Mei Spotlight



Nexomania II Trailer
IGN was able to get their hands on the trailer for this year's summer event: The return of Nexomania!



PTR Patch Notes - June 15, 2020
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker)

Our next Heroes of the Storm patch has just hit the Public Test Realm and will be available for playtesting until the week of June 22, PDT. As always, if you encounter any bugs during your PTR play sessions, please stop by the PTR Bug Report forum to let us know about your experiences.


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New Hero: Mei, A Climatologist

A brilliant mind with a sunny disposition, Dr. Mei-Ling Zhou joined Overwatch to help solve the world's growing climate problems. Armed with a host of weather-altering technologies, Mei now fights to protect her friends and secure a future for a troubled world.

Trait [D]
  • Cryo-Freeze
    • Mei encases herself in ice, gaining a rapidly decaying Shield that absorbs up to 1104 damage. While active, this Shield grants Unstoppable and restores up to 35% maximum Health.
    • Cooldown: 40 seconds.

Basic Abilities
  • Snow Blind [Q]
    • Throw a snowball that hits all enemies in an area. Enemies hit take 70 damage, are Slowed by 35%, and are Blinded for 1.5 seconds.
    • Cost: 35 Mana.
    • Cooldown: 10 seconds.
  • Blizzard [W]
    • Command Snowball to create a blizzard at the target location for 2 seconds. Enemies within the blizzard take 13 damage every .25 seconds and are Slowed by 7%, stacking up to 35%. When the blizzard ends, enemies within its area take an additional 75 damage and are stunned for 1.25 seconds.
    • Cost: 70 Mana.
    • Cooldown: 14 seconds.
  • Icing [E]
    • Slide quickly in the targeted direction. When this effect ends, enemies near Mei are knocked back, take 52 damage, and are Slowed by 80%, rapidly decaying over 1.5 seconds.
    • Cost: 70 Mana.
    • Cooldown: 14 seconds.

Heroic Abilities
  • Avalanche [R1]
    • After .5 seconds, roll a massive snowball that consumes enemy Heroes in its path. At the end of its path, the snowball crumbles, releasing the consumed Heroes, dealing 220 damage and stunning them for .5 per Hero consumed.
    • Cost: 70 Mana.
    • Cooldown: 65 seconds.
  • Ice Wall [R2]
    • After a .75 second delay, create an impassible wall that traps enemy Heroes hit for 2.5 seconds. When the wall expires, trapped Heroes are slowed by 75% decaying over 3 seconds.
    • Cost: 60 Mana.
    • Cooldown: 90 seconds.

