2M points and two RB2 #1 scores!

This week we reached our main goal by gaining more than 2M points! On top of that we got our first #1 scores for RB2! We played 30 songs, so that gives an average increase of 68K per song.

We are now only 1.3M points away from the 2nd best local band "Happy People Playing ROCK BAND" (they also increased a bit tonight). There are 6 bands ahead of us that are within about 3M points so it should make for a neat climb in the next few weeks.

Highlights:
- We have our first RB2 session with some decent paths and it pays off, with two #1 ranked full band FCs ("Today" and "Nine in the Afternoon", pictures to come soon)
- Our best increases were for "Chop Suey" (356K), "American Woman" (252K), "Rob the Prez-O-Dent" (231K), "Bodhisattva" (212K) and "Today" (210K)
- We all get 100% on "My Own Worst Enemy" but it's not a #1 score (need better path and no overstrum)
- We pass "Jesus Christ Pose" on Expert at the end of the session in a random DLC set but it's a pretty tough sightread

Happy New Year everyone!

Goal for tomorrow: pass the Happy People

This week our optimal goal will be to gain 3.2M points to beat "Happy People Playing ROCK BAND" for 17th place. It is a longer session so it is possible. Once we pass them, the last local band to beat in both RB1 and RB2 will be "3 on a Match".

We are currently in 18th place but there are still four bands with inflated scores (in positions 1, 2, 4 and 9).

To reach our optimal goal, we will need an average increase of 133K per song if we play for two hours (24 songs), 89K per song if we play for three hours (36 songs) and 67K per song if we play for four hours (48 songs).

Minimum: Gain 1M points, a decent increase
Main: Gain 2M points, a good increase
Optimal: Gain 3.2M points, to beat "Happy People Playing ROCK BAND" for 17th place
Bonus: Play some random DLC on our breaks

Here is the setlist for tomorrow (worst all-Expert songs by spread to #1, all songs with more than 250K difference):
1. "Lazy Eye"
2. "American Woman"
3. "Alabama Getaway"
4. "Spoonman"
5. "Welcome to the Neighborhood"
6. "Bad Reputation"
7. "Carry On Wayward Son"
8. "One Way or Another"
9. "You Oughta Know"
10. "Where'd You Go?"
11. "Tangled Up in Blue"
12. "Go Your Own Way"
13. "Spirit in the Sky"
14. "One Step Closer"
15. "Lump"
16. "Mountain Song"
17. "Round and Round"
18. "Uncontrollable Urge"
19. "Pretend We're Dead"
20. "Our Truth"
21. "I Was Wrong"
22. "Alive"
23. "Feel the Pain"
24. "Night Lies"
25. "Rebel Girl"
26. "Come Out and Play (Keep 'Em Separated)"
27. "The Trees (Vault Edition)"
28. "Pinball Wizard"
29. "Cool for Cats"
30. "Psycho Killer"

A merry increase!

We almost managed to reach our main goal by gaining more than 1.3M points! We are now ahead of "Forgotten Nightmare" at 111M for 18th place. We played 16 songs, so that gives an average increase of 83K per song.

This leaves us 3M away from "Happy People Playing ROCK BAND", a point gain we can most likely accomplish within 2 sessions.

Highlights:
- Our best increases were for "Supreme Girl" (292K), "Tangled Up in Blue" (291K) and "Lazy Eye" (282K)
- "Supreme Girl" is now our best ranked song in RB2 (4th)
- Phoenix has a great note streak for "Lazy Eye" (1802)
- Sylvie is added as an honorary Maca in the "Band Info" section, thanks again for filling in for Raikan!
- We have a special Perkins after-session outing, gotta love the improvised food costumes...

Happy Holidays to one and all!

Score Reader 2.3 released!

Download Here


New features:
- We support Wii, but if you select DLC, be aware that the scores are not up yet
- The tool is now twice as fast as in version 2.2
- Fixed bug caused by the latest Leaderboard changes

(Original Post)

Beer of the week

Hi there, to celebrate the holiday season, let's start a new tradion for 2009!

