{ participate }
submit
join
faq
players

{ PRB }

times

records

standards

AF

ARR

PRSR

totals

country AF

site stats

{ NonPRB }

times

records

standards

AF

ARR

PRSR

totals

country AF

site stats

{ extras }
WRs info
former #1s
vids
strats
WR history
awards
rivalry
matchup
team info
player pics

{ other }
forum
links

Hello Dolly Etch @ Tuesday, July 22nd   [link]

Movement #2 Ben Stoneman keeps tearing up the asphalt with more top times this week and new nonprb records. First up was BC 3lap where Ben is not that far from the big lead #1 Thomas Bolton had before almost going sub 1'53 himself with 1'53"089. For such a long course, it's a miracle these guys get such gnarly times here. Next up was Ben's return to LC1 taking the nonprb times down to 1'12"176 and 23"735. If that's not sick enough, he improved his CI2 times to 14"989 prb and 15"682 nonprb!!! Ben becomes the second player to go sub 15 on the flap there and knocked two thousandths off his nonprb flap from last week. Last but not least, Ben worked on his F8C flap which has been pretty popular to play recently managing a 24"516 on nonprb. In terms of AF, Ben only cut some off on the prb side where he is less than 1 point from catching Thomas. If he can start improving some times where he is not #1 at he could quickly rise up to the top. Will the kart Gods permit a shift in the force? #10 Michele Magnaterra cut 0.5469 AF points inching closer to #9 Milan Pacino nonprb and #9 Paul Gourdon prb. Once again, it was just a few pr's from him improving his CM flap to 35"668 God and new MB times of 1'11"154 Myth D and 23"245 God. Thomas is still the God of the flaps here though with the only sub 35 on CM and sub 23 on MB. Bringing up the rear is #25 Nicolas Barco who continues to impress and amaze with his work on F8C getting the #3 time in the world with 1'13"488! He also beat his nonprb times with 1'14"851 Myth B and 24"603 God. If these two keep it up we could see a WR from them possibly one day. #37 Lenny Andreev stormed into the top 40 this week with his big 3.5937 AF cut which was enough to pass #38 Adam Nelson for the Australian #2 spot on nonprb. He got there with new times on YF 48"056 Titan A and 15"799 Titan B, CCB 1'27"802 and 28"466 both Titan C, LM 31"506 Titan D, WP 40"030 Myth E, and BB 35"889 Titan B. His best pr's this week though were on TTC claiming top 20 times with 1'34"379 Myth D and 30"632 Myth B. Lenny's pr spree almost got him up to Titan B overall but he'll need to make some more times to get there. With an unbalanced time sheet still, it shouldn't take much of an effort to make it farther up the charts. Still cranking out the times yet still #46 Pol Gonzalez however did make the move on the prb charts cutting 1 AF point to hop up to #40. Best of all, he takes the crown for Spanish champion on prb, congrats! Looks like slow but surely does win the race. With the way mkds is right now, all chart movement has been done at snail's pace but at least something exciting happens once in awhile. #49 Florian Lorang moves up to the top 50 with his 6.6250 AF cut and is the newest Titan E player overall. He also made it to the top 50 on prb jumping all the way to #36 with a 12 point AF cut! His updated list of times included almost 40 pr's so it's no wonder why he has the largest cuts in the top 100 this week. Fortunately for Florian, being inactive is not really a bad thing in mkds now as AF rarely fluctuates now a days. He will have to be more active if he wants to keep up with the pr madness at the top. Lastly, #65 Joep van Gelder continues to climb his way up sending some new times in this week with an impressive F8C flap of 25"003 for his rank. He is still 20 or so AF points from the Dutch Duo #52 Steven Glen and #53 Miguel Rodriguez. If Joep wants to catch them in a timely fashion he'll need to come down with the CDSCPRSV. Only thing that can stop him really is not playing. Movement outside the top 100 included #156 Mickael Smolen -29.2970 (#26 France, Expert E to Expert C), #245 Austin Gates -4.6720 (#73 USA), #296 Ben Sackville -55.0310 (#20 Canada, Intermediate A to Advanced D), #427 Jean-Francois Schepers -11.2180 (#10 Belgium), #464 Marc Schwartz Netherlands 515.8750 -21.4060 (#38 Netherlands, Beginner A to Intermediate E) and #506 Pete Crawford -25.0150 (#177 USA, Beginner C to Beginner B). New Records There were 2 WR's improved (blue) and 3 non-prb times (pink). Marshall LeVett was the lone wolf this week beating his RR sc WR's to go sub 1'52 first with an epic time of 1'51"993. To boot, his first lap was also a new flap record almost going sub 35 with an impressive time of 35"068. We all know the rail sc is the holy grail of mkds shortcuts so unless センジュ gets lucky enough to start landing this, Marshall should not have to worry about anyone else getting these times. Go USA! For nonprb, Ben beat his LC1 times with 1'12"176 and 23"735, and his CI2 flap 15"682. Awards Cutting over 8% of his AF and nearing Titan B overall, he jumped into the top 40 prb taking the silver medals for his country. For some strong times this week and most active recently, Lenny Andreev wins the POW for the third week of July! Chanserv is a chavsern ~ETCH

