The time has come for my #ASMKC2019 bilan.
PrologueFirst off, I want to reaffirm that the initiation of a genuine NTSC SMK world championships is something of a dream come true. I first started going to PAL Championnats way back in 2007; if I'm not mistaken I was the first non-French speaking participant in the history of these championships...FYI I’ve been told that the honor of being the first foreign (as in non French) participant at a CDF goes to Raphael Braun (at edition #1 in 2002). Anyway, the focus back then was exclusively on the PAL version still. That said, I was already acquainted with the NTSC version, but exclusively through playing Time Trials (from 2005 onwards). From the 2008 edition onwards NTSC natives started first appearing at these SMK championships, with Drew being the first (and bagging the BM gold medal and a #2 overall spot right away). In 2009, Guilherme Arantes became the first Brazilian to attend. In the following years we had more American players fly over (dan__h, Joe, Lafungo and eventually the Kartel) and even Takashi joined us all the way from Japan on 2 separate occasions! To a man, they expressed that adapting to the PAL version was difficult and sluggish and they all shared the desire to compete in their native version at least once. Arguably the NTSC version is superior in some respects, even some PAL-ies think so, so that wish was not entirely born out of petty version chauvinism. Either way, the desire to have an NTSC CDM was created in our collective minds.
We had a taste of what NTSC competition would be like through the SNESOT website and the 2012 edition of the CDM; in 2012 we celebrated the 20th year since the release of SMK (and the 10 year anniversary of the Championnat itself) and hosted NTSC tournaments of every mode on the side. To my knowledge, this was the first time we competed on this version in an organised fashion and it sure tasted like more! Personally, I actually missed the multi-player tournos that were held on the Saturday, but did manage to bag the gold medal in the TT 1-tries despite a plethora of missed zoomstarts (thankfully I wasn't the only one missing them to say the least
). The Kartel joined the scene in 2015 (with 2016 being their first CDM) and the SMK landscape was forever changed (for the better). They brough a new spark that ultimately created the fire that would become the #ASMKC2019…when Kyle and Matt made these intensions known to the SMK public I was smiling from ear to ear.
Fast forward a little, Martin sent me a message somewhere in November of 2018 if I was interesting in going to Monroe for the tournament. He suggested to expand the trip and also visit Mexico (and specifically the Teotihuacan pyramid site during the spring equinox) right after. This was a great idea for multiple reasons, including relatively cheaper flights, the tournament + the equinox somehow being aligned within the same week and me never having visited Mexico before. So it didn't take long for me to get fully on board with that idea. The journey to Monroe would take us via Schiphol (Amsterdam), Mexico City and Houston. Even though it totaled over 24 hours of traveling, it wasn’t nearly as eventful as the journeys of any of the road-trippers detailed above. We had some beers at the various airports, tried to sleep on the planes (with the emphasis on tried) and that was about it. One thing to take away from the journey was the stack of newspapers located at the entrance of the airplane that would fly us from Mexico City to Houston.
Mario Kart prominently on the newspaper cover…we both reasoned that had to be a good omen for things to come (and it was)!
Arrival in the US and A….plus the announcement of a mystery guest…We had been informed by Matt that in the weeks leading up to the event the weather had been unseasonably cold for Louisiana standards, so we were surprised to be greeted by abundant sunshine and warmth upon landing. And this was not going to change, the entire time we were there the weather was pretty much 10/10. Matt picked us up and drove us back to the Kartel place. And what can I say? It’s what I imagined it would be and more…American sized house (one floor bungalow style), complete with a water fountain (Lafungo take note) and their very own beer tap complete with 2 kegs!
