Kong Off 2 Media Round-Up

Here is a selection of media coverage on the Kong Off 2, listed in order of publication/broadcast.

Congratulations Jeff Willms, Kong Off 2 Champion!

Congratulations to Kong Off 2 champion Jeff Willms, who, along with second-place finisher Dean Saglio, proved that MAME players can not only adapt, but dominate utterly!

Willms has, until this weekend, played Donkey Kong exclusively on a PC. If anyone holds any remaining doubts that the game is emulated perfectly by the MAME software, or whether MAME-based players merit the respect of arcade machine players, they've been seriously challenged by this historic performance.

In my pre-event predictions, I had pegged Willms as a contender but not a front-runner, not because of any doubts as to his ability or understanding of the game, but because I had no clue as to how he would cope with the live environment and all the visual and ergonomic differences of an arcade cabinet.

When a contestant is competing at his first arcade event, and has literally never played on a machine before, only a fool or a psychic would venture to say "that's the guy!", no matter how good we know he is on MAME.

The photo above is my favorite image from the tournament, showing Willms at work, honoring the Maple Leaf (thanks to Michael Groesbeck for the pic). He made his country proud, and for that matter, this country too!

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Here is a video of Jeff Willms' achieving the score, securing victory, and a little crowdsurfing for good measure. Thanks to Mario Ruiz for this (and for actually being named Mario!)

 

Tournament-In-Review Still To Come

I am not ready to post my recap of this weekend's event, as I would like to let it "settle" for a bit first, and to absorb the thoughts of others who spectated or participated.

Thanks to everyone who stopped by the blog this weekend to follow my coverage of the Kong Off 2!

Kong Off 2 Awards Ceremony to Begin Shortly

November 18 2012, 8:18 PM MST - The Kong Off 2 awards ceremony is set to begin within the next ten to twenty minutes. The stream is live now and can be viewed at: http://www.twitch.tv/kongoff.

I will be back later tonight with a wrap-up.

Kong Off 2 Final Results

November 18th 2012, 9:00 PM MST - The Kong Off 2 has come to an end. The final standings are as follows.

Please visit the main Kong Off 2 page for news updates from the day and for in-depth commentary on the tournament.

The names of the tournament's 12 "featured" contestants are linked to their player profiles. All other names are wildcard competitors.

Place	Player	Best Score	Gap	Day
1	Jeff Willms	1,105,400	-	2
2	Dean Saglio	1,079,400	26,000	1
3	Steve Wiebe	1,006,700	72,700	2
4	Hank Chien	996,900	9,800	1
5	Kyle Goewert	996,200	700	2
6	Vincent Lemay	988,000	8,200	1
7	Mark Kiehl	943,700	44,300	1
8	Billy Mitchell	901,900	41,800	2
9	Eric Tessler	900,500	1,400	1
10	Jeff Wolfe	892,800	7,700	2
11	Ben Falls	854,300	38,500	1
12	Dave McCrary	847,100	7,200	1
13	Mike Groesbeck	829,100	18,000	2
14	Steve Wiltshire	749,900	79,200	1
15	Jonathan McCourt	729,700	20,200	2
16	Ross Benziger	690,100	39,600	1
17	Eric Howard	671,200	18,900	1
18	Mitchell Elliott	644,500	26,700	1
19	Shaun Boyd	588,900	55,600	2
20	Robbie Lakeman	576,500	12,400	1
21	Daniel Dock	438,200	138,300	1
22	Jeff Harrist	361,500	76,700	1
23	Daniel Desjardins	353,900	7,600	1
24	Steve Sanders	227,200	126,700	1
25	Allen Staal	201,100	26,100	1
26	John Salter	180,600	20,500	1
27	Melkon DomBourian	147,500	33,100	1

Back-to-Back Millions For Wiebe

November 18th 2012, 8:52 PM MST - Once wasn't good enough!

Minutes ago, bringing the Kong Off 2 to a rousing conclusion, Steve Wiebe finished a million-point game for the second time today, bringing his tournament final to 1,006,700, putting a cherry on top of his third-place standing.

Never in history has a player put up two million point games in a single day, let alone live.

Wiebe's still got it.

