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  • Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Noun Phrase 126. The noun phrase today is

  • game changer. Okay. Let's take a look at the note here. A game changer is an event,

  • idea or new situation which causes a significant change in the state of a

  • situation. So it probably changed it to go in a completely different direction. Then

  • we say something is a game changer. The phrase is most often used in business or

  • politics now. Although, really it became more famous in sports. Okay. So let's

  • continue here. The origin may have appeared as early as the 1930s when

  • there were some attempts about changing the rules of the game of bridge. You know,

  • the card game. Those that were in favor of change were referred to as the

  • game changers. So this is where the term kind of came into use. Originally. There

  • were a number of events in which sports writers started to use this term,

  • especially in the 1980s and 1990s to refer to something that changed the

  • momentum and the results of games. So something, something happened. A

  • significant event happened in the game and suddenly you know, it looked like

  • this team was winning and now that team was winning. And it just completely

  • changed the whole feeling of the game and the results just went in a different

  • direction then. So we often say something is a game changer. So it did really work

  • its way into sports. The business world picked up the term from sports in the

  • 1980s and it naturally worked its way into politics. Okay. Let's continue.The

  • phrase was commonly used during the 2008 political campaign of Obama versus McCain.

  • McCain , John McCain probably you know, we even heard it when even before that

  • when Obama was going against Hillary Clinton. That was a very competitive

  • contest just to see who was going to be the Democrat candidate at that time.

  • And you often heard about like this or that could be a game-changer. This or

  • that even though this may be a little important but it's not really a

  • game-changer. So this term was thrown around a lot at that time. It was often

  • mentioned if something could be a game-changer. After the Republican

  • primary (convention) you know, of Sarah Palin first came on the scene. And she did really,

  • really well to begin when she made some speeches and she impressed a lot of

  • people. And people were starting to have some question marks about Obama at that

  • time. And that for a very short time was kind of a game changer for a couple of

  • weeks. And it was the only time during that time that that McCain, John

  • McCain actually went ahead in the polls for you know, probably a couple of weeks

  • that's it. Then the media went on attack against Sarah Palin and a very serious one. It

  • was a very obvious one and then the financial crisis hit the banking ... More

  • banks went down and that was probably it. That was the final game changer. So you

  • had a game changer one way going in the Republican;s favor they went ahead for a

  • few weeks and then between the attacks of on Sarah Palin and the financial

  • crash hitting that was it. That was clearly another game changer. That was

  • not recoverable. So Obama easily sailed in to win that election at that time. But

  • it was very often used during the 2008 campaign. You often hear... you often heard

  • about game changers at that time. Okay. Anyway, we just got a couple of examples

  • here. That new product could be a game changer for our market share. So this

  • could be a company. Maybe you know, they're competing with other companies

  • But maybe they came out with some new invention or a new kind of product that

  • could really steal market share away from another company. So this new product

  • by itself could be a game changer. Okay. Or number two here. Signing that

  • superstar ball player could be a game-changer. He is just the

  • player we need to become more competitive. Yeah. So maybe a team could

  • have a little bit of a chance but they needed some like superstar home run

  • hitter or a great pitcher, and just acquiring this one player could be just

  • the right player. You know to, to bring the team around. Or you know one player

  • won't do it all but one player could make a significant difference. And you

  • know suddenly change the situation. In that sense, it could be a game changer

  • Okay. Anyway I hope you got it. I hope it was clear. Thank you for your time. Bye-bye.

Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Noun Phrase 126. The noun phrase today is

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