Author Topic: Finkel's Little Football Cookies Blog  (Read 10594 times)

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Offline rayfinkel

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Finkel's Little Football Cookies Blog
« on: October 30, 2019, 10:17:21 am »
Yo yo. Figured it would be a cool idea to pen some of my adventures with DK, the pursuit behind my latest PB and other miscellaneous ramblings. It'll probably be pretty long as I've never really written about my gaming life before. I don't blame anyone for not wanting to read this crap, haha.

I have been gaming all of my life. I'm 35, so my earliest memories came in the mid 80's with the Atari 2600 and Super Mario Bros. I can specifically recall being around 3 or 4 and watching my Uncle and his friend playing SMB1. I wanted to play it, but he said I wouldn't be able to get through the first level, so he made me play Duck Hunt, instead. I looked up to my Uncle my whole life - he was the best gamer I knew. I would always sit by his side as he ran through Ultima: Exodus, Hexen, Sim City and eventually Diablo, Ultima Online, etc. He's still the man, in my eyes.

Years would go by and many games would be played. During my early teens, I discovered Final Fantasy and, for a while, JRPG's were my life (I can't freaking wait for FF7 Remake in March!). I even created an online Final Fantasy 7 club over on Yahoo! that ended up getting a little over 2,000 members. I was super hardcore about FF and loved everything about it (and still do).

I did not realize that I was a competitive gamer at heart until the Halo series came out. That game changed my life in many ways. Xbox Live opened me up to an entire world of online competition that I hadn't seen before. By the time it came out, I was around 20. I devoted so much time to getting better at it. I would endlessly study the MLG pros. After a while, I became really good - good enough to at least win a couple of small online free-for-all and 1v1 tournaments. For some reason, though, I never fully applied myself and thus, I never went to any major MLG tournaments. It is one small regret I have, but, at the same time, I ended up making many friends through the game, so I do not regret my time spent with it. Even as of a few years ago, I was still fairly serious about it, but still never serious enough to take it anywhere special. I have a YouTube page with a couple of Halo-related videos on it, if you want to check it out. Nothing exciting.

I can remember the exact day I started playing Donkey Kong. It was July 22nd, 2018. I know this because, from day 1, I started taking screenshots of all of my personal bests and putting them in my "High Score" folder on my Desktop. To be honest, this wasn't the first time I had tried DK. About 2 years earlier was when I had downloaded MAME for the first time. I played it for maybe 20 minutes before calling it quits and letting it fall by the wayside.

What inspired me to try out Donkey Kong was the same thing that inspired a lot of people - the King of Kong doc-u-ment-ary film. I thought it was the coolest movie ever. I can't remember when I first saw it. It might have been around 2011 or 2012. Obviously, at the time, it did not light a spark in me to try the game out for myself, but it was a movie whose soul resonated with me and would eventually get me into the scene. Of course, knowing what I know now about the film and the characters involved, it's significantly different than it was when I first watched it.

So, July, 2018 comes around. I don't remember exactly why I said to myself, "let's give this another shot," but it must have been because Halo was dying and I was looking for something to be competitive in. Something that did not require teammates, had no online lag and whose outcome would be soly up to me to determine. I realized pretty quickly that I should have been competing in old-school games this whole time. They are exactly what I've been searching for!

Looking at my DK screenshots right now, my progress looked like this:

July 22, 2018 - Day 1. Highest score: 41,600.
July 28, 2018 - Day 7. Highest score: 72,500.
July 29, 2018 - Day 8. Highest score: 99,600.
July 30, 2018 - Day 9. Highest score: 106,300.
August 1, 2018 - Day 11. Highest score: 125,800.
August 14, 2018 - Day 24. Highest score: 171,400.
August 16, 2018 - Day 26. Highest score: 246,900.
Auguest 22, 2018 - Day 32. Highest score: 330,500.
Auguest 24, 2018 - Day 34. Highest score: 384,100.
August 30, 2018 - Day 40. Highest score: 482,800.

