Showing posts with label Billy Mitchell. Show all posts

Day 1 Recap: Lakeman In Control

July 30th, 2016 - The phenomenal Robbie Lakeman wasted no time on the first day of Kong Off competition in securing his place in Sunday's bracketed finals.

On the very first quarter-drop of the tournament, Lakeman scored 1,135,300, not merely guaranteeing that he would make the cut (while putting heavy pressure on his world-record rival Wes Copeland), but in doing so, managed to pull off the highest score ever achieved at a Kong Off.

Mirroring the Day 1 results from last year's Kong Off 4, 2nd and 3rd place were held by the always-reliable Dean Saglio and Jeff Willms, followed by strong showings from Jason Wade and a focused Steve Wiltshire, who came determined not to repeat history. He ended up on the wrong side of the bubble in 9th place at the very end of Day 2 of the Kong Off 4. His 1,043,600 is not a lock, but is likely to hold up.

The million mark has yet to be breached by anyone else in the field, but rest assured, it will be. Vincent Lemay came the closest with 993,500.

Billy "USA" Mitchell honoring his long-running tradition - taunting Canadians - while Jeff Willms (right) works to cover the exchange rate

Tanner Fokkens who became the youngest Donkey Kong kill-screener in the game's history last year at the tender age of 16, holds 7th position.

Ending the day in 8th place, defending Kong Off champion Hank Chien managed 851,000, but will have his work cut out for him if he wants to survive to Sunday.

Here are the full standings as of the end of Day 1:

Rank	Player	Best Score
1	Robbie Lakeman	1,135,300
2	Dean Saglio	1,084,100
3	Jeff Willms	1,071,200
4	Jason Wade	1,046,900
5	Steve Wiltshire	1,043,600
6	Vincent Lemay	993,500
7	Tanner Fokkens	884,100
8	Hank Chien	851,000
9	Ethan Daniels	824,800
10	Wes Copeland	815,100
11	Mick Winzeler	778,600
12	Eric Tessler	581,200

Sadly, Steve Wiebe, whose role in The King of Kong is one of the reasons we're all here in the first place, encountered a last-minute family emergency and was unable to attend this year's event. His presence is missed, but the show must go on.

Will Copeland pull ahead of Lakeman? Will Chien have the opportunity to defend his title? Might the great Saglio finally get a chance to walk away from a Kong Off with the belt?

Stay tuned to Kong Off 5 live stream and the official scoreboard to find out, and thanks to Polygon for sending viewers our way!

Hammering Hank Chien Wins The Kong Off 4! Lakeman Defeated In Final Round Grudge Match

Photo: Jeff Harrist

August 3rd, 2015 - Hank Chien tasted sweet revenge on Sunday when the deposed world record holder defeated his usurper, the current King of Kong Robbie Lakeman, in an ultimate final round grudge match at the Kong Off 4.

Chien may no longer be on top of the all-time high score standings, but another Kong Off win (his second after the the inaugural installment in 2011) is a comeback to be proud of.

The always amazing Jeff Willms submitted the event's highest overall score, and if not for the new head-to-head finals, would have successfully defended his Kong Off title once again for an unprecedented three in a row.

The Bracket Tourney

Sunday's single-elimination bracket tournament—consisting of eight players in seven matches and seeded by Friday and Saturday's high score competition—initially met with wide skepticism. Players and observers were unsure whether or not the format could succeed, being so radical a departure from the traditional model.

Scores for this "one-and-done" style were indeed relatively low compared to those attained in isolated, individual sessions, where players can enjoy the luxury of multiple attempts and easily-aborted weak games, with only their very best game ultimately mattering.

But when limited to one game, against a specific player, entirely new dynamics are introduced, and the community at large came away very pleasantly surprised with the excitement, pressure, and novelty of this much more direct form of competition.

Commentary At Last!