As Martin & me were the first arrivals (technically Leyla and Sami arrived the day before, but they were staying in a hotel near the venue) we got the first pick of the available bedrooms, though honestly premium bedroom choice didn’t matter much with the size of the place. I could sense we were going to be treated like kings indeed, exactly as Matt had promised on the Karthritis episode…We were quickly brought up to speed on the latest Duff & Harvey antics, the both of which would provide continuous fuel for banter throughout the weekend…It turned out Harvey was not planning to show up after all (major bummer!) and had sent his SNES + SMK cartridge & controllers to the Kartel for use during the tournaments, accompanied by a handwritten (cursive style!) letter. Seriously, who still writes in cursive after they leave primary school?! Harvey, that’s who!
The content of the letter was good too, including beautifully obscure Harvey-esque details such as how he once spilled a drink on one of the controllers which may or may not have contributed to its suckiness…Anyway, Matt rightly decided the letter was good enough to warrant a place on the Kartel fridge. I’ll talk more about Harvey’s setup later. Meanwhile, we were also informed of the trouble Clark & Joe ran into regarding the Bomb cyclone. Thankfully they had some buffer time, so we were still hopeful they would be able to make it to the start of the event the following morning. Drew’s travel plans were also becoming an increasing source of worry for those who wanted him to attend and show everyone who’s boss at Battle Mode. They had so far included a sketchy lift deal with a Craigslist serial killer and the bright idea to show up at the airport without purchasing any airplane tickets…Anyway, time for a Louisiana style dinner! Spicy crawfish for everyone, except me as I have crustacean food allergy. Not to worry though, Kyle’s mom had made a delicious casserole and I could have as much as I wanted hehe. She had also made a great banana cake, which served for everyone’s breakfast for the coming two days; Southern hospitality indeed, very good stuff!!
Meanwhile, during conversation Matt had dropped a hint that a mystery guest would be attending the ASMKC. His lips were sealed as to who it was, but he did provide us with a single clue…”all I know is, he’s pretty decent at Mario Kart too.” Matt’s smile said enough, whoever this guest was going to be, he/she must be a Super Mario Kart powerhouse. I’ll admit, pretty much all my money (96%...) was on it being ScouB. Out of all the top players who had considered attending (but ultimately announced they weren’t gonna make it), his plans had been the most advanced, including arranging a travel permit and passport. Also, ScouB would be the #1 favourite to win the event if he would show, so in a sense he had a lot to lose by not being there. I also entertained the idea of it being Guilherme Arantes or even Takashi somehow…I did
not however consider Guillaume a.k.a. Antistar a real possibility, as he had told me a few weeks prior that his colleague had taken that week off, putting the final nail in the coffin for his chances to attend. Mofo…
Saturday: ASMKC Day 1The next morning we pretty much went to the venue straight away after a quick shower & breakfast. The venue did not disappoint! Located in a swanky office building complete with indoor trees and foliage, this was going to absolutely suffice for us for the coming days. Joe’s posse had not arrived yet and of course neither had Drew (though both had posted updates), but I did get to finally meet Andrew Koltz and Nathan Stinson! Now both names I have known for a long time; in fact Stinson had already ceased to be active in SMK when I arrived in the community way back in 2003. But he was still active in the Elite (most notably through the VA meets) throughout all this time. Stinson is one of the early SMK legends and he told me that he was even very close to becoming immortalized via the SMK hall of fame that is known as the Past Champions page. In fact, he said he has probably been #1 for a few days, but never for an entire update. What is certain is that he has driven World Records on the Vanilla Lakes back in the days. Good track choice sir!
It was very nice to finally meet him in person.