Talent
  • Level 1
    • Heavy Pack [Q]
      • Increases the duration of Snow Blind’s Slow by 100%. Each time Blizzard damages an enemy Hero, reduce the cooldown of Snow Blind by .125 seconds.
    • Ice Storm [W]
      • Every 3rd hit of Blizzard against enemy Heroes deals an additional 45 damage. Blizzard’s final stun damage is increased by 125% against all enemies.
    • Heat Transfer [Passive]
      • Basic Attacks against Rooted, Stunned, or Slowed Heroes deal 33% more damage. Each time Mei Stuns or Slows an enemy Hero she heals for 18 Health.
  • Level 4
    • Slushball [Q]
      • Snow Blind deals 50% increased damage and Structures hit are disabled for 3 seconds.
    • Cold Front [E]
      • If Mei enters her own Blizzard while Icing is active, the cooldown of Icing is reduced by 7 seconds and she gains 50 Mana.
    • Crystallize [Trait]
      • Reduce the cooldown of Cryo-Freeze by 15 seconds. Mei gains 50 Spell Armor while Cryo-Freeze is active and for 2 seconds after.
  • Level 7
    • Induce Hibernation [W]
      • Enemy Heroes inside of Blizzard’s area have their damage dealt reduced by 40%. When Blizzard ends, enemy Heroes within its area gain this effect for an additional 4 seconds.
    • Skating Away [E]
      • When Icing ends, grant Mei and nearby allies 20% Movement Speed and 50 Physical Armor for 3 seconds.
    • Backup Battery [Active]
      • Activate to remove all Roots and Slows and regenerate 20% of maximum Health over 2 seconds. The cooldown of this ability is reduced by 10 seconds each time Mei picks up a Regeneration Globe.
  • Level 13
    • Flurry [W]
      • While in her own Blizzard, Mei gains 50% increased attack speed and Blizzard’s cooldown refreshes 75% faster. If Mei is in her own Blizzard when it ends, gain these bonuses for 3 additional seconds.
    • Cooling Servos [Trait]
      • Basic Attacks Slow their target by 20% for 1.5 seconds. While Cryo-Freeze is active, Mei’s Basic Ability cooldowns recover 200% faster.
    • Polar Vortex [Passive]
      • Using an ability causes Mei to deal 24 damage a second to nearby enemies for 4 seconds. Enemy Heroes damaged by this effect also have their movement and attack speed Slowed by 20%.
  • Level 16
    • Fresh Powder [Q]
      • Snow Blind gains an additional charge and its range is increased by 33%.
    • Black Ice [E]
      • Icing’s Slow effect no longer decays over its duration. Icing deals 300% more damage to enemies very close to Mei.
    • Acclimation [Passive]
      • Each time Mei Slows or Stuns an enemy Hero, the damage she deals and healing she receives is increased by 1%, stacking up to 20 times. While at maximum stacks, Mei also gains 10 armor. Lasts 8 seconds.
  • Level 20
    • Cascade [R1]
      • Reduce the cooldown of Avalanche by 25 seconds. While traveling, Avalanche constantly launches a volley of untalented Snow Blind snowballs ahead of itself.
    • Shatter [R2]
      • When Ice Wall expires, trapped enemy Heroes hit take 210 damage and have their Armor reduced by 25 for 5 seconds.
    • The Big One [Q]
      • Every 15 seconds, your next Snow Blind has 66% increased area and 200% increased damage.
    • Flash Freeze [Trait]
      • Upon taking fatal damage, Mei instantly gains Cryo-Freeze. This effect has a 180 second cooldown.


Nexus Anomaly

  • A Call For Help

Developer Comment: Firstly, thank you all for the overwhelming amount of feedback related to the Call for Help Anomaly. We appreciate the time you took to write out your responses, and it greatly helped us make a decision on where to go going forward. In regards to the changes, we decided to keep the tower aggro system with some adjustments. To help reward aggression in the laning phase of the game, we are removing both the negative Armor debuff that front towers used to provide and also reverting their aggro systems to no longer prioritize Heroes who attack other Heroes in their range. Forts, Keeps, and the Core will still prioritize enemy Heroes who attack other Heroes, which will make them stand out as important structures to both defend and take down. We will continue to monitor how these changes play out, and will adjust these systems more in the future if we believe it to be necessary.

  • New Nexus Anomaly - Climate Phenomena

    Strange weather disturbances have been spotted across the Nexus, with realms experiencing rain storms, snow flurries, and foggy mists! Mei's arrival is just in time to help analyze and study these strange weather conditions that have begun occurring. Climate Phenomena is our newest Nexus Anomaly, bringing a variety of fun weather effects to the game. Each battleground has a specific type of weather event that will occur periodically. Each weather event lasts for a few minutes at a time before clearing up. This cycle will repeat periodically until the game ends. While these weather events are active, Heroes can gain a unique buff based on the type of active weather. These buffs are:

    • Rain Storms
      • Periodically strike all heroes with lightning, increasing Movement Speed and granting a Lightning Shield that damages nearby enemies.
        • Movement Speed increased by 25%.
        • Damage nearby enemies for 64 damage per second.
        • Buff lasts 8 seconds.
    • Snow Flurries
      • Heroes accumulate a small shield over time while out of combat.
        • Shield starts at 28 and slowly accumulates up to 224.
        • Shield lasts until destroyed or until the Snow stops falling.
    • Foggy Mists
      • Allows Heroes to gain Stealth after standing in shrubs for a few seconds.
        • After standing in a shrub for 1.5 seconds, Heroes gain Stealth.
        • Stealth lasts 40 seconds or until attacking, taking damage, using an ability, or until the Foggy weather dissipates.

