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5 Chinese Celebrities Who Crossed Over To Stardom In America

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Achieving fame in your own country is hard enough, but to find A-list level success on the other side of the world is even harder. For many years, Chinese celebrities didn’t find much stardom in the west outside of a select few. That’s what makes these five Chinese celebrities so unique, as they were able to become superstars in the United States.

1. Bruce Lee

A martial arts master, Bruce Lee became an icon in all parts of the world when he began appearing in martial arts films during the early 1970s, many of which he also directed. Some of his more prominent films include “Way of the Dragon” and “Enter the Dragon”, creating an interest in martial arts that has been around ever since.

Many credit Lee as the reason that they got into martial arts, and still remember him many years following his death. Lee was just 32 years old when he passed away on July 20, 1973, due to cerebral edema. Lee helped bridge the gap between Hollywood and East Asia during his career, breaking barriers in the process.

2. Jackie Chan

There are a handful of actors that have been known for doing their own stunts, but Jackie Chan sets the gold standard. Chan was born in what was then British Hong Kong in 1954 and appeared in Chinese films since the 1960s. Chan was among the world’s highest-paid actors during his peak, making his mark in action comedies such as “Rush Hour” and “Shanghai Knights”.

Throughout all of his films, Chan has performed his own stunts, which has led to some hilarious outtakes at times. He continues to act to this day, and his career was recognized at the 2016 Oscars when he won the Academy Honorary Award for his worldwide film achievements. Even the Shanghai International Film Festival has an award named after him for action films.

3. Chow Yun-Fat

Another icon that was born in British Hong Kong, Chow Yun-Fat came from humble beginnings where he worked odd jobs until getting involved in acting during the 1970s by appearing in several films and television shows per year, becoming a household name in China. After a career setback in the 1980s, Chow turned his career around and started to get notoriety in the United States.

Chow’s Hollywood career began in 1998 with the film “The Replacement Killers”, and the following year he co-starred with Mark Wahlberg in “The Corrupter”. Perhaps Chow’s most notable US venture, though, is 2003’s “Bulletproof Monk”. To date, Chow has earned more than a dozen major awards in China and has appeared in around 100 films.

4. Jet Li

Another martial arts icon on the list, Jet Li was born in Beijing in 1963 and used his skills in Wushu to begin an acting career. Li was still a teenager when he made his acting debut in 1982’s “Shaolin Temple” and became a superstar in China thanks to films including “Once Upon a Time in China” and “Fist of Legend”. 

During the late 1990s, Li was able to achieve fame in the west thanks to leading roles in the films “Lethal Weapon” and “Romeo Must Die”. Li turned down some major roles during his peak, but still took on plenty of other notable films including “Cradle 2 the Grave”, “Kiss of the Dragon” and “Unleashed”.

5. Yao Ming

When someone is described as “larger than life,” it’s usually figurative instead of literal. However, Yao Ming’s 7’6” stature makes him truly a standout. After beginning his professional basketball career in Shanghai with the Sharks, Yao became eligible for the 2002 NBA Draft. The Houston Rockets selected him with the first overall pick and helped to make the NBA popular in China.

Yao was an eight-time All-Star and five-time All-NBA selection during his career was cut short due to injuries. He posted 19 points, 9.2 rebounds, and 1.9 blocks per game en route to a Hall of Fame induction. In 2017, Yao was named as the President of the Chinese Basketball Association.

Can Crosswords Make You Smarter?

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Among the most popular games in the world, you’ll find crosswords, with an estimated 50 million people worldwide playing on a daily basis. It takes a lot of patience and a large vocabulary to nail a crossword puzzle. Because of this, there are many wondering if doing the daily crossword will make them smarter.

The answer, and the scientific research that goes along with it, may surprise you. Let’s take a look at crossword puzzles and how they’re linked to overall intelligence.

The Intelligence Quotient

When determining IQ (intelligence quotient), there are five scores that are taken into consideration. These are verbal comprehension, visual-spatial, fluid reasoning, working memory, and processing speed. Working on a crossword puzzle requires someone to use all of those IQ factors at once.