Did I see it? Yes, the fabled land of Fabienland! Etch @ Wednesday, July 16th   [link]

Movement Only #2 Ben Stoneman was active this week in the battle for the top. He made a strong showing with 8 new times with 2 of them of course new WR's on none other than WP. Ben continues to defy the laws of physics there taking his 3lap to a scary 1'58"171 and took his flap even farther with 39"036. It seemed like these barriers would not be broken anytime soon or ever for that matter but with the switch to BLS, Ben is really working hard to make this impossibility a reality. In addition to that, he scored a new LM flap of 30"309 and barely beat #1 Thomas Bolton's record on CI2 flap taking it back with 15"684. It was on prb though where Ben made a decent AF cut with another tenth of a point. He improved his MC1 3lap to 38"534, PC 51"976 and 17"166, and CI2 3lap 46"102. Ben is less than 1 AF point away from Thomas on prb now and as each week goes by the gap continues to close ever so slightly. If Ben can keep this monster pressure going, there is no telling where the end can be. Overcoming the lead #11 Nicola Gatti had set for so long, #10 Michele Magnaterra barely squeeks by him with three new times this week to join the top 10 on nonprb now. It also means the silver medal for Italy but fortunately for #4 Giulio Centrone, neither of them threaten his title immediately. Michele got it done by getting CI2 prb flap 15"541, AF 3lap 1'46"164 Myth C, and AF flap 34"823 Myth A. Another player getting some new times in the top 20 was the Brett Favre of mkds #15 Matthew Ord who got the itch to play again coming up with just two improvements with DKP flap 35"570 Myth E and BC2 3lap 1'33"629 Myth C. Other than these few new times, nothing else that interesting going on here. However, #20 Abel Marques out drove everyone combined so far with 15 new times! He started out on FS 3lap finally going sub 1'40 with 1'39"882 God. He followed that up with CCB 3lap 1'26"429 Myth D, RR flap 39"133 Myth D, YC 3lap 1'27"266 Myth C, and YC flap 28"052 Myth A. With those pr's alone, Abel got exactly a one point AF cut! He cut slightly more AF in prb scoring just as awesome times with LC1 1'11"932/23"524, F8C 1'14"793/24"485, WS 1'54''376/37''447, RR 1'57''254/38''106, and KB2 3lap 41"548. Despite a strong week here, Abel did not move up on either charts as there was quite some AF gap to overcome but if he has another week like this it could be a trip to the top 10 in prb to strengthen his #1 UK title. Like Abel, #25 Nicolas Barco does not exactly have a balanced time set but has his share of top times. Cutting almost 2 AF points from just 2 new times, Nicolas moved up a spot in nonprb with MMF 3lap 1'04"138 Myth D and MMF flap 20"957 Myth E. On prb, he cut 1.4532 AF points to move up to #19 getting the #2 time on F8C flap with a time of 24"082! It may have just been three times but he certainly got his money's worth out of them. Quite the largest AF cut we have seen in the top 50 for some time, #30 Zach Sterling made a 4 point AF cut flying pass 6 players making it all the way to the top 30 now and Titan B overall. In all, Zach got 17 new times and since everyone is packed close together in AF around there he was able to make his large amount of new times count. He also moved up to #35 on prb. His assorted God/Myth/Titan times included DH 1'13"173 Titan A/22"497 God, WP 2'02"629 Titan B/40'392 Titan C, TTC 1'36"140/31"151 both Titan C, RR 1'59"285 Myth C/39"366 Titan A, PC 56"648 Titan B/18"366 Titan C, WS 38"032 God, PG 1'31"017 Titan D/28"960 Titan B, BC 1'57"148 Titan B/37"927 Titan C, SR 33"416 Titan C, and AF 35"400 Titan D. On a side note, Zach joins the 30 or so players with a nonprb combined total under one hour of game play which means it takes us less than an hour to drive a full set. Amazingly, Thomas and Ben are on the edge of going sub 58 in the total times! With 4 USA players ahead of him, Zach could move up the country rank too with another effort like this next week. It's good to see someone from the USA getting some solid times for a change. Lastly, still #46 Pol Gonzalez cut .5 AF points to at least close the AF gap some more between him and those above. It may not seem like much but he is just about 1 AF point from taking the #1 Spain spot on prb. #36 Christian Martin Lapeira has a much more comfortable distance in nonprb but Pol has been working hard on getting some decent prb times coming up with SG flap 21"342 this week. In addition to that, he went on DKP with 1'50"893 Titan D/35"758 Titan A, MC1 42"758 Titan A, and MB 23"733 Titan C. Sure, he has not gotten any huge AF cuts but if he just keeps chipping away at his times he'll get there eventually. Movement outside the top 100 included #105 Jay Kreeler -3.0780 (#28 USA), #119 Basile Boffy -6.7350 (#19 France), #249 Austin Gates -11.9850 (#76 USA) #337 Ben Sackville -52.5000 (#21 Canada), #435 Jean-Francois Schepers -8.9220 (#10 Belgium) and #492 Daniel Sampson -0.7340 (#24 Australia). New Records There were 2 WR's improved (blue) and 3 non-prb times (pink). Ben Stoneman does it again lowering the WP once more approaching huge barriers with 1'58"171 and 39"036. Just a matter of time or how many sacrifices are made to the Kart Gods before these sub. Sascha would be very proud. For nonprb, there were Ben's WP times 1'58"171/39"036 and his CI2 flap 15"684. Awards Cutting over 10% of his AF and reaching Titan B overall, he was the busiest player this week and made the biggest jump in the top 50 for quite some time. For standing out against the rest, Zach Sterling wins the POW for the second week of July! jfk is triv champ ~ETCH

