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alt title(s): Irate Gamer 
Chris Bores is the Irate Gamer. Like The Angry Video Game Nerd, he is a Caustic Critic of video games, with a Video Review Show hosted on You Tube. He follows in the same format as many both before and after him: playing the game while (at least ostensibly) offering a bit of history on both the game and the console, peppering his reviews with emphasis on the game's flaws, perceived or real, as well as a healthy dose of profanity and audacity.
Unlike the AVGN, Bores is the subject of a great deal of Internet criticism. Besides his constant research failures, he is criticized heavily for his stiff acting, poor writing, gratuitous special effects and inflated ego — to say nothing of his plagiarism of both the AVGN and other similar video reviewers, or of his ever-increasing Schedule Slip (one pair of IG videos was separated by three months). However, Irate Gamer does have a sizeable fanbase, and is even sponsored by YouTube. He has also released several of his videos on DVD.
Besides his series, Irate Gamer has uploaded several other mini-videos, including Haunted Investigators, and occasional non-video game-related videos.
You can watch his series and other videos here .
The Irate Gamer provides examples of:
- Accentuate The Negative: Just like AVGN with McKids, Irate admitted that he didn't hate the Yo! Noid game despite its being a licensed title to Domino's Pizza.
- Arson Murder And Jay Walking: Whenever he does a review, he'll usually point out very minor flaws in the gameplay, never even taking the bigger gamplay flaws into consideration.
- Attention Deficit Creator Disorder: He creates so many other non-Irate Gamer videos, it's nearly ridiculous.
- Bad Bad Acting: The Irate Gamer sounds rather neutral (That is, when his acting is not forced). For example, the end of the Mission Impossible review where he says "I'm just so pissed off right now." with a calm voice.
- One of the many parody videos of the Irate Gamer pointed that out "But it does piss me off, as you can probably tell by my tone of voice."
- Or as another put it, "...which was actually one of the first games I bought for the NES... I'm so irate..." Or another. "And so ends another informative review wherein I forget that the character I play is supposed to be angry about things".
- The Genie in the Aladdin episode might be worse then Bores. Though some argue that his acting falls into Narm territory.
- Big Lipped Alligator Moment: Very prevalent in his reviews.
- IG going into the world of Donkey Kong at the end of his review of the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for the NES.
- IG shooting the dog from Duck Hunt at the end of the Jaws review.
- Most of Satan's appearances qualify as BLAM, notably in the Odyssey Light Rifle video where he offers a light rifle for his soul (only to get turned down since he already has one)
- BLAM Episode: The Order Up video, the Evil Gamer hosts the review. Where did he go after that? Never explained.
- Captain Obvious: Many of his complaints about games stem from common "problems" found in many games.
- He complained that Zombies Ate My Neighbors only gives you 3 lives and passwords and that the game gets harder in later levels. WHAT A PIECE OF SHIT!
- "Reminds me of this rooftop bullshit, jump from the wrong place and you go falling to the ground." That's never been in a game before! Except for ANY GAME WITH JUMPING AND PITS!
- On Tetris: "When the blocks start getting close to the top, the music starts speeding up. Now this causes me to get nervous and could mess me up." It's like some sort of video game.
- He also complains about the freaking boss life bar in his Sonic Unleashed review, never mind there have been hundreds of games before this that have that.
- His main complaint with Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games was that you moved the Wii controller (or as he calls it Wii Joystick) way too much. Gee, it's like the game is taking advantage of the Wii's motion capabilities. It's not like any other Wii game does this.
- If this isn't enough, he complained about the overabundance of random battles in Final Fantasy III. Yes, he's complaining about too many battles in an RPG.
- Well, to be fair, it is possible for an RPG to overdo it with the random battles.
- The Green Circles. Very often he circles things that are in plain sight, notably main characters, enemies, and items that everyone can see. In the Kool-Aid Man review he circled the playable characters, the objective, and the power-ups.
- You could create a drinking game for each instance where he complains that the game's later levels get harder.
- "Touch the ceiling, you die, touch the ground, you die, touch the lava, you die!"
- Doesn't this sound like a popular quote from a certain someone's review of Silver Surfer?
- Caustic Critic
- Chekhov's Gunman: The Evil Gamer in his first appearance.
