Tag: Two Ferns

Overhead Blocks

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5 pax made it out to the gloom.

Cop x 15 of SSH, MNC, LSS, Merkins, Peter Parker’s

On to SSH suicides with cone 1 SSH x 10 cone 2 adding Seal jacks and cone 3 adding bomb jacks, then back down the pyramid subtracting out the first and second excercises.

Thang

Pax grabbed a cinder block.  We carried overhead until failure, at which point pax dropped the block, ran back to the start for 20 Merkins, ran back to the block for 5 burpees, and continued around the track until the finish line.

Finished with some Dora (curls, tricep ext, and squat thrusters) x100, 150,200 while partners did 2 laps around the circle.

 

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Four Corners of Heck at the Abyss

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Twas a nip in the air this morning but nothing that would bother the mighty lads of F3.  We gathered and at 5:15 sharp disclaimer was given and we moseyed.   Here is how it went down:

Warm-o-Rama

  • 400 Meter Mosey with side shuffles and toy soldiers thrown in
  • 20 SSH IC
  • 10 Imperial Walkers IC
  • 10 Hillbilly Walkers IC
  • 10 Wind Mills IC
  • 10 Merkins IC

The Thang, Part I

YHC asked Captain Jack to pick a number between 39 & 41.  With that we settled on the number of pull-ups each Pax was to complete.  Each was instructed to do as many as possible then at failure, run to the top of the inclined road behind the school, execute 5 merkins,  run back down and pick up the pull-ups where he left off.  Repeat until reaching 40 pull-ups or 5 trips up the road, whichever came first.  As we waited for the six, the Q regaled the team with an amusing tale about forgotten reading glasses and a Portobello Steak sandwich minus the steak.

The Thang, Part II “Four Corners of Heck”

  • Bear crawl to the middle, execute 5 burpees and lunge out between stations

Station #1

  • 10 Medicine Ball Jump squats
  • 10 single count curls/arm; 25lb or 20lb dumbbell, Pax choice
  • 20 Nolan Ryan’s (10/side)
  • 25 LBCs (single count)

Station #2

  • 10 Lunges per leg
  • 10 WWI Sit ups
  • 10 Tricep hammers/ arm with 20lb or 15lb dumbbell, Pax choice
  • 10 Diamond merkins

Station #3

  • 30 SSH – Single Count
  • 20 Flutters – Double Count
  • 15 Derkins
  • 15 CDDs

Station #4

  • 20 Ranger Merkins
  • 20 Monkey Humpers
  • 10 Lt. Dans
  • 15 Crab Cakes IC

Repeat one station

The Thang part III

These Pax are finely tuned boot camp machines and as such, finished parts I & II with time to spare.  YHC, not wanting to cheat them, ad-libbed:

  • People’s chair during which Pax on each end ran 5 yards out and executed 5 squats
  • Repeat with balls to the wall

Mosey to COT with 2 min to spare; 10 crunchy frogs IC; 10 Freddie Mercuries IC; 10 American Hammers IC

Ended the session with a reminder about the F3 Christmas party, praise for family gatherings, prayers for travelers and those dealing with loss.  Gentlemen, being part of the F3 brotherhood brings me great joy.  It was an honor to lead this morning.

Wolverine out.

 

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Working Hard @ Crow’s Nest

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Of course this is way late and will be abridged but it is my duty to put together a backblast and I’m not going to slouch.  #LeadByExample

We started off with a disclaimer (had an FNG) and some light stretching… don’t want anyone to get hurt out there!

Took a nice mosey around the left side of the building (facing the front) and circled up for some Warm O Rama.  SSH, Windmills, Imperial Walkers were completed in quick succession.  It started to get cold again, so we went to work.

Partner up… partner A runs front start point around the loop and back while partner B completes an exercise until they return.  No keeping up with numbers, we just kept going until they came back and switched up the exercise each time.  1st- SSH   2nd- Squats  3rd- CDDs

Mosey back around the front to the opposite side of the building. Circle up and completed the following together.