Research has shown that there are certain aspects of IQ that can be improved when doing crosswords. Working memory and processing speed typically require practice, and crosswords are a perfect way to make sure that you’re brain is staying active.

Crosswords and Aging

Many of the people that do crosswords on a daily basis tend to skew toward the older age bracket. While researchers were hopeful that games like crosswords would be able to slow down mental decline, they were able to find out that these games made it easier to cope with illnesses such as Alzheimer’s or dementia.

James Pickett of the United Kingdom Alzheimer’s Society said that “Although playing ‘brain games’…may not prevent dementia, it has been shown that regularly challenging yourself mentally seems to build up the brain’s ability to cope with (the) disease.” However, there was another study released a few years after Pickett’s that said that there was a link between crosswords and brain age.

What About Intelligence?

Keith Wesnes, Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Exter Medical School, said that “We found direct relationships between the frequency of word puzzle use and the speed and accuracy of performance on nine cognitive tasks assessing a range of aspects of function including attention, reasoning, and memory.”

Wesnes added that “Performance was consistently better in those who reported engaging in puzzles, and generally improved incrementally with the frequency of puzzle use.” While he said it would take some time to prove how the crossword puzzles improve these skills, those that played the puzzles each day were likely to have younger brain ages.

Another study that was spearheaded by Tiffany Hughes and Chung-Chou Chang stated that “A lower risk of dementia was found for a greater number of activities and for a high compared with low weekly time commitment,” which included crossword puzzles. Their conclusion was that crosswords and related activities for one hour each day might be protective against dementia in late life.

Scores Don’t Lie

Those that participate at an elite level in crosswords and games like Scrabble are shown to have high-functioning cognitive abilities. One study took people who were nationally ranked in these games and compared their cognitive function to college students who scored an elite level of over 700 on quantitative and verbal SAT tests.

While there wasn’t a major difference, the crossword players did tend to score the highest in cognitive ability. This meant that the smartest crossword players were achieving the same in reading and writing as those with SAT scores that were good enough to get into Ivy League schools like Harvard or Yale.

Summary

At the end of the day, it wouldn’t be right to say that doing a crossword puzzle every day is certain to increase your intelligence, it is safe to say that it won’t hurt. In fact, the link between crosswords and improved cognitive ability shows that simply doing one puzzle daily leads to a lot of mental health benefits that are too good to pass up.

Even the great Carol Burnett has said “I do the New York Times crossword puzzle every morning to keep the old grey matter ticking.”

5 Best Selling Retro Games

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These days, you can simply download a video game to your mobile phone, computer or console and start playing right away and guides on how to play and beat the game are readily available before release. In the early days of video games, though, all of the secrets were reserved only for physical guides that you had to buy in addition to the game. Because of this, there were a lot of retro games that sold like hotcakes in the days before the internet.

There were also plenty of games that were simply addicting in nature as you tried to beat your personal high score or set a new standard amongst your friends. There’s a nice blend of both categories in the highest-selling games of all time. Here are the five that were released before 2000 that sold the most copies and had seemingly everybody in the world playing them.

Super Mario Bros. 

In 1985 Nintendo released the Super Mario Bros game in Japan for the Famicom (Family Computer), following the success of the Mario Bros arcade game released two years prior. Soon after, it was introduced in the US for the NES system for a short period of time. 

It remains one of the most successful video game franchises to this day. Most are familiar with the Super Mario Bros merchandise, toys, cartoon, and the movie adaptation set to be released in the Spring of 2023. 

Pac-Man

Pac-Man, previously called “Pukkuman” and “Puck Man” in Japan and Europe, is a hugely popular arcade game released by Namco in July of 1980. It was released worldwide later that same year by Midway Manufacturing. 

Many remakes and sequels have been made over the years, with Ms. Pac-Man having the greatest impact. Developers recognized the appeal of Pac-Man amongst their female players and decided it was time to welcome a sassy and cute new character. Both Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man ended up being two of the highest-earning arcade games of all time in North America. 

Tetris

One of the most simple, yet endlessly entertaining video games is the retro classic, Tetris. Russian-born Alexey Pajitnov engineered this colorful puzzle game in 1984, but it wasn’t released in Europe and North America until 1987 and 1988. Tetris became one of the best-selling video games of all time over the years. 

