non-sc: A big event happened this update: Eric Habrich reaches #2 on the player's list pushing Cetin to #3! Hopefully some day we can see a NTSC karter as the non-sc world champion. Cooper Lovera moves from Elite-C to Elite-B. Yann Ledrux makes a crucial leap from #190 to #105, moving to Elite-D. Tianyi Liu moves from Expert-A to Semipro-D. Tim Everett and Michael Jongerius continue to strengthen their times.Two other players this update, Ignacio Caceres Lezcano and Marius Hukkelaas, were also active, although they were passed. The Boothman was active this update, and he has two new WR's: TT SC 3-lap and flap, accomplishing both WR's in one day! Good job, Booth! These WR's are not in the top 100 tables yet, but they will soon. Other active players were Thomas Grandjean, Marcelo Almeida dos Reis, Michael Fried, Finn Berger, Scott Brehm, Marc Geraghty and Mike Cervenec.

shortcut: Yrvin Van Wijk becomes active and is now right below Fried and Santos. There may be some hot rivalries between these karters soon to come. Other active players were Michael Fried, Tim Everett, Yann Ledrux and Josh Caudle.

new karter: We have a new player this update, Andrew Hannath. He is ranked Advanced-F in non-sc (although no number rank yet), but his strong point is in shortcuts, coming in at an impressive Elite-D! Hopefully he keeps karting and moves up into the higher ranks. Happy Thanksgiving everyone, and enjoy your meals.

Tuesday, November 25, 2003 - WR/POW/POW points updated - by Thomas at 1:38 pm
World Record
Kevin Booth is back on the WR rankings! Not only that, he also managed to get 2 WRs in one day!! He now totally dominates Toad's Turnpike in shortcut, with a course time of 1'31"87* (1'50"46) and a lap time of 29"07* (34"95). Not a particularly good day for our 2 Australian stars, as Alex Penev lost 2 WRs in the process and Ben Miller one.

Wario Stadium Non-sc now has 3 World record holders, thanks to Eric Habrich, who has tied Sami Cetin's 1-lap time of 1'12"55* (1'27"23). A notable difference between these 2 times is the lap for the shrooms: 1st lap for Eric, 2nd for Sami.

POW Week 3 - 17th-24th
A relatively quiet week, due to obvious reasons. Michael Fried and Cooper Lovera were pretty active though, getting 10-15 prs each, but they could do nothing to prevent Eric Habrich from earning his 2nd award of the month with 2 World records, 2 NTSC records, and that famous GOD rank!

- Top100s, ARRs & AvgFins Updated - by Michael at 1:00 pm
Cooper Lovera nicely reached Elite B in non-shortcut, despite some limited playing time. This update we also got a new member who is actually a veteran in Mario Kart 64: Andrew Hannath from England submits his set of times, including a 13th place at Mario Raceway shortcut 3lap that he already achieved in 1997. He's ranked Elite D in shortcuts. Eric Habrich got a few more amazing PRs, and slowly pulls away from Cetin in AvgFin. Yrvin van Wijk improved a shortcut PR after a long time of inactivity. Scott Brehm, Tianyi Liu and Rafael Aguiar were active as well.

Thursday, November 20, 2003 - Top100s, ARRs & AvgFins Updated - by Michael at 12:50 pm
Those pages are updated again. Biggest news is Eric Habrich reaching the GOD rank in non-shortcut. A handful Legend players were active and the other ranks also had some ranking climbers.

Thursday, November 20, 2003 - Players List Updated - by Kevin at 11:53 pm
Wow, I'm here to do a players list update. Well, lets see, Eric Habrich is still 3rd on the list, but definitely not for long. He just needs to steal a WR or 2 from Cetin, and he's there. Bigger news with him though is that he becomes the 3rd player in history to get the GOD ranking. More impressive, is that he was able to do this in under a year of being a member! However, ya, he did already have 3 months experience before joining, so technically, not a first year god player, he still busted it out. Ah, the memories... http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mariokart64/message/6479

Still, this right here is Eric's time to shine, and I must say, I am proud to have him here. Truly one of the better players to pick up a controller. So will Habrich fullfill his destiny and take out Jongerius, while he is playing MKDD? Stay Tuned

Ok, as far as other action, The Legends choice of tracks was Koopa Troopa Beach, and I was definitely motivated by Marcelo as well as Grandjean hitting those fastlaps of 25"99, and 26"00, so I got a 26"00 myself. After that, I figured I was a shoe in for a better 3lap, but it took about 6 hours to get what I wanted finally, with a 1'20"21, with laps all in the 70s!

