Hi,

Just a separate topic for post SMK World Championshop 2014 material. Please post your favoruite moments, memories, stories, anything you wish to share that you really enjoyed.

I will put my list here in some sort of order:


- Getting stressed while sorting everything out, packing etc, but it all went well in the end!

- The eurostar journey, taking photos.

- Zarkov and I having nice catch up chats in the Eurostar bar carriage over a cup of tea / coffee while the others slept.

- Constant banter between Conor Wood and Ashraf Khan for the whole week (i can't write it here)

- Darren Gian absolutely loving it from start to finish despite being our new team casual level player.

- Florian Valandina, thanks for kindly escorting us from Gare du Nord to La Suze-sur-Sarthe.

- Aron Langerak going for a cigarette 5 minutes before a connecting train was due, causing him and Zarkov to miss it... then trying to blame everyone else for it.

- Samuel Gomez saving the day by pretty much rescuing Zarkov and Aron, bringing them on a later train.

- The weather; it was raining the first days, but managed to get the tents sorted in some record time before it chucked down.

- The venue and setup - awesome again!

- Florent Lecoanet for providing an awesome service and meals all week at the venue, best one yet! When he sorted the 45 kebabs out it was like Heaven. The burger sauce in the kitchen was just...  

- Daniel Guemy "FFVIMan" repairing everything and anything in seconds, no matter how destroyed the electronic equipment could be. If planet Earth suddenly split in two, he would find a way to tape it back together. He really is "Champion du Monde de Reparateurs"

- People getting Daniel and his twin brother Didier Guemy mixed up.

- The NESBlog team who were a camera crew and doing interviews, with Sophie Jarmouni from Belgium visiting as a new member and good contender.

- Wolmar and Sophie rivalry (the noisiest one ever, tops the Jey + Salim one)

- Drew falling asleep all the time, he had a lot of jet lag. Photos taken with him when he was asleep and awake.

- Ashraf Khan falling asleep in the middle of the venue with his headphones on, all of us took many photos with him.

- Lots of banter during the TT one tries, everyone crashing and swearing when they were doing so.

- Aron Langerak beating Karel, Boucher and I on most of the first five tracks, we were so rusty!

- Karel shouting to Mario86 when Rainbow Road came up "You must do 1'27" or bust!" Mario86 then missed his zoom start...

- Mario86 hitting a blindingly fast one try at one of the tracks then looking at Aron and sticking his tongue out. Aron responds by saying "at least we didn't miss our zoom start at Rainbow Road!"

- Me missing a zoom start at Ghost Valley 2 (2nd year in a row i messed up this one).

- Florian Valandina getting a faster BC3 one try than BC1!

- Karel saying to me when Mario Circuit 1 was next "Sami you have to do 58 seconds or bust!". No one has done this one try live during the CDM before so i said "No i am not going for it". Then i drove a 58"96 and said "Karel, i done it!"

- Leyla Hasso getting 54 seconds in one try on VL2 during the group phase She reached 9th place overall in the end of the TT.

- Ghost Valley 3 coming up again in the quarter finals, causing some players to crash and burn...

- Reaching the final vs Florent and getting one track i didnt prepare longboosts on, Mario Circuit 2. I guess that's my problem i will have to rectify for another year, well done to Florent for the Gold anyway

- Getting ready for Match Race day knowing it will be the toughest ever, but feeling confident.

- Doing my worst Match Race group stage performance ever and landing in an awkward part of the bracket for later in the evening. People were asking Leyla and Conor if something was wrong with me that day.

- Jey showing incredible skill level this year at Match Race.

- Leyla almost causing an upset on RR vs Mario86.

- Going on fire in the evening and still reaching the final and a Silver medal.

- Florent winning the Gold on Match Race, some close matches there.

- Zarkov's birthday celebrated in style on Battle Mode day, thanks to Florent for providing a delicious cake from a local bakery in the town.

- Performing better in the Battle Mode group stage than i did in Match Race group.

