New Member
Jonathan Steel from the UK joined our community last week and is very active indeed! He already has improved most of his times since he joined and has gone up to Semi-Pro F (#187 in the World), A mere 3 spots behind new member Chris Rogers.
Legends: Welcome to Tuomas Dunkel
In the legend ranks, there were several active players. NTSC Champion, Eric Habrich, improved his Kalimari Desert 3lap NTSC World Record, placing .18 seconds behind Michael Jongerius's WR at the course. Perhaps inspired by Habrich's Kalimari success, Kevin Booth ALSO improved his Kalimari Desert 3lap time, claiming the 2nd overall NTSC time and 5th overall time, passing both Mike Simmons and Alex Penev. Tim Everett hit a top 10 Wario Stadium flap, and is now only 2 ARR points from Legend A! Finn Berger continued his steady record setting at Toad's Turnpike, hitting his first two top 20 times, including a Toad's Turnpike flap which was .01 off Legend B (and Jeffrey Guiterrez) and which passed Marcelo Almeida dos Reis by .01. Finn is now top 30 in ARR points and #31 on the player's list. A week after obtaining legend, Cooper Lovera improved many short cut and non-shortcut times. In non-shortcut, he passed 3 players (Brent Wingert, Nathan Stinson, and Beau Fairbourn), improving to #36 on the player's list. In shortcut, he improved from #81 to #77. Shortly after Cooper Lovera obtained Legend status, Tuomas Dunkel also became a Legend with an incredible time at the Moo Moo Farm flap (.01 off of God!) and a Banshee Boardwalk flap improvement. He also has improved all of his times to above King C. Quite a week for Tuomas!
Kings: Another legend of the game hits a PR!
The three kings are now only one King: Josh Caudle, who improved his Wario Stadium non-shortcut times. In the big news of the week, Andy Launspach hit a PR at Donkey Kong's Jungle Parkway flap which was a top 25 and surpassed Jeffrey Gutierrez's time. It also improved him a spot in the overall rankings, to #68. One of the hottest players of the month, Trystan Pugh, improved a rank (King F to King D) and 8 positions (#78 to #70) with his non-shortcut PR's and 12 positions (#91 to #79) with his shortcut PR's.
Elites: Semi-Active elites
There were no big happenings in the Elite ranks this week. Martin McMullan made small improvements on his Toad's Turnpike times. Richard Keyser , Dean Barnhart , and Stephen Regat all were also active this week, with Barnhart finally moving into the top 100 (at spot #100 exactly)!
Sub-Elites: Active new players!
Tronn Are Johansen had many solid PR's, improving him from Master F to Master A and from #135 to #127. He is now the 2nd highest ranked sub-elite player! Michael Verlint also improved his rank, going from Semi-Pro D to Semi-Pro C. Last Weeks new player, Chris Rogers, and this weeks new player, Jonathan Steel are both very active and also very closely matched: their non-shortcut matchup is 18-14-0 with Rogers slightly on top; their shorcut matchup goes to Steel at 4-0-16; and their overall matchups are in a dead heat at 18-18-16! This looks to be a very competitive matchup for some time to come!
Big Story: New Legends
We now have 41 Legends with the addition of 2 new legends: Cooper Lovera and Tuomas Dunkel.
Cooper Lovera became legend earlier in the week with several great PR's, including several Legend D times. He also passed Tuomas Dunkel, Iacopo Sorce, and Dave Crawford in the rankings and now sits at #39. Tuomas Dunkel became Legend as I was making the news update, this will be discussed more in the next update.
New Member
Chris Rogers from Illinois joined during this week, and did very well indeed. Already hit new times and is up to Advanced B (#243) in the World, 4 spots behind Kieron McGuire.
The Best of the Rest
Tim Everett Improved his Luigi Raceway fastlap to 31"50, which passes Thomas Grandjean and William Lacey into #9 overall (#5 NTSC). Finn Berger improved his Toad's Turnpike times, getting both into the top 25. Tuomas Dunkel snagged another nordic record from Finn Berger (Donkey Kong Jungle Parkway fastlap). Richard Keyser Hit 8 PR's, which was enough to improve from Elite C to Elite B and from #97 to #96 overall. Dean Barnhart had several short-cut and non short-cut PR's. Kieron McGuire improved from #242 to #239. Robin Usher hit his last PR's until mid-June. He improved his Wario Statdium short-cut times and two other non short-cut times.