As far as other action, Michael Fried continues the balanced attack. Michael definitely is one of a rare breed, cause he is growing as an overall player. I wonder if he'll pass me before I get #2 overall???

Cooper Lovera got in some last PRs, but won't have any more to submit for awhile, due to parental unit probation:) Tim Everett, I believe, intends to take a last stab at getting an NTSC WR, that will stick, and maybe even an overall WR, before going inactive for awhile. Hukkelaas has been making sure to add a few PRs each update, and lastly Liu made a submission as well.

Monday, November 17, 2003 - MKDD Site Launched! - by Mark at 8:32 pm
The Mario Kart Double Dash Player's Site has officially been launched: http://www.mariokart64.com/mkdd/

For now time submissions will take place at the MKDD yahoogroup at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mkdd/

A dedicated team has been assembled and you should expect to see site updates at least two times a week.

The team includes but is not limited to:

- Timesheet Updater - Tom Gaffikin
- Vids and Strats - Brent Wingert
- Awards and Graphic Design - Andrew Weatherton
- Profiles, Times Viewer, Matchups, PERL Master - William Lacey
- Future Database Solutions/Programming Geniuses - Alex Penev and William Lacey
- Mainpage, Site Design, Excel Master - Mark Jones

- Main Advisor and Excel guru - Michael Liem
- Honorary Advisors - Kevin Booth and Jason Whalls

So good luck and keep up on karting.

-Mark Jones

- WR/POW/POW points updated - by Thomas at 12:55 pm
World Records
3 new World Records this week: Toad's Turnpike flap 49"18* (59"14) and Banshee Boardwalk 1"44"41* (2"05"54) by Michael Jongerius and Koopa Troopa Beach 1"19"93* (1"36"11) by Eric Habrich. Check out the WR page for more info on those.

POW Week 2 - (9th-16th)
This week's Player of the Week is clearly Eric Habrich. He became the #2 player in the world in Average Finish, got a new World Record and got closer to that GOD rank. Amazing performance.

Sunday, November 16, 2003 - Top100s, ARRs & AvgFins Updated - by Michael at 9:02 am
Eric Habrich reaches #2
Big news: Eric Habrich reached #2 on the non-shortcut AvgFin rankings! With some outstanding PRs and WRs he managed to beat Sami's AvgFin score by exactly one point. Congrats Eric! He probably won't pass Sami on the Player List yet, because Sami has more WRs and slightly better total times. But the way things are going now, it'll probably only be a matter of time. Eric also improved his ARR score to 0.031, just one standard away from reaching the GOD rank.

Other highlights
Tim Everett passes Myles Bukrim for #16 on the ARR list. Michael Fried reached Legend C and entered the top25 in AvgFin. Finn Berger reached King A. Cooper Lovera passed another bunch of players. Marius Hukkelaas went from Expert A to Semi-Pro B, climbing 23 spots. New member Simon Rinaldo joins with some good shortcut times that put him at #95 on the shortcut Average Finish Rankings. And a few more people were active.

Mario Kart Double Dash!! or Mario Kart 64?
With the release of Mario Kart Double Dash it seems Mario Kart 64 activity is slowing down a bit. But history has shown us a few times that such decreases in activity are only temporary. So to the people that stick to playing MK64 these days I'd say: take your chances to beat some inactive players and to win some of those easier POW awards, and after that expect the competition to return to or even to surpass the normal levels of activity. And to the people that want to compete in Mario Kart Double Dash I'd say: Stay tuned and keep checking here. A time trial competition for MKDD is going to be started soon!

Tuesday, November 11, 2003 - Players list update - by Steven G at 11:42 pm
The Player List was updated with the times from 2 days ago. Many very impressive movements from karters this update

non-shortcut: Josh Caudle storms up the ranks. Caudle Moves from Elite-A to King-C, pushing my rank down and ends up right behind active player Scott Brehm!! Cooper Lovera moves from Elite-D to Elite-C! Jonathon Halford maintained his rank at #106 even though Lovera jumped ahead of him. Marc Geraghty makes Semi pro-A. Eric Habrich draws closer to Cetin. Tim Everett also continues his journey up the ranks. Shortcut specialist Fernando Moritz dos Santos joins the non-shortcut ranks at a impressive Elite-B. Michael Fried made a minor improvement. Other active players were Lars Nouwen, Marcelo Almeida dos Reis, Finn Berger, Scott Brehm and Steven Gutierrez.

shortcut: Josh Caudle enters the shortcut ranks at Elite-F! Tim Everett makes a nice improvement. Other active players were Michael Fried and Fernando Moritz dos Santos.

new karters: Two new karters this update. Welcome Dave Phaneuf (Pro-A #116) from Quebec, Canada and Mike Cervenec (Apprentice-C #247) from Lexington, Kentucky. Have fun karting.