- Continuity Nod: "I need to go back in time again."
- Dan Browned: An example of this is found in his Super Mario Bros. 2 video. He claimed the reason Nintendo didn't release the real SMB 2 due to the game being a Mission Pack Sequel, neglecting to mention the real reason was the over-the-top Nintendo Hard difficulty. He also claimed Nintendo stole from Doki Doki Panic, even though both games were developed by Nintendo, so how could Nintendo steal from themselves?
- Dem Bones: A recurring character is Ronnie, a chatty skeleton who speaks in a stereotypical African-American way.
- I thought he always sounded like a stereotypical Jew considering his stuttering and inability to stop talking. Still a pointless character that has no place in a video game review.
- Department Of Redundancy Department: "Now it's time to pop this video game in and play the game."
- "R.O.B. the Robot." So Irate Gamer is reviewing "Robotic Operating Buddy the Robot?"
- "So, joining us live to the Irate Gamer Show, connected by via satellite, Ronnie the Skeleton!"
- "Then you get to play two back-to-back Van Halen songs played by Van Halen."
- "Another annoying thing are these annoying eyeball platforms."
- He often says "NES System" when talking about that console. So he's playing the "Nintendo Entertainment System System?"
- It's like he doesn't do more than one take for some of these lines.
- Dethroning Moment Of Suck: A few to the haters, but one of the worst is the entire of History of Video Games: Part 2B. He reviews the Odyssey Gun while loosely parodying 2001: A Space Odyssey. And pointing this out in the description. He makes the very obvious joke about selling his soul and Satan appearing, and Satan leaving loudly exclaiming 'Well, motherfucker!' (Which Bores also overuses). He cocks his rifle far too much, and does VERY similar montages less than 30 seconds apart. When he's done with all the games, he tries to turn it off, only to be zapped with massive Special Effect Failure as well as terrible acting, HAL finally talking through the Odyssey (which is obviously Bores' voice just calmer), and HAL making the rifle float, EXACTLY like the Angry Video Game Nerd did in another situation. Bores tries the same thing he did earlier, and NOTHING ELSE, and it works.
- In the review of Ghosts and Goblins, where he inexplicably switches to playing the arcade version of the game with "god mode" on. And he still kept dying with cheats on.
- For a long time this show managed to be So Bad Its Good, but in the Mario Is Missing review when he has the Mario Brothers going number one in the streets… yeah. Really, Bores? You're so desperate for a laugh you've sunk to toilet humor? With some of the most recognizable faces in gaming? And I'm supposed to like what you produce?
- Did Not Do The Research: He has so many that we had to dedicate a page to all his mistakes.
- Disproportionate Retribution
- Of special note must be his Kool-Aid review, where he kills the Kool-Aid man for constantly destroying his wall, yeah, it doesn't sound like much, but the fact that he killed a character doing what he's practically known for, he's the Kool-Aid man, of course he's going to do that!
- Don't Explain The Joke: Another common problem in his videos. He also releases remastered versions of old episodes with one of the few changes being an explained joke.
- From MUSCLE (the Ring King bit)
Irate Gamer: What the fuck are they doing? (Original Version)
Irate Gamer: What the fuck? Are they getting blowjobs? I thought this was a kid's game. (Remastered Version)
- From Zombies Ate My Neighbors (with the character squirting a cheerleader)
Irate Gamer: Hmm, that doesn't look right. (Original Version)
Irate Gamer: Hmm, way to jack-off on the cheerleader pervert! (Remastered Version)
- Dull Surprise: His reaction to the third boss in Contra.
- As well as his reaction to a genie appearing in his house in the Aladdin review. "Whoa, a genie!"
- Eight Point Eight: Most of the game he reviewed (Contra, Ghosts and Goblins, the SNES Aladdin) are very much considered to be classics or at least decent.
- Ensemble Darkhorse: The Sage seems to be a rather popular character, even to the non-fans.
- Epic Fail: One of his complaints about Resident Evil 5 is the complicated controls, cutting to a shot of his Xbox 360 controller that happens to be turned off◊. No wonder they're so complicated for him.
- He didn't notice the message on screen telling him to turn the controller on either if that's the case.
- Every Episode Ending: The Irate Gamer destroying or getting rid of the game in some way or killing the main character.