- Very random results happening.

- Jey again a top level player at Battle.

- Zarkov reaching Top 16 at Battle Mode (nice birthday gift)  

- Drew sleeping in between breaks like a Legend.

- My usual Quarter Final exit, this time at the hands of Drew.

- Drew not quite getting past Florent at the Battle Semis

- Drew defeating old rival Geo in an incredible 3rd place match. Very entertaining. This caused Geo to not get a Battle medal for the first time in 9 or 10 years?

- Julien Holmiere cutting through Florent in the Battle Final like a white hot knife through butter. Can anyone top Scoub's performance at this mode? Don't look at me!! Roll on 2015...

- Grand Prix day... i didn't have a repeat of Match Race day shenanigans luckily in the group stage.

- Hearing the screams and shouting when zoom starts are missed.

- Hearing the screams and shouting when CPU Yoshi crashes into somebody. Don't we just love Grand Pricks?

- Hearing the screams and shouting when Sophie loses a race to Wolmar by 0.02.

- Having an honorary Top 16 match with Chris Clark. We were discussing playing it old school style but that didn't happen in the end.

- Salim gave Florent a scare on the Top 16!

- Matthias Boucher (Gatchan) almost taking Florent down in the Quarter Final GP

- Mario86 having a conversation outside the bathroom saying he is going to defeat me in the Semi-Final if he reaches there, not realising i was there and heard the whole thing, just to spring out of the doorway at the same moment Sorry man it was too funny! Anyway none of the plans went ahead....

- I did defeat Harold in the quarter, but Mario86 was destroyed by Karel. Then Karel was destroyed by me (i had too many good attacking items though). Florent then gave me a 5-0 makeover in the Final. But it wasn't exciting as we were already 1st and 2nd overall by then and maybe didnt push for some close races. It was either he crashed or i did and most cups were 3-2 or 4-1 to him.

- Ceremony day was awesome! Congrats to Florent for winning overall and the nice medal collection this year!

- Awesome to see great achievements from others including Scoub, Karel, Jey (Top 10!), Leyla reaching 13th and a special prize trophy for most improved.

- Clark and Aron going up on stage together to collect prizes

- All the newcomers within the 30th - 45th ranks, great to see you all take part!

- Patrick Wessels earning a very well deserved trophy for his hard work doing the scoring and twitch commentary this week.

- Speed run by Mario86 on Yoshi's island.

- Speed run of GTA5 by Karel and Patrick in 8 hours something (thanks, when you have seen it once you have seen it all, i dont need to play the game now so that saves me several hours of time )

- Ashraf Khan making me cups of tea in the evenings, very kind

- Two guys who i won't name constantly chasing ladies with no remorse . They are the dynamic duo indeed, lets just leave it at that.

- Drew playing SMK with his face, on the floor.

- Drew getting one of those Kinder Eggs, which has a toy inside. Taking a bite of the egg eating the foil wrapper aswell

- Drew then eats the toy inside afterwards!

- Drew drinking a mouthful of Mustard.

- Drew then eating (was it yoghurt?) and more Mustard immediately afterwards, mixed together!

- Drew sleeping at the ATM booth at the front of the Bank in the town. There is a window so anyone passing by can see him, large as life, sleeping on the floor in front of the machine where people draw  out cash.

- Asking Drew what his hobbies and interests are outside of kart and his answer was:   "Errr... Hiking...  eating.... drinking...  sleeping... breathing..." to which my response is that these are basics of life, not hobbies!

- Drew cutting all his beard off (it suited him better with it) He will start growing it again over 1 year.

- And last but not least, missing all my great friends when i got back home... hope to see you all again next year


P.S  All of you who haven't gone to a CDM please get to one, you will love it!!!

Great round-up Sami!  

Sami de la SMK wrote on 08/20/14 at 04:07:22:


He wasn't alone, it's easily done  

Sami de la SMK wrote on 08/20/14 at 04:07:22:


Ah, Kinder Surprise Eggs. Definitely something every American should try if ever leaving this country, because ours is the only one in the world that bans them. I've never had one, but it would be one of the first things I'd buy open travelling abroad. Simply because it's something Americans aren't allowed to have. An act of defiance, if you will.

