Shout Out / Paladins

Hi-Rez are always never one to pass-up a good joke, or a shoutout to another franchise for that matter:

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Champions:

• Androxus:
  • Androxus' lines for killing Skye asks if she thinks darkness is her ally, and that he was born in the dark.
• Ash:
  • One of Ash's now unused Top Play lines is "Iron within. Iron without.", the battle cry of Warhammer 40,000's Iron Warriors. Much like the Iron Warriors in general, Ash also storms fortifications in large, heavy grey armor with heavy weaponry.
  • Ash may sing the chorus to the Joan Jett song "I Love Rock 'n' Roll" if she kills Inara. Similarly, her "I'm the Greatest" voiceline has her say "I don't give a damn about my reputation" out of Joan Jett's "Bad Reputation" song.
  • The card art for "Gate Crasher" is very reminiscent of this image macro meme.
• Atlas:
  • Atlas's reveal had people pretty much immediately ask if he was a Space Marine Librarian due to his shoulder pads.
  • The card art for "Paradox" bears some resemblance to this comic panel showing the Speedster Multiverse of The Flash.
  • The card art for "Continuum Shift" is based on the time travel seen in The Terminator.
• Azaan:
  • One of his jokes implies he knows a story about a certain hammer-wielding Thunder God that ended up in a dress, while some of his abilities draw inspiration on how said Thunder God fight against other Gods.
• Barik:
  • He bears a passing resemblance to Gimili from The Lord of the Rings, and two voice lines make reference to thing Gimili says:
  While Dying: "Not...the beard!"
  When ulting: "Last one standing wins!"
• Buck:
  • One of his starting quotes is the "I'm here to chew bubble gum" speech from Duke Nukem and They Live!...with a modification that he "properly places in the respective waste container".
  • His line for "I'm the greatest" is vocalized as "I am the champion" in an out of key singing voice.
• Corvus:
  • One of Corvus' jokes has him declare "I have the power of the Abyss and the Magistrate on my side! AAAAAAHHH!", much like an infamous kid's declaration about the power of God and anime being on his side.
  • Another has him say "I do what I must, because I can.", much like Portal's Still Alive song.
  • His taunt declaring "Innocence? Your innocence proves NOTHING!" sounds very much like a famous Thought for the Day from Warhammer 40,000, a sentiment associated with Warhammer 40,000's Imperium of Man's Inquisition which is also an organization similarly concerned with The Needs of the Many.
• Drogoz:
  • If an ally hear him doing an ultimate, what they hear is "I must break you!", a quote from Ivan Drago in Rocky IV, rather fittingly.
  • The artwork for his Rain of Fire skill card bears a strong resemblance to the Reign of Fire scene where dragons burn the crop fields.
  • One of his jokes is "You will not collect any dragon balls."
  • He really hates being called a lizard.
• Evie:
  • One of her her jokes is to Pokémon (because her name sounds like Eevee).
  "No, I'm not the shiny version. Stop asking."
  • Killing an enemy Evie will have her quote the Lich King
  "There must always be a Frost Queen!"
• Grohk:
  • One of his death quotes is "The sky is falling!"
  • On taking damage, he sometimes says "Stop poking me!"
  • All of his taunts are from professional wrestlers.
  • His emote "Grohk Slide" is a reference to the Electric Slide.
• Grover:
  • One of his taunts is "I will... Smite you. [chuckles]"
  • At the start of a match, he will sometimes quote his former master, Sylvanus, from Smite. Also, he can blame Sylvanus for losing the battle.
  • Killing Fernando causes him to channel his inner Smokey Bear and say "Only you can stop forest fires".
• Imani:
  • Imani has many references to Black Panther (2018):
    • The red coloring and baldness of Imani's "Warder" recolor make her look like she's a member of Wakanda's Dora Mijale.
    • One of her unused Top Play quotes has her question if you froze or burned, something Okoye says to T'Challa, but in a wholly different context (The difference being Imani means it literally, Okoye meant it in the sense of T'challa's state of mind while fighting.)
    • Her "I'm the greatest" line is "Warders Forever!", a play on the mantra "Wakanda Forever" both the Dora Mijale and Black Panther uses before a fight in both the Black Panther film and in Infinity War.