Since Phoenix and Bongoo have a taste of 1 or 2 new beers every week, we decided to share what we try with you and give you our feedback.

This week's beer was exceptionaly strong: Aventinus Weizen Eisbock.

Since this ale has 12% alcohol, it is the only one we tried tonight (we have to keep a minimal level of mental awareness for our sessions ;) ). It is a dark colored beer with a very complex taste.

As strong as it may seem, this beer was esceptionally smooth and somewhat sweet. One of our groupies (the Trapper) describes it as a "strong alchoolic rootbeer". I personally would compare this beer to a white wine...

Try it out and let us know. :)

"phoenix5096@gmail.com"

Top Vocalist - A Jagged Gorgeous Winter

Yesterday, while attempting to up my overall vocalist score (something that has become tedious, seeing as how most of my spreads are below 20k), something wonderful happened:



That's right! The Reject has the top vocalist score for the worst named song in Rock Band 2!

Woot!

Goal for tomorrow: halfway to Happy People

Score Reader update: a fixed version with Wii support is being tested and will soon be released. Thank you for your patience.

This is the 100th post! It's neat to see how this blog has expanded (Score Reader, online shop) and how we've progressed since it launched (2nd place for RB1 PS3)!

This week our minimum goal will be to gain 1M points to beat "Forgotten Nightmare". Our optimal goal will be to gain 2M to be halfway to catching up to "Happy People Playing ROCK BAND". Once we pass them, the last local band to beat in both RB1 and RB2 will be "3 on a Match".

We are currently in 18th place but there are still three bands with inflated scores (in positions 1, 2 and 4). It is also interesting to note that "Mach 6" dropped back down, so they are out of our radar for now.

To reach our optimal goal, we will need an average increase of 166K per song if we play for one hour (12 songs), 84K per song if we play for two hours (24 songs) and 56K per song if we play for three hours (36 songs).

Minimum: Gain 1M points, to beat "Forgotten Nightmare" for 17th place
Main: Gain 1.5M points, a good increase
Optimal: Gain 2M points, halfway to catching up to "Happy People Playing ROCK BAND"
Bonus: Play some random DLC on our breaks

Here is the setlist for tomorrow (worst all-Expert songs by spread to #1, all songs with more than 350K difference):
1. "Tangled Up in Blue"
2. "Lazy Eye"
3. "Where'd You Go?"
4. "Let There Be Rock"
5. "Aqualung"
6. "Supreme Girl"
7. "Welcome to the Neighborhood"
8. "American Woman"
9. "Alive"
10. "Alabama Getaway"
11. "Spoonman"
12. "Bad Reputation"
13. "Testify"
14. "Carry On Wayward Son"
15. "Night Lies"
16. "One Way or Another"
17. "You Oughta Know"
18. "One Step Closer"

Fanmail #3 - Christmas Shopping!

Today's Fanmail comes from Steve:

From: Steve in a Panic!
Sent: Thursday, December 18th, 2009
Subject: Present Ideas

Hello Macas,

I was wondering if you had any ideas for presents during this year's holiday season. I tried to go shopping yesterday, but couldn't find anything for my wife.

Any suggestions would help!

Thanks - Stevo

Ok, first off, the name of the band is 3 Macas and a Reject!

Second, this sounds like the perfect opportunity to launch the New Online Store foreshadowed in Fanmail #1!

---

Are you currently at home sitting in front of the computer? Are you surfing the web in your underwear, searching for last minute gift ideas, all the while eating a lukewarm burrito you could have probably left in the microwave a couple of minutes longer?

If so, please seak professional help...

Otherwise, visit the 3 Macas and a Reject Online Shop! where you'll find everything you'll need to please the family this holiday season!

Need something for the kids? Check out our "I Heart 3 MaaR" buttons! Great for children of all shapes and sizes, your toddlers will choke on their small sizes, while your emo teenager will take advantage of the sharp pin to cut himself! Buy one for your son or daughter today! Have many kids? Then Buy our 10 pack and Save!