At that point, I stopped making screenshots and started focusing purely on INP's. On October 7th, 2018, day 77, I got as far as I ever had - board 21-5. Final rivets. And... I died. The final score was 881,700. I was pretty crushed but not to any significant degree. I had it in my mind that I could, at that point, recreate this same game any time I wanted to. 5 days later, October 12, 2018, day 82, I finally got my first kill screen with a score of 888,000.

It was at this point that I began to ask myself (as many of us have) what I wanted to do next with the game. I could go for 900k, 950k, 1m, 1.05m or 1.1m. I decided that I didn't want to improve gradually, piece-by-piece. I wanted to start learning all of the strategies that went into getting a 1.1 game from day 78. So, it began...

It wasn't long after I started doing that that I decided to stream my efforts. With this, I met many of you guys. I started becoming a fixture in everyone's stream. I wanted to soak up all of the DK knowledge I possibly could. I would play, practice save states, fail and then watch Serphy and Robbie and Wes and Dean and Thomas and JP and anyone else I could learn from. I would die to something new even when I thought I had every way to die mapped out in my head and I would turn to the best players to see how they would have handled it differently. I would visualize barrel boards and how to optimize combos while transitioning. I would literally fall asleep watching Serphy's gameplay - constantly searching for any clues I could find on how to get good at this game. I always believe that watching the best players in any field is the fastest, most efficient way to get good in that field.

After about 2 months of streaming and failing in my 1.1 pursuit, I decided to go offline and pay a visit to "The Island". I started chatting less and less in everyone's stream. I went "into the shadows", if you will. The truth is, I felt like I knew a lot about DK, but I did not feel in my heart that I had a score that qualified me to be able to talk about it at any serious level, so I didn't say much at all. You guys have probably seen me lurking like a creep in some of your streams. After talking to Lyriell yesterday, he said he thought Rayfinkel was a "bot", lmao. Love it!

The other reason I stopped streaming was because I realized that I no longer wanted to pursue 1.1 strats. I felt like it would be really fun and an even greater challenge to learn how 1.15 plays. With this came a massive amount of additional failure. Everything I did I failed at. In my heart of hearts, I believe that failure is the key to success. Not just that, of course, but how you respond to it. Some people get dejected and others are thankful. One of my favorite sports is competitive arm wrestling. One of the elite's in the sport is Devon Larratt. He is so used to winning and has been doing so for a long time. However, last year, he suffered a pretty brutal couple of defeats. In an interview, he said that losing was the best gift he could ever receive. It allowed him to open his mind to new possibilities - to receive new motivation and learning opportunities. That is exactly how I feel when I fail at DK. Yes, some deaths are brutal and you can't do anything about them. However, even the most brutal deaths have a lesson if you search for them deeply enough. Even the rivets have many lessons to teach if you're ready to receive them with an open mind.

7 months after my kill screen, I still hadn't cracked 1.1. I hadn't even touched 1 million, yet. I made the decision in May, 2019, to stop pursuing 1.1 and 1.15 strats for at least a week to see if I could hit the 1m mark. Sure enough, after some initial struggle (it is actually really hard to mentally unlearn 1.15 strats for the sake of 1m), I got my first million on May 12, 2019. Day 294.

After my million, it was back to the 1.15 grind. Months would go by and many INP's would be stored in my "Failed INP's" folder. On September 11th, 4 months after my first million, I cracked the million for the first time on 1.15 pace. 1044400. For weeks prior to this, I was starting to routinely hit 800k with multiple men in reserve. I just kept choking in the 800-900k range. Alas, I knew that the experience was much needed. The more I hit 800k on pace, the less nervous I got. It became "normalized", in a sense. Nothing beats end-game experience, in my opinion.

About 4 weeks after my 1044400, I cracked a million again. 1070000 on 1.15 pace was achieved on October 14th. Another heartbreaker - this time on board 20-5. A part of me wanted to cave in, but again, I took this as another notch of end-game experience under my belt.

On October 27th, 3 days ago, day 462, I finally came as close to my target as I ever had. 1142200. It wasn't 1.15, but it was enough for me to feel like I had finally achieved a big goal. It was a feeling of pure elation that I know many of you can relate to. Pure relief, honestly. When you fail so many times, even the most alpha and hardened people start to experience doubt creeping into their minds. I'm most likely not alpha and I do get unbelievably nervous near the end. I was elated and super stoked to broadcast my gameplay to you all.