I'd like to take this opportunity to say a few words about some players. Finn Berger, Jonathan Halford, Dean Barnhart, Richard Keyser, and probably a few others I missed, have been very active during the past few months but have never had the chance to earn an award (except one for Finn), despite the fact that their performances definitely deserve some kind of recognition. The reason for that is that they improve quite slowly (yet consistently), and thus there are always a few players who'll get a faster improvement during the time span of each of these awards. So what happens is that these players with slow yet consistent improvements often get 2nd, 3rd or 4th place during the pow decisions without ever getting 1st place, and that can become frustrating. So what I wanted to say to them is don't give up or feel bad about these awards, because if you continue improving you're bound to receive them at some point, and also that recognition isn't just about receiving these pow awards.
Welcome
Welcme to new member, Matt Coraccio, who enters at spot #272 (Apprentice C), a mere 5 spots behind Robin Usher. We hope to here more from Matt!
Just 5 active members
In addition to new member Matt Coraccio, there were 4 others active this week. Tuomas Dunkel had few PR's (3 to be exact), but quality over quantity, most impressive being a Legend B (also a nordic record and top 30 overall time) at Moo Moo Farm fastlap. He also took the nordic record from Finn Berger at Moo Moo Farm 3-Lap. Richard Keyser had 5 new PR's during the week, allowing him to jump from spot #99 to #97. Robin Usher continued his comeback this week by improving several times, which helped him improve a rank from #268 to #267. Kieron McGuire dropped more than 6 and a half seconds off of his Sherbet Land 3-Lap and a full second off of the fastlap.
- Perhaps the biggest news this week were the PR's set by the previously inactive Jonathan Bernier, Thomas Grandjean, and Tim Everett.
Tim Everet set a new NTSC System Record (and 3rd overall time) at Rainbow Road non-sc 3Lap (4'56"93), a mere .38 seconds behind Michael Jongerius, and .66 seconds behind Sami Cetin!
After last weeks fast lap PR, Kevin Booth Played some more Luigi Raceway this week, this time concentrating on improving his 3-lap time. He set 1'38"83, which passes Alex Penev and brings him closer to the top 5 overall at the course and a GOD time (at 1'38"79). The other comeback star was Jonathan Bernier, who, as Michael pointed out, set a new sc PR (Frappe Snowland 3-Lap), bringing his sc ARR into a tie for 9th.
The other two Legends active this week were Jeffrey Gutierrez, who passed Ruokai Chen and Matt Batastini into the top 20 (and Legend B), and Finn Berger, who became Legend D with PR's ar Kalimari Desert and Frappe Snowland.
Kings: Three-Way Battle Underway!
- There is a fierce battle in the upper Kings going on between Tuomas Dunkel, Cooper Lovera, and Josh Caudle for who can reach Legend first. Dunkel, who has a slight lead thus far, improved his status slightly with numerous PR's.
Lovera, who is rapidly closing the distance on Dunkel, also made a few significant PR's. Josh Caudle also made several solid PR's and joined both Dunkel and Lovera at King A in non-sc.
Alomost lost in this weeks news were Pier-Yves Lemire, who reached King C and Trystan Pugh, who came back to karting in style by improving 12 spots and entering the King ranks.
Elites: 3 Active Elites
- Martin McMullan continued his surge for King by being active in both non-sc and sc this week. He hit two elite level SC times (Yoshi Valley and Rainbow Road sc 3-Lap) as well as six non-sc PR's (among them being a
King-level Choco Mountain lap). These times helped him leap 2 spots in the rankings.
Dean Barnhart also had significant improvements in the way of 6 pr's, including a Koopa Beach fast lap which missed the King standards by .04 seconds. This helped him to improve 4 spots in the rankings, by the end of the month, he should be in the top 100!
Not to be discounted, Richard Keyser hit a single PR since last update. One is better than none!
Sub-Elites: The Fast Climbers
- Seing as Tronn Are Johansen and Michael Verlint weren't active this week, a few of the lesser spoken names stepped up.