Several weeks ago, during Steve Wiebe's appearance at the Mall of America, Mitchell Elliott was a guest on the live stream, and offered superb running commentary on the action, helping viewers to better comprehend what they were watching. It was a taste of what was to come this past weekend.

Donkey Kong live-streamed games and tournaments have always struggled with the problem of a game that is notoriously spectator-unfriendly. For the uninitiated, it's slow, hard to understand, and tactically arcane.

As Jesse Hicks of the Verge described it in his 2013 piece on the Kong Off 3: "To the casual eye it's something less than poetry in motion."

On Sunday, expert players including Wes Copeland, Ethan Daniels, Dean Saglio, as well as Wiebe, Elliot, and others, sat down in the ReplayFX broadcast booth to do their part making Donkey Kong more accessible. For the first time ever, Kong Off matches were streamed with play-by-play announcers, and the results were very well-received.

I've wanted commentary for a long time and it was wonderful to see how strong and professional it turned out to be.

Here is the final Lakeman versus Chien match. If you've ever wanted to understand just what goes into playing this game at a high level, I recommend giving it a listen:

On To Next Year

The Kong Off 5 has already been scheduled for next year, where Hank Chien will defend his title at the same location and on the same weekend at ReplayFX in Pittsburgh.

Thanks to Richie Knucklez for his hard work in making the Kong Offs happen, and to many others who help in so many ways behind the scenes. Photographer William McEvoy deserves special mention for his talents, covering the last three Kong Offs, as well as other classic gaming events around the country. Needless to say, McEvoy's work has been indispensable to my blog posts.

I'd also like to thank renowned gaming journalist and Gamasutra publisher Simon Carless, who over the weekend Tweeted a link to the coverage here and sent some curious traffic in this direction. The gaming and tech press has always been kind to Donkey Blog and it is always appreciated.

And on the subject of traffic...

It's pure serendipity that it would happen within a fortnight or so of a Kong Off coming to a close, but it would seem that my pageview counter's rollover to 1 million is imminent! When I started this blog four years ago, it was a pet project that I never would have foreseen hitting that milestone. My "score" here is higher than my personal best at the game. Much gratitude goes out to the many thousands who have linked, reddited, Tweeted, shared, read, commented, and encouraged.

Congratulations to Hank, Jeff, and all the other competitors for another well-played Kong Off!

Hard at work on Kong Off Row

Ethan Daniels' understated reaction to a Steve Wiebe autograph

Richie Knucklez and Alan Radue with the champion's barstool Radue created for the event

The Kong Off 4 lineup (left to right): Walter Day, Jason Wade, Ethan Daniels, Dean Saglio, Jeff Wolfe, Steve Wiltshire, Wes Copeland, Mike Groesbeck, Daniel Desjardins, Steve Wiebe, Vincent Lemay, Jeff Willms, Hank Chien, Eric Tessler, Jeff Harrist, Robbie Lakeman, Billy Mitchell

All photos: William McEvoy

The Kong Off 4 Is Here!


Steve Wiebe samples machines along 2015's "Kong Off Row" Photo: William McEvoy

July 30th, 2015 - Donkey Kong's greatest have arrived at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh, PA and will soon take their battle stations on Kong Off Row.

The 4th installment of Richie Knucklez' Kong Off, hosted by the ReplayFX Arcade & Gaming Festival, begins Friday at noon, with the first of two days of high score competition.

On Sunday (day 3), the 16 players with the highest scores from Friday and Saturday's action will go on to play in a single-elimination head-to-head bracket-style competition.

This segment was devised by Richie Knucklez and Steve Wiebe to throw a twist into the contest. The traditional high score competition of years prior will still be integral to the tournament, but the elimination portion is new, and Sunday will put the viability of the concept to the test.

16 players in 8 simultaneous matchups will constitute the first round, with 8 players proceeding to the second round, followed by a 4-way semi-final.