- Evil Twin: The Evil Gamer.
- Exactly What It Says On The Tin: Ostensibly. He's a gamer and he is supposed to be getting angry.
- Fake Difficulty: The reason that he's angry about so many games.
- Well, to a degree. With the sheer amount of times he's complained things like "This game's too fucking hard!" or "Why couldn't they just..." he seems to resent it when developers don't make things easy on him, period. He relies on his Game Genie and cheat codes to the point where you can't help but wonder how much of it really is the game's fault.
- Bores often tries to look for things that are difficult, even when they're aren't. In his Super Mario Bros. 2 review, he complains how difficult it is to gain life hearts, while the on-screen gameplay is actually demonstrating how easy it is. He later praises The Lost Levels in the very same review, which is a much, much more difficult game.
- Notice how he calls the concept of "Killing Enemies to Get Health" stupid? Even though countless games do this? Hell, the 3D Mario games use coins to replenish health and one way to get them is by killing enemies.
- When reviewing the first Ninja Turtles game the footage he showed while complaining about the difficulty had him blatantly running into enemies and standing around letting them run into him.
- In the underwater level he was deliberately swimming into the electric plants, he was spending more time in the plants than the water.
- Fan Dumb: Some fans go as far to insist the Angry Video Game Nerd rips him off.
- The primary "justification" for this is that AVGN did Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom after Bores. Both reviews are significantly different. Never mind the fact that Bores's first review, Back to the Future, was a carbon copy of the Nerd's review.
- Flanderization: The Kool-Aid man is depicted as always saying "Oh YEAH!" and "Oh kay", never mind that he actually speaks in full sentences in his commercials.
- Flat Earth Atheist: Any IG fan who won't believe he's a plagiarist even with hard evidence shoved in their face.
- Follow The Leader: He is perhaps the most prominent follower of the Caustic Critic Video Review Show trend started by the AVGN.
- Fridge Logic: Why does the Irate Gamer need an evil twin? Doesn't Irate Gamer imply that he's bad already?
- In fact, why is the evil gamer evil when he should be the opposite, thus, a good reviewer.
- It's also strange how he's considered the "Good" version when he constantly kills others (The Kool-Aid Man, an alien mothership taking back E.T.)
- In his Yo! Noid review, he "sold out" to Domino's Pizza. Yet somehow selling out to Domino's warrants advertising completely unrelated products like Dr. Pepper. *boom*
- Funny Background Event
- Gannon Banned: Some idiots spell his name as iRate Gamer under the belief that Bores intended a pun.
- His iRate The 80s videos show that he's now going along with this. This Troper wouldn't be surprised if he claimed the pun was intended all along.
- Well if he wants to have a name that looks like ICarly's that his problem.
- Good Angel Bad Angel: In his Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom review.
- Halloween Episode
- Hatedom: IG has a very vocal anti-fanbase. In fact, there are a plethora of Irate Gamer parodies on You Tube, criticizing his many flaws.
- Hostile Show Takeover: The Evil Gamer does a review of Order Up after locking the Irate Gamer out of his house during an episode of Irate Gamer NEO.
- Hypocrite: IG has had videos that criticize him removed from You Tube for "copyright infringement" even if they contain no footage from his show, yet when he put his first DVD on sale he neglected to remove copyrighted material such as movie clips from his reviews.
- In his Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles video, he bashed TMNT II because it didn't support 4-Players (which is impossible since the NES only has 2 controller ports, and the Four Score and Satellite don't support this game) but when he complained about that in Turtles in Time he let it slide because "the game was really good."
- In his Home Improvement review he whined about the lack of an instruction manual, yet in his Contra review he said nobody reads instruction manuals. Mixing the messages there Chris.
- With how often he uses cheats to get through a game (You Suck, below), it might even be fair to call him on complaining about parts of TMNT that are too easy.
- In the Aladdin review he does a very long & pointless rant about Abu being useless and annoying (without even saying his name but once at 3:53), but when he complains about the red gems being pointless he suggests the idea of unlockable characters like Abu & Jafar. I thought the monkey was useless?
- He complains about the Pizza Hut ads in TMNT II, yet he doesn't have a problem with placing ads on his You Tube videos?