    • Imani, much like Okoye, also disapproves of guns, claiming them to be primitive, even saying the line in a similar fashion:
    Imani: "Guns?...tsk..so primitive."
• Inara:
  • Ice Walker Inara's "No" voice line is "You Know Nothing", a reference to the appropriately named book: A Song of Ice and Fire
  • Ice Walker Inara itself being a reference to Game of Thrones, strengthened by her splash art◊, which is Inara sitting in a chair of ice, similar in design to the Iron Throne from the series.
• Jenos:
  • His ultimate ability is clearly derivative of Janus' ultimate ability Through Space and Time, being a world-penetrating, high damage attack that has a fixed direction upon starting the charge, even sharing a similar, flipped name.
  • His Halloween-themed Ghoulish Goalie mask is clearly based on Jason Voorhees' mask from Friday the 13th.
  • His sitting emote seems to be a floating variation of the Engineers' Rancho Relaxo taunt.
• Kasumi:
  • Her appearance in the "Fog of War" Limited Time Mode has her act as a horror villain for the player to come across. Going near her has Kasumi jump scare the player by suddenly moving quickly and loudly screaming, followed by some wry laughter. This is likely in reference to Silent Hill (a horror-themed game that's notorious for its use of fog).
• Kinessa:
  • Defeating Barik has her call him a sad, strange, little man.
  • One of her killstreak lines has her shout "My heart's beating, my hands are shaking, and I'm still shooting!"
  • She has a card called "Beam Me Up", which consists of a woman in a yellow shirt in the midst of a jungle about to teleport.
  • If she kills Fernando, she'll quip that she likes they way he dies...boy.
  • One of her respawn/ low health quotes is "Serpentine... Serpentine!", which appears to be a direct reference to this scene from 1979's The In-Laws, where both people dodge sniper fire by weaving about. Her MVP pose also references this, with Kinessa being held in the air in a jumping pose.
  • When killing Grohk, she'll quip "You're my boy, blue!".
  • One of her jokes is "Funny? You think I'm funny? Like a clown? Do I amuse you?", which pretty much taken from Tommy DeVito from GoodFellas.
• Khan:
  • Khan's large shoulder pads, "ask-questions-later" persona, and obnoxiously large Heavy Repeater have led many to compare his likeness to a Space Marine.
• Koga:
  • His stun animation is a reference to the same stun animation from Mortal Kombat. One must assume that it cane about as Koga looks quite a bit like a fusion of both Sub Zero and Scorpion.
• Lex:
  • Lex's 'Good Luck!' quote is "Cheers, love!", much like another dual-gun totting person from a rival game, Tracer. What stops it from being a generic Cockney greeting is that he delivers it in the same tone and chipperness as Tracer, when Lex is the farthest thing from chipper.
  • 'Bad Cop', an emote for Lex, shows him performing a dance that is practically identical to the moves Chris Tucker's character pulled off at the beginning of Rush Hour (itself an homage to Michael Jackson's performance, whose song was featured in said scene).
• Maeve:
  • Killing an enemy with Pounce will make her quip "These blades are made for slicing", which she says in the exact cadence of the song "These Boots are Made For Walking" by Nancy Sinatra.
• Makoa:
  • Makoa's recolor; "Montego", is named after one of the islands namedropped in "Kokomo" by the The Beach Boys. His removed recolors from before the game fully released (Aruba and Bahama) make this reference more obvious.
  • Just like pretty much everyone with a hook-and-drag move, he sometimes says, "Get over here!"
  • One of his jokes has him wonder what "cowabunga" means.
• Moji:
  • According to the developers, Moji's ultimate is inspired by Majin Buu's Chocolate Beam from Dragon Ball Z.
  • Moji's "There is No Reason to Be Upset" emote is a reference to the "Smug Dancin'" meme from A Hat in Time, which itself was a permutation of the "Noones Around to Help" meme from Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp. It's possible the developers got the idea from this reddit animation, making it an Ascended Fan Fic of sorts. The name itself is a reference to the "There is no need to be upset" meme.
• Pip:
  • An avatar found in the Flair Chest has a raccoon wearing Pips' goggles eating out of a trashcan.