The semi-final victors will then head to the 2 final round cabinets decked out in "Steelers gold", and (after the bracket players have signed their names to the custom side art) will duke it out for the win, the belt, the $4,000 grand prize, and the title of Kong Off champion.

The final round gold cabinets
Photo: Derek Sorrels

Following The Action

There is some question at this point as to whether the first two days of competition will be live-streamed to Twitch TV. Bandwidth is an issue at the convention center, and with multiple events taking place there, only Sunday's bracket portion has been given the green light.

Stay tuned to Richie Knucklez' Twitch channel at http://www.twitch.tv/richieknucklez for the latest developments.

Also check out KongOff.com for more information on the event.

The highlight of today's practice session was former world champion Billy Mitchell making his presence known with a 930,000 kill screen game. Richie Knucklez snapped this photo afterwards, capturing Billy in a victory pose (and a bit of accidental red-eye that does little to mitigate Mitchell's devilish reputation!)

33 Years Ago, In Movie-Land...

It is an interesting semi-coincidence that the opening scenes of Pixels—last weekend's major Holywood release about a team of classic gamers tasked with saving the Earth from an alien invasion—depicted a final round head-to-head Donkey Kong competition (emceed by Dan Aykroyd himself) in a fictitious "1982 Worldwide Video Arcade Championships."

A number of classic gamers from around the community were asked by the producers for video of their gameplay, and our own world champion Robbie Lakeman provided the Donkey Kong footage featured in the film.

It's a fun, if inadvertent, tie-in to the action about to unfold at the Kong Off 4, and a reminder that classic gaming is still alive and well in the public consciousness.

Good luck to all competing this weekend! The blog will be inactive Friday, but I will do my best to update the action throughout the rest of the tournament.

Kong Off 3 Tournament In Review

The third Kong Off proved to be the biggest and best yet, with more competitors, much bigger scores, and suspense right up until the last minute. Donkey Kong's finest "brought it" last weekend, putting on a show for which Twin Galaxies and the gaming community should be beaming with pride.

Robbie Lakeman, Shaun Boyd, and Jeff Willms on "Kong Off Row" (Photo: Dave Danzara)

Within hours of the first quarter drop on Day 1, former Top 12 competitor Kyle Goewert asserted his place among the big boys—despite his demotion to the Wildcard Division—by turning in the first million-point game of the weekend. With Corey Chambers already having taken an early lead with almost 900,000 points, it was clear that the wildcards had stepped up to give the Top 12 lineup a run for their money.

By evening, Goewert had slipped, finding himself in the middle of a "Steve sandwich" as Steve Wiltshire grabbed first place ("I just took the lead. Holy crap, I'm winning!" Wiltshire told Facebook), and Steve Wiebe rounded out the top 3 just 800 points shy of Goewert.

Ross Benziger struggles on Day 1 (Photo: William McEvoy)

Before the day was out though, world champion Hank Chien had pushed ahead of the field with 1,056,900, and less than twenty minutes later, Jeff Willms realized everyone's worst nightmare: an enormous 1,096,200.

With first place now higher than the all-time personal bests of all but five of the competitors, the field groaned at the imposing task before it. It felt to many that this year's title would go to Willms again, with Billy Mitchell himself declaring "nobody's going to beat that score."

In reality, Willms was not actually as safe as he might have seemed. The defending champ even admitted that he had "gotten lucky" and would have to remain so to hold the lead. With such a high mark established at the end of Day 1, it was no longer "anyone's tournament", but by no means was a Willms victory a foregone conclusion.

Indeed, Chien and Saglio showed up for Day 2 ready for war, and both pushed deep into games that could have taken first had they reached the kill screen.

Willms (left) discreetly checks in on Saglio (right) via one of the overhead TVs

Saglio had the closest call, reaching 1,033,000 in a game that ended on the last board of Level 20. If Saglio had cleared that board, he would have needed a Level 21 worth about 60,000 points in order to bridge the gap. Considering that Saglio's level averages have routinely exceeded 61,000 in his "1.2" runs (with level maximums often close to 70,000), Willms was likely only minutes away from losing first place if bad luck hadn't gotten in Saglio's way.

