MTV Trifecta: Countdown to Are You The One? Season 3

BY DC CUEVA

> @DC408dxtr / @DC408dxnow

Hi, hello, what's up and welcome back to DCBLOG's continuing chronicle of All Things MTV. It's been a very long while, hasn't it? It sure has and it's been so long, but we hope you enjoyed your summer and we're glad you've came as we kick off a new season right here of what's better known to me as the MTV Trifecta, and as they say good things come in threes. So, here we go...
   Five months have past since our last post related to this world surrounding the channel I love and its people, but we're glad to be back covering the principal thing this blog devotes its focus to here. Of course, that would be of the three MTV reality TV shows that I gravitate the most attention to: Are You The One?, The Challenge and Real World. They're no doubt considered on here the main event in terms of interest, coverage depth and web traffic - not surprising for shows I love so much. We're obviously looking forward to covering these three shows wire-to-wire, every step of the way on here once again, taking you from when the buzz begins for the first one right now a month before their season premiere until the final act in several months from now. The same will apply for season 27 of The Challenge later on, and the 31st season of Real World down the road as well.

   In the last Trifecta cycle which began at this time last year, the AYTO Season 2 cast came to Puerto Rico looking to match the bar set high by the Originals, but after experiencing two no-light matchup blackouts they came roaring back down the stretch to take the cash in their 10th & last try. On season 30 of Real World, the seven strangers were welcomed to Chicago with the usual pomp & circumstance but found themselves with a rude awakening as people from their past visited them in the house, but as it turned out two of them became a perfect match. And on season 26 of The Challenge, fourteen sets of exes came together and saw a girl snake bitten by past failures win the final. But there was poignancy to all that as the deaths of Diem Brown and Ryan Knight in the span of two weeks last November put a damper on that season and were especially remembered when it aired.

We'll look back at that last cycle on a special edition of DC FORUM coming up here during our month-long countdown with yours truly. But as the summer comes to a close and while I've been focusing both here and on DCNOW on a memorable Summer of Sports, the attention turns to what has been anticipated for some time now in how a show I only gotten interested just weeks before its season 1 debut can top what it did there and then in season 2.

   Are You The One? will enter its junior campaign with lofty expectations as it welcomes its third set of girls & guys unlucky in love looking for love and money, and of course drama aplenty. From an tattooed Texas entrepreneur to hot girls from New York City, they've come to the Big Island of Hawaii, not far from where the Season 1 Originals made their mark, to try their luck at landing the person of their dreams and a share of $1 million. And considering both the Originals having the only perfect match that's stayed together and the late run Team 21 put on to win last year, anything is possible.

We are now into the month-long countdown to premiere night of Thursday, September 24th, which will be exactly 6 months to the day of when the last cycle ended, as well as almost exactly 18 months since the original AYTO cast won the cash in Kauai. And ahead here, we'll be looking ahead at Season 3 of AYTO with a full preview and introduction to all of the 20 girls & guys, plus a look at what we can expect this season. This includes another game-changing twist that could perhaps be even more shocking than what we had last year. Plus, as this is our first MTV post since March, we'll also update you on what some of your favorites from AYTO and the RW/Challenge franchise have been up to over the offseason, which includes plenty of talk of babies and relationships.

   So as the slogan of my DCNOW live twitter hub likes to say, "Join In" after the jump as DCBLOG kicks off our coverage of the new campaign of the MTV Trifecta and start into motion the build-up to Season 3 of Are You The One?.