Sunday, November 09, 2003 - Finn Berger's Tape Is In - by Kevin at 8:24 pm
Ben Miller now has his tape, but hasn't reviewed it yet. I'm still expecting a tape from Steven G. soon and Kevin M. is working on a tape, but only has 4 Prs on it so far.

I just got emailed by the TG staff, and I gave them a recent sheet, so I can't tell ya how long ya got, but probably not long to be eligible for the book/site.

- WR/POW/POW points updated - by Thomas at 8:33 am
POW Week 1 - (1st-8th)

He's just entered the top 100 at both the ARR and AvgFin ranks and went from Elite F to Elite C: Cooper Lovera is our first November Player of the Week.

- PAL & NTSC Rankings updated - by Michael at 4:52 am
Some new WRs were added since last update. Habrich now has 23/32 NTSC WRs. Jongerius has 19/32 PAL WRs. Rankingwise most of the interesting things happened at the NTSC rankings. Tim Everett passed Myles Bukrim for 7th place non-shortcut and climbed a few pages on SC. Michael Fried reached #17. And Josh Caudle puts himself strongly on the nonSC rankings (29th place).

- Top100s, ARRs & AvgFins Updated - by Michael at 4:50 am
Legends: Habrich stays on fire. Nouwen & Almeida dos Reis return!
After a relatively quiet first half of the week, Eric Habrich racked up the PRs and NTSC WRs again in the past few days. The current Habrich-catching-Cetin-percentage: 85%.
Two Legend players made some surprising returns this week. Marcelo Almeida dos Reis returned to defend his NTSC WRs that Habrich stole from him. And he succesfully defended both WRs. Shows what great potential he has. Lars Nouwen showed he's also still alive. One PR improved his ARR score to get an untied 11th place.
Tim Everett got a few PRs. Michael Fried got 2 PRs and got closer to Legend C.

Kings: Josh Caudle is King C after validation!
After Josh Caudle got validated it turns out he's become a very good karter in the meantime. His old rank was Elite A. Now he returns to the rankings at King C! Right in front of active players Scott Brehm and Steven Gutierrez. If these 3 players stay active, a nice battle could develop. Finn Berger improved his ARR score to 6.500. Only one improvement needed to reach King A.

Elites: Lovera flying through elites. Moritz dos Santos starts playing non-shortcut.
Cooper Lovera is really flying trough the rankings. He improves about one Elite letter rank at every update. He reached the top 100 in ARR and AvgFin (99th place on both) and is Elite C now.
Shortcut King Fernando Moritz dos Santos decided to start the non-shortcut tracks as well this week. And his first complete set of times gives him a very good Elite B rank! Elite D player Jonathon Halford was the 3rd active Elite player.

Other ranks/new members: Welcome to Dave Phaneuf and Mike Cervenec
Rafael Aguiar and Marc Geraghty got a few new PRs.
And we have two new members: Dave Phaneuf from Canada joins at #126 in AvgFin with a Pro A rank. A very strong start for a new member. But Dave is a highly ranked player at F-Zero X and F-Zero GX, so he's shown to have good videogaming skills. Mike Cervenec from the USA is the other new member. He joins at #288 AvgFin, Apprentice C.

Saturday, November 08, 2003 - Josh Caudle is For Real - by Kevin at 1:56 am
Well, I haven't seen such an anticipated tape since Myles Bukrim. So many posts later, I viewed it, and he has the skillz. He defintely would be a great player, with a bit more practice, and vid/strat study. The VS was entertaining too, but I didn't get passed the first few races, because I have a bigger surprise..........

READ NEXT NEWS PIECE!!!!!

- KEVIN BOOTH KART VIDS AVAILABLE - by Kevin at 1:55 am
Encoded but not compressed. So for now, they are available via getfiling my AIM name (KIPLKINKEL). If you have a hard time viewing them, it could be your monitor, so for certain brands, make sure you reset to 800X600. Outside of that, make sure to IM Kip BEFORE dling vids. If you are not on the buddylist, I have to approve you first, and after that, I'll add ya, and you got access. IMing me first is essential to keep records of what you got, as well as me being able to quickly add you to my buddylist. Lastly, so you know what I got, download the paper I scanned with the itinerary.

Friday, November 07, 2003 - National records updated - by Tim at 2:46 pm
The update isn't particularly thorough- not the latest submissions. Tomorrow I intend to thicken it more, and add perhaps a new state or two. One of the continents isn't updated but will be soon.