Meanwhile on Day 2, Dave McCrary (who, like Goewert, was another former Top 12er pushed into the Wildcard Division for this year's installment) had the game of his life, turning in 1,032,000 which earned him first place for the division (a $250 prize), a new personal best, as well as a bump up to 13th place on the all time scoreboard.

The "Team Wiebe Girls" make an appearance (Photo: Westword)

Steve Wiebe, not content with his standard (but frighteningly consistent) "flat million" with which he has been gracing live events for years, decided to push a little harder on Day 2. He got a hold of a strong run that was on pace to beat Chien for second, as well as push past his (now three year old) personal best, but the game, unfortunately, ended prematurely. Wiebe nonetheless pulled back into third position with 1,048,800.

Then, in a game that went into overtime after "last quarter" at 6:00, Kong titan Ross Benziger rose all the way from dead last in the standings to second place (where, incidentally, he also sits on the all-time scoreboard). With the pressure on to prove himself, and despite being "sick as a dog all weekend", Benziger's run was good enough to overtake Chien and the $1,000 second-place prize.

Steve Wiltshire: Last Man Standing

As player after player finished his last run, stepping away from their machines as the live streams went dark, attention turned to Steve Wiltshire—the "last man standing" at the Kong Off 3.

Steve Wiltshire with his wife Jessi. (Photo: Westword)

As he crossed his earlier score of 1,016,700 with only a few boards left to go, it was clear that there were not enough points left between Wiltshire and the kill screen to win the tournament, but if he could hold on to his spare man and cash it in for extra points on the last barrel board, he had an outside shot at Hank Chien (now in third) and Wiebe was well within striking range.

With hundreds of eyes on him, flashes popping, and the crowd on the edge of its seat, Wiltshire's cash-in succeeded. He then pushed through a troublesome final rivet board (one close call in particular eliciting an awed gasp that swept the room), hit the kill screen, and snatched fourth place from Wiebe.

Big, Big, Big

The final leaderboard tells the tale of just how serious these competitions are getting. While no new world record was set over the weekend, this was, by far, the toughest Donkey Kong tournament ever held.

For perspectve:

At the first Kong Off, not a single player broke a million points.

At Kong Off 2, just three players managed to roll the score.

This year though, an unprecendented nine competitors were able to breach seven digits, with two (Wiebe and Wiltshire) doing it twice, for a total of eleven million-point games.

The Kong Off 3 was also a much tighter race than KO2: Willms and Saglio ran away with it in 2012, with Wiebe's third place trailing them by 73,000 points. This year, in contrast, that same gap represented the total span from 1st all the way to 8th.

In the Spotlight

Media interest in the Kong Off 3 was high (and is actually still underway, with two major pieces by Vice Magazine and The Verge expected in the coming weeks).

The tournament was front page news in The Denver Post, Denver's ABC, CBS, and Fox affiliates covered the event, Westword featured a photo gallery, the Lincoln Journal-Star interviewed Steve Wiltshire, major technology websites like Ars Technica followed the action (and were kind enough to link to this blog!), and other gaming/sports outlets such as RetroDomination, Polygon, Kitguru, and One World Sports ran stories as well.

Here's CBS 4 Denver's brief segment (note the anchor introducing the story with the exact same joke that he used last year! We love you, TV news...)

What About Me?

I was one of the Wildcard Division competitors in this year's tournament, having won my spot during the Online Qualifiers this past summer.

Saturday, however, proved to be one of my worst playing-days in a very long time, in terms of luck, energy, focus, mood, and every other factor you can name. I had failed to put in any practice in the lead-up to the tournament, had barely slept the night before, and my head, as they say, "was not in the game." None of this helped.

