Donkey Kong Forum
General Donkey Kong Discussion => The Kong Off => Topic started by: RichieKnucklez on March 15, 2019, 01:10:48 pm
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You guys all know I’m not an internet guy. Seldom hang out on forums. Facebook and Instagram is my only window into the cyber world. I just wanted to say it saddens me when I hear secondhand that people are bad mouthing me and the event I work so hard to give back to the community. I have never disrespected anyone on this site ( maybe Wes, but that is another story ) Jeff has always been a big help for me and he will be missed at Kong Off seven. Even though the attendance by most of the best players Is going to be weak, we are going to do our best to put on a great show. The space they gave me this year is limited and I could only fit 12 but I have another 10 spares in case a game goes down. I am even more saddened how the community which was once so strong has been split down the middle due to ( The elephant in the arcade ) . All I ask is going forward if anyone wants to participate in the Kong off please contact me directly at richie@Richieknucklez.games . I would like to start the healing process, and bring any Arcade contest to a higher platform. With all of the duties I have to perform the streaming is being handled by Billy Junior and Jason Spindler with the help of Dan Dejardins over the phone. i’m sure we are all going to have fun, like we have in the past I just wish none of this would’ve ever happened so I’d see faces like Vince Lemay, Steve Wiltshire, Dean Saglio, etc. for me it’s all about having fun (and selling marquees! Lol) I myself have learned to not take the little things so serious. I don’t want to die because of a stress induced heart attack. Especially over a Monkey and a plumber. I wish everyone the best and I hope you tune in .
Richie Knucklez
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I’d be playing right now if they’d let me in. :)
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Wait, so you have only 12 because they are limiting your space? That's worse than anything I imagined. I thought it was by design or that you sold off 10, and only had 12 this time around.
As far as the tournament. I'm 100% supportive. I don't care who attends. I just like competition, and if the event brings about competition I'm going to watch it.
I'm excited for the streams, and know just like every year there will be some big moments. Should be fun to watch. 8)
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Thanks George, Your kill screen last year was one hell of a way to kick off the event
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Watched the setup stream last night until just after midnight, looking forward to it starting man; thanks for investing so much time and energy.
Be well,
-Mitch
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I don't know there is drama coming from both sides like when you called dkf the lonely losers club but who knows maybe one day we can all get along like a perfect world. in any case hope the event goes good
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Richie,
Always been a supporter and believer in your arcade work. I'm always excited to see events regardless of who is putting it on. Even if <Pigger> were to run an event outside of his basement pit I'd support it.
I haven't seen anyone badmouthing you on this site. I have seen Billy and Jr saying all sorts of shit about everything and everyone on various twitch streams. Get them to become welcoming members of the community as a good start to building bridges.
I wish the best for you, your family and the event.
-j
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I never called anyone lonely losers club in fact if you watch the stream I peeled off stickers that someone put on the cabinets that had LLC on them. I try to rise above this bullshit. Please try to get your facts straight. Jason Spindler, what was my reaction to seeing LLC stickers on my cabinets? One of the only times in recent years i let my anger get the best of me
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Hi Richie - thanks for making KO a reality year after year. What happened last year had to happen, but I agree that going forward we shouldn't lose sight of community and shared love of arcade competition. Still have my KO2 marquee, can't believe we're at 7! Cheers
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i havent seen anyone hear bash you richie. The worst against you was briefly after the whole button gate thing, and that was very very mild and not at all recent. It sounds like you havent seen it either since you heard second hand. Can i ask who told you? Let me guess, billy is lying to your face again trying to tear people apart. yes, billy and son have gotten bashed here and they deserved it for the bashing they did. Whoever is lying to you is just trying to make trouble for you. You're a really likable guy, and even when tempers rise theres still the desire to get along with you. The person lying to you about others bashing is just a hateful person trying to stir up trouble cause thats all he can do to make himself feel good about himself.
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Jeff Wolfe put up a million and Robbie has an 800+ game as well. Ethan Daniels is about to show us all wassup.
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While I would hope that everyone involved would be respectful to each other and adult, you do have a proven cheater endorsing your competitive tournament. There's no call for ugliness in any manner, but it's safe to say that all will not be well with the community unless this is resolved in a better way. Either the competitive nature of these tournaments needs to become less serious and more fun loving, or certain people need to come clean and apologize.
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While I would hope that everyone involved would be respectful to each other and adult, you do have a proven cheater endorsing your competitive tournament. There's no call for ugliness in any manner, but it's safe to say that all will not be well with the community unless this is resolved in a better way. Either the competitive nature of these tournaments needs to become less serious and more fun loving, or certain people need to come clean and apologize.
To be honest, I do think the competitive nature has actually become less serious, and fun loving when it comes to the Kong Off. The reason being is the competition is simply not as strong as in years past, and the prize money isn't as big. So it's a much more relaxed, and fun atmosphere.
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so Richie you want to reunion the community but now you are blaming dkf for not inviting John McCurdy when he says he don't give a fuck about the event but you said he has a hard on for you ROFL how about you stick to your guns and actually try to make an effort to fix the relationship with dkf and top players instead of throwing salt on the wound
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Should not have said DKF, it was up to Jeff and Dan. I misspoke but they did use DKF to field the players.
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Should not have said DKF, it was up to Jeff and Dan. I misspoke but they did use DKF to field the players.
It was actually Eric Tessler who did the invites for KO4. I was a contestant and it was Eric who notified me I had a machine.
I did the invites for KO5 and 6.
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In fact i’d like to know why he was not invited to Kong Off 4. jeff Harrist? Your take on the situation?