The Stinsmeister & me
As for Andrew, all I know is that he had been around for many years already as well, sticking exclusively to Non-NBT all this time. Besides that he has one more thing in common with Simon Laflamme, the Godfather of Non-NBT. Andrew also writes detailed posts when he submits his PR’s, which I occasionally do as well when I feel like it. Keep doing that Andrew, we’re an endangered species! Very cool to meet you for sure! I also really enjoyed the Harvey’s neighbor anecdote when all you wanted to do was meet up and kart, it’s an instant classic! Halfway through the morning I heard a murmur at the office doors and sure enough, Joe, Vanessa and Clark had made it! And WTF……they had Guillaume in tow??! Boy, did I not expect him to show up! Joe’s description (in his excellent bilan) of my reaction was pretty funny, I can only imagine what my face looked like. I will say that my reaction was definitely amplified by how unexpected it was to see him there, all the way in Monroe. The pieces of the puzzle quickly fell into place: the mystery guest must have gone on the road trip with Team Joe, which is totally awesome. Another thing I realized is that there would be non-stop banter, mischief and positive energy with having Guillaume around for the entire weekend. Upon hugging Joe I got the feeling he had barely slept for 3 days, his eyes were bloodshot and he clearly needed some rest. This, more than anything, made the magnitude of their adventure clear to me. Thankfully, he and the rest of the road trip team appeared to recover very quickly. Mountain Dew, eh? One of the first things Joe did was shake my hand in person to congratulate me on the 11”63 GV1 flap, aka finally having caught the White Whale of Super Mario Kart. Without trying to sound overly dramatic, it dawned on me that this symbolized the end of an era for all of us.
Anyway, time for the competition to start (still no Drew though…)! The Kartel didn’t waste any time and Matt grabbed the mic to announce how the tournaments were going to go. Time Trial was going to be exactly like at CDM, with two exceptions. The final would be played over 3 tracks (total time) and the extended wall-ride (CI1) was not allowed. The latter was a little surprising, as to my knowledge it is allowed at PAL CDM. I wasn’t going to do it anyway though, too risky. The group stage would be just to warm up to the event and NTSC SMK…as we had 13 competitors, we were all going to qualify. Guillaume and me were paired on TV #1, the streamed station. I got the honor to kick it off and did a pretty solid set, starting out with a 57 on MC1 and a 1’10 on DP1 with one mistake. I decided to go for a 1/5 GV1 platform-jump race, because it was essentially a risk free shot at a Championship Record with no fear of being eliminated. Of course I crashed it. Lord only knows how Guillaume keeps pulling that off during PAL CDM 1-try competition. Looking at the result sheet, I got 10 out of a possible 20 temps scratches (competition bests…the disclaimer being that not everyone’s times were listed on the sheet posted so far), not a bad score! Some may turn out to be already hard to beat Championship Records, who knows. Now would be a good time to mention that I am certainly not writing all this down from memory. I’m using a little memory mixed with the results Kyle posted and the streamed videos. Guillaume’s turn was up and he took a 2-1 lead early on, driving a better DP1 and not trying the platform at GV1…what happened to his balls?! Actually they were definitely still there, he was driving very sharp lines, not shy of crashing on a lot of tracks. I got out ahead on the majority of tracks, also because of his risky habits. Anyway, here is the TT result sheet Kyle posted:
As everyone’s results were being processed, there was going to be a big break. I sat down to play some MC1 to entertain the Twitch audience (remembering the feedback dan__h gave us about the CDM 2018 stream) and keep the form. The form was there for sure, I got within PR distance quickly and even managed to improve it after a while! 56”32, a 0”02 PR cut and a #2 tie with Marisa (I should maybe write alleged #2 tie….I mean, the legitimacy of the reclusive Japanese master may, sadly, never be certain). Andrew K. was watching the action and seemed inspired to try his first steps in NBT land thereafter. I suggested he should also watch Sami play some Ancient Way later, surely as robotical as SMK playing can possibly get. Much to my amusement it was announced that I was actually playing on the cartridge of none other than Nicholas Harvey! Here the idea took shape to set a bunch of very strong times on his cartridge, just to mess with him a little bit and thank him for his support in our own messed up way. The Harvey Record challenge was born
Anyway, group stage results were in. Sami is typically the most consistent 1-try player around, so I fully expected him to win the group stage, especially with my failed GV1 exploit. To my surprise it was announced I was the winner of the group stage (in hindsight, calculate the totals on the sheet and you will find a different result actually).