When the stream went live, I was so happy to see so many of you there. I wasn't sure if anyone would really be interested in watching me play, so it was crazy when so many familiar names popped in. Having you guys in there was the best feeling. This community, as I said when I posted my score, is filled with some of the nicest, most genuine people I have ever met. Alas, I'm pretty thankful that Halo sucks nowadays, hahaha.

Anyway, if you've read this far, then I apologize for having wasted so much of you guys' time! Who the hell wants to read my nonsense? As far as what the future holds... I will probably take a short break from the game. It's actually kind of funny, though. Between my first kill screen and the beginning of this month (a full year), I had been using a PlayStation 3 controller for all my attempts. This past Saturday, I randomly bought a new mechanical keyboard (HyperX Alloy Core RGB) and, one day later, got the score. How stupid is that? This keyboard is amazing, though. Would highly recommend. Kinda makes me want to keep grinding just because it's brand new.

What I would really like to do, at some point, is buy a cab. I've reached out to a couple of you guys for deets on that. I am worried I will end up spending $1500 on a piece of trash haha. I don't want to talk very seriously about it quite yet, but very soon I am going to start considering it.

Thanks again, fellers. More to come. Also, I use Facebook quite regularly, so hit me up in a PM and maybe we can be franz.
« Last Edit: October 30, 2019, 11:14:04 am by rayfinkel »
DK Masters - Rank S DK3 Repetitive Blue Screener 1M on DK, DKJR, and DK3 Difficulty 3 Member for 5 Years DKJR World Record Holder - Arcade Former CK World Record Holder - MAME Individual Board Record Holder CK Killscreener DKJR Killscreener DK World Record Holder - MAME DK 1.2M Point Scorer Blogger DK 1.1M Point Scorer DK 1M Point Scorer DK Killscreener Twitch Streamer

Offline dollopuss

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Re: Finkel's Little Football Cookies Blog
« Reply #1 on: October 30, 2019, 11:05:33 am »
Incredible achievement in such a short amount of time! A true display of determination, perseverance and patience. Huge congrats, sir!
Member for 5 Years DKJR Killscreener DK Killscreener Twitch Streamer

Offline Lyriell

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Re: Finkel's Little Football Cookies Blog
« Reply #2 on: October 30, 2019, 07:29:04 pm »
Amazing attitude towards reaching your goals and beautiful work!

I can only imagine the sky is the limit...
Member for 6 Years DK 1.2M Point Scorer CK Killscreener DK 1.1M Point Scorer DK 1M Point Scorer DK Killscreener Twitch Streamer

Offline SithOfSpades

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Re: Finkel's Little Football Cookies Blog
« Reply #3 on: October 31, 2019, 08:05:47 pm »
That is an amazing progression. Congratulations on the big game. I can't wait to see what comes next.
Member for 5 Years DK 1M Point Scorer Blogger DK Killscreener Twitch Streamer

Offline rayfinkel

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Re: Finkel's Little Football Cookies Blog
« Reply #4 on: May 23, 2020, 04:33:04 pm »
Well, since I just PB'd, I figured maybe I'd update my blog, as well. Perhaps this is something I will do with every PB!

The other day, I had a bit of a breakthrough game and scored 1,184,000 but ended up dying after bottom hammer on 21-5. I was an absolute breath away from 1.2. I knew the math in my head for several levels but I was playing super cautious and (honestly) was very tight. I've paced 1.2 many times (I've even paced 1.24 after around L11 or so), but not beyond 950k. Alas, it is bittersweet as it is nice to get a PB, but not nice to fall short of my current goal, which is MAME world record.

Fortunately, while I didn't achieve my current goal yet, this game gave me a plethora of confidence. It made me realize I could manage the nerves reasonably well. In fact, my level 19 was my highest level @ 66,700. I'm super proud of that, more than anything. The game is completely different after you hit around L15 or so. More than anything, I need to keep going deep so I can experience more of those late-game pressures/fatigue/nerves. I feel like with a little more experience, 1.22+ can go down fairly soon.