Have a bratty teenager that won't shut up about how uncool they are? Get them the Ginormous 3 Macas and a Reject Poster. Its actual size of 35" x 23", along with some badass poses from each of the 3MaaR members (and fake autographs!!), will make your teen the coolest kid in school! Don't have big enough walls for our ginormous poster? Then get our Not So Ginormous 3 Macas and a Reject Poster today!

Want to get your wife something that shows how much you care? Get her the "I Heart 3 MaaR" String Thong! That way she can feel sexy, all the while reminding you of your favorite band!

PS: All proceeds will go to help a Maca in need.

PPS: Merry Christmas Everyone! :D

---

Have Fanmail you want to send us? Then open up your email and write to: "rejected.fans@live.com"!

We beat you n00bs, now it's your turn...

Even with a shortened session due to Phoenix's Pizza Hut indigestion, we managed to reach our minimum goal by gaining close to 1.1M points! We are now ahead of "Forgotten Nightmare" and "n00bs 'R' Uz" at 110M for 17th place. We played 14 songs so that gives an average increase of 77K per song.

As usual, we expect "n00bs 'R' Uz" to pass us during the week so we can start the cycle once again next week... :)

Reminder: The next two sessions are on Tuesdays, with Sylvie replacing Raikan next week.

Highlights:
- DMan provided us with some neat vocals paths from his cellphone, which helped us do some very good score increases on certain songs. We'll eventually transition to some better full band paths for optimal scoring instead of relying on instinct and tactics as we usually do now
- Our best increases were for "Down with the Sickness" (352K), "Kids in America" (261K), "Hungry Like the Wolf" (150K) and "Float On" (107K)
- "Down with the Sickness" is now the song with our highest score in RB2 (more than 2.4M, ranked 6th)
- We decided that once we manage to be the #1 local band on PS3 for both RB1 and RB2 (missing 2M in RB1 and 5M in RB2), we'll try do be in the top 25 for every song in the game, including DLC
- Bongoo tried and passed a random song playing both Guitar and Bass at the same time (it ended up being "Dammit")! It was on Easy difficulty but it was still neat
- Koji (DMan's dog) makes some neat poses throughout the night (Koji of Nazareth and Koji the Nun)

Goal for tomorrow: no more nightmares about n00bs passing us...

This week our minimum goal will be to gain 1M points to move up two positions (to beat "Forgotten Nightmare" and "n00bs 'R' Uz"). 1M is a nice increase but we can aim for 2M as an optimal goal. Gaining 2M this week and next week would allow us to reach the next group of bands that starts at 113M (the first being "Mach 6" who moved up since last week).

To reach our minimum goal, we will need an average increase of 83K per song if we play for one hour (12 songs), 42K per song if we play for two hours (24 songs) and 28K per song if we play for three hours (36 songs).

Minimum: Gain 1M points, to beat "Forgotten Nightmare" and "n00bs 'R' Uz" for 17th place
Main: Gain 1.5M points, a good increase
Optimal: Gain 2M points, a great increase
Bonus: Play some random DLC on our breaks

There are still only two bands with inflated scores (the ones at #1 and #3). It's interesting that the "Psychadelic Byrds" are #4 if you remove those two bands, but they still have 7 songs left to play. If they get the #1 score for those songs (they already have 26 #1s), they would be right behind "Interrobang!" with 134M. I checked Score Hero and they are "Average White Guy", but with a better drummer.

Please note that the sessions will be on Tuesdays for the next two weeks (in order not to fall on the 24th and 31st).