Time for the Top-16 then. Or top-13. Whatever, only 8 players would progress next and the tracks were going to be GV1 and DP2. A risky draw as both tracks are relatively easy to drive cleanly. No more platform-jumps from this guy…My runs went smoothly and I was quite certain it would be sufficient for top-8, possibly qualifying as #1. The same could not be said for Sami, who was paired with me on TV1. There was nothing wrong with his driving at all, but he missed both his zoomstarts! I figured his driving sharpness would overcome this still, surely there would be 5 players getting worse times than him. Sami seemed devastated (which I can imagine, normally he’d be top-2 in this) and was taken back to his top-16 defeat during the CDM 2018, where ScouB, him and me were all knocked out early. He started pacing around the venue to check on other people’s results. In the meantime, Joe walked up to the stream TV and checked out the DP2 time: “Hey, at least I beat that guy”. Dude, ‘that guy’ was Sami! “No waaay!” It turned out Clark was also barely ahead of Sami and it also turned out I was wrong. Both Sami and Leyla were out! Pretty shocking, this really felt like Alphen top-16 all over again. The consequence of this being that Clark was now the official NTSC Time Trial one-try champion of the UK!
If he rubs that in half as many times as Lafungo did (and does) with his 1-try title of the Netherlands, I’d be impressed. We were all happy for Clark and cheered him on.
Zarkov nice!
Time for the quarterfinals: Andrew, Clark, Eric, Matt, Joe, Martin, Guillaume and me making up the top-8. I was hoping Matt would pass on and grab a medal here to immediately reward the Kartel for their awesome work here. The tracks were going to be MC2 and MC3, in short yet more Mario Circuit action! To Long Boost or not too Long Boost? Actually, for me that was never a question, I do not feel confident LB’ing this track in 1-tries at all. I just went safe and included more regular boosts than most people. The MC3 pipeboost was actually more tempting than the LB, but I think I left that one out as well. Both runs were pretty smooth, nothing crazy. Apparently it was enough to win the round again. 3 out of the 4 Europeans made it to the semis. Sadly, the Kartel members were out and Joe was left to defend the honor of the American continent. I was stoked Martin made it too, doubling the chance of a Dutchman in the final. Semifinals were played on MC1 and BC2. Considering I had just PR’ed on MC1 that was not a bad draw for me at all. Though BC2 can be tricky and was really going to determine the final result. I went flying out of the blocks with a low 57” 1-try, basically as good as it gets. Therefore I went very risk adverse on BC2, even taking a few yellow jump bars when I didn’t feel like facing the odds of the dreaded concrete drown. Scored a 1’42 in the end, like 1.5 seconds of safety margin compared to a more pushed 1-try. It was more than enough. Guillaume and I had made it to the final! The final would be played on KB1, CI2 and RR. That Rainbow Road was going to be the finale between Guillaume and I was the stuff of dreams. For years we have duked it out on this track in Time Trials, continuously fighting for the bragging rights of being the one true Rainbow God. First, Martin and Joe would play for the bronze medal on the same set of tracks as the final. It was hard to decide for me who to root for. Martin was my traveling companion and fellow Dutchie and Joe a lifelong friend (or at least it sure feels that way!). It was time to be neutral and just watch the action unfold. There wasn’t too much between the two on the first 2 tracks, though Martin had a slight lead already going into RR. Joe had started a little earlier though, so he still started RR first.
This gif sums up Joe’s Rainbow Road experience, however...
Things did not go well, he even got squashed. Martin finished well ahead of Joe, while having started the track later, and had already heard Joe laughing at his own mishaps throughout the race. Joe did in the end get the sub 2 min, but even that was a close call. Still a top-4 finish was not bad at all, especially coming out of such a tiresome journey. Martin was solid and calm under pressure as always, good stuff! So the 2 Dutchies had both made the podium then.
Time to see whether I would start off my ASMKC career with a silver medal (to establish a new streak) or with an actual win. But that will be for the next part, as I ran over the character limit with the current post.
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