Apparently every other country on Earth, besides ours, trusts its children not to accidentally swallow the toy and choke on it, and those children's parents not to give the egg to a kid who might do so. The U.S. government wants to play nanny and it honestly makes me feel ashamed to be American at times. Our kids today are already being raised to be helpless sissies as it is, most parents are hardly letting them go outside and get dirty, and sometimes get hurt (and learn a lesson in the process). I know this is going to sound cruel to most, but it's the cold, hard truth: we just need to let natural selection go to work on the current generation of children, and weed out the ones who aren't worthy to inherit this world. This is one place where the Third World seriously has us beat, hands-down.

When I hear in the news that some child died doing something really dumb, I'll tell somebody that it was "natural selection at work", they'll generally say I was being mean, but I don't care, I want to be brutally honest because look at where our world is headed. Also look at what our antibiotics are doing. Because we have no faith anymore in the immune system that God/nature gave us, we let drugs do all the work which (1) makes our immune systems weaker over time, because they can't practice fighting germs they way all other animals' do, (2) lets natural selection make stronger germs instead and (3) keeps natural selection from eliminating those with weak immune systems. We'll learn one day when we unwittingly create a superbug that no antibiotic can kill while it wipes out all of our wimpy butts whose immune systems never learned to function properly. (See this video.) I'd just rather have no human race in the future than a human race of total weaklings that have succeeded in putting themselves at the bottom of the evolutionary totem pole, imagine a society where nobody can even go outside at all without getting deathly sick from exposure to outdoor air and soil. Just let 'em die, dammit. Again, those in the Third World will come out the winners.

Sorry to stray so far off the topic but it's an opinion of mine I've really wanted to share.

Oh yeah thanks a lot!!

Tom1 wrote on 08/22/14 at 00:31:51:


I know, Ash told us this in the venue when Drew ate one (with the wrapper and the toy). Followed by mustard, then yoghurt + mustard mixed together. Yummy eh?

For the benefit of those that don't visit the French forum, I shall post my summary here as well:

Day 1 - Time Trial
Day 1 includes the journey, which was smooth, except for 1 minor incident.   Clark & Aron losing the posse during their smoking break (which they honestly did not have time for, considering how tight the transfer to the train was at Montparnasse). Well, all would have been fine if they had just found the way @ the station, but still. In the end it’s something we can laugh about a little, (especially as if it had to happen to anyone, it would happen to that duo  ), though it was very ‘fortunate’ Narnet pulled the same blooper to save the day.

In the end everyone arrived in time (except Harold, who sadly missed TT…if he had to pick 1 day to miss, it would be that one though of course), so all was good.
The competition started quite a bit later than planned, because Patrick ran into problems with the Excel file (if I am not wrong). It could have been prevented, as Djo sent him the file weeks before with a bunch of instructions, but considering Patrick had been on holidays for 2 weeks we can hardly blame him for a lack of preparation. Anyway, that shit should all be a lot smoother next year (if we’re going to use the same template-file & system).

Ironically, TT was the mode that ended the latest (3AM, correct?), but it was a memorable tournament for sure. I really enjoyed the result scoring system, with half the group noting the times of the other active half thanks to super convenient result sheets. Whoever thought of this idea should be proud of himself, it worked brilliantly. Aron & me had some fun during our jury duty, each supporting our ‘horse’ against the other. Aron was paired with Garreau, while I was paired with FF. At first we expected FF to win this, but Garreau showed a remarkable ability to drive safely and avoiding crashes all together. In the end he only missed the zoomstart on MC1 and collided with an iceblock on VL1 (like everyone), so he crushed my horse completely. Aron went 2-0 up with that whole horse vs horse thing, when it was our turn to play, as he did a better job at the group stage than I did. I sucked more than ever before (I used to be a TT specialist, but those days seem to be long forgotten  ). I did see it coming though, as my preparation showed a complete maladjustment to PAL driving (thanks to my NTSC GP150cc adventures. Basically I had only played NTSC GP150cc after the 2013 CDM to prepare for my ESA 2014 run that happened a few weeks before this event). I also had more problems than before with NBT consistency, dropping booschts left, right and centre. I’m not sure if that’s because of me or my pad, though it’s probably a bit of both. Anyway, I qualified, but don’t ask how.

