The 2013 Quidditch World Cup, or whatever it’s called, is taking place this weekend in Kissimmee, Florida, which is like the Taedong to Orlando’s Pyongyang, and yes, to answer the question that I know you’re all asking, I think Kate Upton is being rude by not responding to Spike Albrecht’s Tweet. But I will also have the Internet’s most extensive pre-World Cup coverage in the coming days, which means that today we can focus on just how big this made up sport is becoming.

Student groups from around the U.S. have already tried to make a case for Quidditch becoming an NCAA-sanctioned sport, despite it being a made up sport, and now Boise State University is actually demolishing buildings to make room for an actual Quidditch field. The construction of two new fields has already begun to meet the needs of the football and lacrosse teams, and once state approval is confirmed, a third field will be built for additional student use, including Quidditch competitions.

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photo credit: WWE.com

For anyone who has harbored skepticism about the earnestness of AJ Lee’s love for video games (a medium that the Diva has repeatedly raved about), the October 31, 2011 edition of Monday Night Raw busted the hell out of that myth. During a Halloween-themed Divas battle royal, Lee hit the ring as the spitting image of Kitana from Mortal Kombat. Witnessing someone dressed up as the Princess of Edenia of all characters on WWE programming was surreal in itself, but the true coup de grâce to the skeptics was when Lee broke out a Fan Lift at the beginning of the match. Disappointingly, “Kitana wins” would not be uttered that night (Eve, who went as Robin, won), but it still was the most loving shout-out to the gaming faithful on Raw since John Cena did that Punch-Out!!-themed promo in 2010.

The New Jersey native born April Jeanette Mendez originally got into gaming as a child via her brother. The first game she played was either Super Mario Bros. or Excitebike, but as she seriously fell for the hobby later on, she became loyal to the PlayStation. “I was so obsessed with it. Now, I have an Xbox and I love that, so I can’t pick one or the other. They’re both really, really cool,” she says. “Growing up, I was like, ‘Ah, screw Xbox,’ which is terrible because I’m obsessed with it now.”

As of now, Lee’s plans for WrestleMania 29 on Sunday, April 7 involve scheming alongside Dolph Ziggler and newly crowned Twitter demigod Big E Langston when they face against Team Hell No for the tag titles, but hey, a Divas Championship match could always fall out of the sky. Way before the big show, we had a chance to speak with the ex-General Manager of Raw about her 10 most beloved vidja games. Not only was Lee up for the challenge, but she compiled the whole list before the call and put them in order. That’s dedication. (Also, check this space again shortly for another similarly gaming-informed WWE talent dropping knowledge about his favorites.)

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Or, “it’s the hockey team from Hell!”

Or, as Greg Wyshynski at Puck Daddy offered,

Hey, remember that scene in The Dark Knight when Batman said the difference between himself and the imitation vigilantes populating Gotham City was that he “wasn’t wearing hockey pads”?

I could make headline jokes all day, but the truth of the matter is that the Tulsa Oilers of the Central Hockey League are having “Batman Night” tonight, have temporarily renamed themselves The Gotham City Crusaders and are sporting Batman-themed jerseys. I’m not the world’s leading Batman expert or anything (that title goes to my good friend Chris Sims), but I’m excited to see these in action. The only way it could be more Batman is if the Tulsa Oilers stopped in the middle of the game and spend three weeks combing their arena for Riddler trophies. Or maybe the jerseys could have nipples. Again, not a Batman expert.

From TulsaOilers.com

On November 23, Gotham City and Tulsa citizens are invited to witness the squad of 18 crusaders as they take the ice dressed in Limited Edition Batman hockey jerseys created exclusively for this event and featuring the iconic Bat Signal. After the game, the game jerseys will be auctioned off in the ONEOK Club in the BOK Center.

In honor of this special event presented by Z-104.5 The Edge, Gotham City children 12 and under will receive free admission to the Crusaders game on November 23 at the BOK Center.

“This is a once in a lifetime chance for our fans and players to experience Tulsa hockey in a whole new light,” said Tulsa Oilers and Gotham City Crusaders General Manager Taylor Hall.

The other team should wear red hoods on the ice just to f**k with them.

Anyway, here are a few additional pics of the jerseys (from the Oilers, by way of Puck Daddy). I’d love them if they’d left off the abs. I’ll wear a $200 sweater with the Batman logo on it, but not one that looks like a bikini body shirt from Spencer’s Gifts.

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If you weren’t aware, MMA fighter Renzo Gracie is a Gracie Barra Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt and a two-time ADCC Submission Wrestling World Championship gold medalist. He is not the guy you want to mug on a Thursday night in New York City.

Unfortunately that’s what happened, allegedly, and Renzo added insult to the injuries you assume he dished out by live-blogging the entire thing on his Twitter account, @Renzo_Gracie_BJJ. I say “allegedly” because the tweets are thorough but don’t provide a lot of context, so depending on your point of view, one of two things happened:

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Yesterday I wrote a little about sexy Australian hurdler Michelle Jenneke, and how we’d helped make her life miserable by exposing her to the creepy nooks of sexy and parody on the Internet. That got me thinking a lot about Kate Upton, a woman who purposefully used the Internet to wedge herself into those nooks, and how she’d been cyclically berated and celebrated by the Internet all year. Then I thought a little more about her, and I had to lie down.

The go-to spot online for bizarre online worship (assuming you don’t want a Chan page popping up in your browser history) is DeviantArt.com, a place where people of varying artistic ability upload their work, mention how they put no effort into it and showed it to you for no reason, then obsessively beg you for praise. So, uh … it’s like a blog, but in crappy sketch form.

Anyway, with Kate’s rise to prominence in 2012 via Sports Illustrated and Cat Daddying comes an increase presence on DeviantArt, so I’ve put together a collection of my favorite pieces. Inside: Kate being beaten up by Street Fighter characters, a little tentacle porn and a Nightmare On Elm Street crossover.

Yeah, I don’t know either.

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Just leave the poor guy alone to get shot by sex arrows and masturbate with his Jesus stripper pole. (On a serious note, how amazing is the “click like if you think Tim Tebow mastrubates” request?)

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Links

Alison Brie’s 10 Most Internet Bait-able Moments |UPROXX|

2012 NBA Playoffs: 16 Players To Watch |Smoking Section|

First Pictures from Tarantino’s Django Unchained (!!!) |Film Drunk|

When Twitter Gets Racist: How Should We Deal With The Attack On Joel Ward? |With Leather|

Star Wars Infographics Have The Information Every Jedi Needs |Gamma Squad|

Dogs that Look Like ‘Game of Thrones’ Characters |Warming Glow|

Here Are A Bunch Of Dogs Getting Freaked Out By The ‘Dexter’ Theme Song |UPROXX|

Society Hits New Low: Ke$ha Tweets Photo of Herself Pissing On the Street |UPROXX|

Kobe’s Advice To Blake Griffin: “I’d Smack The F*** Out Of Somebody” |Smoking Section|

An Incomplete Guide to “Quoth the Raven” puns in reviews of The Raven |Film Drunk|

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