Seal Jacks, 5 burpees, Merkins, 5 burpees, Freddy Mercury’s, 5 burpees

Mosey back to the back parking lot and back around to the Green Monster.

Partner exercise again.  A runs down the hill and back while B completes an exercise with weight (we had 50lb sandbags and 15-20lb kettlebells/dumbbells).  Exercises were: 2 rounds of overhead press, 2 rounds of curls, 2 rounds of tricep extensions, and 1 round of bent over row.

Mosey back around the front parking lot for a quick 3 rounds of Mary.

Numbered off, Name O Rama, and naming of a new FNG!  Welcome to Cousin Eddie!  T-Claps to Two Ferns for bringing him out!

 

Thanks for the opp. to lead Flux!  I look forward to the next time!

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All Legs at The Deep

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YHC arrived a little early for the workout since I haven’t been out to the Deep in a while. Been doing a little running this year so did a little pre-run myself while Q-Bert and Olaf did some rucking with some heavy tire pieces. Looked nasty and heavy.

It was a cool morning and gave us a break from the week of rain so it was a perfect day for a workout. The Pax rolled in a little before 0700. No FNG’s were present but a brief disclaimer was given and off we went.

Warm-Up

Mosey around to the back of the school with butt kickers, knees to chest, side shuffle, etc…

In Cadence

15 – SSH
15 – IW
15 – WM
15 – Low Slow Squat
25 – Moroccan Night Clubs

Mosey to circle

Brief Discussion on Vulnerability. YHC used the analogy of a baseball game where the outfielder calls “I got it” when a fly ball is hit. Being vulnerable is admitting to God and to your brothers that you “Don’t Got It”. When we admit that we need help with whatever we “Don’t Got”, growth can happen. The challenge was to think of the thing or things that we need where we need to ask for help.

The Thang

150 Lunges (Single Count)
250 Squats
350 LBC’s

Run a lap around in the inside circle after every 50 count of exercises.

Finish early – Find someone to help finish

Lt. Dan’s to the speed bump, run back
Bear Crawl to the speed bump, run back

Run to the speed bump and do burpees on the odd numbers back to the arrow for donkey kicks on the evens to 10.

Walls Sits- Each person count to 10 while holding the wall with one leg out
Shake it out
Switch legs for another 10 count

Total running mileage – 3.26

Mosey back for COT

Prayers

Lutefisk – Loss of his mother
Soprano – Loss of his brother
Olaf’s grandfather
Peg-Internal Interview
Costanza-Interview

Coffeeteria at DD

Great job by the Pax and always great to see the 2.0’s out there. Mine were lazy Saturday.

Always an honor to lead. Thanks Shakespeare for the opportunity. Cobains to Wolverine for trying to age you a couple of years!

Until next time,

Hauschka

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Eight Face the Balls of Doom at Crow’s Nest

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YHC was less than enthusiastic about the chilly drizzle that greeted me on on my front porch in the gloom; hesitation gave way to excitement when I hit the driveway in anticipation of a hard workout and a strong showing from the Pax.  Here’s how it went down:

Warm-o-Rama:

Started with a slow mosey from the front of the school to the back, about 400 yards, with a decent cold drizzle smacking the faces of the men we ran and wondered if it would keep up, stop or get worse.  Most of us thought for a moment once again that the fartsack is where we’d rather be, but we shook it off as we circled up for the warmup:

  • 15 Windmills IC (at this point Nemo joined having arrived two minutes late, Pax gave him the requisite crap; he accepted it gracefully)
  • 20 SSH, IC
  • 15 Cherry Pickers, IC
  • 15 Imperial Walkers, IC
  • 15 LSS, IC

My mind having gone blank, YHC decide we were warm enough and we moseyed 400 more yards to the back of the school to begin Part 1 of the Thang:

The Thang, Part 1:

  • 5 rounds: 5 pull ups on the playground, 10 yard mosey to the side walk for 10 Merkins
  • Mosey back to the area where we warmed up for The Thang, Part 2