For the top-16 I immediately drowned at VL2 (deep drown within 5 secs after the start), so I had immediately accepted a potential knock-out at this early stage. I told myself to just focus and drive the rest of the race clean, as likely there’d be more people taking a bath on this track.   And so it was; the second track being GV2, enabled a “chicken-tonight-safety-strats” finish. In quarter finals I was exclusively facing players that had done better than me on the day and in all honesty I would have deserved to get knocked-out there. However, I suddenly hit the right form and drove a very solid GV3/CI2 pair. I was happy when GV3 re-appeared at this stage as it allowed me take revenge on my own performance there from last year (when I had driven a superb 1’29 on MC3 and decided to safe it on GV3 with 0 platform-jumps thinking other players would crash…which was not the case. Playing too safe and losing is the worst way to go if you ask me). In the semi-finals the usual suspects were there: Mario, Sami, Neo and me. VL1 was the first track and since I really don’t like this track in 1-tries it was far from a lucky draw. The brightness of the TVs can really bother me on this track, making it very hard to distinguish the snow from the track. I asked for the brightness to be lowered, but this proved to be a daunting technical challenge with a failing remote control. In the end all was fixed, but all in all, not the perfect preparation for a semi final. In the end I failed VL1 (above a minute) and DP2 was not a track where any repairs were possible. That said, all 3 of my rivals deserved to be in the final more this year.

I was surprised to face Mario in the bronze medal play-off, expecting him to win the 1-try like last year. But of course in 1-tries everything is possible. When the track was announced to be GV1 I was very excited about the prospect of trying a platform-jump. Knowing Mario, I knew he would seriously consider the possibility as well. I decided that I would go for it in final lap, unless I was far ahead (one can tell from the final lap jingle starting). In fact, Mario entered final lap in the lead (by a tenth or so), so I actually HAD to go for it. The execution let me down horribly though, as the NBT didn’t trigger and the jump was hopeless. As I was getting Lakitu’ed I heard a big roar from the crowd, indicating that Mario actually managed to succeed his jump! 1’06”6x @ GV1 in a bronze medal play-off is a truly exceptional result, so that was one of the most deserved medals anyone has ever gotten in these 1-try tournaments. I accepted my faith easily, as even if I would have made it, it would have been 1’06”7x or 8x. Plus at least I went down "no guts, no glory" style, unlike in 2013.
Then there was still the final left. When Patrick announced it would be a Mario Circuit, you could literally hear Florent thinking “please, not MC1 or MC3/4 for that matter”…when he got the MC2 that he wanted, he already had a small moment of celebration, knowing the odds were in his favour there. Going for the LB @ MC2 has cost Neo in 1-tries before, but this time he was brilliant. After performing 2 of them in the first laps and gaining an insurmountable lead on the captain of safety (Sami), Neo put it in cruise control and finished comfortably. Fantastic strategy and execution there, so it leaves me with nothing else to say then: :merite:

Day 2 – Match Race
I’ll be briefer about the other tournaments, simply because my memories of them are less detailed.
I was happy with how the time tables were respected, leading to the conclusion that in terms of organization and structure, this year’s CDM has been the most successful one thus far. My first shakedown opponent of the day was Sophie, who effectively lost her CDM virginity there . I actually remember that she put up a very good fight on 2 of the tracks; on BC3 I could only secure the victory in final lap. For a new entry her lvl was surprisingly high and it was fun seeing Wolmar & her training so fanatically all week (testament to this, they were the only ones still playing SMK on the ceremony day at first ). The rest of my group stage went more or less as expected, with a #6 finish. The biggest upsets were Sami finishing behind me still at #7 and Leyla finishing only 1 place below at #8! The top-5 of the group stage was 100% French, so the rest of the world was facing a whitewash if things were gonna continue like this.