Joey Chestnut and his Jaws of Justice Etch @ Thursday, July 10th   [link]

Movement The top two really squared off this week as #1 Thomas Bolton and #2 Ben Stoneman kept trading World Records. Ben started things off on F8C getting a prb flap of 24"157 which is great and all but the best was yet to come when he beat his WP 3lap yet again with all his splits sub 39"500 with a fantastic time of 1'58"306. Striking at Thomas now, Ben beat the almost year old YC times passing him with 1'25"873 and 27"743. Getting back to some nonprb, Ben keeps racking up the top 3lap times with MC1 41"707, PC 55"520, DS 1'30"582, DH 1'11"564 and a new record on LC1 with 1'12"248. Lastly, Ben finished off with a superb run on MC1 prb 3lap getting 38"548. Thomas responded almost immediately taking back FS 3lap and the YC WR's. He barely beat Ben on FS with 1'38"443 and had a more sizable lead on YC with 1'25"573 and 27"717. Not very long ago, Ben took down #5 Sascha Brauninger's ancient MC nonprb 3lap but now it was Thomas' turn to beat that time too taking the record down to 1'30"773! That is nearly as fast as the WR which uses prb and this has definitely been one track begging to go sub 1'30, how could DS beat MC to this historic mark? Thomas finished things off in a godly fashion by landing another full prb run on F8C with the BLS improving his time to 1'12"663. All and all, another top notch week for numero uno. Almost in the top 10, #11 Michele Magnaterra is gunning after #10 Nicola Gatti for Italian Silver driving three new times this week improving his times on CM and AF. He gained some decent AF points for so few times getting 1'50"417 and 35"796 on CM and just missing the God time on AF flap with 34"854. Looks like he has some more times in queue so Nicola will have to regrettably play mkds some more to keep ahead. Michele's consolation prize for now is reaching Myth C overall. #20 Abel Marques had some more small cuts this week, just moving up one spot on PRB to #11. Ironically, most of his times were nonprb focusing on MC 29"601 Myth B, YC 28"076 Myth B, FS 1'40"122 God, and PC 56"173 Myth E. Abel also has some big PR's in line to update so maybe this is a sign he will start balancing out his time sheet. #44 Lenny Andreev and #46 Pol Gonzalez were at it again but failed to move up anywhere in nonprb this week. Although Lenny almost cut a full AF point, him and Pol are in the midst of an AF graveyard and until they get past #43 Josh Habben, flying up the ranks won't come easy unless they go on a pr spree. Lenny is almost out of there while Pol has 4 AF points to catch up on. Here's two names I have not seen in awhile, #61 Tom Webb and #62 Laurent Mesturoux. Don't worry though because they did not move up in AF either. Anywho, last month set the record for fewest submissions at 155. As long as there are WR's to update I'll keep stopping by. Movement outside the top 100 included #107 Jay Kreeler -4.1260, #145 Marcus Whitley -3.8750, #150 Arnaud Teil France -3.7500, #173 Daniel Boettcher -7.9840, #175 David Roldan -12.3130, #181 Martin Morissette -9.6400, #258 Austin Gates -12.5620, #436 Jose Karica -102.5880 and #445 Jean-Francois Schepers -22.4690. New Records There were 6 WR's improved (blue) and six non-prb times (pink). Thomas Bolton ended up with YC 3lap 1'25"573 and flap 27"717. He also reclaimed FS 3lap with 1'38"443. Saving the best for last he set the new F8C 3lap at 1'12"663. Ben Stoneman did keep one WR this week which of course was WP 3lap getting an even sicker time of 1'58"306. Seemingly out of no where, Marshall LeVett makes a tiny come back on RR sc 3lap taking just 4 thousandths off his time with 1'52"500. For nonprb, there was Thomas' FS 1'38"443, YC 1'25"573 and 27"717, MC 1'30"773, Ben's WP 1'58"306 and LC1 1'12"248. Awards With a week of not much going on, he got the most new times at the top hitting several WR's in the process in both nonprb and prb. For another strong week, Ben Stoneman wins the POW for the first week of July! A rather slow month in June but one player jumped several places making it well into the top 100 with some God times too! Not too often a Dutch player storms the ranks now in mkds but with the large amount of pr's and %AF and ARR cut Joep van Gelder wins the POM for the month of June! As the second quarter came to a close, no other player matched the monster pace this guy set. Grabbing WR's practically every week and moving up to #2 on both charts were just a few of the things he did. For a moment, it seemed that #1 was almost in his grasp! For being undoubtedly the strongest player these past three months, Ben Stoneman wins the POQ for the second quarter of 2008! Vote or Die ~ETCH