Thursday, November 06, 2003 - Players list update - by Steven G at 12:54 am
A lot of movement this update.

non-sc: Jonathon Halford moves from Elite-F to Elite-D. Cooper Lovera moves from Pro-A to Elite-D! Marc Geraghty moves from Semi-Pro C to Semi-Pro B. Ryan Sathoff makes the bomb move from Advanced-D to Semi-Pro F! Jeff Carlson moves from Beginner-C to Apprentice-A! Other active players were Michael Jongerius, Eric Habrich, Tim Everett, Michael Fried, Finn Berger, Steven Gutierrez, Charles Tasserit, Matthew Ellis, Wolfgang Peter and Rafael Aguiar

shortcut: Michael Fried and Fernando Moritz dos Santos both moved from King-C to King-B. Tim Everett moves from King-F to King-D!

new karters: There are four new karters this update. Matt Whiteman (Expert-F), Tianyi Liu (expert-A), Marius Hukkelaas (Expert-A) and Tuomas Dunkel (advanced-F). Wish them some happy karting.

Wednesday, November 05, 2003 - Top100s, ARRs & AvgFins Updated - by Michael at 10:12 am
In the Legend/King ranks Michael Fried made the biggest improvement, while Habrich, Jongerius, Everett and Berger were active as well. In the Elite/Master ranks Cooper Lovera continued his excellent playing by improving his ARR score from 17.688 (Elite F) to 16.344 (Elite D). Jonathon Halford made a smaller improvement and got passed by Lovera but it was enough for him to reach Elite D as well.
In the lower ranks some fresh and talented players are making very quick progress. Ryan Sathoff improved from #226 (Advanced D) to #170 (Semi-Pro F) on the ARR list. Marius Hukkelaas made an even bigger jump from #246 (Intermediate C) to #177 (Expert A). Matt Whiteman went from Advanced C to Expert F. Marc Geraghty, Tianyi Liu, Rafael Aguiar and Jeff Carlson were also active. And 2 new members joined us: Tuomas Dunkel from Finland, and Anibal Salinas from Nicaragua.

Monday, November 03, 2003 - WR/POW/POW points updated - by Thomas at 1:49 pm
World Record

Michael Jongerius has taken away Matt Batastini's long standing Koopa Troopa Beach WR. The new reference is 1"19"95* (1"36"13). As Michael Liem already mentioned, he also lowered his flap to 25"82* (31"05). Eric Habrich isn't too far away, so these records might still be improved in the near future.

POW Week 4 - (25th-31th)

Sorry about the delay, but there were quite a few difficult decisions to take this week. The last POW of October is Eric Habrich, who's getting closer to that #2 rank.

POM - October

Habrich passed Lacey on the Avgfin ranks, lowering his AvgFin from 5.781 to 3.938 and getting a new worldrecord. Tim Everett won 4 places in Non-sc (with 2 NTSC WRs and one still standing) and 11 in SC, where he entered the King ranks (King D). Michael Fried also greatly improved his stats, reaching Legend D and King C at the AvgFin Non-sc (more than 1.000 ARR cut) and SC ranks respectively, and earning 8 places at both those rankings.
Talk about a tough choice...

Saturday, November 01, 2003 - Top100s, ARRs & AvgFins Updated - by Michael at 5:22 am
Eric Habrich had another very strong week. He got several NTSC WRs and even one overall WR and a few times that were close to beating overall WRs. It caused World Champion Michael Jongerius to return and defend a few of his times, which he did quite succesfully since he got back that overall WR at KTB flap for example. Wonder if Habrich got any closer to Cetin in AvgFin? Last week I wrote he was about 25% on his way between #4 Lacey and #2 Cetin. This week he's already 57% on his way. So, two more weeks to go...?
Tim Everett made a big ARR cut and passed Chen in nonSC AvgFin, and passed Batastini in nonSC ARR. He passed 7 players on the Shortcut aRR list as well. Fernando Moritz dos Santos reached King B in shortcut.
Cooper Lovera had a spectacular week. He improved his ARR score from 21.344 (Pro A) to 17.688 (Elite F), completely skipping the master ranks. Very impressive job.
Smaller improvements were made by Steven Gutierrez, Charles Tasserit, Wolfgang Peter, Marc Geraghty, Matthew Ellis and Rafael Aguiar.

We can welcome three new members.
Matt Whiteman from Illinois (USA) joins as Advanced C, Tianyi Liu from Michigan (USA) joins as Expert C and Marius Hukkelaas (our 2nd Norwegian member) joins at Intermediate C. Good luck at climbing the rankings guys!