In the top-16 I faced Anthony, a dangerous opponent in a first to 5. He managed to win 2 tracks, but I had sufficient form & luck to not get too deeply into trouble there. Sami had some problems with Drew (5-3), but avoided an early elimination. Similar between Geo and Roach (Geo facing a multitude of matchpoints, yet surviving). All was back to normal for the quarter finals, with the big-8 all being present. The biggest match was unquestionably ScouB vs Sami, both major favourites for the overall win. Whatever happened there to result in a 7-1 win to Sami, one thing was certain…Sami had found his traditional killer form just in time. My match vs Geo was a bit more eventful and exactly the type of match that make the CDM such a fun competition to participate in. It had everything: massive mistakes, great moves, weapon fights and a dramatic scoreline. Geo went 5-2 up and was on the verge of scoring 6-2 (and quintuple match-point) on BC2, but ate a few Fenners to give me the opportunity to mount a comeback. Until that point both my driving and tactics had been mediocre at best (apart from an excellent start at MC4, dodging a red and hitting Geo with 1). I managed to claw myself back into the match to reach double match-point at 6-5. The first one I spoiled on MC2 by missing the zoomstart and crashing the Fenner section (by being distracted by a huge roar from the TV next to me, where the Harold & Mario match had just finished. I know it's a lame excuse, but you do need 100% focus to navigate tricky sections sometimes, especially as Geo had also dropped a banana there). This meant that DP3 would decide who of us would progress to the semi finals to face Sami. An epic red shell face-off ended with both of us in the water at the bridge. The game then gifted me a red shell in the lead to finish the match, which I carelessly wasted at the start of lap 5 by trying to throw it backwards in a circle. I was too close to the wall for the red shell to circle and Geo was probably too close behind me. Considering the scenario, I should have been way more on point, trying everything in my power to make that red shell count. I still had a narrow lead, but a good item from Geo would seal the deal. He got a star, which proved to be enough to win this thriller. I was unhappy with my performance (especially regretting the red shell waste), but very happy with the match (no random green / lightning bullshit).

Both semi finals were fairly one-sided affairs, with Neo and Sami convincingly disposing themselves of their opponents. One thing that really stood out was Neo’s shocking power display on GV2 using Mario (for the IB strat). Eventhough that tactic itself backfired, his feather back-up strat was monstrous to behold and provided one of the sickest moves in CDM history!
Harold proved that his rampage vs Neo in MR earlier this year and his semi-final qualification was a lot more than luck by leaving Geo little chance in the bronze medal play-off. For another year we had ‘el Classico’ in the final and I was happy to commentate it for the growing Twitch viewer’s crowd. At one point Sami seemed to be running away with it, with his typical solid, business-oriented style. Neo resurrected himself with some crazy moves and ended taking the second gold medal home. Though the victory was deserved, it did feel like the item-Gods had not favoured Sami for once. It could have been a finish to the wire otherwise. Perhaps next year?

Day 3 – Battle Mode
I believe it is fairly well known that BM is by far my weakest mode, I believe I can defend that claim way moreso than Sami will ever be able to. Knowing this I am always a tad more relaxed on BM day, though I will obviously still give it my best in every match. Just before the beginning I noticed Drew looking very tired, on the verge of falling asleep. I asked him where he had spent the night and he answered:  “no, I didn’t sleep. I just walked around.” Not exactly the perfect preparation for your tournament of choice right? I wonder what would happen if Drew approached this tournament like a normal human being for once.