Summer of Sports: NFL Films - Keepers of the Flame

BY DC CUEVA
> @DC408dxtr / @DC408dxnow

As the Summer of Sports enters August, about now something will grab hold of the attention of fans in the world's most coveted media, entertainment & sports market and never let go for at least part of the next seven months. Of course, it's the National Football League and the 32 teams are now in the early stages of training camp, with preseason games to begin shortly being scheduled around those two-a-days and of course kickoff in less than 50 days. And this weekend, the NFL begins its 2015 campaign with the Hall of Fame Game and the Pro Football Hall of Fame induction ceremony in Canton, OH.
   All summer long here on DCBLOG, we have covered summer's big sporting events during what has been a very momentous summer. And in proof of our Aussie Rules post last week, we're also putting a spotlight on sports that, in such a broad but somewhat picky country like the U.S., would otherwise not be given the kind of proper coverage and respect they deserve due to the dominance of the four major pro sports and a few other things. But now, we present this site's first post relating to this national passion sports fans have...but since everyone knows about the game of football, we'll focus in on a treasure of the sports media world.

Just a 16-mile, half-hour's drive from Philadelphia brings you east across the Delaware River to Mount Laurel, NJ, and there lies the home of its best-known employer. It's been 53 years since a company that started out as just a weekend hobby began to architect the way many of us experience America's most-popular sport. A slogan on a wall inside its 200,000 sq. ft. headquarters reads, "Keepers of the Flame," and in this rapidly-growing sports media landscape, one thing has stood the test of time over the course of the past five decades.

   Since its formation in the early '60s, NFL Films has become the gold standard in sports filmmaking, and one of sports media's most renowned storytellers. With a formula established by the Sabol family that has worked for them ever since even before there was even a Super Bowl, they have created an art form in mixing great cinematography of a fast-moving sport with perfect narration, a well-timed musical soundtrack, and a touch of ballet and opera. They have also been the backbone of the NFL's ancillary programming efforts outside of game telecasts and even of its own 24/7 network, and have done so much to help bring a new audience to a sport now America's most popular.

Summer of Sports: Know the Aussie Rules

BY DC CUEVA

> @DC408dxtr / @DC408dxnow

The Summer of Sports continues as Americans follow the offseason comings and goings of two of the four major sports, the third entering the business end of the season with its trade deadline passing and the fourth now beginning training camp. Meanwhile, fans in Europe are anticipating the beginning of the domestic league soccer season, and those in the British Commonwealth countries are following the game of cricket and the fierce rivalry between England and Australia for the Ashes. But down in Australia, it is in its winter, and it's the best time of year for sports there with two of their national winter sports rolling on with their seasons, while many are losing sleep to watch overseas action including their world champion cricket team. It also means one thing... Aussie Rules Football.

It's a sport that, like most others, is full of history, yet it is one that's unique in so many ways. It's a game that's played primarily in one country, but the thrills and sights of it are breathtaking and captivates fans & viewers around the world. And in a country that views sport as a much greater part of the national culture than the U.S., this is a game that is its contribution to world sports. The game enthralls fans everywhere with its unique brand of blistering speed, great skill and incredible courage exhibited by great athletes, in front of passionate and dedicated fans.

   This post on Australia's only natively-made sport is the first in our Summer of Sports series to focus on a sport or event that isn't as well known as those that we regularly follow here in America. However, thanks to both TV and technology, I've been watching AFL, or "footy" as it's referred to by fans, frequently over the years and have become amazed by the sights of a sport that is unique in so many ways. And it's more spectacular and more action-packed on a more breakneck pace than the stop-and-go nature of its American counterparts. That's the way it is in the Aussie Rules.

Summer of Sports: Poker's Biggest Bash

BY DC CUEVA

> @DC408dxtr / @DC408dxnow

The Summer of Sports is when many of sports' biggest events take place during the three months when the weather is at its warmest. Every four years, it's the Summer Olympics, and between that quadrennium it's the FIFA World Cup...both events that stop the world. For tennis fans, the year's last three Grand Slams take place, with the biggest one Wimbledon taking place between the French and U.S. Opens. It's also the case for golf, with the U.S. Open, The Open Championship in Britain and the PGA Championship all taking place over the summer. The biggest annual race in cycling and arguably sports' toughest and most-enduring test, the Tour de France, takes place in Europe. And in America, there's the climax of the NBA and NHL seasons and horse racing's Triple Crown.

