Mario Kart: Double Dash!! Players' Page

Kouider has almost caught 'em all, now.

Alex @ Monday, March 22nd 02:04AM [link]

Movement

#3 Kouider Benarioua has finally taken the bronze medal position, passing #4 Aron by just 0.03 AF points. It might be enough, since Aron is a little bit inactive (but not retired, so you never know!). Kouider only made a small cut this week of 0.13 AF pts, but he's been chopping away at that gap with Aron for some time. He raced 3 PRs, two of which were new records, and the last of which was almost a record (missed by 0"002!). So the French champion is in top-form and scoring many records or nearly-records. The question now is whether he thinks he can become champion, because with #1 and #2 being so close, the next position he can gain is pretty much to pass two people at once. That's tough, since the gap is large, but Kouider has continued to surpass expectations for some time now. Perhaps becoming champion would be a long-term goal, but a short-term goal (how about next week?) would be to reach the top-5 in 60Hz, since the gap there is only 0.03.

#21 Christian Wild set a handful of 50Hz PRs, where he's trying to reach Myth C level. He made a 0.3 cut and is still narrowly in the Myth D territory, so he will need to find a few more courses to PR in. In the mean time, he did pass Xavier Valentin in 50Hz. But Christian also said that he will play some MK64 for a bit, so we don't know when he'll be back to MKDD. He still has unfinished business here because he's still 0.03 away from reaching Myth B overall.

#85 Max Reese was active again, racing several PRs. He amassed a decent 2.6 pt cut in AF, but somehow didn't manage to pass Sylvin Rigal (he missed by 0.03). One more PR could do it. After Sylvin, Max will face a gauntlet of old veterans such as Stacy, Prashant, Rob C, Paul Regeffe and Jon Prentice that will be blocking his route toward the top-75. Some nice targets to aim for.

#170 Alvaro Fababu passed 4 players overall and 5 players in 60Hz (including MJ and STanney). His 60Hz position is now 115th, so the top-100 is on the horizon. The next 4 players above him in 60Hz are the same 4 players he just passed on the combined chart, so he should be able to pass a second time. From there it's just another ten or so places to go until the milestone. It looks like something that should motivate him to keep going, so let's see how he finishes off the month.

French player Joffrey Monka send in his first batch of PRs in over a year. I suppose that means that he raced them between then and now. There were 28 of them, so he made a pretty big cut. Unfortunately he's missing two records, so he is unranked. But had he been on the AF chart, he would have made a 53pt cut and passed roughly 53 players. Joffrey is on the ARR chart, however, and his PR haul gave him a 1.2pt ARR cut to become an Expert B.

#413 Alex Walz delivered for a second week, adding another 116 AF pts to his already sizable monthly cut. He easily made the top-500, and even almost reached the top-400. Since he's sending PRs almost daily, it looks like he'll be active next week, too. If the pattern continues, he'll get a 60pt cut. I guess that should be his goal smile

. Also, his 2.3 pt cut in ARR was good enough to promote him from Advanced D to Advanced B.

New Records

There were 2 new records, both from Kouider. Last week he missed the Mario Circuit lap record and this week continued to play it, beating it with a 27"746. This was 0"01 quicker than Richard's record. Kouider also broke the recent Dry Dry Desert lap record, which was set last month by Christian Wild. The new record is 27"869, a tiny 0"001 faster than Christian.

New Players

Welcome to...

Philipp Emmerich, Germany (334th, Advanced A).

My Pokemans. Let me show you them.

Alex @ Monday, March 15th 07:21AM [link]

Movement

#4 Kouider Benarioua was on fire this week. He scored a couple of new records and improved his AF in both Hz. He scored 14 PRs: 12 in 60Hz and 2 in 50Hz. On the overall ladder, he cut 0.16 in AF to get a little bit closer #3 Aron Langerak -- only 0.1 separates them. On the 60Hz ladders, as well as reach 60Hz Myth+ status, he made a large 1.4pts cut to pass Olivier Peruch and take 6th place. He stopped only 0.03pts behind Marius Mollenhauer, so another 1-2 PRs may seen him take 5th place.

#21 Christian Wild was also on fire. A few weeks ago he had passed Rene and faced a large 6-point gap between Rene and #20 Matt Tanzer, but this week he reduced the gap between him and Matt to 2.9pts, so he's passed half way. Like Kouider, Christian played both Hertz this week. According to him, he was trying to reach the next Myth ranks in both rankings. He reached one of these targets -- becoming Myth D in 50Hz -- but he is still 0.26 away from Myth B in 60Hz and 0.06 away from becoming a Myth B overall. If he is active by the next update, expect him to do it in style.