There were some very intense battles that I fought in the group stage, including a 2-2 draw vs Conor and a 2-2 draw vs Jey, in which I came back from 2-0 down. I ended up qualifying as #9, which was actually a little bit better than anticipated. All the players that qualified ahead of me are better players (though I guess we can still consider Jey of similar lvl) and Tif & Anthony could have beaten me if they had their day.

In the Top-16 match I had to face Conor, undeniably a better BM player than yours truly. I ended up losing 5-0; though the attacking power he received from the item boxes was quite superior to my streaks of feathers and mushrooms, the result was logical. I might have pulled a closer match under more favourable circumstances, but I wasn’t feeling ‘hot’ enough to mount a serious challenge. Conor deserved his place in the top-8 in any case. Facing ScouB was the least favourable quarter final draw imagineable though and it showed (7-2 to ScouB). In the meantime we had a special moment for birthday-boy Clark, with a nice cake to celebrate it. That cake was pretty godlike actually..

When it was time for Drew to face Sami, ‘Team Drew’ took shape, in the form of Mario, Aron & me flopping our chairs on the ground, chilling in a relaxing position and chanting “Drew! Drew! Drew! Drew!” between rounds. In short, glorious times  :etoile:. When Drew turned on demolition mode vs Sami, there were some happy minutes to be had for Team Drew. Even in the semi-final vs Neo things were looking good at first, but somewhere Drew lost the plot and started taking stupendous & unnecessary risks (of the type  driving into the open without a shell and Neo having a red). If you give Neo the slightest chance to get into the match, he will find his fighting shoes and squeeze everything out of it and that was exactly what happened. It was cool to see Neo beating his demons from the past (I believe Drew eliminated him in 3 out of 3 previous KO stage meetings), but we now had to live with the worrying prospect of him actually performing the Grand Chelem… Though this would be a sensational and historic performance, it would also declassify the rest of the field, deny the existence of specialisms in SMK and make the competition downright predictable.

After a fantastic bronze medal play-off between Geo & Drew (and an equally close fight between ScouB & Geo in the semis which could have easily been the final), ScouB made sure, in no uncertain terms, that the Grand Chelem was postponed for at least 1 more year. Rarely have I witnessed such a rare display of dominance in a CDM tournament…ScouB was displaying monstrous form; dodging almost everything, attacking constantly with the sickest combos…he left Neo without a ghost of a chance. When Neo finally snuck a point in there he gave a “thank you” wave to the Gods for letting him at least leave the final with some dignity intact. It is very rare to see anyone teach Neo a lesson in anything SMK related, it was a refreshing experience to behold. I salute you ScouB, for the highest lvl I’ve seen anyone reach in BM thus far. That final was the sickness. I congratulate Neo for picking up the silver as well, because getting 2nd in this field of players is nothing less than incredible. As for Geo’s 9 BM medals in a row stranding just before the 10 mark…man that’s gotta suck. I was slightly hoping for Drew to pull through (because, you know, he’s Drew after all), but it still sucked it happened at your expense. It is exactly like you told me afterwards though: you reached the semi-finals in all the 2p modes, which is something that is usually only achieved by Neo himself. You can be proud of that for sure.

Nice read Karel. It was awesome to watch from home, although I certainly would rather watch it live next year...

Firewaster wrote on 08/26/14 at 03:59:16:


Good so you are definitely coming then  

Who will be joining you on the flight... Alencar / Oliver?

Sami de la SMK wrote on 08/26/14 at 08:46:32:


Sami,

The odds of me going are better than they were at this time in 2008 (before I made it in 2009). So I'd say, as of now, that my chances are around 50% or higher.
The sad part is I don't think any of the other guys is flying with me. Alencar already told me it's impossible for him to go, and Oliver doesn't seem very interested at all... I will still use Alencar as a sparring partner for the following months (I need to be prepared if I'm going to make it in the end).

Antistar wrote on 08/27/14 at 06:21:28:


And Stacy Needham...

Maybe they will all attend one day!

You should try to contact the snesot smk brazilians : siipe mrguinas cloud kal_el etc...

Mrguinas is even from goiania !