Mario Kart: Double Dash!! Players' Page

Barack Stage

Alex @ Sunday, January 25th [link]

Movement

French sensation #37 Kouider Benarioua moved up another two places overall, passing Trystan Pugh and Rodolphe Gouet. In the 60Hz ladder, he passed Trystan for 21st place and will shoon challenge Tristan Eyma for 20th. He scored six PRs, which ranged from Myth to Hero (big range!).

#141 Tony Nguyen moved up six places, passing veteran #142 Matt Flees and catching up to karting dynamo #140 Alvin van Asselt. A small distance ahead of him, #130 Liam Stanton passed veteran #131 Arnaud Palierne and is catching up to karting powerhouse #129 Michael Fried.

#175 Jeff Tsang moved up seven places to reach Andrew Howes' previous position, but #171 Andrew was no longer there to greet him. The distance between them is only 2 AF pts. However, both are making their way toward the 60Hz top-100, with Andrew now 111th and Jeff 116th.

#314 Christopher Kelley made a big move, cutting 24 AF pts. This was enough to put him into the 60Hz top-250 (currently 232nd). His accompanying cut of 0.6 in ARR also pushed him over the Expert D barrier, making him the newest Expert. #345 Duncan Graves may try to do the same in the coming weeks; he is half-way through the Advanced A rank and 259th in 60Hz.

Newcomer #364 Sebastian Stellmacher smashed all of his initial PRs throughout the week. He cut 127pts in AF, which means that on average he improved each of his PRs by 130 positions. We don't think he'll be able to do that a second time, but once is still good. He skipped 2 ranks in ARR to reached Advanced A. Will he make Expert by next week?

Another five or so players were active, but didn't gain very much, although Leandro Schneider and David Moorhouse have lined themselves up to break a few barriers soon and may get a mention next week.

New Records

No new records.

New Players

Welcome to...

David Landry, Canada (506th, Advanced D).

Jay and Silent Bob Strike Barack

Alex @ Thursday, January 15th [link]

Movement

#39 Kouider Benarioua moved up 4 spots, passing the lieks of Stefan van Dijke and Sephen Meakings. He's the highest ranked player without a proof tick, but he showed us 2 videos in his most recent submission and may get a tick soon. In 60Hz, he passed Fernando to tie Trystan for 21st place, and in ARR he became a Titan+! smile

#110 Jivago Pacheco da Silva moved up 6 places, looking almost certain to reach the top-100 at some point. #147 Tony Nguyen continues his great run, cutting 14 pts in AF to reach the top-150 overall and 60Hz top-100 (now 91st). #150 Leandro Cavali, who was just passed by Tony, returned after a 4 month break to report 6 PRs -- he passed 6 players. In the same region, #182 Jeff Tsang moved up 6 places and took 120th spot in 60Hz.

#270 Rogerio Schneider passed 5 players, but it was in 60Hz where he achieved a milestone by breaking into the top-200, at 197th.

#355 Duncan Graves added another 29 positions to his big improvement from last week, passing the likes of Mark Jones and Nathan Stinson. He's now Advanced A, and could be Expert by February if he remains active.

#565 Kevin Cavanagh and #670 David Moorehouse continued their activity from last week, with Kev up 4 spots and David up 24 spots. David is approaching the 60Hz top-500, ending the week at 507th. Also active were #175 Andrew Howes, #216 Alvaro Fababu and #407 Leo Schneider.

New Records

No new records.

New Players

Welcome to...

Sebastian Stellmacher, Germany (484th, Advanced D)
Robert Lee, UK (~829, Beginner B)
Lauren Koenig, USA (~818, Beginner B)

You may already know Sebastian from previous kart games (hint: SMK top-10, MKSC champ), so he can go quite far if the game holds his interest. Robert only got the game six days ago, so he's getting used to it. Lauren is in the middle of the women. Both Robert and Lauren have sent in an incomplete timesheet so far, deferring a proper ranking.