- I Am Not Shazam: The Irate Gamer constantly calls the Wii Remote the "Wii Joystick." Even though it looks nothing like a joystick and the official name is "Wii Remote."
- I Meant To Do That: His explanation for some of his blatant errors.
- When someone pointed out that he landed on a 6, not a 9, in the Odyssey Roulette game. He said "Shhh, don't explain the joke."
- He's using this excuse for not knowing about the parachute cloth in Aladdin.
- Incredibly Lame Pun: "Someone call 911 because I was ROBbed" as he holds up ROB, among others.
- In his DJ Hero review "I should get more then two stars on Hollaback Girl. Damn, B-A-N-A-N-A-ass." It's a lot more painful then it looks.
- Karma Houdini: This loser is being supported by You Tube to shit all over gaming while actual good game reviewers get run off the site (usually by him) or left to wallow in obscurity.
- Lets See YOU Do Better: Inverted in his Watchmen film review when he says "If I was directing this movie I would cut an hour off and put the flashbacks in linear order." This makes it painfully obvious that he never read the book.
- To be fair he did admit that with "I'm not really sure how the plot was revealed in the comic book." I think most of us can agree he doesn't know as much about storytelling as Alan Moore or even Zack Snyder, though.
- Also in his Zombies Ate My Neighbors review when he says the title should've been Monsters Ate My Neighbors because it had enemies other than zombies.
- Lying Creator: Bores's stance on wheter he is "inspired" by the AVGN or not has been contradictory over the years.
- Manipulative Editing: A variation of this is found in his Super Mario Bros 2 review, when complaining the star is too slow. Not only does he do it in the area where it would naturally take the most time, but he actually slows down the footage, and not for comedic effect.
- In his Mario's Time Machine review, he edits the newspaper screen after correctly placing an object with "gags" such as PAPERBOY FIRED!! and EGGPLANT WIZARD ACCUSED OF RAPE, which obviously was not in the original game. In addition, as a part of another "gag" he notes that the Sledgehammer item was placed in 1989 because of Peter Gabriel's Sledgehammer Tour, and Bores manipulates it to be so. In actuality the Sledgehammer represents the fall of the Berlin Wall. And the song Sledgehammer came out 3 years prior to 1989.
- In his review of Aladdin for SNES, when Abu eats an apple at the end of a level he edits it to make it look like the apple is actually deducted from your ammo.
- Also his supposed deliberate ignorance of the parachute feature. Even if you buy that, he's admitting he's fine with deliberately misrepresenting the facts.
- He says that once you get to level fifty in the Kool-Aid man video game, the enemies move impossibly fast. But it's obvious he sped up the footage, pay very close attention and you'll see that the Kool-Aid man is moving exactly as fast as the Thirsties even though he says they get faster. You'll also be able to note that the sound effects get higher. The timer at the top moving extremely fast.
- Memetic Mutation: The Irate Gamer getting visitors during his Monster Party review (GET THE FUCK OFF MAH PROPERTY).
- WHAT THE FUCK IS A MUSCLE?
- This would be a hell of a lot easier if these enemies weren't trying to kill me!
- If you jump from the wrong place, you go falling to the ground!
- Orwellian Editor: If he makes a mistake in a video, he will sometimes reupload the review with said mistake eliminated. Sometimes. Other times, he just explains jokes more.
- Pac Man Fever: Whenever the camera is on IG, he shakes the controller all over the place, similar to TV shows that portray game-playing as "violently shaking the controller without pressing buttons."
- In his Mario's Time Machine review, the NES he uses to play the games isn't even plugged.
- A particularly bad example in his Tetris video had him intensely Button Mashing the NES controller in a couple montages. Let me say that again, he was button-mashing Tetris.
- When playing the Arcade version of Ghosts N Goblins, he tries to pass off that he's playing the NES version by using the NES controller.
- Listed under Epic Fail above, but when he plays Resident Evil 5 you can see his Xbox 360 controller is clearly off.
- Plagiarism: He copies several of the Nerd's jokes (most notably in the Back To The Future review), and these aren't the only jokes he's stolen.
- His review of Predator has very VERY similar jokes seen in Armake21 and wizwar100's review of the same game. Notably wizwar's "Fists of Fury" joke. It doesn't help when he fights the Predator and shoots his head off just like The Nerd did to Jason Voorhees in his Friday The13th review.