Also providing surprising benefits as well. One benefit discovered by researcher Richard Haier shows that playing Tetris can improve brain function over time, in areas such as critical thinking. A separate study also found the usefulness of playing Tetris in treating older children suffering from lazy eyes, due to the game’s ability to keep the player focused and correct the lazy eye. 

Super Mario World

Super Mario World is the fourth addition to the Super Mario Bros. video game series. The game was developed by Nintendo and released in Japan in 1990, later released in Australia and North America in 1991 and 1992.  Unlike the previous three Super Mario Bros. games, the fourth was released for the SNES, the successor of the NES. 

An excellent addition to the series was everyone’s favorite dinosaur-like cutie, Yoshi. Nintendo had plans to incorporate Yoshi into previous Super Mario Bros. games, but were unable with the hardware limitations. The game received extremely high praise and ended up the best-selling videogame of its time. 

Pokémon Red, Green, and Blue

There are an astounding amount of Pokémon games available to play, with more being introduced on an almost yearly basis. The best selling and retro fan favorite is the first of the Pokémon games, Pokémon Red, Green, and Blue. Red and Green were first released for the Gameboy in Japan in 1996 under the name “Pocket Monsters”. 

Later released in Australia and North America in 1998 and Europe in 1999. Blue was released internationally a few years later in 1999. Through the years, they remain the highest earning Pokémon games of all time, showing you can’t beat the classics. 

5 Retro Games That Changed The World

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Video games were once seen as a niche hobby that some thought would be a passing fad but instead blossomed into one of the biggest industries in the world. Between console, mobile, and PC gaming, the video game industry now records around $200 billion in revenue each year. There are particular franchises that we can credit with video games becoming a staple of society.

What were the games that really set the tone? We’ve come up with five that changed the world, not based on gameplay, but on the impact that they had. These games had millions glued to their televisions or heading to the arcade, showing that video games should be taken seriously.

Super Mario Bros. 

The “Super Mario Bros.” franchise is one of the most successful and widely known throughout the world, continuing to provide Nintendo lovers with endless entertainment. The creation of the “Super Mario Bros.” game for the NES came after its predecessor and the first game of the series, Mario Bros, an arcade game released in Japan in 1983. 

Super Mario Bros and the NES console played important roles in reviving the video game industry after the video game crash in 1983. It also made way for other 16-bit games, like “Super Metroid”, “Street Fighter ll”, and “Sonic the Hedgehog”. 

Wolfenstein 3D

The third installment of the “Wolfenstein” video game series, “Wolfenstein 3D” has been dubbed the “grandfather of 3D shooters”. It was developed by id Software and later released in 1992 by Apogee Software and Formgen for PC. “Wolfenstein 3D” opened the door for future First Person Shooters and introduced action-packed and violent gameplay to the world of video games. 

It quickly became the best-selling game in 1992 and saw over a quarter million copies sold within the three years following. There was no other game like it on the market. It helped lead the way to the development of games like “Call of Duty”, “Doom”, and “GoldenEye 007”. 

Pong

One of the first arcade games, “Pong” was released in 1972 after Allan Alcorn developed the game as a training task given to him by Atari’s co-founder Nolan Bushnell. The founders of Atari enjoyed Alcorn’s creation so much, they began production of the simple, yet exciting ping-pong-style video game. 

The release of “Pong” sent players into a frenzy and it became an instant hit, leading to the release of Home Pong by Atari, sold exclusively through Sears. Many credit that move by Atari to be the first successful move in welcoming the era of home video game consoles. 

Grand Theft Auto

The first game of the series, “Grand Theft Auto” was released in 1997 for the PC and PlayStation and in 1999 for the Gameboy Color. The extremely popular action/RP game was surrounded by controversy even before it had been released due to the violent subject matter and the concern of parents over an increase of violence in video games over the years. 

The game still launched and went on to become a hit amongst players and went on to be one of the best-selling video game franchises of all time. In fact, “Grand Theft Auto V” has generated over $6 billion in revenue for Rockstar. 