First, though, is 1.21. That is my target and I will go after it relentlessly. Once I have achieved that, I will invest in a cab and try to push further ahead.

Thanks to everyone who has shown me support along the way. You guys are incredible. I hope we can all continue to encourage each other to go BBB. There is nothing cooler than seeing you guys set PB's and break records.

See ya on the streams.

Justin

Offline rayfinkel

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Re: Finkel's Little Football Cookies Blog
« Reply #5 on: April 30, 2021, 11:09:31 pm »
hmm... it seems i haven't updated this beast in a while. i suppose after last night's pb, now is as good a time as any, eh?

as many of you know, i broke 1.2 back in october. already almost 7 months ago... crazy how fast time flies. since then, i've been working myself to the bone trying to get into the 1.23+ range. every day is essentially the same. another set of games, another set of failures. but with each failure came the opportunity to learn new things. i'm a big believer that failure only exists if you give up. if you do not give up, you cannot fail. and i refuse/d to give up.

heading into last night's pb, i had been failing and getting back up a lot. i have never doubted myself, but i do put tremendous pressure on myself to succeed. sometimes, during long droughts, it can almost seem like your next victory may never manifest itself. you start to wonder how long it might take. days... weeks... months... years? dk is merely a video game, but i believe that pursuing high scores in this game and many others very much parallels our real life journey's, as well. the cost of getting better at anything is the same - passion, sacrifice, dedication and an unbelievable amount of resilience.

every day that i play, i try to set myself up to succeed. i exercise, eat well, supplement, read a lot and occasionally try to meditate (i should do this way more). i don't do these things just because of dk, obviously, but i believe they help immensely in achieving the optimal mental and physical state for high score pursuits. despite this, some of my absolute worst sessions have come when i was feeling 100%. on fire. can't make a mistake. in the zone. that's just how dk goes some days.

alas... the setbacks continued. but... my skills and abilities grew... even when i wasn't aware of it. with every mistake came a desire to never make that mistake again. with every period of terrible RNG came a chance to test my mental fortitude against conditions that were out of my control. with every game where i was pacing incredibly high came a chance to steel my nerves whilst my mind ran rampant with enormous expectations. with every low-pacing game... a chance to accept that it was okay to be behind and to challenge myself to catch back up.

last night, i went into my session feeling about 60%. in general, i probably drink too much caffeine, honestly. for my afternoon workout, i popped some C4 (preworkout drink) - the same kind i typically always drink. for whatever reason, it just didn't settle right and i spent the rest of the day feeling significantly worse. i remember thinking i shouldn't play dk... maybe i could just take the day off. but i didn't. instead, i popped two credits offline - both 140 starts. both losing men on level 5 and being forced to reset (i typically won't reset if i get a decent # of death points, but with 0 dp's, it's pretty brutal).

at that point, i took a mini break and then decided, what the heck - i'll just fire up the stream. streaming has always been a way for me to help motivate myself when the inspiration was lacking. i'm also lucky in that many people choose to stop in once in a while and cheer me on. to them, i am so grateful. it's always a blast hanging with the mates.

the rest, as is said, was history. it didn't take all that long to get a start going despite an early death on level 4. the entire game felt like my worst RNG of all time. i was complaining more than usual. but despite this, i still looked at it as a chance to endure and overcome. at the end of the day, i finished with a score of 1,218,700 whilst many of the mates watched on and offered their congratulations! the feeling, as many of you know, was euphoric. for a few brief moments after i entered my initials, i simply sat there, mic off, and broke down in tears a bit. that's the "passion" part i mentioned above. i have no reluctance to share that with all of you. i also had to pee really freakin' bad!

where do i go from here? probably a mini-break followed by some cab action! i suppose time will tell! gilly, you still got that cab buddayyy!?!?

anyway, i started writing up some shoutouts, but after 20 minutes of doing that, i decided i would rather not forget anyone. of course, you all know exactly who you are, so i assume that doesn't matter. just know that if i talk to you on the regular, i appreciate you more than words can sum up. y'all are the best. thank you. <3