The Thang, Part 2: Balls of Doom:

YHC has two grab bags, one with 10 ping pong balls, upon which are written numbers from 5 to 25, plus the letter “Q” (puller gets to choose the number of reps); The second bag contains 15 plastic golf balls with excercises on them.  Pax took turns pulling one of each and this is about what we got:

  • Burpees – 25 (Flux of course!)
  • Big boy sit-ups – 10
  • Bomb jacks  – 10
  • Merkins – 20
  • Dips – 10 IC
  • CDD – 15
  • Derkins – 20
  • Crunch frog  – 20 IC
  • SSH – 25 IC
  • Triangle merkins – 20
  • Bomb jacks – 20
  • Run a lap (about 200M)
  • Lt. Dans – 25! (Flux again!)

Frankly there were a few more in there…that’s what happens with the Balls of Doom, fate decides!  Moseyed back to COT where we mentioned the F3 Christmas party, thanked the Lord for everything, lifted our brothers and loved ones in prayers for mercy and healing.  As always, I am grateful for F3 and the for the opportunity to lead.

Wolverine

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Bad Cousin

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4 PAX including YHC rolled in before the 5AM start time at Bermuda Triangle this morning.  It was wet, balmy, and almost felt like a summer morning.  At 5, I gave the quick disclaimer and we took a mosey around the 1/4 mile dirt track that circles the encompasses the playground.  Along the way we did some shuffles and toy soldiers before circling up.

Warm-a-rama

  • Windmills
  • SSH
  • Low Slow Squat
  • Merkins
  • Moroccan Night Clubs

I then announced that since I already went to the trouble of getting out a bunch of cinderblocks for “My Deep Q” this past Saturday, I wanted to get some more use out of them and that the rest of the workout would use them, everyone grumbled…

As a quick block warm-up, I had everyone circle up again after grabbing 1 block and hold the cinderblocks out in front of them.  One at a time I had 1 PAX drop out of the circle and run/walk around the circle holding the block high overhead while the other PAX continued to hold their blocks out in front.  We cycled through all 4 PAX before getting to the big routine and telling the PAX to grab a 2nd block, which they all did reluctantly.

I got the idea from the Exicon, Greta 1-2-3 was the name, Dora’s cousin, however, there wasn’t a lot of detail there other than it was basically a Dora with blocks.  This sounded like a great idea!

We would pair up and perform the following exercises in typical Dora 1-2-3…4 fashion:

  • 100 Blockees (crowd-pleaser)
  • 150 Abyss Merkins (between two Cindy’s)
  • 200 Sumo/Cindy Squats (Block had to touch the ground)
  • 250 American Hammers (holding the block)

Each PAX would do as many as possible while his partner carries two cinderblocks across the soccer field and back.  All in all, this worked out great, but there were a couple Omaha’s here.  1st, the Abyss Merkins were supposed to be “Mindy’s” which is a name I just came up with that consisted of a Merkin with a cinderblock on your back.  While this is a pretty cool idea, it didn’t work well in this format since you needed your partner to get the block on your back so I switched them quickly to Abyss Merkins.  The 2nd Omaha was carrying the additional cindy across the field & back.  It’s a BIG field and instead of shortening the distance, I chose to lessen the weight after everyone had a chance to do it at least once, which BURNED.

The Omaha’s were necessary in the end because even though I had A LOT more planned, this routine took about 30 minutes to work through and we finished up right on time.  I’m certain I’m going to feel the soreness from this one tomorrow.  Strong group of PAX today and we all finished.  Olaf was pretty chatty about the whole thing though…

Announcements, Praises, Prayers

  • Christmas Party
  • Deep 7AM start time
  • Character Band-Aids
  • Prayers for SAT testing tomorrow
  • Prayers for Olaf’s Mother-in-law who is losing a final battle with cancer
  • Prayers for Two Ferns wife, who has been battling digestive issues

Thanks for the privilege to Q Homebrew!

Until next time,

-Flux-

 

 

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Starfish at Poopdeck

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This morning was a particularly important one for me to post at, but we will get to that in a few minutes.