• Saati:
  • The card art for Aggressive Tip seems to be modelled after this specific◊ John Wick: Chapter 2 promo poster, as well as the "I don't sing" meme◊ from Tangled. The Paladins twitter even got in on the meme action.
• Sha Lin:
  • His Daring Escape card has splash art that seems to resemble the chase sequence from Aladdin.
• Talus:
  • In his champion teaser, after defeating everyone on the battlefield, he asks a visibly annoyed Barik if he's up for some Schwarma to celebrate.
• Terminus:
  • He'll sometimes say "TERMINUS SMASH!" when using Shatterfall.
  • The cards "It Follows", "It Waits" and "It Watches" are all references to titles of three horror films.
  • The card "We can rebuild him" is a reference to the famous quote from The Six Million Dollar Man (and nominally to the trope of the same name).
• Tiberius:
  • * One of Tiberius' jokes is him saying the infamous "OwO whats this?" furry meme in his French accent. Tomb Keeper also has this joke, but his Voice Actor breaks character and they adamantly refuse to finish the line.
• Torvald:
  • Torvald's ultimate cry when heard by other allies is "Power Overwhelming!"
• Vatu:
  • Vatu, being very Ninja, of course has many shout outs:
    • One of his taunts has him say he was born in shadow, molded by it, much like The Dark Knight Rises's Bane talking about himself and the dark.
    • Another taunt has him say "You have already fallen, your body just needs to realize that fact."
    • His joke saying hands behind my back will not make him more aerodynamic naturally refers to the famous Naruto-usage of Ninja Run.
    • The joke "This is not a matter of personal vendetta, child." is him Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness-ing up the Nothing personal, kid meme...and he can actually teleport behind you!
    • Another joke just has him say the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987)'s Catchphrase "Cowabunga.", because of course.
• VII:
  • His death quote; "Hello death... my old friend..." is in reference to the song "The Sound of Silence" by Simon & Garfunkel.
  • His two cards, "The Fear" and "The Night" are paraphrased from the famous "I am vengeance, I am the night, I am Batman!" from Batman: The Animated Series.
• The name of VII's ultimate ability; "Decree 77", mfollows a rather similar naming convention that of "Order 66" from Star Wars.
• Viktor:
  • One of his jokes is "I'd love to stay here and talk with you... but I'm not going to."
• Willo:
  • Her "hello" voiceline has her say "Hey, listen!"
  • On death, she can say "I'm feeling... faint, Please... believe in me...", while another death quote references the "It's just a prank, bro" meme.
  • Her Ultimate clip "Reach for the sky!" is the same as the catchphrase of Woody from Toy Story.
• Yagorath:
  • Yagorath's design is extremely reminiscent of that of a Tyranid Trigon◊.
  • Her Carnage Dance emote is literally just the motions out of a Caramelldansen Vid.
• Zhin:
  • Zhin's "Nomad" recolor makes him look like an airbender.
  • His laugh emote had him stop laughing and says "You're a funny one. I'll kill you last." He didn't say the rest, but he's probably lying.
  • His Kindle emote is a clear reference to Dark Souls, where he sticks his sword into the ground and lights it in a manner much like lighting a Bonfire from that game.
  • His Sulking emote is pretty much the paladins-equivalent of Reaper's Dance emote, in that he refuses to dance. They both of drop their weapons, cross their arms, and constantly sigh of boredom, with the main differences being Zhin leans back against his sword and mutters to himself, while Reaper simply taps his foot.

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Skins:

• Androxus: His Halloween-themed Screech mask is based on Ghostface's mask from Scream.
• Ash: Ronin Ash can reference Samurai Jack on respawning ("Gotta get back."), speaks of Sun Tzu's wisdom to ensure victory when successfully capturing the point, says she'll dine on turtle soup like the Shredder after killing Makoa and calls to mind The Hagakure by remarking that the way of the warrior is found in death or an unused line that has her say a warrior makes a decision within seven breaths.
• Barik:
  • One of his costumes is the Engineer from Team Fortress 2, complete with a Good Ol' Boy voice pack, voiced by Grant Goodeve, the VA for Engie in Team Fortress 2 proper:
    • If he kills Pip, he'll sometimes remark, "That's why you don't feed 'em after midnight".
    • One of the starting quotes is "I'm an engineer. That means I solve problems...", a reference to the opening of the "Meet the Engineer" short.