Space Invaders

In 1978, Japanese developer Tomohiro Nishikado came up with the idea for “Space Invaders” after seeing that other arcade shooting games were taking off in the west. In “Space Invaders”, you play as a spaceship shooting at lines of UFOs that are slowly (at first) dropping down bit by bit until they’re all gone.

“Space Invaders” operated on a scoring system, and the appeal across both North America and Japan made the game a contest amongst friends. As a result, there were quarters being pumped into machines at all hours of the day, resulting in billions of dollars in revenue. Because of “Space Invaders”, arcade-style video games were taken seriously as a good business model for manufacturers.

5 Best WrestleMania Main Events

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Even the most casual of wrestling fans tune in each year for “The Grandest Stage of Them All” at WrestleMania. The largest event in wrestling, WrestleMania is typically capped off by a match that fans around the world have been clamoring to see with some of the most iconic names in the industry. Which main events were the best, though? Here are our picks for the top five.

5. Brock Lesnar vs. Kurt Angle (XIX)

One of the more unique settings for a WrestleMania, the 19th edition took place at Seattle’s Safeco Field and featured a match between Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock. However, that rematch was the penultimate match on the card, with “The next big thing” Brock Lesnar getting his coronation match against Kurt Angle.

The battle showed off Lesnar’s athleticism, even if it included one of the most notable botches in WrestleMania history when Lesnar came up short on a shooting star press. Lesnar ultimately won the match by giving Angle a third F-5, picking up the pinfall, and giving Lesnar the WWE Championship that he would lose to Angle and recapture throughout the rest of 2003.

4. Chris Benoit vs. Shawn Michaels vs. Triple H (XX)

The third WrestleMania to be held at Madison Square Garden, WrestleMania XX opened with John Cena winning the United States title over the Big Show and Eddie Guerrero defeating Kurt Angle for the WWE Championship. The main event featured one of the best triple-threat matches of all time, with Shawn Michaels and Chris Benoit being pitted against then-champion Triple H.

Prior to this WrestleMania, no other main event had ended with a tap out. Triple H would be the first to tap after his Pedigree was reversed into a Crippler Crossface. It was a huge night for former WCW stars as Benoit and Guerrero were both victorious in a moment of positivity before tragedy struck for both wrestlers.

3. Batista vs. Randy Orton vs. Daniel Bryan (XXX)

A decade after one of the best triple-threat matches ever, fans were treated to another one at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans. Originally scheduled to be a Batista vs. Orton main event, Daniel Bryan was added in the weeks leading up to the event due to a massive swell of fan support for the underdog. After defeating Triple H to officially enter the match earlier in the night, the stage was set.

After more than 20 minutes of brawling, it looked like Batista was going to get the win after tossing Bryan out of the ring. However, Bryan hopped back into the ring after Batista delivered his finisher on Orton. Bryan then gave Batista his finisher and placed him into the Yes! Lock to end the match, highlighted by Michael Cole’s pleading with Batista to tap out and secure the win for Bryan.

2. Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels (XXVI)

Not every final match in a legend’s career lives up to the hype, but Shawn Michaels’s certainly did. Featuring a memorable video package leading up to the match, Undertaker vs. Michaels was built on the Undertaker’s then-undefeated streak at WrestleMania against Michaels’s career. If he lost, Michaels had to retire.

Naturally, as Michaels’s final match, the Undertaker would end up victorious. It was a classic last-stand match for Michaels in his vintage defiant fashion. It took three Tombstone Piledrivers to defeat Michaels, who was left in the ring following the match to show his appreciation for the fans one last time before calling it a career.

1. Steve Austin vs. The Rock (XVII)

Taking place in the Houston Astrodome, many consider WrestleMania X-Seven to be the greatest wrestling pay-per-view of all time. Of course, to be considered that great, there had to have been a classic match as the main event. Thankfully, that’s just what we got when The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin faced off in a no-disqualification match for the WWF Championship.

The Rock was the champion heading into the match that lasted for nearly a half hour and resulted in a major heel turn for Austin as he joined forces with Vince McMahon. It was the end of an era for many wrestling fans, but will still be considered among the greatest matches ever based on the hype alone.

