In the year of our lord two thousand and twenty, many things occurred. But one of those things was the cultural event known as Blaseball. Blaseball was, more or less, a simulated baseball league that ran one game an hour, one season a week, that players could bet on and then use their winnings to vote for global rules changes. It got... weirder from there. And bigger. And memeier. It became nothing less than a lifestyle. And then, this past summer of 2023, it ended. What made it such a phenomenon? What made its fans so passionate? Was Blaseball even a game? And what will we do with ourselves now that it’s gone? This week Sam is joined by Chris Greenbriar, former moderator of the team discord for the Core Mechanics (that’s one of the teams from Blaseball) to reminisce and celebrate Blaseball’s legacy and everything that made it beautiful. Further reading: Blaseball’s website The Blaseball fan wiki The Seattle Garages bandcamp and the Fourth Strike Records website. The Great Soul Train Robbery in both original two page and zine length. Empires of EVE: the EVE Online history book series 17776, which we didn’t mention but which you should give a glance Socials: Join the Dice Exploder Discord if you need to talk with Chris directly. Sam on Bluesky, Twitter, dice.camp, and itch. Our logo was designed by sporgory, and our theme song is Sunset Bridge by Purely Grey. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit diceexploder.substack.com