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| 02 March 2007: "In case you need me to remind you, PLH is imperfect!" |
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| Movement Not much visible activity in the top two spots, but #3 Aron Langerak scored 6 PRs and cut off 0.5 in AF. His current AF of 3.3 is quickly approaching 3.0, which means that he could soon be fighting for 2nd place. #1 Hendrik is on 2.5, and #2 Richard Karlsson on 2.6. #5 Andreas Rudmarker is threatening to break up the two buddy Dutchies #3 Aron and #4 Vincent van der Fluit, and the DE SE NL NL SE DE symmetry of the top-6 players. In the 2-player country AF, NL leads SE by only 0.01! Andreas is now 0.15 AF pts behind Vince, but Vince could fight him off with relatively fewer PRs, because Vince has 4 times with double-digit ranking, while Andreas has 2. #8 Jean-Christophe Lacastaignerate has moved up from French Bronze to French Silver position, passing his rival (and 60Hz #2) #9 Olivier Peruch. JSX no doubt has his eyes set on the French Gold, which has been held by #7 Raphael Segas since, like, forever. Raphael is 0.344 AF pts ahead, and JSX's cut this week was also 0.344. Coincidence? I think so. What's not a coincidence is that JSX reached Myth+, and is the 8th player to do so. #11 Konsta Jukka is bad from disturbing Aron's karting. We almost didn't think he'd submit this week, but he came through and raced 11 PRs in the past couple of days. His 0.9 AF cut puts him within 0.9 pts of reaching #10 Marijn Jongbloed. #30 Marc Schwartz and #33 Michael Duerr's inclusions in the POY candidates were both questioned, and both promptly rejected. They deserved their nominations. Michael has raced 4 PRs in the past 10 ten days, after a couple of months of inactivity. This week, the German passed #34 Stefan van Dijke, a Dutchie. He would hope to soon pass the next Dutchie in the ladder, Marc. Marc's 2.5 cut got his past #31 Rodolphe Gouet, but there's still a bit of distance to reaching #27 Mike Hartjens or #25 Luke Mulders. You may recall reading about #73 Alex Hantson and #77 Matt Tanzer making the top-100, because it didn't happen very long ago. It would appear that these two are now half-way to making the top-50, as well. Sure, the next 25 players will perhaps be a little harder to pass than the 25 that just went, but with 6pt AF cuts like both of them had, you wouldn't want to bet against them being able to do it. Alex raced 14 PRs, including his only Titan B, and Matt raced 7 PRs, getting his second Titan B. Between the pair, Matt wins head-to-head 19-13, even though both players have identical total times (give or take). Both Alex and Matt became Hero A this week. Another thing they have between them is #75 Arnaud Guepey. Arnaud passed two players this week, but his big news was that he hit Titan D and is the newest Titan. #89 Andres Oliveira Dos Santos has been putting MKDD off lately, deciding to dabble into Pokemon Snap and DKR DS. So I had to go and play DKRDS to bring him back to the straight and narrow. He ended up karting a 22 PR week, rocketing into the top-100 with a 20 pt cut. Andres moved up 19 places and reached Hero B with this, and also entered the top-50 in 60Hz. Unfortunately, he's flying off to see his family in Brazil for a month. I can't exactly chown all of Brazil, so we'll just have to wait this one out. (You think I can? Come on, it's, like, the 5th largest country in the world! Sixth-placed Australia, maybe. But the top-5 are out of my league.) #177 Flynn Hoppenbrouwers is about to pass fellow Dutchman #176 Bart Savelkouls. Those of you who were here in late 2003 or early 2004 will remember Bart. He used to be unbeatable in a few of the tracks, and was briefly #1. Last week, #191 Andrew Manning reached position 199. He's been playing other games lately, and only improved by 8 places this week. He reached an AF score of 199. The other recently-added Andrew, #200 Andrew Johnson, almost halved his position during his first month on the site. He jointed a little over a month ago at #360. He made a 35pt cut this week. #214 Alessandra Martinelli is now the top Italian player and also the top girl. It's only fitting, considering her name is historically associated with Greatness. Since she also passed #217 William Lacey, Alessandra is now ahead of anyone that is considered maybe-a-girl. (#67 Stacy Needham and #132 Casey Mast are male.) I've made this rivalry, which pits Alessandra against #200 Andrew and #275 Ian Smith. What could be better than a battle of the sexes? Well, I suppose some jelly could... what? Oh, I said that out aloud? Anyway, Andrew has already made a preemptive strike and taken the lead in all rivalry factors. And we already know that, now Expert D, Ian isn't afraid of fighting women, seeing as he looks set to beat Gosia to the top-250. Do the girls know what they're getting into? Don't hurt their pride too badly, guys... or girls... (whoever wins; I don't feel confident making a prediction here.) #503 Adam Leibach returned after 2 months of inactivity to beat half of his PRs. He made a 30pt cut in AF (31 positions) and became Intermediate B. Honourable mentions: #94 Scott Abbey (60Hz top-50), #154 Ahti Lampi (60Hz top-100), #353 Xavier San Giorgi (Adv B), #354 Terrence Fenner (Adv B). New Records There were 2 WRs this week. Aron Langerak raised his tally to 9 WRs, while Richard Karlsson fell back to 9. Hendrik Bunde got one back (now on 7 WRs) after last week's losses. Aron's WR was in Waluigi Stadium. His new Myth+ 31"019 lap leads Vincent van der Fluit by 0"04. Days after Aron beat Richard's Luigi Circuit record with 1'14"879, Hendrik beat Aron with a 1'14"872. Both times are G+7, while Richard's 1'14"92 from December was a G+6. New Players Joe Anderson, USA (600th, Beg A) Ben Wilson, UK (465th, Int A) Timothy Jay, USA (568th, Int D) |