Peg had “planned” on having a community Q this morning so after … wait who did the disclaimer? ooops

Flux took us around for a long mosey with shuffles and Toy soldiers and then some warmup
Windmill
Low Slow Squat
Merkins
Mountain Climbers
Moroccan Night Club

Peg took over for BLIMPS, we laid out a path and the mode of transportation was Lunge
5 Burpees
10 Lunge each leg
15 Imperial Walkers each side
20 Merkins
25 Plank Jacks
30 squats

Two Ferns was up to bat and we started at Sherwin Williams for a 10-20-30 with a full parking lot lap between each exercise
10 Burpees
20 Merkins
30 Squats

Cornerstone’s turn and we went a found some wall. First was 30 count balls to the wall then 10 merkins
70 count peoples chair (10 per pax) with some minor crop dusting by DaVinci, luckily I was on the other side
20 more counts of balls to the wall

DaVinci must have liked Two Fern’s idea so much that he also gave us a 10-20-30
Im not confident I have this one right but I think it was 10 LBCs, 20 merkins, 30 squats

Twitch ran us back to the parking spaces for bear crawl 5 spaces, 30 LBCs, lunge 5 more, 10 merkins.
We did this twice

Flutters to finish out the last :45 seconds

Announcements
Sign up for the christmas party!! Sign up soon please!!
Read your newsletter, if you don’t have it, ask!
Need to collect character band-aids for local and regional doctor’s office and hospitals
See Cornerstone or go here https://www.amazon.com/baby-reg/jeremy-holt-december-2018-charlotte/2HQFKC11T250D

Prayer Requests
Honestly I can’t remember them, please post and keep in touch with the PAX to find out what’s going on in their lives! Reach out, make someone know they matter

Well here goes……
Last night and most of yesterday I finally admitted that I have been wrestling against God and not letting go of a specific thing in my life. Ive been very open and clear that F3 has led me down a path of discipline that has overflowed into my life as a father, husband, employee and even church member. This new church has put a family in my family’s life who has literally be the best relationships we have ever had. It is clear that the relationship with these family friends are a benefit to both families and those around us, we have been growing in Christ together and I recently had a discussion with Picasso, the dad of this family, and some of the – not necessarily depressions, but certainly just bleh moments going on in my life lately and he wondered if God is stripping away the identity I thought made me who I was so that He could fill me up with Jesus instead. That has been in my head all summer and I have just refused to give up video games and the like; knowing EVERYTHING about comics, tv, movies, and games was EVERYTHING I was about in middle school through college. So the last time I fought God this hard was October 2008, when I finally gave up and begged God to change my life and put Jesus as MY King. So because of this feeling, I am really not wanting something big right now. Things are smooth, I am only 26 and have been married 7 years, out of college for almost 8, a father for close to 6 and a homeowner my entire adult life, I’ve even been unemployed in the past for months during all this and moved 3 times so I have had enough big things. So I remember some of my favorite, the most theologically charged, the most emotional and the most life changing words in the Bible – “But God” and I am done, I give it up. Ocotber 31, 2008 I gave my life to God for eternity following Jesus’ example and woke up November 1 to a new life and October 31, 2018 I decided to take a new step to lead a life different than before and today woke up and posted to F3 to confirm it and let those important to me know. I life of engaging with Him ceaselessly. I won’t just be a good moral father, husband, person anymore. I won’t just know God, I will enjoy Him and thrive in Him and abide in Him. Please push me in this. God, MY Father, I give my sin to you please take that last piece I was holding on to away from me. This will be a continual process. More to come.

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VQ At the Abyss

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The Abyss has been around, what, 2 years or so?  YHC has never made it down there, and that’s a shame.  Not only is it a great, well-lit AO, but the pax there represent Lake Wylie very well! Sure wish Siri hadn’t been lying to me all this time on how long it takes to get there.  At 4:45am, it seems every AO in TheFort can be reached in 15 minutes or less.