Happy Birthday to any Barack Karters, dude... with an Atari!

Alex @ Thursday, January 8th [link]

Awards

Time to vote.

First is the Player of the Quarter for the final 3 months of 2008. It wasn't the most active quarter, but some of the candidates were pretty hard to separate. Vote here!
Second is the Player of the Year for 2008. This one is always tricky, because a year is a long time. This year I've narrowed down the candidates to 8. Being nominated is achievement enough. Some candidates were not here for the whole year, but did quite well anyway. Some were mostly beating their own times (which were already records). Some improved little by little, while some improved in chunks. I'm sure you can help decide who deserves it. Vote here!

(Don't try funny stuff to ramp up votes. I see all. Even things I'd rather not have seen.)

Movement

#43 Kouider Benarioua raced 5 new times to finalise his timesheet and debut in 43rd place overall (23rd in 60Hz). His ARR is now Titan A, and close to Titan+. Perhaps he can move up to Myth level! Is he secretly a Dutch person living in France?

#116 Jivago Pacheco da Silva passed 6 players and gained 5 positions overall (he lost one position to Kouider). He also passed 5 players in 60Hz to reach 67th.

#158 Tony Nguyen continues his big run, already scoring 25 new PRs to start the year. His 0.53 cut in ARR took him to a new tier: Hero D level. In AF, he jumped 22 positions to pull away from #186 Jeff Tsang and take aim at #131 Liam Stanton (scored 2 PRs). #186 Jeff gained 4 positions. Somewhere in between Tony and Jeff, #176 Andrew Howes improved by one spot. On the 60Hz ladder, Tony, Andrew and Jeff are 101st, 117th and 125th.

#275 Rogerio Schneider was active once again, perhaps spurred on by Jivago. He moved up 5 positions overall and a little closer to top-200 in 60Hz (202nd). He also reached Expert C status.

Newcomer #384 Duncan Graves, who joined last week, improved 27/32 of his times and moved up a huge 74 positions. In 60Hz, he broke the top-300 to finish 289th. Duncan became Advanced B, but perhaps he will shoot for Expert? Not far behind him, #411 Leandro Schneider, who gained 11 positions in the rankings, also became Advanced B.

Last but not least, #569 Kevin Cavanaugh moved up 9 places and #694 David Moorhouse moved up 7 places. David got the promotion from Beginner to Intermediate D.

New Records

No new records.

New Players

Welcome to...

Harry Vanner, UK (452nd, Advanced C).

Barack Christmas (yes, this is a real movie)

Alex @ Thursday, January 1st [link]

Double-week update to finish the year.

Movement

New player Kouider Benarioua debuts in a Titan B place. He is one of the guys from the French MKDD site and says he's been playing for half a year. Apart from missing WS times, he looks like top-50 material but is so far unranked. As a result, many people lost about 1.0 AF point... but didn't lose a position.

#130 Liam Stanton improved by 5 positions before Christmas, reaching 80th place on the 60Hz ladder and making the cut to become Hero C. #179 Tony Nguyen and #190 Jeff Tsang were the next active players down, with Jeff improving 22 positions to enter the top-200. Meanwhile, Tony moved up 18 spots to maintain a gap between them. Notably, both of them reached Expert A to end the year. Tony is already on the downhill to Hero.

#339 Chris Kelley picked up his controller after half a year away to score 10 new PRs in time for Christmas. A 15pt cut almost brought him to the 60Hz top-250 again, but he is now 254th.

A few others preferred to Mario Kart rather than party during the final week of 2008: Andrew Math, Kevin Cavanagh, Alienne Wan, Jivago Pacheco da Silva and David Schiering.

New Records

No new records.

New Players

Welcome to...

Kouider Benarioua, France (~50?, Titan B).
Duncan Graves, UK (458th, Advanced D).
Anna Kitor, Canada (~820, Beginner B). Anna hasn't sent in any lap times yet.