An historic day indeed. In the early hours came Jeff Willms' 1,105,400 game, the first-ever "1.1" to be played live, and then this.

As for Billy Mitchell, his hail-mary barebones kill screen run ended over an hour ago on the second screen of Level 21 when he stubbed his toe on a cement pan.

We still love ya, Billy.

The Final Stretch

November 18 2012, 7:01 MST - Most players are giving it their last push.

• Billy Mitchell looks to be shooting for a survival-pace kill screen run.
• Wiebe, Saglio, and Falls are in the low-200Ks.
• Chien is at over 650K going into L=14—world record pace—but only has one life remaining.

Goewert Shows His Stuff

November 18 2012, 6:21 MST - I am happy to have been wrong!

Kyle Goewert, who I placed among the underdogs during my initial predictions, has just leapt forward to take 5th in the standings (right behind Hank Chien) with 996,200.

With this score Goewert redeems his tepid Kong Off 1 showing and puts me right in my place!

Good game, sir.

Wiebe Now In Third

November 18 2012, 5:45 PM MST - Steve Wiebe has just scored 1,000,300, taking third in the standings and fulfilling his long-standing goal of scoring a million points live.

Congratulations, Steve.

CURRENT STANDINGS: 3:30 PM

November 18th 2012, 3:30 PM MST - Due to unforeseen circumstances, I have been forced to limit my commentary of the Kong Off 2 to leaderboard-only.

Later this evening I will post the final standings.

[EDIT: Ah what the hell. Let's see this thing through!]

(Note: this list is incomplete and based on limited information! An asterisk indicates a wildcard player.)

Rank	Player	Best Score	Day
1	Jeff Willms	1,105,400	2
2	Dean Saglio	1,079,400	1
3	Hank Chien	996,900	1
4	Steve Wiebe	996,800	1
5	Vincent Lemay	988,000	1
6	Mark Kiehl	943,700	1
7	Eric Tessler*	900,500	1
8	Ben Falls	854,300	1
9	Dave McCrary	847,100	1
10	Jeff Wolfe*	787,600	2
11	Steve Wiltshire*	749,900	1
12	Jonathan McCourt*	729,700	1
13	Ross Benziger*	690,100	1
14	Eric Howard	671,200	1
15	Mitchell Elliott*	644,500	1
16	Kyle Goewert	592,200	1
17	Robbie Lakeman*	576,500	1
18	Billy Mitchell	575,000	1
19	Mike Groesbeck*	569,900	1
20	Shaun Boyd	518,300	1
21	Daniel Dock*	438,200	1
22	Jeff Harrist*	361,500	1
23	Daniel Desjardins*	353,900	1
24	Steve Sanders*	227,200	1
25	Allen Staal*	201,100	1
26	John Salter*	180,600	1
27	Melkon DomBourian*	147,500	1

Jeff Willms Makes History

November 18th 2012, 1:30 PM MST - Jeff Willms has done something never before seen, and that nobody here was expecting: a live score of over 1.1 million points.

In so doing, he takes the lead from Dean Saglio in a staggering reversal with a score of 1,105,400.

At this point, it is hard to imagine a bigger score at this event. Awesome job, Jeff. You've made history, and almost certainly sealed a victory in this year's Kong Off.

Day 1: Final Standings

November 17th 2012, 11:59 PM MST - Here is the UNOFFICIAL end-of-Day-1 leaderboard.

(Note: this list is incomplete and based on limited information! An asterisk indicates a wildcard player.)

Rank	Player	Best Score	Day
1	Dean Saglio	1,079,400	1
2	Jeff Willms	1,037,200	1
3	Hank Chien	996,900	1
4	Steve Wiebe	996,800	1
5	Vincent Lemay	988,000	1
6	Mark Kiehl	943,700	1
7	Eric Tessler*	900,500	1
8	Ben Falls	854,300	1
9	Dave McCrary	847,100	1
10	Steve Wiltshire*	749,900	1
11	Ross Benziger*	690,100	1
12	Eric Howard	671,200	1
13	Mitchell Elliott*	644,500	1
14	Jonathan McCourt*	640,600	1
15	Kyle Goewert	592,200	1
16	Robbie Lakeman*	576,500	1
17	Mike Groesbeck*	569,900	1
18	Shaun Boyd	518,300	1
19	Jeff Wolfe*	471,300	1
20	Daniel Dock*	438,200	1
21	Jeff Harrist*	361,500	1
22	Daniel Desjardins*	353,900	1
23	Steve Sanders*	227,200	1
24	Allen Staal*	201,100	1
25	John Salter*	180,600	1
26	Melkon DomBourian*	147,500	1
?	Billy Mitchell	???	1

Watch Arcade Culture!