    Weather events will be active on these Battlegrounds:
    • Rain Storms
      • Garden of Terror
      • Sky Temple
      • Warhead Junction
      • Braxis Holdout
      • Dragon Shire
      • Blackheart's Bay
    • Snow Flurries
      • Cursed Hollow
      • Infernal Shrines
      • Volskaya Foundry
      • Alterac Pass
    • Foggy Mists
      • Tomb of the Spider Queen
      • Battlefield of Eternity
      • Hanamura Temple
      • Towers of Doom
    • All other Battlegrounds will use a random weather, including Brawls mode.


General

  • A.I.
    • The maximum follow distance for A.I. agents has been increased from 5 to 7. This will allow melee Heroes who are following ranged Heroes to attack targets at maximum range.
  • Favorite Talents
    • New hotkey named "Quick Talent Selection Favorite (Ctrl + `)" has been added under the Hero Management section in Advanced Hotkey settings.
    • You can press this hotkey to select the favorite talent you prepicked when the quick talent selection panel is open.
    • If the prepicked talent is disabled or a future tier is selected, pressing this hotkey will have no effect.


Event

  • Nexomania II Event Quests
    • Nexomania II is the summer event for Heroes of the Storm running from the week of June 23 to week of September 7, PDT.
    • One of the most prestigious stops on the Nexomania circuit is the Intermultiversal Nexoweight Championship: No rules, no mercy, just nonstop, bicep-busting carnage. This time, many fans expected Mal’gaucho Mal'Ganis to win it all. The Swingin’ Scourge of Stratholme tore a bloody path through his side of the bracket, burying opponents beneath a deluge of demonic blows. But on the other side of the bracket, a mysterious upstart known only as La Gata de Batalla has proven herself a worthy challenger, defeating foes many times her size en route to the championship match. The arena is packed, with Nexomania legend MC Tombstone roaring away on the mic, and the final battle is about to begin. Whose side are you on?

  • Loot Chests
    • During the Nexomania II event, all Loot Chests you earn through progression, Heroes Brawl, or by spending gold will be Nexomania II Loot Chests. (Except Hero-specific Chests, which will remain unchanged.) Most limited-time items shown above have a chance to drop from Nexomania II Loot Chests only. You can also score Items from previous years’ summer events limited-time loot chests!
    • Note: Loot Chests earned prior to the start of this event will not become Nexomania II Loot Chests.


Collection

Many seasonal items will be returning to the collection, and will be available for crafting and in Loot Chests for a limited time!

  • New Bundles (Limited Time Only!)
    • Pajama Party Mei Heroic Bundle
    • Nexoweight Championship Bundle
    • Mal'gaucho Mal'Ganis Skin Pack
    • El Bandido Imperius Skin Pack
    • Gata de Batalla Li Li Skin Pack
    • Nexomania Best Bros Bundle
    • Nexomania Bitter Rivals Bundle
    • Pumped up Pato Bundle

  • New Skins
    • Renowned Mei
    • Vanguard Mei
    • Pajama Party Mei
      • Panda Pajama Party Mei
      • Gnoll Pajama Party Mei
    • Mal'gaucho Mal'Ganis
      • Nemesis Mal'gaucho Mal'Ganis
      • Underworld Mal'gaucho Mal'Ganis
    • El Bandido Imperius
      • El Fuego Imperius
      • Sinister El Bandido Imperius
      • Vigilante El Bandido Imperius
    • Gata de Batalla Li Li
      • Comeback Gata de Batalla Li Li
      • Underworld Gata de Batalla Li Li
    • Hulking El Chamuco Diablo
    • Pink Singlet El Chamuco Diablo
    • El Festejo Garrosh
    • El Jefe Amarillo Garrosh
    • La Medianoche Lunara
    • La Rosa Lunara
    • La Campeona Sonya
    • Pink Pantera Sonya
    • Championship El Mariachi E.T.C.
    • El Cielo E.T.C.

  • New Mounts
    • Ratón de Batalla
      • Comeback Ratón de Batalla
      • Underworld Ratón de Batalla
    • Pumped Up Pato
      • Pumped Up Swan
      • Underworld Pumped Up Pato
    • Championship Luchihuahua
    • Festive Luchihuahua
    • Wild Pigñata
    • Festive Pigñata
    • Thraller Bill

  • New Announcer
    • Mei Announcer

  • New Content
    • Several new Portraits, Sprays and other items have been added to the Collection!