Karter Contest 2008 Kevin @ Saturday, July 5th   [link]
As of last week, this year's Karter Contest has been started on the forums. For those who don't know what it is, it's basically a popularity contest where you vote for your favorite MK players. The 2nd round is already underway, so why not check it out and go make a few votes? For more info, just check out the Karter Contest 2K8 board.

Spain gives Germany a swift kick to the huevos Kevin @ Wednesday, July 2nd   [link]

Movement As always, the top 2 were active once again, although to a minimum this week. #1 Thomas Bolton had two PRs this week, one a WR and one an SR. The WR came on AF 3lap, where he took down Ben's time with a 1'44"566. The SR was on DP1 3lap, where he hit a 55"632, but more importantly vanished Sascha from the records list! Thomas is slowly moving towards a sub-2 AF overall, and would easily make it if he improved times like his SR flap or RR times. #2 Ben Stoneman kept it slow this week, scoring just PRs on both sides of F8C flap; 24"543 for NonPRB and 24"157 for PRB. #20 Abel Marques had some small cuts this week, but the bigger cuts came on the PRB side, where he knocked off 0.2188 and is very close to passing #11 Robert Szabo. He hit some strong PRB times, such as MC 1'31"048 + 29"411, and hit a strong WP 3lap as well with 2'00"557 Myth B. #26 Nicolas Barco had yet another good week as of late, this time cutting 1.1406 to pass over #27, and moves within half an AF point of passing #25 James Leare. Unforunately from there he has a 3 point AF gaps to overtake the next player, which may be a bit annoying. Nicolas managed five PRs this week, including a few strong ones such as F8C 3lap 1'15"114 Myth D and MB 3lap 1'11"782 Titan A. He seems to be picking up a lot of momentum, and may possibly be even going for a spot in the prestigious top 20. As if his week couldn't get any better, he also cut 0.1719 ARR and became Titan A overall. The last two active players in the top 50 were #44 Lenny Andreev and #46 Pol Gonzalez. Lenny's 0.5156 may not have gotten him passed anyone, yet he is slowly but surely making a move to become #2 Australia with 4 AF points to go. His cuts only came from two times, so if he starts hitting lots of PRS, he'll surely pass #37 Adam Nelson soon, as well as the rest of that AF graveyard in the area. He did however cut enough ARR to make it tok Titan C overall. Pol seems to be active all of the time now, this week keeping it quiet with a 0.2656 AF cut, also failing to move up a spot. Like Lenny, he's also looking to move up a spot in his country, which will happen if he depatches Spain Champion #35 Christian Martin Lapeira and takes the gold medal for himself. A slightly longer journey than Lenny's, but still very doable within a few months, or ever weeks from now. The only other active player in the top 100 was... you probably guessed it already: #65 Joep van Gelder. He had another one of his outstanding weeks, with a huge AF cut of 6.4062 to move up eight spots on the AF ladder. He has become a regular in the news updates now, and with such an inbalance in his time sheet, he surely will in the weeks to come as he'll most likely continue to improve. If he goes at the pace he is now, he would easily be in the top 50 and #2 Netherlands by the end of august without a problem. Due to a badly damaged DS though, he may have to put those plans on hold for about a month. Still, with his potential, he can probably still accomplish those by the end of august. Movement outside the top 100 included #109 Jay Kreeler -2.5620, #150 Marcus Whitley -5.8440, #156 Arnaud Teil -1.5620, #183 David Roldan -3.7970, #185 Martin Morissette -4.3600, #271 Austin Gates -11.2500, #463 Jean-Francois Schepers -12.8440 and #489 Daniel Sampson -1.3910. New Records There was 1 WR improved (blue) and one non-prb time (pink). As mentioned earlier, Thomas took down Ben's AF 3lap WR to 1'44"566, about 0"1 better than Ben's time set last week. For nonprb, Thomas took down the last standing record of Sascha, with a 55"632 DP1 3lap. Awards It was a close week between two players. One had the upper hand though overall, with a 13.3% AF cut. Despite not getting a ARR promotion, he still had a very strong week, and that is why Joep van Gelder wins the POW for the fourth week of June! More awards to come later! ~Kmacc

