your own mega-blasts, and Call of Duty-like perks will let you take more damage, carry more ammo, and move faster. Hats, character faces, taunts, and dances are examples of benign unlockables that spice up the fun a bit.

Four-player mayhem puts the "dash" in Dollar Dash.

As we played, we found that the rounds dragged on a bit long for our tastes, but otherwise, the cute art style, extra game modes (like Hit ‘n’ Run, in which the goal is solely to beat up your competition), and approachable gameplay should make Dollar Dash a bargain at the $10 price it’s likely to go for.

Ryan McCaffrey is the Executive Editor at IGN Xbox. He used to own a DeLorean, which is weird. Follow him on Twitter, on IGN, catch him on Podcast Unlocked, and drop-ship him Taylor Ham sandwiches from New Jersey whenever possible.

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Guild Wars 2 Sales Reopen Today

Having suspended sales of Guild Wars 2 right at the end of last month because servers were creaking under the sheer weight of players, ArenaNet has reopened them this morning. So if you missed the boat on release weekend and have since lost all of your friends to Tyria, at least you can now join them.

ArenaNet originally suspended sales on August 30th, just two days after launch, because the server infrastructure was having problems keeping up with demand. Since then, the company had deployed new European and North American servers and prepared the Trading Post for a new influx of players.

ArenaNet's president Mike O'Brien had this to day: “Preserving the customer experience has always been our top priority. We’re supporting  Guild Wars 2 for the long run. We’ll always do what it takes to deliver the best online gaming experience for our customers, even when that means throttling sales.”

To celebrate, the developer released a bizarre and rather arresting new live-action trailer. Enjoy it below:

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