   It's also during the hottest season of the year that the biggest event in the world of card sports and gaming take place, and fittingly enough it takes place in that desert oasis & adult playground known as Las Vegas, NV. While fans were busy following the NBA and NHL playoffs, the World Series of Poker commenced its month & a half-long festival of tournaments as it marks its 45th anniversary this year. Even with events that have happened to the sport in recent years after the game's boom in the early & mid 2000's, the WSOP is bigger than ever with more events and prize money at stake.
   And just wrapped up last week is the bulk of what is the biggest in the slate of 68 events of various types of what is referred to as "poker's version of Woodstock"...the $10,000 No-Limit Texas Hold 'Em World Championship. The November Nine final table was determined in the early hours of Wednesday morning, July 15th, and when those players reconvene, a financial windfall awaits the player who emerges victorious when all the cards are dealt and the chips fall in one man's hands.

   In 1970, gambling icon and mob boss Benny Binion gathered together seven of poker's best-known players to his Horseshoe Casino along Fremont Street in downtown Las Vegas for a single invitational tournament. But little did Binion & those players know at the time that their little get together would ultimately rise to becoming one of the year's biggest pop culture events and an event that has brought a relatively obscure sport into becoming one of America's favorite leisure activities.

Summer of Sports: The Most Epic Race of Them All

BY DC CUEVA

> @DC408dxtr / @DC408dxnow

In this Summer of Sports, we have crowned champions in the NBA, NHL and European club soccer, saw our first Triple Crown winner in 37 years, saw a young golfer from Dallas win his 2nd straight major, and have just seen the U.S. win the FIFA Women's World Cup, among others. Now, with more trophies and medals still to be awarded in the next two months, an event unlike any other in a time-honored summer tradition is underway in Europe.

   For those who live for those sports where endurance is paramount, this is a favorite event for endurance sports fans. For those who take for granted the feeling of riding a bicycle, then this is the race those who love cycling look forward to more than other every year. And for those in a country that's as vast & as beautiful as France, the Tour de France is a national treasure. And in a time where U.S. sports fans' attention is on baseball, NBA free agency and NFL training camp, one of sports' most enduring events is taking place right now across the Atlantic.
   For 21 days of cycling spread out over the entire month of July, the Tour de France is perhaps the ultimate test in all of sports, testing will, strength, endurance and stamina against the backdrop of the beauty of France and its surrounding countries. From the streets and towns throughout the country, through fields of sunflowers and vineyards, into the majestic mountains of the Alps and Pyrenees, and culminating with a ride into one of the world's greatest cities, it's one of sports' most-compelling events and arguably the toughest test in all of sports.
   First organized by a local sports daily as a way to help increase sales in 1903, 101 editions later the event has become the grandest event in cycling. It reaches a worldwide television audience that, for three weeks, becomes gripped by the human drama of the sport's best all competing for their greatest prize: possession of the yellow jersey as the winner of the Tour when its last act plays out on one of the world's greatest streets in one of the world's greatest cities: the Champs-Élysées in Paris.

Summer of Sports: A British Summer Tradition - Wimbledon

BY DC CUEVA

> @DC408dxtr / @DC408dxnow

As the Summer of Sports turns the page to its second full month of July, this week the sports world's attention turns to a suburb of one of the world's greatest cities for one of its greatest events - Wimbledon. It is, quite simply, the most prestigious championship in all of tennis, as well as the sport's oldest tournament, and one that's full of history and rich in tradition. It's also a British institution that brings about sights of not just of the world's best tennis being played on its original surface of grass, but also queues outside the All-England Club, the always-present threat of rain hampering with the best-laid plans of the best players, the favorite dish of strawberries & cream and many traditions unique in a sport as modern as tennis and a country with old-school values as Great Britain.

   The Championships have grown from beginning as a small gathering in 1877, to now being the toast of tennis with nearly 500,000 people attending the two weeks of play at the complex, and reaching hundreds of millions worldwide via television and extensive media coverage. An additional 6,000 people are on site during the fortnight to perform jobs that have something to do with the tournament either as full-time, year-round Club employees or just for the tournament. And players from 60 countries join with the world's top-ranked players to play for a prize acknowledged as the universal symbol of excellence in their sport...one that's cherished by anyone who picks up a tennis racket.