Spain gives Italy a swift kick to the huevos Etch @ Monday, June 23rd   [link]

Movement #1 Thomas Bolton made his presence known this week by destroying his CM flap taking it sub 35 first with 34"953 and broke the 1'47 barrier on the 3lap first getting 1'46"825. You can see these times here plus LM 3lap which you might want to just skip over because that is not sub 1'32 yet. As expected, #2 Ben Stoneman keeps tearing it up setting near WR pace times as he slowly but surely closes in on his rival Thomas Bolton. Ben focused more on his prb times cutting 0.3594 AF points to his 0.0938 on non-prb. Big improvements for him included LC1 23"283, F8C 3lap 1'13"690, and SG 3lap/flap 1'01"697/20"233. More close but not quite WR's for Ben were MB 3lap/flap 1'10"476/23"057, CM 3lap/flap 1'46"892/35"074, and YC 3lap 1'25"983! Of course, he made sure to get at least one WR this week and that was on AF 3lap where he smashed the record with 1'44"634. It was certainly a week for subs for Ben becoming the second player to go under 1'45 on AF, 1'26 on YC, and 1'47 on CM. He might still be playing second fiddle to Thomas but as long as he keeps getting a variety of pr's, not just WP, the AF gap will only shrink more between them. Lurking outside the top ten is #11 Michele Magnaterra who decided to improve his WP 3lap this week. You might have been expecting more but no it's just that one. Nothing too extraordinary, 2'01"388 Myth D which is just outside the top 20 for that course. He should be tempted to get one more ARR improvement because he sits on the verge of Myth C overall at precisely 3.5000 Myth D. Fellow Italian #10 Nicola Gatti sits above but it seems anyone's PR'ability depends on their DS cooperating since buttons and dpads seem to break a lot. At least these guys are not letting Spain beat them in mkds! #27 Nicolas Barco is digging his way through an AF graveyard on non-prb not moving up anywhere from last week desipte a nice 0.8906 AF cut. He beat his F8C times getting God on the flap with 1'15"295 and 24"639. Once again though, Nicolas got the job done on prb cutting 1.7031 AF points moving up to #21 there and just shy of the top 20. His solid times on PC 52"130/17"272 and SG 1'02"744/20"621 was all that he needed to get him up there. Nicolas is not as much on the border as Michele is but he is almost to Titan A overall now with an ARR of 6.5312. One step closer to being Ben's #2 man on prb, #44 Lenny Andreev moved up a spot on non-prb cutting about one AF point. He remained stationary on prb though but is just a pr or two away from passing a group of three players. Like Nicolas, Lenny got another God time striking it hot on FS flap with 32"696. The rest of his times included BP 5lap/flap 43"507/8"320 and DS flap 30"635. Following suit, Lenny failed to upgrade to Titan C overall ending up at 8.5000 ARR on the button. Pobody's nerfect. The only Dutch in action, #73 Joep van Gelder cut an AF point this week along with getting some nice times for where he is currently ranked. Times like WS 3lap/flap 1'57"484/38"294, BB flap 35"433, and MC1 13"459 are nothing to sneeze at since they rank near the top 30. If Joep can carry this kind of effort to the other tracks, he'll be flying up the charts in no time. Unlike the other active karters inside the top 100, he managed to rank up by reaching Hero B overall this week so congrats on that. Fortunately that concludes all the active players in the top 100 so I don't need to make this part any longer than it has to be. Movement outside the top 100 included #110 Jay Kreeler USA 126.0000 -0.0620 (#32 USA), #156 Marcus Whitley Australia 183.2500 -8.5620 (#7 Australia), #184 David Roldan Spain 221.3440 -0.6870 (#5 Spain), #251 Elliso Luo Australia 293.2030 -30.1880 (#12 Australia, Advanced D to Advanced C) and #477 Jean-Francois Schepers Belgium 532.0470 -5.7340 (#11 Belgium). New Records There were 4 WRs improved (blue) and four non-prb times (pink). Thomas made headlines with his CM times taking down two barriers of his own with 1'46"825 and 34"953. Thomas also got the TTC flap with a small improvement on Ben's time with 30"138. Ben of course took the AF 3lap from Thomas with a time of 1'44"634. These are also the non-prb records so refer to above said times. Awards Not many folks this week hitting more than just a few pr's and actually moving somewhere on the charts. Besides getting a God time and some other nice ranked times, he is just a couple AF points from the top 20 on prb and is just shy of Titan A now. For some strong karting effort of his own, Nicolas Barco wins the POW for the third week of June! Turkey v Russia? ~ETCH