5 Classic Wrestling Matches

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Not every great wrestling match has to take place during the main event of WrestleMania. There have been plenty that is great for varying reasons across all pay-per-views in history. It’s hard to narrow it down to just five must-watch matches, but these ones should be on every fan’s list of classic wrestling matches.

5. Ricky Steamboat vs. Ric Flair (WrestleWar 1989)

In its infancy, World Championship Wrestling (WCW) went hand-in-hand with the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) before branching out into its own company. At the time, the WCW-NWA team-up gave some great matches, and that includes the WrestleWar pay-per-view in 1989, dubbed the Music City Showdown.

Interestingly enough, the match between Ricky Steamboat and Ric Flair wasn’t the main event as there were two tag team title matches that followed. However, the Steamboat-Flair contest stole the show, lasting for more than 30 minutes as Flair won the NWA World Heavyweight Championship by pinfall. The match instantly received five-star ratings across the board and is considered by some to be the greatest American wrestling match ever.

4. Triple H vs. Cactus Jack (Royal Rumble 2000)

If you’re looking for one of the biggest WWE pay-per-views that isn’t WrestleMania, look no further than the stacked Royal Rumble from 0200. Featuring The Rock winning the 30-man Royal Rumble, as well as the Hardy Boyz winning a triple threat tables match, the main event prior to the Rumble itself was the brutal Triple H vs. Cactus Jack street fight.

The match between the two went for nearly 30 minutes and featured a ton of weapons including barbed wire, two-by-fours, thumbtacks, and, of course, chairs. Triple H would end up winning the bloody contest, but Cactus Jack made sure to get plenty of damage in on the champion when it was all said and done.

3. Undertaker vs. Mankind (King of the Ring 1998)

Another one of Mick Foley’s alter egos, Mankind was another unhinged character that was willing to take punishment as much as he doled it out, if not more. While the namesake of the pay-per-view featured Ken Shamrock defeating The Rock in the tournament finals, it was the Undertaker and Mankind’s Hell in a Cell match that people still talk about to this day.

In the longest match of the night, The Undertaker was ultimately victorious after dealing out a massive amount of damage that included throwing Mankind off the top of the cell and through the announcers’ table. People still can’t believe that Mankind wasn’t seriously injured or even dead, showing why Foley is the hardcore legend.

2. CM Punk vs. John Cena (Money in the Bank 2011)

One of the loudest crowds in wrestling history, Chicago was on fire for CM Punk for what he said would be his final match following a contract dispute with WWE at Money in the Bank. The match was for the WWE Championship against John Cena, and the stipulation said that if Cena lost, he would be fired by Vince McMahon.

What fans didn’t know is that Punk had inked a new deal with WWE as the pay-per-view was going on, and this info being kept secret made the finish that much more surprising as Punk would walk out victorious following his upset victory in 33 minutes. In the end, Cena wouldn’t be fired and Punk would return, but at the moment, the match had a lot at stake.

1. Bret Hart vs. Steve Austin (Survivor Series 1996)

In the event that many consider the beginning of “Stone Cold” Steve Austin and the Attitude Era in general, the 1996 Survivor Series pitted the Texas Rattlesnake against Bret Hart. There was no title on the line, and the match wasn’t the main event, yet it’s Austin-Hart that gets talked about all these years later from the event.

The match was for the #1 contendership for the WWF Championship, which Hart would ultimately win after the two dueled for nearly a half hour. It appeared that Austin had the winning submission move locked in, but would reverse the move into a pin and left Stone Cold stunned in the middle of the ring.

5 Most Common Sexual Orientations

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It’s estimated that there are more than two dozen sexual orientations among humans, including graysexual, autosexual, sapiosexual, and many more. Obviously, some are much more common than others. An overwhelming majority of the world falls under a handful of categories, with these five sexual orientations being the most common:

Homosexual

Homosexuality is the emotional/romantic and/or sexual attraction to a person of the same sex or gender. Typically homosexual men are labeled as Gay and homosexual women are labeled as Lesbian. 