November 17th 2012, 10:13 PM MST - Arcade Culture, which will recap the first day's action, is airing NOW.

I will be working on updates here, meanwhile, go check it out.

[Stream ended at 11:30]

Well the first hour was good!

But the rest...

Those of us on the stream just heard some very interesting things about Twin Galaxies, its new management, their plans for the organization, their policies for the future, and what their priorities are.

Things that might be, shall we say, decisive with regard to the future of this blog. Things that I wish I hadn't heard until after the Kong Off.

Listen for yourself and decide what you think. (The discussion begins at 32:15. If nothing else, skip to 42:30. It's a doozy!)

I sure hope that all of you who, like myself, went out and bought a Donkey Kong machine in order to live out a silly, modest little dream of seeing your name in the official Twin Galaxies Top 20 are good enough to beat Hank's world record, or the perhaps two to three submissions that will succeed it before the game is maxed out and the leaderboard goes inert. It appears that $1 is all that matters now.

(Oops! I mean #1, not $1. Sorry, typo. Those keys are so close!)

And I hope you won't miss the Twin Galaxies forums, or the years of strategy, theory, history, and friendship that they contain, because it's all gone now. It's not important.

After all, "a forum and people's opinions doesn't do anything to help us build the brand." (47:30)

It has been a long day, and sometimes we say things we don't mean, but I wonder if an apology will be forthcoming to the two people who were viciously and baselessly accused of conspiring to "steal Twin Galaxies" to start their own scoring system? (37:50)

One of those people was in the chat at the time, and went to Facebook in total shock to defend himself to those watching the stream, pasting the very e-mail cited in the show. Unless he did a quick editing job, or it was written in a secret code, this was not an overture to join forces to "attempt to steal" the database.

From the way the new Twin Galaxies is sounding though, we soon might be wishing that somebody had.

Problems notwithstanding, I miss the "piece of shit" you purchased already.

You have some damage control to do and some plans to rethink, and you'd better get started real quick. Your community (or are we customers now?) is not going to be happy about any of this.

For now, I will move forward with my coverage, albeit far less enthusiastically than I was a few naive hours ago.

Or maybe I'll just post updated standings a few more times and be done with it, knowing now a little more about the people behind this event. I was having fun, but I suddenly feel ill.

RADIO SILENCE: APPROX. 2.5 HOURS

November 17th 2012, 7:30 PM MST

There will be no further updates until approximately 10 PM Mountain Time.

The latest:
- Mark Kiehl has, within the last hour, taken 4th on the leaderboard with 943,700.
- Ben Falls may have a little something-something going, in a game at over 300K with all lives in reserve.
- The one to watch: Vincent Lemay is now over 600,000 in a one-man-down game on pace to top 1,000,000 (though with not enough gas to take first on the leaderboard). Keep an eye on that one! http://www.twitch.tv/kongoff

I'll be back to play catch-up, and to review the day, in a few hours!

Action Slow

November 17th 2012, 6:54 PM MST - Not much to report on the "featured" streaming machines at this time.

Saglio, Lemay, and Wiebe all have active games underway, but none are particularly deep. Falls just returned to his machine and started one, Chien is "walking."

Lemay however has a promising start on a game currently at 370,000 with no lives lost, entering the close-to-halfway point of Level 10 on pace for a "flat million." Unless he picks it up a little, he won't top Dean, but beating Willms for second could be in the cards.

CURRENT STANDINGS: 5:00 PM

November 17th 2012, 5:00 PM MST - Here is the UNOFFICIAL tournament leaderboard as of 5:00. The last quarter-drop is scheduled for 8:00.

(Note: this list is incomplete and based on limited information coming from a highly chaotic environment! An asterisk indicates a wildcard player.)