- Awesome Video Games also fell victim to his unoriginality. His two part ROB video takes multiple concepts from their five part Gyromite video. Including ROB dancing, ROB "accidentally" crushing Professor Hector, ROB secretly being evil, and a fight with him at the end.
- This was also the video where he started wearing blue button-down dress shirts and prominently displaying video game posters all over his wall. People defend these actions?
- The Problem With Licensed Games: He'll often review licensed games, but sometimes he'll review games that are the exception, ones that are genuinely good.
- He's certainly entitled to think differently than the majority, but his reasons for disliking games tend to be...questionable for someone supposedly so knowledgeable about retro games.
- Product Placement: Parodied in his Yo! Noid review.
- Read The Freaking Manual: The Irate Gamer refuses to read the Contra instruction manual for the story during his review of the game in question, so he believes the game takes place in a straight modern war setting in the likes of Rambo. He is then caught by surprise once the aliens start showing up later in the game.
- Refuge In Audacity/Vulgarity
- Rouge Angles Of Satin: "The Dr. Jekyll Mr. Hyde Princible"
- Ruined FOREVER: "Face it, breakfast is ruined!"
- Schedule Slip: For quite some time now, actual IG reviews have gotten rarer and rarer as he fills his channel with more non-IG videos.
- Serial Numbers Filed Off
- Serious Business: Considering that the AVGN/IG controversy revolves around crappy NES games, the fans of both sure take it seriously.
- But half the controversy started also because the Irate Gamer will not stop stealing everybody's jokes, this doesn't make him easy to like.
- Small Name Big Ego: Supposedly, he was nice to one fan until asked if he was inspired by the AVGN. Irate then told the fan to "shove a kaktas up ur ass."
- Simply take a look at any of the sites he's active on and expect there to be an introduction featuring his questionable past achievements written in third person with phrases like "Youtube celebrity" and "the popular Irate Gamer show."
- He gave the Haunted Investigators DVD a five-star review on Amazon.com.
- When he reviewed the at the time unreleased Guitar Hero: Van Halen he says "it's about damn time" he was given clout in the gaming world for his reviews.
- It doesn't help that anyone that bought Guitar Hero 5 could get a free copy of said game. It wasn't as exclusive as his ego thinks.
- It used to be that comments on his videos were subject to Bores's personal approval, and of the ones that made it through the selection process most were overwhelmingly positive. For a while he even had it set up so that whenever someone rated a video their username and the rating they gave were displayed for everyone to see.
- Snark Bait: Do we need to tell you after everything above (Or below, for that matter)?
- So Bad Its Good: Constant research errors, blatant stealing, and bad special effects, yet you just can't wait to see how much worse he's going to get.
- Special Edition Title: The title sequence in the Order Up review is played backwards to reflect the Hostile Show Takeover. The Zombies Ate My Neighbors episode also had a special Halloween Theme Tune.
- Special Effect Failure: But then, we can not expect so much from a Web Original show.
- Love how the holes in his wall in the Kool-Aid review look like black fabric taped to the wall over all his posters.
- He didn't even iron out the fabric, you could clearly see the wrinkles.
- In the Aladdin review, when the snake wraps around him you can see it go into his leg.
- The bar in the Monster Party review; outside it's an obvious Photoshop, inside it's an obvious bluescreen effect.
- His overused explosion effect. He uses the same explosion every single time, with no variation to it.
- Spin Off: Irate Gamer NEO, which reviews more recent games, among others.
- Story Arc
- The Tetris Effect: The Irate Gamer suffers this during his review of Tetris.
- They Copied It So It Sucks: 'Nuff said.
- Too Dumb To Live: During the infamous "Uncensored Net Noise" interview, Bores is fooled into believing there's an NES game called "Hack Attack", where some comedians team up to kill Gallagher.
- You know, I listened to the interview and didn't have the feeling he actually believed it.
- Or the time he played Mission Impossible and complained about how it didn't let him refuse the mission.
- One scene in his Odyssey review has him complaining about landing on the 9 in Roulette yet the board doesn't have a 9. If you look a little closer he landed on the 6 which is on the board.
- His switching the gameplay frequently in the Ghosts N Goblins review, does he really think people are stupid enough to not notice the difference?