Scientists believe a complex combination of hormonal, genetic, and environmental factors play a part in the development of this sexual orientation and believe homosexuality is not a choice, but rather a normal part of the nature of human sexuality. Instances of homosexuality have even been displayed by some animals. 

Heterosexual

Heterosexuality is the emotional/romantic and/or sexual attraction to members of the opposite sex or gender. Often referred to as being “straight”, it’s the most common sexual orientation throughout different communities and cultures. Biologically, humans and nearly all creatures on Earth have been engineered to mate and produce offspring to ensure the survival of the species. 

As is true for all sexual orientations, heterosexuality is valid and a completely natural occurrence. Although there is no heterosexuality awareness because it’s thought to be the norm, being proud of your sexuality is a good thing no matter what your orientation may be. 

Bisexual

Bisexuality is the emotional/romantic and/or sexual attraction to both female and male counterparts. It’s one of the main classifications of sexual orientation, along with heterosexuality and homosexuality. One common misconception of bisexuality is that a person must have an equal attraction to both sexes to be seen as bi.

In reality, a bi person can have any varying degree of attraction to the female and male genders and still be 100% bisexual. It’s a stigma that has plagued members of the bi community for some time now, but awareness and celebration of this orientation, such as Bisexual+ Awareness Week in September, are steps in the right direction. 

Pansexual

Pansexuality is the emotional/romantic and/or sexual attraction to a person of either sex or any gender. Some who are bisexual also identify as pansexual, if their attraction goes beyond standard male and female gender identities. 

Although, they are typically seen as separate orientations and should not automatically be paired by default. People within the LGBTQIA+ community, particularly those who identify as bisexual, have reservations about being categorized into a group they don’t specifically identify with. There are many ways to spread awareness, one being Pansexual Awareness Day, which falls on May 24th. 

Asexual

One sexual orientation that consists of a lack of sexual attraction, is Asexuality. Asexuality, although a valid sexual orientation, has researchers divided on whether it’s a legitimate orientation. Asexual individuals can take part in emotional/romantic relationships and may even engage in sexual activity for pleasure, reproduction, or other personal reasons. 

However, sexual attraction and the desire for sexual relations are nonexistent. Just like any label, they can be as firm, or loose as the individual chooses and is purely a way to express one’s self and personal preferences. Asexual Awareness Day falls on April 6th and is a great way to break the stigma surrounding it. 

There are plenty of other sexualities, with more specific ones being created as preferences are discovered. These five are the most common, though, and more specific sexual orientations tend to fall under these umbrellas.

Most Played Akinator Characters

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Akinator’s database is unparalleled as he seems to know just about every notable person or character in the world. From minor characters in obscure animated shows all the way up to the leaders of every nation, Akinator will likely know who pops into your mind. There are certain names and categories that pop up the most on Akinator, with these being the most played in the world’s most popular version of “20 Questions”.

Akinator Himself

A lot of people will try to fool Akinator by using him as the answer to his questions. However, Akinator is able to figure out the ruse rather quickly and can guess that he’s the subject within a few questions. Naturally, the being that knows everything about itself will be able to figure things out.

Non-Answers

Among the most common guesses are the ones that are nothing at all. There are millions of people that just continue to click ‘no’ just to see what happens. The answer will be “The One About Whom Nothing Is Known,” which isn’t a cop-out answer since there’s a person trying to break the game anyway. Three of the top 11 guesses of all-time on Akinator aren’t anything that exists.

Presidents

If you were to ask a random person on the street to name the first person that pops into their head, there’s a good chance that they name the President of the United States. For this reason, people that play Akinator for the first time are likely to use the current US President as their answer. Names like Barack Obama, Donald Trump, Joe Biden, and all the rest are among the most common Akinator guesses.

Cartoon Characters

The demographic for Akinator tends to skew on the younger side, and cartoon characters are commonly brought up because of this. Out of all of the cartoon characters that Akinator guesses, Spongebob Squarepants is the most common. Mickey Mouse, Homer Simpson, and superheroes like Spider-Man and Batman are also characters that Akinator runs into frequently each day.

