McCrary and Lakeman Dominate 2014's First Donkey Kong Open, KO4 Is On, and Twin Galaxies Is Alive!

March 6th, 2014 - Here's a quick overview of the first Donkey Kong Online Open for 2014, along with some updates on recent developments regarding the future of the Kong Off and Twin Galaxies.

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  Dave McCrary crushed the tournament with a massive 1,091,400. Not only was this good enough to win the weekend, it was also the highest score ever achieved in any of the six online Donkey Kong tournaments held thus far. In addition, the score pushes McCrary from 14th up to 8th in the all-time rankings. Last year, McCrary was knocked out of the Kong Off 3 main lineup and into the Wildcard Division, so reasserting a top position has been a major priority. Congratulations to Dave for the tournament win, and the payoff to a lot of hard work.
• In a close second place was Robbie Lakeman, who managed an impressive 1,075,500 during the first half of the tourney, bumping up his personal best by 5,100 points (but not quite moving him up a place in the all-time rankings). Most assumed that Lakeman had the tournament locked up when his score came in, until McCrary's unprecedented run on the second day.
• McCrary's rise to 8th this weekend knocked Steve Wiebe and Billy Mitchell down another spot on the all-time scoreboard, to 11th and 12th respectively. Who could have predicted that less than a decade after The King of Kong both former champs would be pushed out of the top 10?
• In the days leading up to the tournament, the bounty on the world record received a $50 boost from competitor Daniel Desjardins, and then a mysterious "this tournament only" contribution of $1,000 from an anonymous donor, bringing the total pot to $1,300. The record was not broken, but it added heat to an exciting weekend.
• On a personal note, I was happy to redeem myself from my seriously lackluster Kong Off 3 showing by getting a new personal best high score of 911,700, which puts me in 30th place all time and 7th for the tourney (along with one of the two "mystery bounties" of $50, which were awarded randomly to 7th and 27th place). I've kill screened in each of the last three online tournaments, placing 8th, 6th, and 7th, respectively, and I feel pretty good about that. I'm holding my own in the "second tier"; now I just need to build the skill to compete with the best. Maybe one day I'll actually win one of these...
• Congratulations also to Jeremy Young, one of our ace score submission referees at Donkey Kong Forum, who achieved his first-ever kill screen during the weekend's action.

The Kong Off 4 Is A Go

Soon before the tournament began, Richie Knucklez debuted a Facebook page for the Kong Off 4. The next installment of classic gaming's biggest event will be held in New Jersey, and will depart from the usual "highest score wins" format with a bracket-style elimination tournament. Response from the community has been positive, and we are all excited to see how it will come together.

Online Open organizer Eric Tessler announced that the results of the weekend's tournament—the first in a series of six—would play into the Kong Off 4 seeding process, but further details have yet to be revealed.

Twin Galaxies Is Returning!

A funny thing happened after my most recent post (concerning the Donkey Kong Forum taking up the scorekeeping duties for the DK community in the wake of Twin Galaxies' apparent demise). Mere hours after the post went live, the following image appeared on the Twin Galaxies Facebook page:

The location on their "About" section was updated as well, with a new address based in North Hollywood.

Then, on March 4th, TG broke almost four months of total radio silence with the following status update:

The spirit of Twin Galaxies is quite alive and at the moment going through a significant restructuring period. Out of courtesy and respect for all involved parties and the community itself, no public announcements or details are currently being made available.

Please know that the frustration and lack of information that has been felt by the community for quite some time, has been felt by everyone involved, on all sides, one way or the other.

Resolution on all matters that involve this restructuring are being sought as quickly as possible.

Thank you for your patience and understanding.
-TG

It looks as though the phoenix of video game scorekeeping will, once again, be rising from the ashes!

The imminent re-emergence of Twin Galaxies, however, does not change the DK community's position that the Forum's scoreboard will continue to have primacy over TG's as far as our game is concerned. The high score list at DKF is still going to be the most complete, accurate, stable, transparent, timely, and easy to submit to, at least for the foreseeable future.

I am, nonetheless, happy to see TG stirring, and look forward to the day when we can submit scores there again.

