01/31/2010: "Update of magical mystery"

Once upon a time....
New Players
Welcome to: Bastian "will bring you to the" Brinkmann, Jones "Koopa" Caspe, Martin "MR" Reichelt, Bert "and Ernie" Lejeune, Basty "The early bird" Wurmer, Will "Lithium" Linthicum, David "The Elf" Elster, Jonas "Rolling Stone" Moss, Andrew "will make you" Grieve

New Records
Cole Gilbert beat the old Luigi Circuit crs time of 1'09"435 with a time of: 1'09"397
Cookie Sancez beat the old Mushroom Gorge crs time of 0'40"681 with a time of: 0'40"367
Cookie Sancez beat the old Mushroom Gorge lap time of 0'12"009 with a time of: 0'11"953
Lee Duggan beat the old Toad's Factory crs time of 1'51"340 with a time of: 1'51"328
Ethan McCormick tied the old DK's Snowboard Cross lap time of 0'35"697 with a time of: 0'35"697
Nick Meade beat the old Maple Treeway crs time of 2'18"541 with a time of: 2'18"458
Tim Shelbourne beat the old Dry Dry Ruins lap time of 0'33"636 with a time of: 0'33"631
Alex Shoal beat the old DS Desert Hills crs time of 1'35"761 with a time of: 1'35"739
Andy Lundeen beat the old SNES Mario Circuit 3 crs time of 1'18"498 with a time of: 1'18"466
Brandon Sansui beat the old GCN DK Mountain crs time of 2'08"075 with a time of: 1'16"117
Tony Ruiz beat the old GCN DK Mountain lap time of 0'41"367 with a time of: 0'41"356
Cole Gilbert beat the old N64 Bowser's Castle crs time of 2'32"442 with a time of: 2'32"166
Nick Meade beat the old N64 Bowser's Castle lap time of 0'49"060 with a time of: 0'49"024

Movement
Unfortunately there's no magical mystery this week. I did see something move at the bottom of my garden earlier, but it was probably just the neighbours cat though and not elves. It's a nice cat, if a little tame. I once saw a bird taunt it by landing a few feet away and then flying back and forth to either side of it. I think the bird was trying to protect something as it was quite aggitated, and the cat eventually got bored and left. Awesome. Anyway, you don't need me rambling on about nothing. What you need are cool stats.

First cool stat of the week is that both #1 David and #2 Nick would have been champ this update, if the other one hadn't also played. But of course, they both did, so David maintains his slim lead from the previous update. It's still all to play for and I don't think we've seen the end of the battle here. Think world war 2 people. Chamberlain was all "peace in our time", and then one day Poland woke up and Germany was all like "sup", and Poland was all like "uhh". True story. This is what I have read in history books. Anyway, the moral of the story is not to take on Russia, cos it's stupidly cold there and they have a billion million people there.

Um. Everyone in the top 9 stayed exactly where they were last time around, with #4 Marc Bas the only one improving his AF with 10 PRs. Breaking into the top 10 this week is #10 Daniel Anderson, who chose the red pill like his brother. Neo never mentioned having a brother of course, cos he wanted Trinity for himself and Daniel was always stealing his wimminz.

The other people
#11 Jimmy Benson improved yet again and is knocking on the door of the top 10 this update. There isn't actually a door though, and he'll need to get past Neo's brother before he can get there. Sounds like a good movie. Apart from Jimmy, nobody in the 11 to 20 zone passed anyone else, but there were some signs of life with a few PRs thrown in from people.
In the 20s there's a group of players who have all been PRing well. #24 Eric Hacksell had another good week and finishing just a head of #25 Robert van Zanten. Robert, despite being passed, passed Lewis Benny. #26 Tony Ruiz also passed Lewis this week, which makes it a bad week for the former champion. In fact the only person *not* to pass Lewis this week was everyone else, so...yeah..that stat isn't really interesting, so we'll forget I mentioned it. *takes out amnesia revolver* One stat that is interesting though, and which defies the laws of nature themselves, is that even though Lewis didn't play at all..he didn't even look at his Wii, or even think about mariokart, he probably won't even read this update, and he was passed by 3 people. Even though all that happened, he somehow, managed to pass James Pierrepont. Such are the mysteries of the AF chart. Someone else who wants to pass Lewis soon is #29 Fabien Jacques. He moves a place closer, with 14 PRs. I'm getting sleepy so I'm going to write the rest tomorrow. It'll be Groundhog Day then, so I'll have plenty of time to write it.

I'm going to assume that nothing changed overnight and that things don't get too confusing as a result. So after 29th, it stays a bit quiet. An eerie quiet, like people are planning something and you're not invited. The first person to break the silence is #48 Daniel Both. He passes both Daniel Boettcher and Pierre Doffine. #50 Ricardo Costa breaks into the top half of the top 100, with a nice move from #56. 17 PRs for him. #51 Henrik Distel impresses even more with a 10 place move from #61, and netting 24 PRs and 2 butterflies. #58 Tim van Ham makes me hungry, and moves a spot in the right direction. The right direction is upwards. Don't look down. #67 Salvatore Bellusci continues on his way, with a nice 2 spot move, and luckily misses out being flattened by the epic move of the person behind him. That person is #68 Yorick Meeker. Yorick PR'd so much that he probably had to buy a replacement wii. With 57 PRs, Yorick passed a grand total of 98 players. Yeouch. Way to break into the top 100 from nowhere!
Next up is #71 Oliver "Please sir, I want some more" Martin. Oliver twisted past 3 players this update, already making decent progress since his appearance in the last update. Lurking menacingly behind him is #72 Biagio Macula, who stormed past 21 players and kicked them while they were down. That's what people get for standing in his way. #74 Bastian Brinkmann is our highest new entry to the AF chart. It's always impressive when anyone joins in the top 100.

#83 Joseph Knighton decided that he had a greater mission still, and after spending some time with the princess, continued his journey, leaving 2 players in his stead. Someone galloping at a much quicker pace behind him is #84 Max Anossow who somehow managed to get a hold of a horse. He's up all the way from 97th. #93 Alex Vandegrift is further solidifying his footing in the top 100, moving up 2 spots to guarantee his place for at least a few more weeks. Finally, #94 Du Bois once again breaks into the top 100, having slipped out of it a few weeks ago. With a 10 point AF gap to #100, he'll be safe for a while yet too.

When we get to the players outside the top 100, it becomes a little more difficult to maintain your position. New people arriving always tends to obscure upward momentum. #116 Andrew Manning pushed on despite this disadvantage and moved up 4 spots to finish just behind Nicholas Harvey who improved his AF, but dropped a couple of spots. #117 Simon Uldry and #120 Luke Berrill are both new entrants to the AF chart this week, completing their timeset with a full 64 submissions. The more people who do this, the better for the site as a whole. #123 Dexter Howe made great gains on those around him, dispatching 11 players without mercy. Only 1 person from #127 to #187 actually submitted anything this update, making it one of the least active places, and easiest to move up for anyone playing. #188 Adam Gilbert Pelling will hope it stays that way for the next while, as he rises another 11 places, after breaking into the top 200 last update. #201 Michael Rosnitschek finishes tantalizingly close to the top 200, with 34 PRs, and will be hoping to break into it by the next update. The only other 2 players to pass anyone this time out were, #257 Daniel Sampson and #266 David Castaneda. 17 PRs from both of them this time out.

Until next time...!