Nats All Star CJ Abrams Demoted for All-Nighter at Casino
- Nats All Star CJ Abrams demoted after spending much of night at Chicago-area casino before game versus Cubs.
- New poll finds Kamala Harris up by 5 points over GOP candidate Donald Trump.
- LOL eSports Global Power Rankings introduced.
Gambling News
Nats All Star CJ Abrams Demoted for All-Nighter at Casino
The Washington Nationals demoted All-Star shortstop CJ Abrams to the minor leagues after he stayed out all night at a Chicago-area casino, leaving only hours before a Friday day game against the Chicago Cubs, sources told ESPN's Jesse Rogers.
Abrams, 23, led off for the Nationals and went 0-for-3 with a walk and strikeout in Friday's game.
Abrams is being sent to the Nationals’ minor league complex in West Palm Beach.
Nationals manager Dave Martinez confirmed the demotion but termed it an internal matter.
"For me, it's about taking care of the person first, and not the player, and I'm going to do everything I can to help him," Martinez said after the Nationals' 5-1 victory over the Cubs. "I love the kid. He's a good kid. He's going to be back."
Abrams can opt to file a grievance through the Major League Baseball Players Association to fight for lost pay if he believes the demotion is unjust. He stands to lose around $30,000 of his $752,000 salary for missing the season's final week.
Abrams went 4-for-5 with two steals in a loss to the Cubs on Thursday.
Politics
New Poll Finds Harris Up 5 Points Nationally Over Trump
The latest NBC News national poll shows Vice President Kamala Harris leading former president Donald Trump 49%-44%, within the margin of error, while Trump holds advantages on the economy, inflation and the border.
Democratic support reached its highest point in NBC News polling since mid-2023, while the share of voters saying they were undecided or wanted another choice dipped to its lowest point since that time.
Harris’ favorability has jumped 16 points since July, the largest increase for any politician in NBC News polling since then-President George W. Bush’s standing surged after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
“In July, there was a stiff breeze heading directly at President Biden and obscuring a clear path to victory. Today, the winds have turned in Kamala Harris’ favor,” said Jeff Horwitt of Hart Research Associates, the Democratic pollster who conducted this survey with Republican pollster Bill McInturff of Public Opinion Strategies.
Still, Trump holds important advantages on the economy and inflation.
Harris was holding as a -130 favorite over Trump at +110.
eSports
LoL Esports Global Power Rankings Unveiled
Riot Games announced the official launch of the League of Legends Esports (LoL Esports) Global Power Rankings today just in time for Worlds 2024.
Powered by Amazon Web Services (AWS) technology, it is a “dynamic, data-driven rankings engine” that interprets and contextualizes a team’s strength within Tier 1 leagues, Riot wrote.
“This system evaluates not only individual team performances, but also the strength of the regions they hail from. The result is a comprehensive and transparent snapshot of the global competitive landscape, updated after every day of play during Worlds 2024,” Riot stated.
The LoL Esports Global Power Rankings Elo metric balances a weighted average between a team’s Elo and their league
Key Features
- Game-based Resolution: The model updates after every game in a series of matches. Meaning we take every game played during a regional split or international event into account.
- Contextualized Match Weighting (K Factors): International events are weighted more heavily than regional events, with knockout matches carrying more significance than group-stage matches. This ensures that high-stakes fixtures have a greater impact on rankings.
- Evaluation Windows: A three-year evaluation window for league Elo and a two-year window for team Elo allow the system to balance the impact of roster changes while maintaining a robust sample size of international games.
- Predictive Accuracy: The system's ability to predict match outcomes has been rigorously tested, with results indicating a strong correlation between expected and actual outcomes.
- ’s Elo. Officially termed the “Power Score formula”, the team’s Elo and the league’s Elo are weighted at 80% and 20% respectively.
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