Final Scoreboard and Prizes: Donkey Kong Online Open 2014, #1

Rank	Player	Score	Gap
1	Dave McCrary	1,091,400	0
2	Robbie Lakeman	1,075,500	15,900
3	Steve Wiltshire	963,700	111,800
4	Mike Groesbeck	953,800	9,900
5	Timothy Sczerby	934,700	19,100
6	Ben Falls	913,400	21,300
7	Chris Psaros	911,700	1,700
8	Jeremy Young	905,700	6,000
9	Eric Tessler	882,900	22,800
10	Adam Mon	880,700	2,200
11	Ethan Daniels	798,300	82,400
12	Daniel Desjardins	753,800	44,500
13	Aaron Rounsaville	725,600	28,200
14	Scott Cunningham	680,600	45,000
15	Jeff Harrist	679,100	1,500
16	Ross Benziger	675,900	3,200
17	Allen Staal	556,300	119,600
18	Graham Hawkins	545,000	11,300
19	Jason Corey Brittain	544,700	300
20	Mick Winzeler	517,000	27,700
21	Estel Goffinet	476,800	40,200
22	Brian Allen	474,100	2,700
23	John Salter	324,400	149,700
24	Nick Sheils	273,800	50,600
25	Matt Ziolkowski	260,100	13,700
26	Victor Sandberg	242,600	17,500
27	Ken House	241,100	1,500
28	John McNeill	216,700	24,400
29	Mitchell Meerman	214,700	2,000
30	Thomas Høgsberg	197,600	17,100
31	Patrick Goldbach	186,300	11,300
32	Steve Grunberger	178,900	7,400
33	Don Rubin	119,300	59,600
34	Stan Trazka	94,200	25,100
35	Brendan O'Dowd	86,800	7,400
36	Katie Young	47,600	39,200
37	Edward Dietman	37,800	9,800
38	Rene Salinas	12,700	25,100
39	Douglas Tessler	12,000	700
40	Chuck Vess	5,300	6,700
41	Jessica Tessler	3,800	1,500
	Played But Did Not Submit (13)
N/A	Christer Kristensson	N/A	N/A
N/A	Corey Chambers	N/A	N/A
N/A	Craig Ziegler	N/A	N/A
N/A	Dallas Riley	N/A	N/A
N/A	Daniel Dock	N/A	N/A
N/A	Jason Nugent	N/A	N/A
N/A	Jeff Wolfe	N/A	N/A
N/A	Martin Andrew Laing	N/A	N/A
N/A	Michael Kasper	N/A	N/A
N/A	Shane Mosher	N/A	N/A
N/A	Svavar Gunnar Gunnarsson	N/A	N/A
N/A	Todd Lalonde	N/A	N/A
N/A	Wes Copeland	N/A	N/A
	Registered But Did Not Play (21)
N/A	Adam Hay	N/A	N/A
N/A	Andrew Barrow	N/A	N/A
N/A	Craig Rout Gallant	N/A	N/A
N/A	Dustin Pease	N/A	N/A
N/A	Eric Martin	N/A	N/A
N/A	George Strain	N/A	N/A
N/A	Hank Chien	N/A	N/A
N/A	Foreman Frank	N/A	N/A
N/A	George Riley	N/A	N/A
N/A	Joe Kassel	N/A	N/A
N/A	Johnathan O'Donoghue	N/A	N/A
N/A	Johnny Bonde	N/A	N/A
N/A	Jonathan McCourt	N/A	N/A
N/A	Joseph Carroll	N/A	N/A
N/A	Katherine Williams	N/A	N/A
N/A	Kayla Rose	N/A	N/A
N/A	Marcelo Mandaji	N/A	N/A
N/A	Mark Kiehl	N/A	N/A
N/A	Matt Douglas	N/A	N/A
N/A	Michael Stastny	N/A	N/A
N/A	Mitchell Elliott	N/A	N/A

Total Entrants: 75
Total Active Players: 54
Total Submitting Players: 41

Prizes:
$200 1st - Dave McCrary (1,091,400)
$150 2nd - Robbie Lakeman (1,075,500)
$100 3rd - Steve Wiltshire (963,700)
$50 4th - Mike Groesbeck (953,800)
$25 5th - Tim Sczerby (934,700)

Bounties:
$50 Longest First Man - Ben Falls (57 boards)
$50 Longest Last Man - Steve Wiltshire (70 boards)
$50 Mystery Bounty #1 (7th place) - Chris Psaros (911,700)
$50 Mystery Bounty #2 (27th place) - Ken House (241,100)