Here is the setlist for tomorrow (worst songs by rank, all songs not in the top 35):
1. "Hungry Like the Wolf"
2. "Kids in America"
3. "Go Your Own Way"
4. "Carry On Wayward Son"
5. "The Trees (Vault Edition)"
6. "Float On"
7. "Master Exploder"
8. "You Oughta Know"
9. "Colony of Birchmen"
10. "Everlong"
11. "Round and Round"
12. "Our Truth"
13. "Supreme Girl"
14. "Painkiller"
15. "Souls of Black"
16. "Alive"
17. "Where'd You Go?"
18. "I Was Wrong"
19. "Come Out and Play (Keep 'Em Separated)"
20. "Bodhisattva"

I would still be in my parent's basement

...if I lived at my parents.

That's the realization I came to yesterday when, thanks to help from Phoenix, I was awarded the very last trophy for Rock Band 2, giving me 100% of all Rock Band 2 trophies.

I figure that, at 27 years old, I should be done wasting hours on end playing video games, but its just too darn fun! Heck, right now I'm thinking of which game I want to try and complete next: Mirror's Edge? PixelJunk Monsters? I just bought Linger in Shadows yesterday, maybe I'll try that...

In the end, I guess its not all bad. I may be living in a basement, but at least its MY basement, not my parents.

PS: Thanks to Phoenix and Raikan for your help in getting my last couple of trophies!

Rawring at Mach 7, but still trailing the n00bs

Even with a shortened session due to a work function, we managed to reach our main goal and gained more than 1.3M points! We are now ahead of "rawr." and "Mach 6" but "n00bs 'R' Uz" also played tonight so they are still ahead of us. We played 19 songs so that gives an average increase of 68K per song.

A band on the rise is the "Psychadelic Byrds". They are now just ahead of us, but with 25 #1 scores (2nd behind "Interrobang!" who have 30), I have a feeling they will soon join "Interrobang!" and "Average White Guy" in the top 3.

Highlights:
- Our best increases were for "Almost Easy" (281K), "PDA" (200K), "Night Lies" (132K) and "Feel the Pain" (132K)
- We get a big increase on "Night Lies" even if Phoenix and Bongoo were conversing extensively during the song
- "PDA" is now our 4th RB2 song with more than 2M points, after "Teen Age Riot", "Give It Away" and "Down with the Sickness"
- Bongoo, Phoenix and Sylvie try to master all the Yngwie Malmsteen songs on guitar after the gig, "Caprici di Diablo" is the only one left unpassed, but it was close
- A big thanks to Sylvie who bailed us out on Bass even though she had an exam the next morning!

Endless Setlist 2: Encore

I have to post that I also completed the endless setlist 2. Of course I might as well do it without pausing... ;) I also did vocals but sticked to Medium difficulty so I could skip up to 4 phrases without failing when i needed a break to eat.

We are now 1 Maca and 1 Reject with bladders of steel!
(see: DMan's adventure with the ESL2)

Thanks to my special groupie Sylvie for helping out!

Goal for tomorrow: rawr past 4 bands at mach 7!

This week our optimal goal will be to move past 4 bands by gaining 2.2M points (to beat "rawr.", "n00bs 'R' Uz", "Mach 6" and "Forgotten Nightmare"). Last week we gained 2.8M points so it is definitely possible.

To accomplish that, we will need an average increase of 183K per song if we play for one hour (12 songs), 92K per song if we play for two hours (24 songs) and 61K per song if we play for three hours (36 songs).

Minimum: Gain 0.5M points, to beat "rawr." and "n00bs 'R' Uz" for 17th place
Main: Gain 1.3M points, to beat "Mach 6" for 16th place
Optimal: Gain 2.2M points, to beat "Forgotten Nightmare for 15th place
Bonus: Play some random DLC on our breaks

This week a few of the inflated scores were brought back down so only 2 bands are still ranked too high (the ones at #1 and #2). We are finally getting closer to having some fully representative leadearboards (at least for Band scores).

One of the bands who dropped is the "Killa C,o,m,m,a,s" so we beat them without even trying! :) So for our long-term goal of being the best "local" band, that leaves only "Happy People Playing ROCK BAND" and "3 On a Match" to beat.

