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Mikhail Klimentov

@leadergrev.bsky.social

3.7K followers 540 following 1.3K posts

video game newsletter at readergrev.com former editor at Launcher (RIP) current editor at The Washington Post mikhailklimentov.01 on Signal

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Mikhail Klimentov @leadergrev.bsky.social · 11d

NEW: I interviewed @ballatw.bsky.social (who doesn't use his account) about his decision to quit esports.

Conversation took an unexpected turn toward video game addiction, and I’m really glad it did.
www.readergrev.com/p/exit-inter...

Exit Interview: Arten 'Ballatw' Esa

The esteemed former Fortnite and Valorant caster talks about ditching his addiction to video games.

www.readergrev.com

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Mikhail Klimentov @leadergrev.bsky.social · 12h

Watching college football and baseball at a bar and Valorant esports is unironically a better product. Ads every ~25 minutes (instead of every 2-5 minutes) and the score is constantly being advanced in some way.

Reposted by Mikhail Klimentov

Adam Harris @adamhsays.com · 19h

The distance, between the claim that “advocates are actually engaging in violent and dangerous behavior“ to the reality that “bystanders reported seeing children zip-tied to one another,” tells quite the moral story.

Read @caitlindickerson.bsky.social: www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...

“Many of these so-called advocates are actually engaging in violent and dangerous behavior,” Tricia McLaughlin, a DHS spokesperson, told me in a statement. She added, in reference to Illinois Governor J. B. Pritzker: “From comparisons to the modern-day Nazi gestapo to glorifying rioters, the violent rhetoric of these sanctuary politicians is beyond the pale. This rhetoric is contributing to a more than 1000% surge in assaults of our ICE officers.”

And yet this comes at a time when ICE itself has become more violent toward immigrants, protesters, and unlucky bystanders alike. In recent weeks, agents have shoved to the ground a journalist trying to document an arrest and a woman who was crying because her husband had just been taken into custody. Both were hospitalized. And in Chicago, they shot a woman who they say rammed an agency vehicle—a claim that the woman’s lawyer said body-camera footage disproves. Alongside the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives and the FBI, ICE also stormed an apartment building in the dark of night, breaking down doors and detaining scores of people, including U.S. citizens. Bystanders reported seeing children zip-tied to one another.

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Mikhail Klimentov @leadergrev.bsky.social · 1d

Crazy kicker on this one lmao
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/10/u...

Marc Benioff Says Trump Should Send Guard Troops to San Francisco

www.nytimes.com

Mikhail Klimentov @leadergrev.bsky.social · 1d

"You can feel the low rumble of a hobby yearning for the return of what we loved 15 years ago: the spectacle of scale, the unserious chaos of vehicular warfare, red grunts vs. blue grunts ... an environment where the guy obsessed with metas is having the least fun."
www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/ba...

Battlefield 6 review-in-progress: A salve for an FPS scene that takes itself too seriously

So far, Battlefield 6 is the return to form this series needed.

www.pcgamer.com

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Reposted by Mikhail Klimentov

Noah K Leiter (He/Him) @noah-k.bsky.social · 1d

"When did the termite of boardroom argot bore its way into the fleshy lumber of our speech?" is still my favorite line of the year: www.readergrev.com/p/marathon-s... (from @leadergrev.bsky.social)

Kill the CEO in your head

High-profile failures in the video game industry have changed how we talk about games for the worse

www.readergrev.com

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Mikhail Klimentov @leadergrev.bsky.social · 1d

Thank you for reading!

Reposted by Mikhail Klimentov

BeijingPalmer @beijingpalmer.bsky.social · 2d

wow, it's this kind of iconoclastic, out of the box thinking that really stands out

max tani @maxtani.bsky.social · 2d

New: Bari Weiss booked Hillary Clinton, Mike Pompeo, and Antony Blinken for a roundtable on Gaza, her first major move at CBS.

Notably on a CBS call today in which the panel was floated, one producer also repeatedly emphasized the need to hear from Palestinians in Gaza (Weiss did not respond).

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Reposted by Mikhail Klimentov

Nick Capozzoli @nickcapozzoli.bsky.social · 2d

New blog post up. It's about a few things—chiefly, the impulse to jettison literary criticism as if it were ballast. www.arcadence.com/abundance-re...

Abundance Reigns!

The Reminder is a watchword: though it may ascribe a problem to us, the offenders are assuredly others.

www.arcadence.com

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Mikhail Klimentov @leadergrev.bsky.social · 2d

My kingdom for a world where I stay logged in to the New Yorker and NYMag websites.

Mikhail Klimentov @leadergrev.bsky.social · 3d

That was for this story, which I enjoyed writing and am glad exists but which veers pretty close to ad copy in places!
www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/202...