Video Game Characters

Cartoon and video game characters sort of go hand in hand, and the younger Akinator players love to see if he can guess their favorite gaming characters. Among the more popular results for video game characters are Pikachu (Pokemon), Master Chief (Halo), Sonic the Hedgehog, and Kratos (God of War).

YouTubers

To continue the trend of younger people playing Akinator, most of the top responses in a given country will be a YouTube personality. PewDiePie is one of the most frequent on an international basis while other YouTubers like J10B100, Luccas Neto, and Kouki are popular guesses in countries like Italy and China. Almost every YouTuber that has at least a couple of thousand subscribers is in Akinator’s database of knowledge.

Athletes

Akinator is played around the world instead of just in North America, so it’s no surprise to see that there’s a long list of soccer stars that dominate the sports guesses. Soccer stars like Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are far ahead of the pack in Akinator guesses, while other stars like Kylian Mbappe and Son Heung-min are among the top, as well. In terms of American athletes, Tiger Woods is the top response.

Controversial Figures

There’s a certain edginess that comes with the youth of the world, so of course, there’s going to be a slew of controversial people that Akinator will have to guess. Some of these include a certain leader of Germany during the early 20th century and a known terrorist that was slain during the Barack Obama administration by Seal Team 6. 

Singers and Actors

Though not as high on the list as some of the others, the top 100 guesses for Akinator include a lot of singers and actors. Michael Jackson and Justin Bieber top the list of musical acts, while actors like Brad Pitt and Arnold Schwarzenegger are the first actors to come to mind for a lot of people. What might be surprising is that Jackson and Bieber are the only two from these categories that are in the top 25 overall.

How ATP Ranking Points Work

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Since August 1973, the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) has released a weekly ranking of the world’s top tennis players. The ATP rankings are different from that of several other sports because rankings aren’t determined by voters who think the best players are. Instead, the rankings are set based on the amount of points gathered in the previous 52 weeks on the ATP Tour.

You may see a player win an ATP tournament but not make much movement, while another tournament can lead to someone jumping dozens, if not hundreds, of spots in the rankings. So how is the number of points determined? Let’s take a closer look at the ATP rankings points system.

Grand Slams

If a player wants to break into the top five of the ATP rankings, then they better perform well at the grand slam events. The Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon, and US Open are where the most points are awarded each year. The winner of one of these tournaments is given 2,000 points, which can sustain a high ranking for an entire year.

Simply performing well at a grand slam is worth a lot of points, as well. A finals appearance earns 1,200 points, while the semifinals and quarterfinals pull in 720 and 360 points, respectively. Qualifying for a grand slam is a 25-point bonus and making it to the round of 128 is another 10 points.

While not a part of the grand slam schedule, the ATP Finals is a great way for the top players to earn bonus points. The top eight players of the year advance to the ATP Finals, and can earn up to 1,500 points for winning. Each round-robin win during the early stage of the tournament is another 200 points.

Masters, 500, 250 Series

Each year, the ATP has eight tournaments in the Masters 1000 series that are considered mandatory. Players wouldn’t want to miss out on these massive point opportunities, anyway, as the winner of each earns 1,000 points while a finals appearance is worth 600. Players are able to earn 25 points simply for qualifying and start earning big points when reaching the round of 32.

The smaller tournaments in the highest level of the ATP Tour are the 500 and 250 series, with the names giving away how many points a player can earn from winning. Qualifying bonuses are reduced to 20 and 12 points, respectively, for these tournaments. For those keeping track, it would take eight ATP 250 Series tournament wins to match just one grand slam championship.

Challenger Tour

The second tier of the ATP is known as the Challenger Tour, and it has plenty of great opportunities for rising stars and veterans alike some significant points opportunities. Just like the highest tier, the Challenger Tour has tournaments with a designated amount of points and are named as such. For example, the top events are the Challenger 125 tournaments, followed by Challenger 110, 100, etc.

For a lot of tennis professionals that don’t have aspirations of competing against the top 10 players in the world, the Challenger Tour is a great way to simply be included in the rankings. Qualifying for the lowest tournaments, the Challenger 50, earns three points and gets a player’s name on the same list as the likes of Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovich.