Here is the setlist for tomorrow (worst songs by rank, all songs not in the top 35):
1. "Hungry Like the Wolf"
2. "Carry On Wayward Son"
3. "So What'cha Want"
4. "The Trees (Vault Edition)"
5. "Kids in America"
6. "Go Your Own Way"
7. "Rock'n Me"
8. "Night Lies"
9. "Feel the Pain"
10. "Float On"
11. "You Oughta Know"
12. "PDA"
13. "Colony of Birchmen"
14. "Panic Attack"
15. "Alive"
16. "Round and Round"
17. "Master Exploder"
18. "My Own Worst Enemy"
19. "Almost Easy"

This one's for Phoenix

Check it out:

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2008/10/1/

This one's for Raikan

Check it out:

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2008/11/3/

Rawring past the n00bs!

Tonight we exceeded our optimal goal by a large margin by gaining more than 2.8M points! We played 26 songs so that gives an average increase of 109K per song.

Tonight's increase was big enough to allow us to pass both "n00bs 'R' Uz" and "rawr." to finish in 18th place! If it wasn't for a few inflated scores in the Band leaderboards, we would currently be ranked 14th.

Highlights:
- Our best increases were for "Give It Away" (299K), "Pinball Wizard" (244K) and "Drain You" (191K)
- One of our long-term goals of being the best PS3 local band in RB2 (which all bands in RB1 were) is getting closer as only three bands remain (the "Killa C,o,m,m,a,s" are next, then we will try to beat "Happy People Playing ROCK BAND" and "3 on a Match")
- The great Rogue Hazelnut Brown Nectar gives us fuel for an extra long session

Fanmail #2 - Your Inbox is full of s...

Back in September, we invited you, our fans, to send us your Fanmail by email at rejected.fans@live.com. Shortly after, we published our first Fanmail response titled Fanmail #1 - ZOMG I LUVZ U ! and, shortly after that, our inbox was flooded by Fanmail from all over the globe!

Unfortunately, this barrage of emails coincided with the launch of the well awaited Rock Band 2, which saw the length and number of our practice sessions sharply go up, removing any social and fanmail-reading time we may have had.

That being said, let's begin going through this Fanmail:

From: BANK OF AMERICA
Sent: Tuesday, September 5th 2008
Subject: Congratulations!

Upon review of your records, 4 lenders have just agreed to pre-approve you for quick-cash refinancing or a new-purchase mortgage in the range of: $216,800.00 - $993,300.00

Woops, looks like we've got some spam. Lets just ignore this and move on to the next...

From: London Lotery Commision
Sent: Saturday, September 27th 2008
Subject: London Lotery Commision

You or your company, attached to ticket number 110-2336-7774-455, with seral number 5458-88 drew the lucky numbers 11-47-33-10-45-89, and conseqently won the 5$ million lotery in category C.

What the... Me or my company won the London Lottery? Which is it? Cause if it's my company, I'll just go ahead an delete this email...

Also, you'd think the London Lotery Commision (which doesn't even exist, for that matter) would award prize values in pounds, not dollars, and would know how to spell Lottery correctly...

From: (none)
Sent: Wednesday, October 15th 2008
Subject: nuclear cheese helmet

zhongguo buttonlamer burly warriors bullet excalibu sugar

I don't event want to know what "nuclear cheese helmets" have to do with "burly warriors"...

From: MR YUSUF ALI
Sent: Wednesday, November 05, 2008
Subject: TREAT AS URGENT AND CONFIDENTIAL.

DEAR FRIEND.

I AM NAIK YUSUF ALI ASSISTANT TO THE BRANCH MANAGER OF BANK OF AFRICA(BOA)OUAGADOUGOU BURKINA FASO I WANT TO INQUIRE FROM YOU IF YOU CAN HANDLE THIS TRANSACTION FOR MUTUAL BENEFITS/LIFE OPPORTUNITY FOR YOU AND ME TO PRESENT YOU AS THE NEXT OF KIN/ BENEFICIARY OF THE US$15MILLION DOLLARS WHO IS A CUSTOMER TO THE BANK WHERE I WORK.