    • One of his jokes is "Can we build it? Yes, we can".
    • Another is "Pay no attention to the man behind the turret!".
    • If he buys an item mid-match, he may quip "I'm only used to changing hats!", a reference to the Team Fortress 2 inventory system that lets players change a characters hat and other cosmetics in a players' inventory mid-battle.
• Betty La Bomba: Her "Dragonette"◊ skin is heavily inspired by Bowesette.
• Buck:
  • Buck's, uh, Buck Wild skin is essentially Hulk Hogan. In addition, he sounds identical to Hercule's boisterous kayfabe voice.
  • One of Triggerman Buck's opening lines (being a Mafia hitman) is "I don't like violence, I'm a businessman. Blood is expensive.". His other one references Taken's "I will find you" monologue.
• Cassie:
  • Her "Dune Crawler skin" makes her and Zigs resemble Rey and BB-8 respectively, and comes with a quasi-british accent.
  • Night Bane Cassie is a Witch Hunter.
• Drogoz:
  • One of Drogoz's skins gives him the shoulder fins, armor plating, and "nose" of a EVA.
  • Dreadhunter Drogoz is a flying Xenomorph. Naturally, one of his spawn quotes is "In the realm, everyone can hear you scream!", referencing the Alien tagline.
• Evie:
  • Troublemaker Evie, being a punk rocker, naturally says "I don't wanna waste my time and I never fall in line!" for her spawn, The Ramones' classic "Hey-ho, let's go!", one of her jokes' punchlines is "Bikini Kill", her first blood quote is "This ain't a scene, it's an arms race!", killstreak quotes whip up "Cherry bomb!", "Gettin' away with murder!", and... "Let the bodies hit the floor!", oddly enough.
  • Bewitching Evie casts her spells by speaking backwards.
• Fernando:
  • Fernando's Helios skin turns him into a Gundam model kit, and the voice pack makes him mimic the low-res voices that came from old mecha action figures and the cheesy, heroic 80s-style anime dubs of mecha. An alternate recolor skin turns him into Deathscythe, from the same series.
  • If a Helios Fernando kills Viktor, the Soldier 76 equivalent, Fernando may grimly comment "We're all soldiers, now".
  • His God of War skin is basically Ares, who also got a Fernando skin back in his home game, due to his flame thrower working similarly as Ares' Searing Flesh.
  • Enforcer Fernando's voice pack sounds very much like Joe Swanson.
  • His Shore Patrol skin makes reference to Mortal Kombat with him occasionally saying "Toasty!" (in the same cadence) while dousing someone in flames.
• Imani:
  • Her Stellar Sorceress skin seems to be aware of various Anime and television tropes. Imani's aware of her own Opening Monologue (and gets bored reading it half-way through), refers to her ability cooldowns as a "Commercial break" and "locked until i'm losing", mentions Evie being a Yandere in her kill taunt, being defeated has her mention if the match was a two-parter,.
• Jenos:
  • The Gentleman Jenos skin◊, which strongly resembles Tuxedo Mask from Sailor Moon in concept except his suit is white. The skin came about due to the community noticing the curious aesthetic similarities between the two. During the Patch Preview revealing the skin, one of the hosts mentions a portion of the invoked"But you didn't do anything!" meme that surrounds Tuxedo Mask, strengthening the connection. The real kicker, however, is him having a line for Top Play that is, yes, the infamous "My job here is done" meme.
• Lian:
  • Her Goddess skin seems to be a reference to Hi-Rez's other game SMITE, right down to the splash art◊. Official sources stated that it was based on Hera, though the skin was released years before they even included Hera into the Smite roster.
• Lex:
  • Longboard Lex, being a dudebro fratboy and beach bum, calls out "SHOTS SHOTS SHOTS SHOTS SHOTS". One of his spawn quotes references Point Break (1991).
• Mal'Damba:
  • Wickerman Mal'Damba's personality is based on Jim Carrey and quotes several characters he's played. He also has references to The Nightmare Before Christmas.
• Maeve:
  • Raeve Maeve's helmet is a clear reference to deadmau5. Her lines are also filled with references to electronic dance music as well (so many, that someone made a list for them).