- Bores apparently does not know what natural gas smells like. And he has a gas pipe IN HIS ROOM.
- Um, natural gas doesn't smell like anything. The stuff they put into gas stoves has an extra component to provide the smell that leakages would be easier to notice.
- Unfortunate Implications: In his Mario Is Missing/Mario's Time Machine review, we learn that Ronnie the Jew Skeleton is apparently good at fixing pipes. In addition, anyone who looks suspicious in Mexico is a Bandito who will steal your wallet.
- Verbal Tic: He says "pretty much" in pretty much every review. And that's pretty much it.
- Video Game Cruelty Punishment: Complaining in the Mission Impossible video about his characters being arrested when innocent people are killed by the bombs he's setting off in the street.
- Video Review Show
- Viewers Are Goldfish: You see the cracked pipe labeled "Gas Pipe"? Bores shows it again and again and again to make sure you get the "joke."
- Wall Banger: So, so many: Research mistakes, blatant stealing, outright lying to his viewers about some of the games he reviews, and a lot of other things, such as complaining about stuff that makes a game a game, add to the fact his very bad special effects he is very overly reliant on, and the reviewer just isn't good, but, Your Mileage May Vary.
- A specific example from the Odyssey review: He rants about the system's connection cables and how outdated they are. He made it sound like 37 years ago they would be able to adjust for the future.
- From his Kool-Aid review, after Kool-Aid Man crashes through his wall, "How come these things always happen on my show?", yeah, I know it doesn't sound painful, but, trust me, it is.
- From the ROB review when he looks around his room for batteries and eventually takes them out of his Gameboy, and the camera's rolling the whole time. Why did we need to see that?
- He wanted to show off all his new posters and video game merchandise. On his website he once advertised that as a brand new set, even though it's the same room covered in posters.
- A ten-gallon hat don't make you a cowboy, and a bunch of showpieces don't make you a gamer.
- Wanton Cruelty To The Common Comma: "Fustrated" is one of his egregious mispronounciations, along with "emenies," "a-static," etc. He is also prone to double negatives ("they don't even make no sense at all", "I can't take it no more!"), and grammar failure ("Most hardest games for the NES"). Other times he uses the wrong word, like saying "infamous" for "famous" and "predecessor" for "successor."
- You Fail Economics Forever: His "I Rate the 80s" video about Kool-Aid flavors. He wonders why the creators of Kool-Aid stopped selling gimmicky flavors and other flavors from when he was a kid, and then hopes they bring them back for a limited time. Yeah.
- You Fail Geography Forever: The beginning of the ET review has him scouring the New Mexico desert. A desert full of plant life, trees, and vegetation HELLO!
- In the Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom review, it starts out as him souring for a video game "somewhere in South America" (i.e. in the temperate climate of a woodland area in the mid-west.)
- In the Predator review, he is supposedly scouring through the jungle for the video game as well. That is, if you count the same artificial tree in his house as a lush jungle.
- Your Mileage May Vary: As thoroughly as many critics slaughter him, he seems to have a surprisingly loyal fanbase.
- This Troper will admit that he was a fan of the Irate Gamer, up until he made the "Super Mario Bros.2" review. Since then his videos have all gone downhill.
- You Suck: His constant use of Game Genie and other cheat devices. Made even worse when he doesn't admit he cheats (Final Fantasy III review) or that he's proud of using them (Top 5 NES Games).
- One of his complaints against Super C is the cheat code for extra lives doesn't give out as many as the code in the original Contra(whereupon he stops the review to announce he's falling back on his Game Genie).
- He whines that Resident Evil 5's amateur setting is still too difficult and actually asks "Why couldn't they make the easy setting easier?"
- If you look in the right places, it's blatantly obvious that he cheats.
- In his Jaws video you see him get hit without dying, and that game has a One Hit Point Wonder character.
- In his TMNT video, when talking about the 2nd game he kills the enemies in one hit (not possible without Game Genie) and when talking about the 3rd game his life count doesn't go down.
- He seems to have not even played Ghosts 'n' Goblins, as the footage he cuts to is for his review shows two separate games!
- He switched to the Arcade version of the game. The NES port didn't have Game Genie codes for invincibility so he abruptly cut to the Arcade version without warning.
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