ITF Tour

Just below the Challenger Tour in terms of prestige is the International Tennis Federation (ITF) Men’s World Tennis Tour, which is the final tier of professional tennis. While the Challenger Tour is typically made up of solid players that aren’t at the elite level, the ITF Tour is where you’ll find notable junior players who have hopes of entering the top 100.

There are several ITF tournaments on a weekly basis, most of which have ATP points attached. Tournaments are designated as M25 or M15. Not only do the winners of these tournaments receive 25 or 15 ATP points for a victory in these tournaments, but the prize pool is $25,000 or $15,000.

If you’re wondering how many points it would take to reach an elite ranking in the top 20, it changes on a weekly basis. However, a player can expect to need around 2,000 points at the very least to make it that high.

5 ATP Records Likely To Never Be Broken

Posted on by scatty

Professional tennis has had several different eras, and many consider the ATP era to be the true mark of the prime competition. Beginning in 1973, the ATP Tour has made it so that all of the best players in the world compete against each other to determine a ranking system based on points. Along the way, there have been some notable records, some of which may never be broken. Here are five of those records that are likely to be around for many years to come.

1. Consecutive Weeks At No. 1

Becoming the number one player in the world is the dream of every tennis player that turns professional. However, only a select few have ever been able to say that they were the top-ranked player in the world, even if for just one week. Then, you have Roger Federer, who grabbed the top spot from Andy Roddick in February 2004 after winning the Australian Open and didn’t look back for years.

Federer didn’t lose his number-one ranking until August 2008 when Rafael Nadal replaced him at the top. This meant that Federer’s run surpassed Jimmy Connors’ previous record at 160 weeks. All in all, Federer spent 237 weeks as the world’s number-one player, setting a mark that’s almost impossible to beat.

2. Most No. 1 Players In A Year

When a player grabs the number one ranking in tennis, they’re expected to hang around at that spot for at least a couple of months. In the earlier days of the ATP rankings, though, there would often be some fighting back and forth to determine number one. This was especially true in 1983 when the top spot changed hands 10 times throughout the year.

Jimmy Connors came into the year as the world’s number-one player, losing the spot in January to John McEnroe. Connors and McEnroe went back and forth for months, with multiple reigns as short as one week. McEnroe had the longest reign of the year at 17 weeks while a third entrant, Ivan Lendl, had reigns of six and 11 weeks. 

3. Total Weeks At No. 1

Roger Federer’s record for consecutive weeks at number one is extremely impressive and makes up a bulk of the number of weeks he held the top position in the rankings. However, Federer spent 310 weeks altogether during his illustrious career at number one before retiring, and that number isn’t close to the record for most total weeks at number one.

That honor belongs to Novak Djokovic and his several long reigns at the top. Djokovic has such a stranglehold on the record that Federer would not only have to come out of retirement but hold the number one spot for well over a year without giving it up to surpass Djokovic. Even a legend like Rafael Nadal would around four more total years to surpass Djokovic.

4. Time Between First and Last No. 1 Rankings

Tennis is a sport that skews incredibly young, with the prime of most careers wrapping up before a player turns 30. It seems that the best players in tennis history are able to dominate well into their 30s, but there are only three in the rankings’ history that have achieved their first and last number-one ranking more than a decade apart, and it’s probably the three that you expect.

Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, and Roger Federer are the three that have accomplished this feat. However, it’s Federer that set the standard for longevity. Federer became the world’s number one in February 2004 for the first time and achieved his final number one ranking in June 2018. That’s a span of 14 years and 142 days, a mark that is unlikely to be matched.

5. No. 1 Without Winning A Grand Slam

Back in that wild 1983 season that we mentioned earlier, Ivan Lendl was one of three men to grab the number one ranking. Lendl did that without winning a grand slam, though. The following year, Lendl got his first career grand slam win, making it so that only one man in ATP history has earned number one without winning one in their career.

That distinction belongs to Marcelo Rios of Chile. In early 1998, Rios made it to the finals of the Australian Open to propel himself to number one. He retired in 2004 without winning a grand slam, making him the only number one to do so.