  • Raeve Maeve yells "that's my jam" in the same exact tone as Overwatch's Lucio.
• Makoa:
  • His Plushy and Cuddly skin are references to Kirby's Epic Yarn and Yoshi's Woolly World, which both have yarn-forged characters.
• Pip:
  • Quite a few with Invader Pip:
    • He makes reference to Zero Wings' infamous "All Your Base Are Belong to Us" mis-translation when successfully capturing the point.
    Invader Pip: All your points are belong to us!
    • Invader Pip also has a line directly quoting the "I must go, my people/ planet need me!" meme word for word when he activates Weightless;
    Invader Pip: I must go, my people need me!";
    • If he dies, he'll say "Release... me...", a quote from Independence Day.
• Ruckus:
  • The Robo Force skin turns Ruckus and Bolt into a campy superhero Super Robot, acting as if they came straight out of a Saturday morning Sentai show. Their "woohoo" voiceline has Bolt yelling "Ay-yi-yi-yi-yi-yi!"
  • Ruckus and Bolt's Star-Slayer skin comes with the description describing that, in a galaxy far away, you still need to kill things as quickly as possible. Unsurprisingly, his "Woo Hoo" is Han Solo's victory scream after coming to Luke's aid (with more than a dash of R2's screeching), a joke involves Bolt trying to calculate their chance of success before Ruckus snaps with Han's "Never tell me the odds!", another joke is the "fully operational" line about the Death Star, his selection quote is paraphrase of Darth's "Don't fail me again", one of his post-victory quotes with Bolt is patterned after Leia and Han Solo's famous exchange ("I couldn't have done it without you." "I know."), one of his death quotes might be "B-but I shot first!", one of his "Ambush" quotes is "IT'S A TRAP", and one of his post-defeat quotes is Ruckus shrieking just like Luke finding out Darth Vader's his daddy. In a non-Star Wars related shoutout, one of his intro quotes may be demanding Bolt open the rear hatch, only to be told by Bolt that he's sorry, but he can't allow that.
• Seris:
  • Madame Seris has the same haircut and blindfold as 2B.
• Sha Lin:
  • His superhero-themed skins (Vigilante, Crime Fighter, Guardian) are obviously references to Green Arrow, Dare Devil and Hawkeye respectively, and the voice pack makes references to various superheros and tropes. He mentions an Arrow car, having a Utility Belt, his jokes reference Venom to Mal'Damba, he has an Elaborate Underground Base, one of his jokes mention "Archer senses", his "Awesome" line references the 60's famous Robin line, and many more.
• Skye:
  • An alternate skin for Skye turns her into Rei Ayanami in her plugsuit, blue hair and all.
• Strix:
  • His Remix skin, particularly the helmet, bares resemblance to the band Daft Punk.
• Terminus:
  • Steel Forged Terminus may look like some sort of giant crusader but that's hardly all the skin's going to reference:
  • Getting first blood will have him declare that for the righteous to rise, others must fall being the law of equivalent exchange. A joke has him point out how he's like Alphonse Elric.
  "My brother? My memory of my corporeal life is spotty. But I seem to remember him being a short headstrong blonde alchemist. I believe his name was Pip?"
  • He has a joke where he says the closing line of Monty Python and the Holy Grail's Camelot scene but he replaces Camelot with House Aico.
• Torvald:
  • Torvald has a skin, Dark Lord, that turns him into an unholy cross between Darth Vader and Palpatine. Torvald's "first blood" voice line for this skin becomes "You thought you would get first blood, but it was me, Torvald!".
  • Berserker Torvald's voiceline for asking for help is him laughing and stating that [[he's in danger, like Ralph Wiggum.
• Tyra:
  • Her "Red Winter" skin turns her into a stereotypical James Bond girl, as well as several Bond title puns like "from me, with love".
• Vatu:
  • Vatu's Mayhem skin woke up today and chose violence.
• Viktor:
  • V1KT0R's design is heavily based off of Doomguy from Doom (2016), sounds like a gung-ho Space Marine, and one of his intro quotes parodies the "in the grim darkness of the far future" tagline of Warhammer 40,000. He's also quite the Meta Guy who lampshades almost every video game trope and convention under the sun, reflecting Oscar Mike from fellow Overwatch competitor Battleborn:
  "Now to relax and regenerate my health."