Storm League

With the upcoming third Season of 2020, we wanted to make some changes to the reward structure of Storm League.

  • Replacing Gold Rewards
    • Starting with Season 3 of 2020, we are removing all Gold rewards from Storm League, End of Season prizes and Seasonal Questlines. This will also affect Season 2 rewards. The new Seasonal Questline reward structure is as follows: a Nexomania II Chest after 5 wins, a Rare Nexomania II Chest after 15 wins, and an Epic Nexomania II Chest after 30 wins.

  • Storm League Reward Mounts
    • Since the inception of Storm League, we have received a lot of feedback about the retirement of Ranked Play reward Mounts. We have heard you and are extremely happy to announce the return of exclusive Storm League Mounts starting next season. The ultimate and final reward of the 2020 Season 3 Questline will be the Regal Tiger Mount, which will be awarded after winning 50 games in Ranked Play.
    • As of Season 3, you won't have to wait for the end of the Season to claim your well-earned Regal Tiger. It will become available as soon as you complete the four-step Storm League Quest Line. The mount only requires you to win 50 games and will be granted to players in all Leagues and Divisions.
    • As usual, we're happy to listen to your feedback. Please share your thoughts with us, so we can continue to adjust and evolve the Storm League rewards further.


Heroes Rework: Mal'Ganis

Base
  • Vitals
    • Health reduced from 2500 to 2375.
    • Health Regeneration reduced from 5.21 to 4.95.
  • Basic Attack
    • Basic Attack damage reduced from 100 to 92.
  • Fel Claws [Q]
    • Damage reduced from 69 to 63.

Talents
  • Level 1
    • Vampiric Aura [Trait]
      • Additional functionality: Mal'Ganis heals for 30% of Physical Damage dealt.
    • Time to Feed [Passive]
      • Healing reduced from 52 to 44.
      • Additional functionality: If Mal'Ganis damages a nearby enemy Hero with Fel Claws, double this healing.
  • Level 4
    • Fueled By Torment [W]
      • Bonus Healing against enemy Heroes increased from 15% to 20%.
    • Might of Sargeras [W]
      • No longer reduces the duration of Necrotic Embrace.
    • Echo of Doom [W]
      • Explosion damage increased from 50 to 54.
      • No longer increases the duration of Necrotic Embrace when its explosion damage hits enemy Heroes.
      • Additional functionality: Gain 5 Mana and reduce the cooldown of Necrotic Embrace by .75 seconds for each enemy Hero hit by its explosion damage.
  • Level 7
    • Nightmare Fuel [E]
      • Removed.
    • Black Claws [Q]
      • Additional functionality: Basic Attacks after hitting enemy Heroes with Fel Claws also reduces their Armor by 15 for 2 seconds.
    • Will of Tichondrius [Q]
      • New functionality: Each enemy Hero hit by the first 2 slashes of Fel Claws causes the final slash to steal 1% maximum Health, up to 4%. If Mal'Ganis hits at least 4 enemy Heroes with the first 2 slashes of Fel Claws, then the final slash Stuns enemies for an additional .25 seconds.
    • Spreading Plague [E]
      • Adjusted functionality: Spreading Plague’s effect now starts when Mal'Ganis begins using Night Rush instead of when Night Rush expires.
  • Level 13
    • The Night Beckons [E]
      • Additional functionality: Basic Attacks deal 200% more damage to Sleeping targets.
  • Level 16
    • Frenzied Assault [Passive]
      • New functionality: Basic Attacks against enemy Heroes with a higher Health percentage heal for an additional 50% of damage dealt. Basic Attacks against enemy Heroes with a lower Health percentage grant 35% Attack Speed for 2 seconds.
    • Blind as a Bat [Active]
      • Additional functionality: Enemy Heroes hit by the final slash of Fel Claws reduces the cooldown of this Ability by 5 seconds.
  • Level 20
    • Vanquish the Weak [Q]
      • Slow amount increased from 15% to 25%.
    • Alone in the Dark [E]
      • Additional functionality: Reduce the cooldown of Night Rush by 4 seconds.