#85 Max Reese continues his comeback, scoring 4 PRs, including his new best time: a top-40 Myth B lap on Peach Beach. Max moved up 4 places with his cuts, echoing last week's movement. But something that he didn't do last week was leave the Hero ranks. This week was the moment when he finally became a Titan, making a 0.34pt cut in ARR to become a Titan D.

#174 Alvaro Fababu gained one place by passing #175 Ahti Lampi. On the 60Hz ladder, he passed 6 players to reach 120th place; he's getting close to a few kart celebs, such as Michael Jongerius (Mk64 #1) and Shaun Tanney (MKW #4), who are only a few spots above him.

Last but not least, newcomer #509 Alexander Walz started using the Barrel Train and improved his mini-turbos. He smashed all 32 of his PRs, resulting in a 245.8pt AF cut (the largest number I can recall seeing in a long time). In ARR, he improved his rank by 5 standards by jumping from Beginner A straight to Advanced D and skipping all of the Intermediate ranks. I'm curious by how much he will improve next week.

New Records

Two new records this week.

Kouider broke Richard's 3-year old Mario Circuit 1'27"33 record with a 1'27"304. The new record is G+3, one better than the old G+2. Five players have sub-1'27"5, but only Kouider's time was set in the past year. He also came close to beating Richard's lap record, missing by 0"002.

The second record was in 60Hz, where Kouider broke the BP flap again (two weeks in a row!), this time with 8"468.

New Players

No new players.

And the winner is...

Alex @ Monday, March 8th 12:08AM [link]

Movement

#4 Kouider made a small cut, racing three new records. He didn't gain a spot, but he reduced the gap between himself and #3 Aron to 0.3pts. However, this doesn't seem to be his only focus, because he seemed to spend most of the week playing 60Hz. Besides getting a new record there, he improved 6 of his times for a 0.8 cut to halve the gap to Olivier. He remains in 7th place for now, but you would expect in the next 1-2 weeks for him to get very close to either Aron or Olivier. Or maybe both. See lower down for which record he set.

As anticipated, #15 David Schiering passed Tristan Eyma after reporting 4 new god times. A top-15 finish is pretty good so far for David's comeback. David needs to overcome a 1.5pt gap to reach the next player up, #14 Bo Garman. Before he does any of that, he'll have to get a rank promotion first -- he's still clinging on to his Myth B rating by just 0.03.

#24 Michael Duerr raced 6 PRs and ended up passing 5 players overall, as well as pushing Paul Tanney out of the top-25. Michael also made it most of the way to getting a new ARR rating, but needs just 1-2 extra PRs to get there. #36 Sebastien Legay, who raced 6 PRs, passed 3 players overall. In 60Hz he passed Alejandro Hernandez to reach 19th place, and in ARR he became the newest Myth by reach the Myth D level.

#89 Max Reese moved up 4 places, scoring 5 PRs for a 6.5pt AF cut. His victims included Jamie Disley (recently having some controller problems). Good news for Max: his 0.3 pt ARR cut pulled him through most of what he had left of the Hero A rank. Bad news: he's still Hero A and needs just a little bit extra to get a promotion. His recent comeback started only a couple of weeks ago, so he most likely has more fuel in the tank and can drive his way into the Titan ranks next week.

#175 Alvaro Fababu and #188 Xenio Chan were active, both gaining 4 places. They're very close together in 60Hz, where Alvaro is 126th and Xenio is 128th. In totally unrelated news, it's been a long time coming, but Alvaro finally did it -- he left the Experts behind and joined the Heroes, reaching Hero D this week. He made it by 0.03 smile

. A short distance behind, new guy #223 Terry Heard is enjoying his first full week on the charts with a 16pt cut. It's not a long way to top-200, so let's see if how fast he can get there. In 60Hz he's 155th (up 15 places) and ARR he reached Expert A. The other most-recently added player, #697 Brian Acker, is not so short a distance behind... but he was active anyway, amassing a 34pt cut to pass three dozen players and move from Beginner A to Intermediate D.

New Records

There was one new record, this time in 60Hz-only mode. Kouider broke the 8"476 BP flap tie with 8"472, which means that Aron and Marijn both lose one 60HZ record. Marijn is down 19 records, Kouider is up to 3, and Aron is down to 1.

New Players

Welcome to...

Alexander Walz, Germany (784th, Beginner A)

Oh, Canada

Alex @ Monday, March 1st 05:51PM [link]

Movement

#4 Kouider Benarioua took the 4th place from Andreas Rudmarker, moving one step closer to reaching the top-3. Currently in 3rd place is Aron Langerak. Kouider will need another 0.5 AF pts to get there. This week the Frenchman sent in 4 new times, two of which were WRs. He reduced his ARR to -0.059, making him the newest God. It might be a while before anyone else joins the current six.