  "Need a Med-Pack stat!."
  "Suffocate them in an endless tide of expendable grunts!"
  "My armor... didn't do... anything."
  "What? I never lose! Uh, where's my checkpoint?"
  "I'll be back... after, I respawn."
  "I actually really like playing collectable card games."
  "Gotta love those unlocks!"
  • The Code Green skins turn him into an all-American plastic toy soldier with various guns. What nails in the reference is that he sounds identical to generic Green troopers (and Sarge) from the series.
• Vivian:
  • Omega Vivian got one hell of Shout-Out list: She asks for a control-alt-delete button while mounting up, tells you the only winning move for you is not to play for a taunt like from WarGames, states popular wisdom on an interface being like a joke in that explaining means it's not very good (unless you're going for Don't Explain the Joke, of course), says the first half of Alexander Pope's quotation that can be seen on the Forgiveness page before going on blaming technology being even more human, says "To be fair, you have to have a really high IQ to get this." toward Buck after killing him, quoting much of a Rick and Morty meme, says the tech support advice of turning it off and on again immortalized in The IT Crowd, and declares "Get ready to hack the planet!" much like the infamous line from Hackers at the start of matches.
• Ying:
  • Replicant Ying (being a robot Ying) naturally references the three laws that no longer bind her. If killed by Lex, she spouts "Lex. What are you doing? Lex. Stop." One of her lines is shazbot, which in itself also references the use in Hi-Rez's Tribes. Genie Ying also uses "shazbot"!
• Zhin:
  • A skin can turn Zhin into Kylo Ren.
  • Demon Slayer Zhin is basically an Expy of Geralt of Rivia.

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Other:

• The "Crippled" status effect (which slows enemy movement, and locks them out of movement abilities) has an image of a knights knee being pierced by an arrow, referencing the "arrow to the knee" meme from Skyrim.
• Ying was named after a Hi-Rez employee, Ying Xie.
• The Weekly challenge for playing five games as a support paraphrases the last half of Mercy's ultimate quote.
• Smite and Paladins share an achievement called "Questions Later", which both involve damaging all your enemies without getting hit.
• The PvE event Tortoise Power was one big one to TMNT, pretty much boiling down to your team against the titular ninjas, or in this case, Makael, Makonardo, Makoalangelo, Makotello, and Master Pipster.
• The Game On Event Pass has a lot of videogame references:
  • The Game On Event Pass had a rotating sword in its center which could be described as "The Master Sword combined with Furia's sword's hilt". This would be used from this point onward in future Event Passes.
  • The "Reformat" spray◊ is modelled on the PS2's "DVD Error" screen.
  • "Critical Failure"◊ and "Error Out"◊ are nods to the infamous RROD (Red Ring Of Death) that plagued the Xbox 360.
  • Noob.exe◊ is a nod to the running meme in the PC Gaming community of using Alt+F4 to "speed up your computer"....by shutting down the game. The R.O.M and Heatsink Raum skins have this command on their weapons.
  • "Illusion Directory"◊ refers to the "Hidden Files" option found on PC]]
  • "Ill-Prepared"◊, which is a reference to the "You have died of Dysentry" meme from The Oregon Trail game.
  • The "Out of Lives" Death Stamp◊ is based on the TV's seen in the Sonic the Hedgehog games.
• During the OB64 incident, Lex received two new Legendary Cards, the latter replacing the former when the former was too overpowered: "Fought The Law" and "The Law Won".
• The Shore Patrol Battle Pass is one big reference to Baywatch, with the skins all being lifeguard uniforms played for fanservice. The trailer for the Pass features a slightly-altered parody of the show's theme.
• One of the possible bot names you can encounter in Practice matches is Grievous.
• One of the sprays in the Nightfall Event Pass shows Corvus's "Count" skin pointing towards his open mouth with his thumb, similar to the "It was I, Dio!" meme.
• The promo art for Viktor's Rambo skin seems to take cues from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and uses Doctor Strange-esque portals.
• The LTM "You da Bomba" (every character is Betty la Bomba) has the description of "No, YOU’RE breathtaking" at the start, in reference to the phrase said by Keanu Reeves in a reveal event for Cyberpunk 2077.

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