I HAVE RESOLVED TO OFFER YOU 40% OF THE TOTAL FUND,10% FOR SUNDRY EXPENSES THAT MAYBE INCURRED DURING THE PROCESS OF EXECUTING THIS TRANSACTION AND 50% PERCENT FOR ME.

IF YOU ARE REALLY INTERESTED IN THIS TRANSACTION SEND ME THE BELOW INFORMATIONS SUCH AS.
( 1 YOUR FULL NAMES ....................
( 2 YOUR PRIVATE PHONE NUMBER.............
( 3 YOUR OCCUPATIONS ..............

WHEN I RECEIVE YOUR RESPONSE VIA MY EMAIL ADDRESS, I WILL SEND YOU THE APPLICATION FORM WHICH YOU WILL FILL AND SEND TO THE BANK AS THE NEXT OF KIN.

THANKS AND ALAH BLESS YOU.

MR.YUSUF ALI

Mr. Yusuf Ali, please RELAX ON THE CAPS! Geez...

From: Elvis and Lora sankoh
Sent: Thursday, November 20th 2008
Subject: Help!

My parents were assassinated on the 6Th of May 2006 by the rebels following the political uprising in my country free town on they way coming back from work.

Due to the war in my country i decided to leave free town for the claim of the money here in Ivory coast. am alone in a totally strange country without parents, relatives at my tender ages. I have plans to leave this country and esterblish in your country in a good business vanture which you consider good and you will be the investment trustee and my guidance when i come over to your country. This is the reason why i contacted you for good assistance in recieving the money to your foreign account and the beneficiary.

Please if you are willing to assist me in transferring the money , indicate your interest in replying this mail for more informations.

Thanks and God bless,
Best regards
Elvis sankoh and Sister,Lora

Ok, that's it!

Dear Elvis and Lora,

Find attached the an email from the London Lotery Commission with a winning ticket number. This should provide you with at least $5 million. If you need any more money, please contact Mr. Yusuf Ali (email also attached), he should be able to help you raise the rest of what you need to leave your country.

Good luck in esterblishing your good business vanture in Canada...

DMan...


(I need some Tylenol...)

---

Are you a spammer looking for an email account to spam? Then open up your email and write to: "rejected.fans@live.com"!

Goal for tomorrow: beat the n00bs again...

This week our main goal will be to to catch up to "n00bs 'R' Uz" one more time to go from 19th to 18th. It is the first week we can use the Score Reader to play our worst ranked songs, so I don't expect any problem reaching it.

We will need about 1.5M points to catch up to them. To accomplish that, we will need an average increase of 125K per song if we play for one hour (12 songs), 63K per song if we play for two hours (24 songs) and 42K per song if we play for 3 hours (36 songs).

Minimum: Gain 1M points, a good increase
Main: Gain 1.5M points, would go from 19th to 18th to beat the n00bs
Optimal: Gain 2M, a great increase
Bonus: Play some random DLC on our breaks

This week most of the inflated scores were brought back down, possibly due to the patch that was released last week. I noticed three remaining inflated scores in the top 20, which means that we are likely ranked 16th right now, not 19th.

As for the Score Reader, it's neat to know that some of the top bands are now using it. If you remove the inflated scores, my friend HeroX2012's band "Eternal Apocalypse" has moved to 3rd place behind "Interrobang!" and "Average White Guy", partly due to the Score Reader (and their mad skills of course).

Here is the setlist for tomorrow (worst songs by rank, all songs not in the top 40):
1. "The Trees (Vault Edition)"
2. "Carry On Wayward Son"
3. "Round and Round"
4. "So What'cha Want"
5. "Hungry Like the Wolf"
6. "Drain You"
7. "Master Exploder"
8. "Any Way You Want It"
9. "Go Your Own Way"
10. "Give It Away"
11. "Spoonman"
12. "Today"
13. "Testify"
14. "Psycho Killer"
15. "PDA"
16. "That's What You Get"
17. "Pinball Wizard"