#21 Christian Wild had an epic week, scoring a G+10 standard on Baby Park and scoring his first WR on Dry Dry Desert. Christian passed Rene Bauer to slide one place ahead. However, the gap to 20th is quite big now, and Christian will need at least a few weeks to reach Matt Tanzer and the top-20.

#38 Ryan Stevens and #39 Sebastien Legay both sent in some new scores. Sebastien passed Gregor and Ryan may soon pass Kristopher Will if he can get a few more PRs. These movements were mirrored upside down in 60Hz, where it was Ryan who passed Gregor (to reach 21st place) and Sebastien who passed Kristopher (to reach 20th).

#165 Matt Vanderwouw must have been feeling the olympic spirit lately because he improved all of his times, sending in 32 PRs. He made a 75pt AF cut, easily making the top-200. In 60Hz, his 63pt AF cut brought him to 105th place, just missing out on the barrier. Matt became a Hero D, passing through Exp A without stopping.

#192 Xenio Chan made a few small cuts to clear the 200 barrier, moving up 8 places. His PRs included his new best record, a Hero B course time on BP, but overall Xenio will have to wait at Exp A for a bit longer.

New records

Christian Wild's 27"870 60Hz lap in Dry Dry Desert was 0"06 faster than Andrew Math's time from ten months ago. It also reached the G+3 standard. A handful of players have sub-28, so this time may attract some interest in this lap again from Kouider, Hendrik, Aron or Andrew.

Kouider raced two records on Yoshi Circuit: a 1'40"168 G+3 course time and 32"207 G+4 lap. Kouider already held the lap record (and improved it by 0"01), but the course time is a record that he took from Hendrik Bunde. The old record, which is 0"020 slower, was set in 2007.

New Players

Welcome to...

Terry Heard, USA (238th, Expert B).

Kouider pushes the pedal down again

Alex @ Monday, February 22nd 01:05AM [link]

Movement

#5 Kouider Benarioua had a killer week, scoring 7 strong PRs (of which 6 were gods). He was very close to Marijn last week and passed him this week with his 0.5 AF pt cut. He also closed the gap to reaching Andreas to just 0.06, so another PR might be enough to move up yet another position! Another PR might also be just enough to reach the ARR summit: Kouider made a 0.163 cut to lower his ARR to 0.009, so he is tip-toeing on the god line. He should become the sixth player to reach God status... any day now.

#16 David Schiering passed Alex Hantson, slipping into the sweet-sixteen behind Tristan Eyma and Bo Garman. Only 0.5 AF pts keeps David away from taking Tristan's 15th place. David could probably do that in 1-2 weeks, but the next German target, #12 Marius Mollenhauer, is further away and a long-term target. David's three PRs included a MCT lap that was G+5 and in the top-10, making it his Dave's new best time. #22 Christian Wild, not too far from David, passed Marc Schwartz on the combined chart and tied Jean-Christophe on the 60Hz chart (both are 13th place).

#314 McHenry Calrson passed 18 players to shift closer to the next round barrier. In 60Hz, he moved down to 233rd from last week's 250th place, making sure that he won't be falling outside the top-250 anytime soon. McHenry was very close last week to leaving the Advanced ranks behind, and this week's 0.34 cut in ARR sealed it and promoted him to Expert D.

New Records

No new records.

New Players

Welcome to...

Brian Acker, USA (729th, Beginner A)

<3?

Alex @ Monday, February 15th 06:35AM [link]

Movement

#6 Kouider sent in 5 PRs, getting a small step closer to #5 Marijn (0.46 to go) and a small step closer to 0.0 ARR (0.17 to go). A little bit behind him, #17 David Schiering reported a few PRs to get a step closer to Alex Hantson. David has been making small cuts for a few weeks now, and after this week's 0.47 cut he has only 0.1 left until he passes Alex.

#38 Ryan Stevens made up for falling short last week by passing #40 Sebastien Legay, as well as US rival #39 Gregor Fran. The next US player for Ryan to target is #35 Alejandro Hernandez, only 4 AF points ahead.

#89 Jamie Disley continues to be one of the most active players of recent months, registering another active week. He made a 3 pt AF cut, passing two players. His next UK rival, Prashant, as well as the Titan ranks, are getting closer and closer.

#95 Max Reese returned from a long break to improve Daisy Cruiser a few times over the week, finally subbing 1'40. I wonder if he'll keep playing after this? He's not very far from the Titan ranks, so that's something to aim for.

#200 Xenio Chan was on fire this week. After returning from a two year break last month, he sent in 17 new PRs and scored a nice 22pt AF cut. This put him in 200th place on the dot and he reached Expert A level.

#332 McHenry Carlson passed 5 players and is only three PRs away from leaving the Advanced ranks forever. I'm somewhat surprised he didn't just keep playing until he got the promotion. It looks almost certain that he'll be back next week.