USA unsurprisingly slaughters Barbados Etch @ Monday, June 16th   [link]

Movement Well what do you know, #2 Ben Stoneman keeps cranking out WP World Records and occasionally some other pr's. Ben did go back to LM 3lap though and finally managed to best #1 Thomas Bolton's record there by a measly one thousandth of a second with 1'32"312. Ben continued to work on some of his prb times to help close the larger AF gap he has with Thomas over there starting with MC where he came dangerously close to the 3lap getting 1'30"524. If the Dry Boner does not get us there first, Egg1 will have to make the run to that sub 1'30. Ben's other assorted prb times included SG again with 3lap/flap 1'02"240/20"306, DP1 3lap/flap 52"780/17"260 and LC1 3lap 1'11"499. All of Ben's times are in the top ten with the exception of the dreaded BP flap where we patiently pray for a run where we take the corners tight enough. #3 Fabien Da Silva's flap still looks phenomenal every time you look at it and currently holds the WR of being the oldest mkds WR! For WP this week, Ben demolished his flap still using BLS on lap 1 subbing 39"100 now with 39"097. Equally impressive is his more beastly 3lap where he drove a sick 1'58"414 leading Thomas on this course by over a second now! Last but not least, some more close but not quite WR action from Ben with WS non-prb flap 37"666 and MB flap 23"057. Who is this in the top 20 now, #20 Abel Marques? Yes, it's true after he submitted some old pr's and started driving some new and better ones. He racked up a 1.4218 AF cut on non-prb and got a whopping 4.0313 AF cut for the prb chart. Sure, he moved up a spot in non-prb but the real action was on prb passing four players to take the #12 spot and the UK crown! He's not very far from the prb top 10 either so we'll see if Abel is able to get there or not. Might as well mention a few of his good times he got recently, WP flap 39"772, WS 3lap non-prb 1'57"590, LC2 prb 3lap/flap 1'16"749/25"086 and DP1 3lap 53"406. Despite Abel and his unbalanced time sheet, he certainly is capable on some tracks but having to spend the myriad amount of time mastering and playing all the other course has never seemed to be his strong suit. At least he has a Gold Medal to flaunt now. Not far behind on the charts, #27 Nicolas Barco was active again reporting four new times. He improved his CM times some more with 1'50"929 Titan B and 35"652 God. Nicolas also got a new BB flap 35"468 Myth B and F8C prb flap 24"302. Like Abel, some of his times are in the top ten while others are well outside the top 50. No doubt Nicolas has some serious RR skill but he has been putting up some decent times elsewhere recently expanding his total number of God times to 7 and moving up to #23 now in prb. He is also closing in on Titan A overall with an ARR of 6.7188 Titan B. The near the top 50 battle continues with #45 Lenny Andreev and #46 Pol Gonzalez in the same spots as they were last week. The story is slightly different on prb though with Pol moving up to #43 and Lenny to #51. Lenny had the larger AF cut with almost a full point coming from just two pr's. This obviously meant he improved a course like PG getting 1'31"143 and 29"229, both Titan D. Pol on the other hand sent in 12 new times cutting one tenth of an AF point on non-prb and seven tenths on prb. It's clear Pol is after the #1 Spain title on prb where most of his new times came and could get there if he keeps up the work. Still some ways for him to go to get that on non-prb with the Test Circle master #35 Christian Martin Lapeira looming farther above. The same holds true for Lenny except he is going for the Silver medal from fellow Australian #37 Adam Nelson. Both players are Titan D overall with Lenny getting closer to Titan C this week at 8.6562 ARR. Hopefully these guys move up next week but they situated near an AF graveyard on non-prb so there best chances lie with the real men of prb to make themselves feel like their pr's were worth the effort. Good, only one other person active in the top 100 this week so that means I can cut back on the length of this update. The main man this week was #73 Joep van Gelder cutting nearly 8 AF points and almost reaching Hero B overall. He jumped 14 places in the ranks from #87 last update so I think his 20 or so new pr's must have done the trick. The Netherlands focus has truly been on the Euro Cup where they have systematically slaughtered France and Italy. Even with this sort of excitement, Joep found the time to crank out several pr's to at least pass some French players, there are only 6 Italians in the top 100. In mkds, any time Netherlands is active is some sort of a triumph. After #52 Miguel Rodriguez stopped playing, there have not been any cases of the Crazy Dutch Smash Crazy PR Smash Virus, commonly known as CDSCPRSV, so if Joep can stay this way he could make a dash for the top 50. Movement outside the top 100 included #110 Jay Kreeler -0.3910 (#32 USA), #168 Marcus Whitley -10.0160 (#7 Australia, Expert E to Expert D), #185 David Roldan Spain 222.0310 -5.0630 (#5 Spain, Advanced A to Expert E), #190 Martin Morissette Canada 225.4690 -5.7650 (#12 Canada), #483 Jean-Francois Schepers Belgium 537.7810 -25.8440 (#12 Belgium, Beginner B to Beginner A), and #493 Daniel Sampson -3.3120 (#24 Australia). New Records There were 3 WRs improved (blue) and three non-prb times (pink). Not much going on this week except Ben Stoneman at his best again. Ben keeps surprising us on WP by dropping the 3lap to an insane 1'58"414 and if that is not enough he got his flap down to 39"097. In addition to these, Ben earned the LM 3lap back from Thomas Bolton with the tiny improvement of 1'32"312. These are also the non-prb records so refer to above said times. Awards Without a whole lot of competition, it's easy to stand out of the crowd. This guy cut 9% off his AF and 6% off his ARR moving him over ten places up the charts with his surge in pr's. In recognition for being the busiest karter this week and making some strong improvements, Joep van Gelder wins the POW for the second week of June! Gets back to watching Euro Cup! ~ETCH