Ranjit Kohli bettered 9 times, which saw a rise from #222 to #215.
Hue Le, an older name, placed a few SC PR's this week, while David Hayter became a Semi-Pro with his latest PR salvo.
Kieron McGuire also PR'ed with a top 200 time (at Mario Raceway 3-Lap)
Kings: Cooper Lovera now King A
- Tuomas Dunkel: Dunkel slows a bit this week, only hitting 1 pr, but it was a full ARR improvement at Choco Mountain fast lap, and just barely missed Finn Berger's time.
- Cooper Lovera: After a week in which gets one to 32/32 King D times, what does one do? Well, if one is Cooper Lovera, one makes several great improvements (most notable being a Moo Moo Farm 3-lap race which improved by almost a second!) this week and, as a result, become a part of the upper King echelons, just two spots behind Tuomas Dunkel! Congratulations Cooper!
Elites: McMullan flirting with royalty
- Martin McMullan: Now has all of his times to the Elite-King level after a Moo Moo Farm 3-lap improvement and passes 3 players up to Elite A (#91) in overal rank. With his speedy improvements he should be King soon!
- Dean Barnhart: Deffinately not dormant. This week he hit 15 PR's, including a King D fast lap (32"04) at Luigi Raceway.
- Richard Keyser: Richard, In a close battle with Dean Barnhart, had 5 small improvements this week.
Sub-Elite: Michael Verlint with huge improvements
- Tronn Are Johansen: Improves 3 times and jumps a spot past Phil Hughes into position #135
- Michael Verlint: HUGE improvements by Michael. He improves all 32 of his non-sc times and, as a result, jumped from Expert C to Semi-Pro D and a whopping 28 spots from #207 to #178!
- Kieron McGuire: Also a big week with many PR's and a jump from Intermediate B to Advanced D and 18 spots from #256 to #248.
Congratulations:
First and foremost, congratulations to all who kept excelling at Mario Kart 64 during the long hiatus of the site being down. Keep it up!
Legends:
Steven Gutierrez makes a small comeback, submitting 2 PR's (Mario Raceway and Choco Mountain). Finn Berger with some consistant karting passes me (Nathan Stinson) and Beau Fairbourn in the Rankings and is now the highest ranked Legend F. Good job Finn!.
Kings:
Tuomas Dunkel comes back from a 5-day retirement and hits several PR's and, in the process, in on the verge of being the next Legend! King B Cooper Lovera had a record breaking week for himself, now having 32/32 King D times, included in that a sub 1"40 Luigi Raceway time!
Elites:
Martin McMullan ,one of the hottest players in the recent weeks, continues his torrid pace, moving closer to Elite A, and Elite C Jonathon Halford hit 3 PR's.
Others:
Tronn Are Johansen is the only Sub-Elite active this week, and he is on fire! Improving more than half of his times, he improved to Master F, below Phil Hughes and Tony Nguyen
Short-Cut:
2 elites active! In addition to his non short-cut times, Martin McMullan had two short-cut PR's, at Rainbow Road and Donkey Kong Jungle Parkway.
Josh Caudle with his first PR in awhile had a small improvement at Wario Stadium Short Cut Lap
So yes, either have a PR for the yahoogroup or don't email it.
Week 1 (1st - 8th)
With more than 20 times submitted and about 10 players passed in the rankings, Tuomas Dunkel gets this month's first award. He also moves up a rank to King C, thanks to a 1.3 ARR cut.
Week 2 (9th-16th)
Tuomas remained very active this week, but had to face the return of Nathan Stinson, who managed to get some nice sc prs. Still, Tuomas' performance was enough to earn him his second consecutive award. In fact, it was even better than his previous week's display, reaching King A with a 1.5 ARR cut and entering the top 50 at both the ARR and AvgFin ranks.
Week 3 (17th-24th)
That was the easiest pow award to decide, since its winner was clearly above his competitors. Jeffrey Gutierrez (who was also very active during the other two weeks), entered the top 20 by lowering his AvgFin by 5 points. He didn't improve his ARR Grade, but fell just short of that as he just needs 2 ARR improvements to become Legend B.