This cool halloween morning, the count was 14 pax.  The mumblechatter level made it feel more like 25. Excellent! YHC knew most of the pax there, but the hats and my historically bad memory for names threw me off (cobains Wolverine for calling you “Moreen”).

Disclaimer was issued as Flux was coming in hot.  We moseyed the opposite direction from where he parked, but made a loop for him to catch up.  Stopped in the same front lot for some warm-up:

  • SSH (IC) x25
  • Imperial Walker (IC) x20
  • Mountain Climbers (IC) x20
  • Flutters (IC) x20
  • Windmills (IC) x20

Moseyed around to the back lot to find 4 cones set up, one in front of each basketball goal (along long side of track).  Time for some Webb-o-Rama.  The exercises at each cone were to be done in a Jack Webb style, (1:4 ratio).

Cone 1: Burpees and Side Straddle Hops, then Bear Crawl to cone 2

Cone 2: Big Boy Sit-ups and American Hammers, then wheelbarrow to cone 3

Cone 3: Knee Tar N’Diayes and Run-Stance Switches, then wheelbarrow to cone 4

Cone 4: Traditional Jack Webb (merkins and overhead claps), then run around track back to cone 1

We did a total of 3 loops of the circuit.

Round 1: 1-5

Round 2: 6-8

Round 3: 10 (didn’t have time for 9)

Moseyed back to COT.

NMMS

I took just a few minutes after round 1 to share how my kids are at an age that I’m really proud of them.  But as a father, it is very important we don’t give them the impression that our love and pride for them is based on winning or achieving a certain status.  It should be based on them showing a good work ethic, passion, and self-motivation to try and use the gifts God has given them.  And shifting the perspective a little, I am incredibly grateful that God’s love for me is not based on how much I “win” or am “successful”.  Thank God for His GRACE that keeps me from having to accomplish things in order to earn His love.

 

Excellent effort by LW’s finest this morning.  Thanks for making me feel so welcome.  And thanks to Bones for the opportunity to lead.

Keep it spicy.
-old bay

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4

My “Deep” Q

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With Friday’s rain finally behind us, 5 PAX got together at the Deep on a soggy, cool, Saturday morning.  I gave practically no disclaimer, since we’re all regulars, and decided to take a mosey  around the parking lot, which resembled a track, since some of the PAX were wondering if I was going to do a FAST FIVE inspired workout.  I wasn’t planning on it, but thought it might come in handy to check the distance.  Along the way, we did some shuffle steps and toy soldiers before returning to our start point which came out to be a hair over a 1/4 mile.

We circled up for a fast warmup that included:

  • Windmills x10
  • Cherry Pickers x10
  • Imperial Walkers x20
  • Low Slow Squats x 10

The first routine consisted of some Tabata’s set to some music.  It was a fun way to warm up and get the PAX chatty.  We did 4 cycles that each consisted of 4 sets, each cycle was the same.  Every interval (16 in all) was 40 seconds of activity and 20 seconds of rest.

  • 35 Squats (40 seconds)
    • 20 seconds of rest
  • 35 Merkins (40 Seconds)
    • 20 seconds of rest
  • 30 Groiners (40 seconds)
    • 20 seconds of rest
  • 45 SSH (40 seconds)
    • 20 seconds of rest

We repeated this 3 more times with the whole routine running about 16 minutes, deconstructed burpee tabatas, good times!

The next routine was to head to my truck to grab a cinderblock and mosey over to the hill…

The fun part of the exercise was everyone rolling their blocks down the hill (it was really steep) and seeing who could roll it the… shortest…

The awful part of the exercise was to carefully mosey (it was still wet and slippery) down the hill and then bear & block up the hill.  You start with the cindy between your feet and pull it up past your head, then bear crawl until the block is at your feet again, repeat until we get to the top of the hill.

We did this 6 times, and had a different exercise to do with the block each time we made it to the top.