Rank	Player	Best Score	Day
1	Dean Saglio	1,079,400	1
2	Jeff Willms	1,037,200	1
3	Vincent Lemay	988,000	1
4	Ben Falls	854,300	1
5	Dave McCrary	847,100	1
6	Hank Chien	800,100	1
7	Steve Wiebe	779,000	1
8	Ross Benziger*	690,100	1
9	Mark Kiehl	662,700	1
10	Jonathan McCourt*	640,600	1
11	Kyle Goewert	592,200	1
12	Mike Groesbeck*	569,900	1
13	Shaun Boyd	518,300	1
14	Jeff Wolfe*	471,300	1
15	Robbie Lakeman*	419,600	1
16	Steve Wiltshire*	397,200	1
17	Mitchell Elliott*	375,800	1
18	Daniel Dock*	374,600	1
19	Eric Tessler*	372,800	1
20	Steve Sanders*	227,200	1
21	Jeff Harrist*	226,400	1
22	John Salter*	180,600	1
23	Melkon DomBourian*	147,500	1
24	Daniel Desjardins*	128,000	1
?	Billy Mitchell	???	1
?	Eric Howard	???	1

The screen 30 minutes ago on Wildcard #4, showing Groesbeck (10th), Wolfe (11th), Elliott (14th), Groesbeck (superseded), Wolfe (superseded):

Dean Saglio May Have Just Won the Kong Off 2

November 17th 2012, 2:40 PM MST - Dean Saglio has come forth to assert himself as the master of Donkey Kong.

The score to beat is 1,079,400.

You read that right—one million seventy nine thousand four hundred. On his first full game!

Considering that there are only three players all-time who have ever achieved a score that high on an arcade machine, the texture of the tournament has just been defined. Nearly all competitors are now playing for second and third, and they know it.

Second place may already be spoken for, as Jeff Willms (whose gameplay is not being live-streamed at this time) is reported to have put up a mammoth 1,037,200.

In a recent interview, Hank Chien described the field of Donkey Kong competitors as having improved greatly over the past year.

The first three hours of play here in Denver have shown that he wasn't kidding.

The other players now have their work cut out for them, and it is an unenviable task indeed.

A Kill For Lemay; Saglio Crushing

November 17th 2012, 2:25 PM MST - Vincent Lemay has just reached the first kill screen of the Kong Off 2 with a final score of 988,000!

Meanwhile, Dean Saglio is working on an enormous score. He passed the 1 million mark just as Vincent was finishing his game. If Saglio finishes, there is a good chance that the game may win him the tournament.

Saglio Working On a Monster

November 17th 2012, 1:19 PM MST - Dean Saglio (playing alongside Ben Falls) is not technically in the scoring lead, but has the best game currently going. He just ended level 11 with over 500,000 points (on pace for approximaly 1,050,000), with all lives remaining.

[Update 2:00 PM: one life gone, now approximately 1,060,000 pace. If this game goes all the way, the field will have a very, very hard time with it.]

Vincent Lemay and Ben Falls are both ahead of Saglio in score, but are at a lower pace and have few lives remaining.

[Update 2:00 PM: Falls' run is over (ending at 745,700). He has started again. Lemay is over 840,000 and closing in on the final four levels. His pace cannot beat Saglio's.]

[Update 2:20 PM: POSSIBLE KILL SCREEN! Lemay, who has now already beaten his final Kong Off 1 score, is only minutes away from the kill!]

Wiebe and Chien trail significantly.

[Update 1:30 PM: a game of Chien's just ended at approximately 450,000. His machine is empty for the time being.]

Play Is Underway

November 17th 2012, 12:03 PM MST - The event has finally begun (just a lot of interviews and control panel tweaking going on up to now). Word is that 6 streams are in the process of being set up.

Three streams are currently live:
http://www.twitch.tv/kongoff - Left: Vincent Lemay; Right: Wildcard #1
http://www.twitch.tv/kongoff1 - Left: Dean Saglio; Right: Ben Falls
http://www.twitch.tv/kongoff2 - Left: Steve Wiebe; Right: Hank Chien

All can be viewed simultaneously here: http://aurcade.com/events/live.aspx

Technical kinks are being worked out.