Godly Celtics use BLS Etch @ Monday, June 9th   [link]

Movement Besides holding the world champ title for more than a year now, #1 Thomas Bolton is another step closer to obtaining one of the most difficult feats in mkds which of course has been the quest for 64/64 God times. Of course, some of them are disgustingly easier than the others, but some God times have not been beaten until Thomas' recent surge in activity in May taking down courses like CI2 and KB2 3laps. Once thought impossible, the LC2 God times set so long ago may yet be realized! He came extremely close on the flap with a jaw dropping time of 25"507 which is almost a tenth quicker than the time #2 Ben Stoneman set last week. As for the 3lap, Thomas' best splits give him 1'17"803 which is more than enough room to hit that sub 1'18. This task is easier said than done and with a more comfortable AF gap between him and Ben now, Thomas should have the time needed to hit this milestone achievement. With 62 God times and 2 Myth A's, Thomas' ARR currently sits at 0.0312 which should be a good motivation to turn those all into zeroes. Let us all pray to the kart Gods on this one. Not seemingly far behind, Ben has come a pretty long way in a short span of time. With a total of 54 God times now, he is just tenths off several WR's, has an ARR of 0.2656. With the exception of RR flap, he has God'd all the Nitro courses and just has a few of the difficult Retro courses remaining. Probably the best of all came from MC 3lap this week where Ben took down #5 Sascha Brauninger's year old record with just a 26 thousandths of a second improvement with 1'30"960 becoming the third person to go sub 1'31 non-prb. Sascha has only one non-prb record left which of course is DP1 3lap. On WP this week, Ben took on the porksword's BLS challenge again beating his own 3lap once again with a ridiculous 1'58"628. As we all know, Ben has just been dominating the crap out of this track and leads Thomas' time here by over a second now! TTC is another track Ben has taken a liking to by improving his flap to 30"201 but settled with a 30"182 to get him the sub and nearly got the 3lap WR with 1'32"282. He also came close to WR's on LM with 1'32"511 and 30"316. Lastly, Ben did not neglect prb this week getting F8C flap 24"296 and SG 3lap 1'02"337 and in combination with his other improvements this week, was able to pass #3 Fabien Da Silva on the prb charts to take the silver medal there also. On a side note, Ben is the second player to sub 44 in the non-prb 3lap total! It seems all that is left for Ben is the race for more WR's and obviously the #1 spot but Thomas is no stranger to defending his title so only time spent playing or praying to the kart Gods will tell here. I guess with players switching over to mkwii in preference for mariobike, site activity has dropped drastically. Last month saw its lowest number of submissions amounting to just 198. Never fear, mkds still holds the record for most submissions in a single month with 2031 back on December 2005. Fortunately, there was an army of updaters ready with nothing to do so no casualties in the process. With the way things are now, it seems like even Kmacc can run the show single-handedly with DarkRoy's help at least. All this might explain why only five other folks inside the top 100 were active this week but at least there are some people still trying! Starting with #27 Nicolas Barco, better known for his RR specialty, hit some of his own God times this week moving up a