Developer Comment: Our main goal with these changes is to make Mal'Ganis’s talent tree as a whole more interesting and impactful. While we need to slightly nerf his base kit to keep him at a similar relative strength compared to other Warriors, we believe these changes will overall leave him in a powerful state while also giving players more expression in how they want to play Mal'Ganis in regards to his survivability and in how he controls the flow of battle.


Heroes

Murky

Base
  • Spawn Egg [Trait]
    • Health increased from 324 to 420.
    • Health Scaling changed from 30 to 4% per level.

Developer Comment: We’re changing Murky’s Spawn Egg to have the standard 4% scaling that is present in most other places throughout the game. This is a buff to the egg’s Health for most of the game, with its Health value being the same as its current level at around the Level 20 mark.


Bug Fixes

General
  • Fixed an issue where Toys 1 Event reward Portraits could not be equipped for those who had earned them in Toys 1 Event in 2018.

Heroes
  • Anduin
    • Anduin's Light of Stormwind now correctly removes damage over time effects.
  • Murky
    • Murky's Egg Health now properly scales at 4% per level.
  • Stitches
    • Fixed an issue where Slam would go on cooldown when Stitches was interrupted during its initial cast.
  • Tassadar
    • The Ranged Assassin tooltip at the bottom is now properly displaying for Tassadar.
This article was originally published in forum thread: Mei Spotlight, Nexomania II, PTR Patch Notes - June 15, 2020 started by Nerraw View original post
Comments 58 Comments
  1. NoiseTank13's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Lilithvia View Post
    You really can't get a good picture with AI. You of all people should know that.
    Not in the competitive scene, maybe not. But she's not the CC Machine High Damage devil people made her out to be.
  1. plz delete account's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by NoiseTank13 View Post
    Not in the competitive scene, maybe not. But she's not the CC Machine High Damage devil people made her out to be.
    Mei, meet Rehgar, Aba, literally anyone who can buff damage
  1. Theoris's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by KainneAbsolute View Post
    In the future, I hope they develop a Prime Evil Mei. Something like Prime Meivil
    That would actually be great, yeah. (And fitting)
  1. NoiseTank13's Avatar


    Mei in the hands of Fan, former HotS Esports player.
  1. Acidbaron's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Nerraw View Post
    Lots of former Heroes team members talking on Twitter about they worked on Mei. Wonder if this means they paused her development to do Deathwing, since his entire creation happened after the "incident" in December 2018.
    Considering how much demand there was for deathwing not an unlikely outcome
  1. Hollycakes's Avatar
    Oyus she looks fun. Thanks for the link Noise, I don't watch him on twitch much. lol at roly poly and that slide...... zooooom.

    Also, flurries for days, call me dairy queen lol love it.
  1. Frozen Death Knight's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Esper View Post
    50 wins to get the mount in ranked is way too many.
    Not really. A big problem that the HotS ladder had for years was people who did the absolute bare minimum of games just to get the reward. When the game was new you only had to play 10 games to finish placements and then sit at your rank every season without doing anything to earn it. So you would have people who got boosted up to Diamond and Master for various reasons and then they just played their placements and left.

    This caused huge amounts of issues with the matchmaking since there was no rank decay to remove these people from the upper parts of the ladder. This led to tons of players having zero knowledge about the current metas and strategies, therefore ruining the experience for everyone else who wanted some serious ranked play.

    Adding the new 50 wins questline did multiple things:

    1) It added more long term goals for people to get rewarded. Next season we're getting free loot chests along with the mount, so the rewards are going to be overall better than what we got with the old system.

    2) It removed the easy end of season rewards for people who didn't want to put in the effort to earn the rewards, making the seasonal rewards worth more and actually show some prestige. This along with the other changes to the ladder like rank decay have made ranked a little more tolerable.

    3) It made the quality of the matchmaker better, since the more games people play per season the better the matchmaker is at determining skill, since there will be far less MMR variance going on from game to game. Playing 10 games per season just doesn't cut it if you want the ladder experience to be decent.

