March 24th, 2013 - The win was narrower this time around, but Donkey Kong phenom Ross Benziger cut through the field for the second time in a row to successfully defend his title as the king of the Kong Off wildcard division in the second installment of Eric Tessler and John Salter's Wildcard Rematch tournament.
"Von Dummpenstein" again pulled ahead right at the finish line, coming just a hair short of a million with 990,100.
Second place finisher Jeff Wolfe repeated as well, but with a score of 973,100, Wolfe not only topped his first Wildcard Rematch standing by over 100,000 points, he also squeaked by Benziger's score of 972,600 from the first tournament to claim the "beat Ross" bounty.
1-1 record holder Phil Tudose spent much of the day attempting to secure the "biggest 1-1" bounty and succeeded with 13,100, then went on to score 969,500 to take third place in the tournament.
While the top three spots ended up going to Donkey Kong veterans, Iceland's Svavar Gunnar Gunnarsson, a relative newcomer to the competitive Donkey Kong scene, actually held the lead for much of the day and made himself known in this tournament as a force to be reckoned with.
About 8 hours into the tournament Gunnarsson finished a strong 896,900 kill screen game but was unable to submit the score due to a patchy, incomplete video stream. Undaunted, he made his way through all 117 boards for the second time in the same day to put up an even better 919,100.
Gunnarsson, who made the Icelandic news in February for being the first of his countrymen (and possibly the first European) to play Donkey Kong to the kill screen, proved that he will clearly be a factor in any future online tournaments (or should he make his way to the States to play live at the Kong Off in Denver).
The final leaderboard boasted a whopping six scores above 900,000, showing just how strong the field is getting, and blurring the line between the Kong Off "main event" players and those in the wildcard division.
Sobering to realize that the top 10 scores emerging from a single 24-hour tournament—one that specifically barred the participation of the very best players—still managed to utterly beat the tar out of the all-time top 10 of a decade ago.
To put it into perspective, the Donkey Kong world record in March 2003 would have been just barely good enough to take 7th place on Saturday's scoreboard.
Motivation, community, and determined competition: it changes everything.
I would personally like to thank Eric and John for another great tournament, and for the shout-out in the article about the Wildcard Rematches that recently appeared on the Twin Galaxies front page. Though I feel that I underperformed with my 647,700 13th-place finish, it was a blast to finally be able to compete against other players "live" (if not in person) for the first time.
Final Standings
("N/A" represents players who were registered for the tournament but either did not play or did not submit a score.)
Place | Player | Best Score | Gap |
1 | Ross Benziger | 990,100 | 0 |
2 | Jeff Wolfe | 973,100 | 17,000 |
3 | Phil Tudose | 969,500 | 3,600 |
4 | Svavar Gunnar Gunnarsson | 919,100 | 50,400 |
5 | Jon McKinnell | 905,700 | 13,400 |
6 | Ethan Daniels | 904,900 | 800 |
7 | Jeff Harrist | 874,400 | 30,500 |
8 | Ben Falls | 819,000 | 55,400 |
9 | Robbie Lakeman | 764,600 | 54,400 |
10 | Eric Tessler | 714,500 | 50,100 |
11 | Joseph Carroll | 708,900 | 5,600 |
12 | Daniel Desjardins | 694,000 | 14,900 |
13 | Chris Psaros | 647,700 | 46,300 |
14 | Daniel Dock | 612,400 | 35,300 |
15 | Mitchell Elliott | 608,400 | 4,000 |
16 | John Salter | 494,400 | 114,000 |
17 | Ken House | 456,100 | 38,300 |
18 | Todd Lalonde | 437,900 | 18,200 |
19 | Brian Allen | 350,400 | 87,500 |
20 | Kaayla Illusivefx | 274,500 | 75,900 |
21 | Colman Paolo | 266,800 | 7,700 |
22 | John McNeill | 265,800 | 1,000 |
23 | George Strain | 252,800 | 13,000 |
24 | Nick Sheils | 244,800 | 8,000 |
25 | Allen Staal | 235,800 | 9,000 |
26 | Craig Ziegler | 179,400 | 56,400 |
27 | Donald Rubin | 82,700 | 96,700 |
28 | Michael Stastny | 68,700 | 14,000 |
29 | Ed Deitman | 27,300 | 41,400 |
30 | Andrew Gardikis | N/A | N/A |
31 | Craig Rout Gallant | N/A | N/A |
32 | Daryl Kiddy | N/A | N/A |
33 | Estel Goffinet | N/A | N/A |
34 | Jonathan McCourt | N/A | N/A |
35 | Matt Douglas | N/A | N/A |
36 | Mike Groesbeck | N/A | N/A |
37 | Steve Grunberger | N/A | N/A |
38 | Steve Wiltshire | N/A | N/A |
Prizes:
$250 1st place - Ross Benziger (990,100)
$100 2nd place - Jeff Wolfe (973,100)
$50 3rd place - Phil Tudose (969,500)
Bounties:
$100 first to 1 million - UNCLAIMED
$50 first to beat Ross Benziger's reigning 972,600 - Jeff Wolfe (973,100)
$50 first kill screen - Jeff Harrist (12:30 PM)
$50 highest 1-1 score - Phil Tudose (13,100)
$50 most boards on last life - John McKinnell (45 boards)
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