few spots in non-prb and prb where he is ranked #24. On MC1, he drove 42"109 and 13"213 nonprb which are both inside the top 15. Nicolas also got some new F8C prb times with 1'15"045 and 24"474. Right now, he is Titan B with an ARR of 7 exactly. It's always good to see some players near the top active but it seems like some people here have gone through more than five DS's! I guess as long as it's under warranty you can keep trading them in but natural selection has a devious way of working itself out, why else is Thomas' DS still functional? Still inside the top 50 now, Ben's number two guy #45 Lenny Andreev sent in some old times with SG being the only obvious awesome ones here getting 1'09"674 and 21"287. Both are top ten times with his flap at #3 with only Thomas and Ben ahead of him there. Right at his heels, #46 Pol Gonzalez has gotten more active again with the #1 Spain title in his sights almost getting a 3 point AF cut making him Titan D overall now. He almost racked up 30 pr's spreading the load between non-prb and prb. Since he put a smile face after this one time, it's worth mentioning he got CM flap 36"128 Myth E by using Egg1! Newer players would be inclined to start using polt or BLS sooner but Pol decided to do it like we did back in the day, everything in Egg1. Wrapping up the top 100 is slacker #84 Dennis Molina-Yao who finally got around to submitting some month old times which at least cut 10 AF points and takes him up to Hero C overall. What's this, an active Dutchie?!? #87 Joep van Gelder cut 2 AF points to move up a spot this week and also reach Hero C overall. He seems to be on a good and steady pace so catching up to past champ Miguel Rodriguez who is outside the top 50 now should not be a difficult task in order to take the bronze medal for Netherlands. Movement outside the top 100 included #110 Jay Kreeler -1.0780 (#32 USA), #140 Mitchell DeVriendt -2.9220 (#45 USA), #155 Arnaud Teil -27.5160 (#25 France, Expert E to Expert D), #173 Marcus Whitley -3.7810 (#7 Australia), #186 Jacob Goldfinger -2.3430 (#60 USA), #190 David Roldan -5.2500 (#5 Spain), #194 Martin Morissette -5.9070 (#12 Canada), #291 Austin Gates -0.1410 (#98 USA), #488 Mathieu Jaspard -5.3440 (#12 Belgium, Beginner B to Beginner A), #496 Daniel Sampson -16.6880 (#24 Australia, Beginner C to Beginner B) and #505 Jean-Francois Schepers -16.3750 (#13 Belgium, Beginner C to Beginner B). New Records There were 3 WRs improved (blue) and five non-prb times (pink). Defying all logic, Ben Stoneman proves to us again that BLS is way better on WP getting the job done on the 3lap again with 1'58"628. Ben also managed to beat his TTC flap ending up with 30"182. In a some what random fashion, センジュ came to life and beat the old standing CM 3lap set by Thomas Bolton with a slightly faster time of 1'47"461 but a WR is a WR. For non-prb, Ben hit the monster WP 3lap of 1'58"628, TTC flap 30"182, and beat one of Sascha Brauninger's old MC 3lap time with 1'30"960. Thomas is one step closer to immortality with his new LC2 time of 25"507 and センジュ got CM 3lap with 1'47"461. Awards It was a pretty strong week for him spreading his work out on both non-prb and prb. Besides hitting some WR's and Gods, using BLS on WP, and lurking in the shadows of #1, he hit several top times pushing himself ever higher and took the #2 spot on the prb charts. For his strong times this week and holding both silver medals now, Ben Stoneman wins the POW for the first week of June! Too long to proffread! ~ETCH