   Every summer going back to when I was a kid, I look forward to watching Wimbledon and where tennis steps to the forefront of the sports scene. It's an event that is at the heart of a sport that was once the domain of the rich & wealthy, and for which every trip to it brings fans and viewers back to simpler times. The appeal of it brings an affection for the event that I have, and is something that never gets old.

Summer of Sports: What's This Soccer Speak?!

BY DC CUEVA

> @DC408dxtr / @DC408dxnow

The Summer of Sports rolls on, and after both a compelling NBA Finals and Stanley Cup, the focus shifts to baseball, major championship golf, Wimbledon which begins next week, the wheeling and dealing of free agency, and most especially the sport that's referred to worldwide as football, but commonly called in this country, soccer. The FIFA Women's World Cup begins its quarterfinal phase this weekend, while the COMEBOL Copa America tournament continues down in Chile, and the young men from Serbia bask in their FIFA U-20 World Cup upset win over Brazil.

   Soccer has grown leaps and bounds in mainstream exposure here in the United States, and of course, it was last year's FIFA World Cup in Brazil that had something to do with that. The sport is more popular than ever in anglophone America, in addition to the traditional hotbed of Hispanics and those migrants who brought this game to our shores. Those who avidly follow the beautiful game know that there's a dictionary all it's own when it comes to following the sport that, outside of the U.S., Canada and Australia, is referred to worldwide as football.

   For sports fans like me, there's a lot of words, lingo and jargon we use in following, covering and watching the sports we love. We use it everyday when we talk about the players, teams and events, and often it sticks out so much it even applies to everyday life as well. It might be a bit complicated for those outside of the hardcore soccer fanbase to find out what the lingo of a game growing in interest in this country at first, but when you get the hang of it, you'll catch on to the unique glossary of the world game. After the jump, DCBLOG brings you a sampling of the words that's used in the world of soccer.

Summer of Sports: It's Major - Golf's Biggest Stage

BY DC CUEVA

> @DC408dxtr / @DC408dxnow

As two sports step aside, this week sees the world's top golfers converge for the first time on the Pacific Northwest for golf's 2nd major championship of the year, the U.S. Open. Out for the four tournaments that mean the most in the game, this is the most rigorous test of its kind. This is part of a journey that takes golf fans from that great Spring tradition of Augusta in April and all the way to August to determine the best players in golf when the spotlight is shone the brightest on their sport.

   Being someone who watches a good amount of the Golf Channel and weekend PGA TOUR coverage on the networks, as well as my bro in law being an occasional golfer, I've gained a great appreciation for golf over time. And much like every other event in the sports world, I look forward to the time when it becomes the big sport during a particular weekend and where there's more attention paid to the game than in a given week on Tour.

In American sports, the number "16" is a significant one: the Summer and Winter Olympics both take place over 16 full days of competition, a fortnight spanning three weekends. It takes 16 wins for a team to win the NBA championship or hoist the Stanley Cup. There's 16 games in an NFL regular season, and we give the Regional Semifinal round of NCAA March Madness the nickname Sweet 16. The knockout stage of the FIFA World Cup and most other continental soccer tournaments begins with 16 teams, and each of the four Grand Slam events in tennis take place over two weeks.

   For golf, 16 is the total number of days (barring extra days due to weather and/or a playoff if necessary) that the year's four major championships are played, taking place from April to August. Along with the PGA Tour's flagship event - THE PLAYERS, the fall match play team competitions, World Golf Championships and events on other tours, it's The Masters, The U.S. Open, The Open Championship in Great Britain and the PGA Championship that are the tournaments that matter, both to the golfers and to the public. They are the most-prestigious annual tournaments in the sport and bring the casual sports fan & TV viewer to join the game's avid followers to the events that mean the most in a sport rich in tradition and history.