A feel for the game

Sony’s big bet is that what’s good for developers will be great for players.

www.washingtonpost.com

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Mikhail Klimentov @leadergrev.bsky.social · 3d

I honestly thought maybe the call had cut out, so I was like: Hey, you there?

When he answered he seemed genuinely kind of upset: Are you asking what we didn’t put into the PS5?

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Mikhail Klimentov @leadergrev.bsky.social · 3d

Reminds me of an extremely embarrassing interview moment.

I asked Cerny if there was anything his team had looked at while working on the PS5 that they couldn’t do with that hardware, but were excited to maybe tackle sometime down the line. There was an agonizing, ~20 second silence.

IGN @ign.com · 3d

Sony tech wizard Mark Cerny has teased new graphics features he's excited to bring to "a future console in a few years time," sparking a wave of PS6 release date speculation in the process. https://bit.ly/3KFH3CQ

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Reposted by Mikhail Klimentov

mat olson @mathewolson.com · 3d

damning thread on how the IDF's propaganda arm is scraping 3D assets intended for things like games, films, or architectural purposes and kitbashing together supposed hamas bunkers and iranian nuclear sites. a genocide campaign propped up in part by someone's nephew who got too into blender.

Jack Sapoch @jacksapoch.bsky.social · 3d

NEW: Since October 2023, the IDF Spokesperson's Unit has released dozens of 3D animations illustrating alleged Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iranian sites

The style is now unmistakable: satellite zoom-ins, black & white wireframes, and red-textured houses - a new visual language of war

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Mikhail Klimentov @leadergrev.bsky.social · 3d

I think I’ll always be a bit of a snob about some of the big indie bands because I think their breakout songs are often far from their best. Rebellion, by Arcade fire, also on the list, is another example!

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Mikhail Klimentov @leadergrev.bsky.social · 3d

Of course they went with A-Punk smh

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Mikhail Klimentov @leadergrev.bsky.social · 3d

Haven’t looked yet where’s Hannah Hunt

Rolling Stone @rollingstone.com · 4d

ROLLING STONE RANKS THE 250 GREATEST SONGS OF THE 21st CENTURY SO FAR 🚨

The 250 Greatest Songs of the 21st Century So Far

bit.ly

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Reposted by Mikhail Klimentov

BeijingPalmer @beijingpalmer.bsky.social · 3d

the NYT's Harvard thing is genuinely weird. imagine being obsessed with the politics and social standing of a school you went to three decades ago

James Fallows @jfallows.bsky.social · 3d

Shocked, just shocked, by this important scoop on front page of today's NYT. /s/

Based on report that came out ... nine months ago

And behavior long predating that

("Skip a class? Perish the thought!!" Says anyone who ever worked on a college newspaper, which covers a lot of people in the media.)

NYT front page headline: "Harvard Finds Skipping Class Part of Culture."

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Reposted by Mikhail Klimentov

Stephen Totilo @stephentotilo.bsky.social · 3d

SCOOP: Last year, Ubisoft cancelled an Assassin's Creed game set during Reconstruction. Was to feature a Black Assassin who, among other things, fought the rise of the Klan

Sources: Leadership nixed it over concerns re: U.S. political climate, backlash to Yasuke

www.gamefile.news/p/scoop-ubis...

Scoop: Ubisoft cancelled a post-Civil War Assassin’s Creed last year

Company leadership deemed the project too controversial for the moment, sources tell Game File

www.gamefile.news

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Reposted by Mikhail Klimentov

Ryan Teague Beckwith @ryanbeckwith.bsky.social · 5d

Editor in chief, city editor, features editor

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Mikhail Klimentov @leadergrev.bsky.social · 5d

Received some information that feels ReaderGrev story-shaped but not in an obvious way. One of those days where it'd be nice to have an editor!

Mikhail Klimentov @leadergrev.bsky.social · 5d

Hey, hope all's well! Just following up.

Mikhail Klimentov @leadergrev.bsky.social · 5d

Sometimes I see a take that is so dull

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Mikhail Klimentov @leadergrev.bsky.social · 5d

Huh! Kotick seems really interested in the media.

AmericanTruckSongs10 @ethangach.bsky.social · 5d

Bari Weiss' self-made success, brought to you by the worst people around www.nytimes.com/2024/08/11/b...

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Mikhail Klimentov @leadergrev.bsky.social · 6d

This seems bad but I can’t really think of too many examples in which corporate ownership of an upstart outlet has ended well, so just give it like, 2 years.

max tani @maxtani.bsky.social · 6d

David Ellison’s note to staff on Paramount’s acquisition of the Free Press

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Mikhail Klimentov @leadergrev.bsky.social · 6d

Turn me on with your electric eel

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