Only the 10 highest-scoring players in the Wildcard Division would move on to Sunday, and it became clear to me, as evening fell, that it wasn't meant to be. I decided to stop throwing myself and my "F" game at a machine that was refusing to work with me, and instead turn my attention to other things.

The world-famous Allen Staal!
(Photo: William McEvoy)

I quickly made peace with the decision, and it was an easy peace, as I'd actually been feeling for weeks prior that I was going to the event primarily to experience it, with competition being a distant afterthought. I'd cared much more about doing well in the online preliminaries; to prove that I could "make the cut" and earn a place in the big show. I wasn't so concerned about what would happen once I got there.

My real priority in Denver was to spend time with this group of friends who, up to this weekend, I'd only known online. I wanted to have Steve Wiebe autograph my King of Kong DVD, to shake Billy Mitchell's hand, to personally thank Walter Day for his part in creating this strange and amazing world. I also wanted time to get into the trenches and follow the action for the blog.

In other words, I wanted to do anything and everything but play Donkey Kong! So my elimination on Saturday ended up being the best thing that could have happened, as I got to check all of the "to do"s off my list, and wouldn't have been able to otherwise. I could not care less that I finished lowest in my "online pre-qualifier" division. I came back from the event with my own trading card, an award certificate recognizing my "tremendous contributions to the world of competitive arcade gaming", and unanimously positive memories.

Certificate Awards (Photo: Cat DeSpira)

I want to extend my thanks to Richie Knucklez, Jourdan Adler, the crew at The 1up, and my fellow players. It was an exceptionally wonderful weekend, and I have a new appreciation for how much blood and sweat go into an event like this. I'm looking forward to doing it again someday!

The Kong Off 2: Rating the Lineup (and Picking the Winner)

This is risky.

If you're the guy with the Donkey Kong blog, people want to know how you're calling the Kong Off 2 (and will feel cheated if you don't!) But you never know who you might offend.

So at the risk of ruffling feathers, here is how I break down this year's lineup.

November 1st, 2012 - In the years since the King of Kong, as a new champion has emerged and the water rises slowly but steadily around Steve Wiebe and Billy Mitchell's second and third place scores, a question has emerged: with so many great Donkey Kong players out there now playing in (or even beyond) their league, were Billy and Steve ever really that good? Or was this an illusory perception created by the two being "alone on the field?"

I've encountered disparaging remarks about the abilities of both players—how Billy and Steve are "no big deal" by today's standards; and even the insinuation that the game has "passed them by."

I burn a little whenever I see it.

"It's like playing fucking Battlezone..."

October 21st, 2012 - Struggling with a glitching video board that has turned his Donkey Kong machine into "Slender Kong," world record contender Vincent Lemay just played through a rip roaring kill-screener that reached a final point total of 1,084,500... beating the standing officially-ranked scores of both Steve Wiebe and Billy Mitchell.

October 2nd, 2012 - A little over six weeks remain until The Kong Off 2, and it looks as though we will go into it with Donkey Kong Jr. champion Mark Kiehl sitting just beneath "the big three" of Chien, Wiebe, and Mitchell.

August 22nd, 2012 - The Donkey Kong world record doomsday clock has ticked one minute closer to midnight.

The Donkey Kong World Record: The Real History, From 1982 to Today

Since Billy Mitchell's epochal achievement of 874,300 points on August 13, 1982, the Donkey Kong world record has undergone a winding and controversial journey.

Seven men have reigned as champion—Billy Mitchell, Tim Sczerby, Steve Wiebe, Hank Chien, Robbie Lakeman, Wes Copeland, and John McCurdy—with much back-and-forth between each (except for Sczerby, who is the only of the group to break the record just once).

"If you've seen the excellent documentary King of Kong, you'll know why we're doing this interview."
- Fox Business anchor Brian Sullivan, interviewing Hank Chien

While it nearly always manifests with a curious guffaw, both the media and the general public have nonetheless always displayed an unmistakable fascination with the world of classic arcade game competition.