#764 Kristopher Lamp started using the Barrel Train for the first time and immediately improved many of his scores. He made a 24pt cut. The train takes a bit of getting used to (since it handles a little bit unintuitively), and perhaps Kris will manage even bigger cuts when he practices a bit more with it.

New records

New new records.

New players

No new players.

10 seconds during Super Bowl half-time costs about $1m. That means you can buy two big houses with one Baby Park lap.

Alex @ Sunday, February 7th 10:45PM [link]

Movement

Not much happening this week. #17 David Schiering was the highest active player. He improved his LC lap to G+2. #23 Christian Wild noticed David's recent PRs and decided to try LC lap as well, getting nearly as a good a time. #40 Ryan Stevens was also active, but remains stuck for a little while longer before he can pass Sebastien Legay.

#91 Jamie Disley passed Ben Zeller and is approaching Chevallier Florian. His closest UK rival is Prashant Bhoja up at #79, so Jamie will have to pass a few veteran Americans and Frenchmen first. Jamie dipped his toes into top-50 territory in 60Hz by taking 49th place, pushing Chevallier and Ben down to 50th and 51st.

The other Flo', #68 Florian Chollet, reported 13 new PRs. They were all in 60Hz, where Flo has been trying to catch up to Jamie in the past two weeks. His PRs resulted in a 8pt cut and 8 positions gained, leaving him in 63rd place. Still a bit more to go to reach Jamie and the top-50.

#337 McHenry Carlson made a 24pt cut to move up 29 places. In 60Hz this was roughly a 19pt cut. McHenry moved up to 254th in 60Hz, so he's close to a barrier.

And finally, new guy #495 Ryan Canady improved 11 of his scores to net a 25pt cut and move up 23 places. He's still a one-course specialist on Yoshi Circuit, where his time is nearly in the top-100. That takes a bit of skill. If he devotes more time to the other courses, he can probably make some big moves.

New Records

No new records.

New Players

No new players.

The crazy Dutch wild one!

Alex @ Monday, February 1st 01:43AM [link]

Awards

Another POY gone, and a new one starts. Check the awards page for results. Each year the winner has done really crazy things... but who will be the crazy one in 2010?

Movement

The higher active player was #4 Andreas Rudmarker, who scored a new WR. He took one of Hendrik's record, so Hendrik lost 0.03 in AF. It's almost as if Andreas was trying to give Richard a present, but Hendrik is still holding on to #1 by just 0.03!

#17 David Schiering scored a few PRs to pass Paul Maes. His next target is #16 Alex Hantson, who is 0.7 AF pts ahead.

#40 Ryan Stevens made a 2pt AF and somehow didn't pass anyone on the ladder. Instead, he still made a good 'movement' because he reached Titan+ level. In 60Hz he moved up by one position to 24th, which means that Tristan and Trystan are together once again smile

#67 Florian Chollet was active in 60Hz mode, passing 5 players to become 69th.

#92 Jamie Disley seemed to be the most active player, sending in new PRs on all but two days since the last update. He reached the top-100 by making a 14pt AF cut. Some of the players he passed include John Anderson, Jeff, Terrence, Jonas N, Alessandra and Gingerscot. At least Terrence will be feeling sour because he got pushed back to the three-digit ranks. Jamie increased his tally of Titan times from seven to ten, getting a few steps closer to half-way. Being 0.7 pts away, he'll have to wait a bit longer to become a Titan, but for now he's the newest Hero A. A small bonus: Jamie is now tied with Ben Zeller for 50th place in 60Hz.

#125 Alexis Moyen has been playing secretly for the past 2 weeks, his first activity in half a year. He reported 19 PRs and scored a 15 pt AF cut to move ahead of a dozen players, including Christophe C, Joost, James L and Flynn.

#379 Nicholas Benson overhauled his timesheet, reporting a ton of new PRs that he says he raced during the Christmas break. There were 31 of them, so it's strange that he somehow missed on just one PR smile

Anyway, 31 PRs means big cuts, and in Nicholas's case it was a 115 pt cut. Not bad for a month's worth. He advanced 108 positions overall, 87 positions in 60Hz (now 286th) and skipped 2 standards to become Advanced A.

#476 Matt Jacob went against his desires and kept playing after last week's return, so he's now officially on a two-week comeback and can't escape. He made a 56 pt AF cut to finish inside the top-500. He also became Advanced C overall. A bit lower down, #717 Zack Weber passed 9 players and entered the Intermediate ranks at Int D.

New Records

Andreas Rudmarker raced a new 30"873 lap record in Mushroom City. It's 0"02 faster than Hendrik's old record (from the end of 2008), and both times are G+10.

New Players

Welcome to...

Ryan Canady, USA (518th, Advanced D)
Alasdair Hill, UK (~883, Beginner C).