    Besides, the average ranked season for HotS is 3 months. It's not like other games like Hearthstone where one season only lasts one month. If you can't win 50 games in 3 months, then I don't know what to tell you.
  1. NoiseTank13's Avatar
    Yeah I confess I was one of the many who did placements and stopped for the rewards. This change makes sense to me.
  1. Nerraw's Avatar
    I hope there will be more balance changes in this one. Cassia just peaked at 59% winrate today.
  1. Esper's Avatar
    The problem for me is that I don't play 100 games of HotS a season. I'm probably closer to 60-80. Forcing you to get 50 WINS in ranked basically meant I had to spend all my time in Ranked and could not play QM or Unranked at all. When it became clear after 70ish games and I only had 27~ wins with only a few weeks left in the season I gave up. Just too much stress and too many bad teams with people throwing or disconnecting causing me to lose. Now if they just had it as "play 100 games" win or lose, then I would be fine. It's ultimately the same requirement as most people will be around 50% win rate, but it removes the stress and feeling of wasting your time if your team throws at the end.
  1. DesoPL's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Esper View Post
    The problem for me is that I don't play 100 games of HotS a season. I'm probably closer to 60-80. Forcing you to get 50 WINS in ranked basically meant I had to spend all my time in Ranked and could not play QM or Unranked at all. When it became clear after 70ish games and I only had 27~ wins with only a few weeks left in the season I gave up. Just too much stress and too many bad teams with people throwing or disconnecting causing me to lose. Now if they just had it as "play 100 games" win or lose, then I would be fine. It's ultimately the same requirement as most people will be around 50% win rate, but it removes the stress and feeling of wasting your time if your team throws at the end.
    I agree on that, i don't play rankeds either knowing the fact how in lower ranks things are look. Some people will pick troll picks only to troll.
  1. ThatsOurEric's Avatar
    50 wins for the rewards isn't a bad requirement, as it allows for anyone to get them. But man, given how
    fucking incompetently made the MM system is, those 50 wins are going to feel like climbing a mountain
    using only your teeth.
  1. DesoPL's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by ThatsOurEric View Post
    50 wins for the rewards isn't a bad requirement, as it allows for anyone to get them. But man, given how
    fucking incompetently made the MM system is, those 50 wins are going to feel like climbing a mountain
    using only your teeth.
    Yeah matchmaking in HOTS is such awfull... Lately i lost 13 games, which 11 was in QM's and 2 on brawl. If MMR could get hard reset, maybe thing might work better.
  1. Twen's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Esper View Post
    The problem for me is that I don't play 100 games of HotS a season. I'm probably closer to 60-80. Forcing you to get 50 WINS in ranked basically meant I had to spend all my time in Ranked and could not play QM or Unranked at all. When it became clear after 70ish games and I only had 27~ wins with only a few weeks left in the season I gave up. Just too much stress and too many bad teams with people throwing or disconnecting causing me to lose. Now if they just had it as "play 100 games" win or lose, then I would be fine. It's ultimately the same requirement as most people will be around 50% win rate, but it removes the stress and feeling of wasting your time if your team throws at the end.
    I feel you, but win requirement is necessary to discourage people from just afking/throwing/giving up their matches just for the rewards. It makes it so that more people seriously try and thus makes for better games than if it was just 100 played. (Some people will throw regardless, but this means less of them.)
  1. plz delete account's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Nerraw View Post
    Lots of former Heroes team members talking on Twitter about they worked on Mei. Wonder if this means they paused her development to do Deathwing, since his entire creation happened after the "incident" in December 2018.
    Might I ask which incident?
    HotS pro scene and dev team being killed off was 2019, wasn't it?
  1. DesoPL's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Lilithvia View Post
    Might I ask which incident?
    HotS pro scene and dev team being killed off was 2019, wasn't it?
    Nope in 2018 after the Blizzcon fiasco with Diablo Immortal.
  1. plz delete account's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by DesoPL View Post
    Yeah matchmaking in HOTS is such awfull... Lately i lost 13 games, which 11 was in QM's and 2 on brawl. If MMR could get hard reset, maybe thing might work better.
    QM is notorious for bad matchmaking. You should try unranked. It's like QM, but without the bad matchmaking.
  1. DesoPL's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Lilithvia View Post
    QM is notorious for bad matchmaking. You should try unranked. It's like QM, but without the bad matchmaking.
    Tried today. it is same, only diffrence is draft.

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