The Chronicles of Weibel
Fred E. Weibel Elementary
Minecraft
by Sameer Rajdev
I grab an iron pickaxe and head down into a mineshaft. It’s dark, but I've brought torches. Score! Some diamonds! I quickly break the valuable ore, and then place a crafting table to make a diamond pickaxe. I mine some obsidian and make a window out of it. I take my flint and steel, and light the portal to a new dimension. This scene is familiar to many. It is a part of Minecraft, the record breaking block-based game with millions of copies sold. So what is it?
Well, if you haven’t played Minecraft, there are two objectives. The first is to survive. The second is to beat the Ender Dragon, a boss at the end of the game that is insanely powerful. To do both, you will need items, which you get by mining a block. With tons of different blocks at your disposal, you can build anything, and survive doing it. Here are some of the basics you need to start the game: A crafting table, stone tools, and iron armor. Nearly all of the millions of players get these things as soon as possible. Speaking of millions of players, how did Minecraft get that many people to play? Well, it was thanks to the updates.
One of the most monumental updates that popularized the game was Minecraft 1.7, which added lots more biomes and tons of awesome blocks and textures. This update is associated with the rise in Minecraft's popularity. Another important update is the Nether update. In this update, tons of new blocks, enchantments, mobs, and even an ore were added to the Nether, making this terrible place into an intriguing home.
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Is Chess a Sport?
by Advika Bamididpati
A big question many people like
to ask about chess is if it’s a sport
or not. Many people consider it
to be a sport more than a game.
Though, others believe it’s more of
a game than a sport. So the big
question would be if chess is
indeed a sport? The answer leans towards yes, but that also does not mean it’s not a game, and it does not mean that it’s officially worldwide considered a sport.
Chess is still not considered a sport to many people worldwide, and many debates have formed with this specific topic, but it is considered a sport enough to get Olympic recognition. In 1999 the International Olympic committee saw chess as more than a game but a sport.
The Oxford dictionary also states the definition of a “sport” to be “an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment”, and chess happens to check mostly all the boxes of the requirements a game needs in order to be considered a sport. Yes, the “physical exertion” part is not a direct check mark, but people still consider physical exertion being utilized during chess, as well as mental exertion. But that is probably why many people do not see it as a sport. People also compete against each other in order to play, so that is a valid reason it can be considered a sport. Chess is also a game some people do mostly watch others play. Even though they won’t always watch the people play chess, you have to think about it like how a basketball game is not always watched, but is typically a sport that there is an audience for. Chess also requires skill and is competitive, but that wouldn't necessarily make it a sport right away, it’s just something that sports have in general.
All in all, I think it’s safe to consider chess a sport. Chess can still be a game, and you can still think of it as just a game, but there still is a lot of evidence proving it would/should be considered a sport. So in the end, chess is considered to mostly be a sport.
Summer Olympics 2021
by Advika Bamididpati
How the Olympics were created
The ancient Olympic Games started more than almost 3,000 years ago. It was created by Greek people, and hosted in Greece. Thousands of people would gather every 4 years to either spectate at or play the Olympic sports. It was not only a fun thing to do, but also a type of religious festival to honor the king of the Greek gods as well as the god of the sky, Zeus. Now these games are hosted internationally, and played by people all over the globe.
The Olympics for Summer 2021
Every four years the Olympics take place. The Olympics are a worldwide festival event for sports. Every four years there is a new country picked to host the Olympic games. During 2020 it was supposed to be held in Tokyo, Japan. Technically, that is still true, but there was news last year that the Olympics had been postponed till 2021. That may mess up the schedule because it’s supposed to be held every four years, and now we postponed it a year, so what will happen to the next Olympics? Well for starters, the Olympics that will be taking place the most soon, is the one in summer of 2021. The date it’s supposed to start on is July 23rd, and it’s supposed to end on August 8th, but the next Olympics should still be taking place in 2024, in Paris, France.
Safety Precautions for the Olympics
Because of Covid-19 safety precautions are going to have to be taken, during the games. This means they will most likely not have an audience like they usually do. They will also be limiting the amount of players/athletes and staff on the field. They would also like to limit the amount of socializing the athletes and staff do outside of the area they are playing. The staff agree that there will be more strict safety precautions and rules they will have to follow, as well.
Sports In Quarantine
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by Sameer Rajdev
2021 has been a hard year for many businesses. Small businesses are struggling to stay over the water. Games have been cancelled. Restaurants don’t have anyone to sell to. However those businesses are starting to do better. One of those businesses is sports, but how did it fall so badly at the start of the pandemic? Additionally, why did it make a comeback? Well, let’s explore why sports didn’t do so well.
At first, things continued mostly normally, but a major superspreader event at Miami Games made some players decide to quit rather than risk contracting the virus. Then, those players influence more of their friends, who also drop out. This means that people who were fans of those people don’t want to watch sports anymore. Finally, add on increased regulations, and sports in general have suddenly suffered incomparable losses. How, then, did it make such a huge comeback? Television is a huge part of it, first off. Sports is now making a lot of money from people watching at home. The second part of the comebacks is reopening. America is doing much better in terms of daily cases than before, and with 22% of the population vaccinated, it is safe to reopen the stadiums (with social distancing, of course.). Another huge contributor is the Tokyo Olympics, which decided to reopen after a year of delays. More than 10,000 athletes will go to the Tokyo Olympics, which will probably result in a huge renewed interest in sports.