  • 30 American Hammers
  • 40 Bench Press
  • 30 Overhead Press
  • 30 Curls
  • 30 Triceps Extension
  • 30 American Hammers (Because they loved it)

We moseyed back to the parking lot (track), put the cindys away, and lined up for the final routine, which was ad-hoc since the PAX wanted something like the FAST FIVE, be careful what you wish for…

We partnered up and did a 1/4 mile chase around the track.  PAX A does 5 Burpees and sprints “AYG”  to catch his partner who is running backwards, tags his partner and then switches/repeats until we run the full loop.

With about 10 minutes to spare our 2nd loop was one none of us will soon forget (and I’m still feeling the effects of on Monday).  Same theme, but this time PAX A does 40 Plank Jacks while his partner is Bear Crawling around the track, then sprints “AYG” to catch his partner, switch & repeat until we go the full 1/4 around the track.  This was the most bear crawling I’ve every done in one routine and we were all on fire at the end.  It was magnificently brutal.

We somehow all managed to finish right on time and thankfully circled up for CoT.

Announcements, Praises, Prayers

  • Christmas dinner, Dec. 1st
  • F3 Custom Go Ruck HTL May 4th
  • Prayers for SAT’s and teenagers
  • Prayers for Tracy, Two Ferns wife, who has been battling some stomach issues

We all joined up for another 30-45 minutes of brotherhood at Dunkin’ for coffeeteria.

Thanks for the Q Shakes, until next time…

-Flux-

 

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Forties for 40

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Well today was the day… turning 40…why not take the Q today?  I asked Bones for it months ago.  There’s nothing better than leading a group of men and friends at an F3 workout, especially on a birthday.  I was really happy to see 17 other men here, including a few faces that don’t usually travel to the Abyss.

We started up with a mosey around the parking lot.  Nemo and Flux were pulling in right at 5:15 so we did a lap and let them catch up.  Standard dynamic warmup stuff on the lap.

It was cold so the warmup had some more cardio items than usual.

-SSHs – Ab Vagota – Seal Jacks – Squats – IWs – Mountain Climbers

We ended with the Merkin Circle

6 rounds around the circle.  1 merkin each for the 18 guys while in plank.

We moved over to the Hill.  I found an exercise in the lexicon called “Forties”.  I figured if we added the hill we could call it the “Over the Hill Forties”.  That got some laughs, and some groans…

It’s a ladder with higher reps.  An Exercise at the Top of the Hill, one at the bottom.  Take 30 reps at the top 10 at the bottom, then subtract 5 and add 5 until you’ve flipped to 10-30.

1st round : Top = CDDs Bottom = Flutters

2nd Round : Top = American Hammers Bottom = Calf Raises

We took a break and I shared a little message about reflections.  How these men and F3 have helped change me to be a better person and on a better path in life.  I reflected on who I might have been at 40 with out these men… it wasn’t so pretty.

We moseyed next to the front of the school.  I split the group into 2 teams.

Team 1 would stay for wall sits while Team 2 bear crawled around the circle

Flipped it

Next round BTTW as long as you can, then wall sits while Team 2 Crab Walked the circle

Finally we head back to COT for a very special circle.  For my birthday we we’re going to play a game.  The group had to answer questions about me.  If correct 10 SSHs.  If wrong… 10 burpees!

The Questions were:

  1. How many siblings do I have? right
  2. What is my favorite professional sports team? right
  3. What High School did I attend?  Bonus, what was the mascot? right with bonus!
  4. What was my favorite children’s toy in 1985? wrong
  5. Where do I work? right
  6. Where did I go to college? right

To my surprise these men got 5 of 6 right…and to Iced-T’s credit he was saying He-Man for #4…but the group out voted him!

Announcements

Thanksgiving Convergence

Christmas Party

Fast 5 postponed

Prayers

For Soprano and the passing of his brother

Hurricane victims still in need

Grateful for all the people in our lives

If you’ve read this far the answers were

  1. 1 sister = Rachel
  2. Green Bay Packers
  3. South Meck = Sabres
  4. He-Man
  5. Merrill Lynch
  6. UNCC

An Honor to Lead!

-Royale

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