Week 4 (25th-30th)
A surprisingly quiet week. Few to no activity from Jeffrey and Tuomas gave the others a chance to grab an award. Finn Berger got a few prs, edging closer to Legend D, as did Martin McMullan, in Non-sc and sc. Martin did slightly better than Finn though, and therefore wins this award.
POM - April
As you can imagine, the two players to have shined the most during the month are Jeffrey and Tuomas, both very consistent throughout the first 3 weeks of the month and both having spectacular rises through the ranks: Jeffrey went from Legend D to almost Legend B, passing 12 people. He also improved his sc stats, reaching Legend D with a 1.0 ARR cut. As for Tuomas, he's flying through the King ranks, going from King D to King A, with more than 20 players passed along the way! Looking at his progress, we'll probably have a new Legend karter very soon.
Legends: Jeffrey Gutierrez ALMOST Legend B!
- Kevin Booth: 1 PR from him, but it was a quite a special one: he got a new NTSC World Record of 2'29"69 on Toad's Turnpike 3lap.
- Tim Everett: He got a few small PRs on both nonSC and SC in the beginning of this month, and edged his ARR score closer to Legend A.
- Jeffrey Gutierrez: Definitely one of the most impressive performances this update. He kept playing throughout the whole month, got 28 nonSC PRs and 5 SC PRs, and improved his NonSC ARR score from 4.375 to 2.500, which is almost Legend B!
- Simon Laflamme: 2 small PRs for him. He stayed at Legend D in nonSC.
- Finn Berger: He calls himself "the turtle". He's one heck of a consistent turtle though. Although his improvements usually aren't as impressive as those of Jeffrey G. for example, Finn allways keeps playing. And consistent playing is one of the most important things in Mario Kart 64 time trialing. I think there are very few players who managed to pass Finn in the past 12 months, without getting passed back at some time. This month he improved his ARR score by 0.469 points to 4.625. Getting closer to Legend D.
Kings: Tuomas Dunkel King D to King A!
- Tuomas Dunkel: Together with Jeffrey G. he made the most amazing improvements. He improved 30 out of 32 non-shortcut PRs, climbed from #72 to #42 on AvgFin, improved almost 3 full ARR points, and went from King D to King A!
- Josh Caudle: He got 2 PRs to improve his stats a little. He got passed by Dunkel though.
- Cooper Lovera: Also got passed by Dunkel, but with a 1.3 ARR point cut he can be proud of himself. He's ranked King B now.
- Pier-Yves Lemire: Improved one shortcut PR. His SC-ARR score stayed the same at 5.950. That's still not too far from Legend level though.
- Nathan Stinson: Also played only shortcuts this month. He passed a few players and reached King D in SC.
Elites: 5 active players
- Martin McMullan: Consistent playing on both Shortcut and non-shortcut brought him to Elite B on both playing modes.
- Richard Keyser: Was most active during the first 2 weeks of the month. He cut exactly 2.000 points of his ARR score to reach Elite C.
- Jonathon Halford: One PR at Yoshi Valley 3lap. Stays at Elite C.
- Dan Edeen: 6 PRs to go from Master B to Elite F.
- Stephen Regat: 11 PRs to go from Master C to Elite F.
Sub-Elite: Paul Tanney close to Elite
- Paul Tanney: This top 10 MKDD player is quickly improving his MK64 stats. His ARR score went from 39 to 19. So, he's close to making the elite ranks.
- Tianyi Liu: 14 PRs, just enough to stay ahead of Paul Tanney in AvgFin.
- Hue Le: Another example of a player who's improving relatively slow but who's still succesful by just keeping playing consistently. This month Hue was active during all 4 weeks, got 27 non-shortcut PRs and moved from #233 to #174 in AvgFin (Expert F to Semi-Pro C).
- Ian Staley: Goes from Intermediate C to Advanced C.
New members:
Despite the site being down most of the month, we still got 3 new members. Welcome to Michael Verlint from the Netherlands (ranked Expert C), Kieron McGuire from Australia(ranked Intermediate C) and Eric Tapani from the USA (ranked Apprentice A). They all posted more new PRs during the month, after their initial submissions. So, we can probably expect them to climb the rankings more in the future.