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Bam! I think you are correct. Why didnt anyone at 4 or 5 or 6 ever
Even mention the player? I had no idea he even existed until the whole
Him Buying Robbie’s board cuz the board performance was in question
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The bad blood went down for Kong Off IV. McCurdy was a MAME player. Hence the bad blood.
Remember this though. McCurdy is semi anonymous. So unless he was going to appear in a wrestler mask, I doubt he'd appear at any event.
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Got to love Damage Control ROFL
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There was a lot of talk last night about some kind of shortened games at the next Kong off. Possibly only playing up to a certain level or a time limit. I wouldn't have any interest in playing, attending or watching the stream if that happens.
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lol
You willingly deceive yourself. The evidence was crystal clear. You run a bastard event. It is a meme.
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Here's a reference of the top Kong Off scores compared to the top Australian Kong Off scores.
Kong Off 7
1. Jeff Wolfe 1,011,900
2. Robbie Lakeman 830,500
3. Billy Mitchell 810,500
4. Eric Tessler 729,100
5. Billy Mitchell Jr 728,500
6. Ethan Daniels 715,400
7. Dave Clark 603,100
8. Duke 462,400
Australian Kong Off 2
1. Ethan Daniels 848,300
2. Allen Staal 722,600
3. Johnny Bonde 666,900
4. Shane Sawle 646,700
5. Estel Goffinet 472,100
6. Andrew Barrow 466,800
7. John McNeil 437,900
8. Jay Mac 408,800
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It would be great to see the community not so fractured I agree. Just going to take some work to get there I hope.
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What a drop off in quality. Here are the #8 scores from each Kong Off.
KO1: 817,800
KO2: 901,900
KO3: 1,020,700
KO4: 1,009,000
KO5: 993,500
KO6: 877,300
KO7: 403,600
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No doubt that lack of turn out affected the field of players. I heard Billy Jr say on stream (think Richie has said the same elsewhere) that KO 8 will be in NJ. I wonder if east coast location will permit more players to attend? Time of year would be a factor too naturally. He also said there might be a year pause before staging KO8, Richie may have more to add.
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Perhaps its location, but I think it has more to do with lack of interest and a lot of bad blood with the people who run the event. You can't expect a good turnout when the people who run the event take a dump on the community/high level players. Why would anyone want to take time off work to support the event at this point. Location change might help, but they have to do some honest patch work with players and the community.
Here were the location and dates of each Kong Off, I don't think location has anything to do with it because the last Kong Off in CA had some high level scores. You have drop off due to the event being 8 years old and people moving on + a total toxic environment created by a group who help bankroll the thing. Unless Robbie and Billy teach friends on how to play, I don't see the event improving.
(https://i.imgur.com/PgNrysT.jpg)
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Thanks for the updated location stats - definitely some intense high score competition in the east and the west previously, suggesting that location is less of a factor as you argue.
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On the positive side the stream quality is somewhat higher then years past.
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Five times already either Neil or Billy has to go on stream and ask "Have we had to ban anyone yet?" "Did we ban anybody yet"
That's the sign that you're running a toxic event. I've never watched a comeptive video game stream where the hosts have to ask "Did we ban anybody?"
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403,600 Maybe I did not deserve to be in the Kong Off, but I was there put up a score and had a blast. I'll continue to play a game I love and improve my scores and I'll be at Kong Off 8.
Spindaddy
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You did great! kong off is not about score/winning its all about meeting the mates in the community and have a blast! Winning / getting a huge score is just bonus.
You wont remember the score but the people you met <3
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You did great! kong off is not about score/winning its all about meeting the mates in the community and have a blast! Winning / getting a huge score is just bonus.
You wont remember the score but the people you met <3
This is why I'd prefer guys like Billy Mitchell not be at the Aussie Kong Off - the first two have been great, we do not need, nor want the controversy that comes will Billy attending.
I'd love to meet Walter, but his attitude is that he won't attend without Billy, then my attitude is I'm sorry I never got to meet Walter.
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It has to do with how many people were there spindaddy. Once people realized that they were in and there wasn’t anyone there who could even theoretically knock them out, they stopped unless they cared about their seed.
I cared about my seed a little, but was perfectly happy with Lakeman. Definitely not the match I imagined, as I was going for a late game point pressing battle after we both ran boards for about 15 levels, since a point pressing war hasn’t been seen since kongoff 5.
And to UKP - I personally think that the current format penalizes the aggressive players and favors the board runners. A match ending on level 7 or 9 would allow for consistently aggressive high level play, instead of getting to watch a 1.24 player run boards and hope for bad fireball rng to make someone scramble and make it exciting for the wrong reasons. When I was up a few men and a few thousand points, I was thinking that it would be more telling if we were both going for 65k levels and the skill levels would be apparent. Any non-kong expert would likely have deduced that we were about the same caliber of player and I flinched first when in reality I’m the guy that would lose all of his men in one level replicating Robbie’s tactics.
Like, I understand the argument that this allows a lot more people to have a chance by normalizing the optimal strategy, but “being able to run boards†isn’t really a skill that is valued much. At least by me. It just makes us all tourists.
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Like, I understand the argument that this allows a lot more people to have a chance by normalizing the optimal strategy, but “being able to run boards†isn’t really a skill that is valued much. At least by me. It just makes us all tourists.
And when the Aussie Kong Off becomes more about players not attending because they know they have no chance at winning - i.e point pressing is more important than just running boards so you can qualify higher, and winning the title and prize money is valued more by the player over hanging out with mates and having a great weekend, that is when I'll stop going to Aussie Kong Off's.
Finding the best player at a Kong Off/Aussie Kong Off/Any Kong Off is always important, but not at the expense of friendships.
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I’d assert that shorter higher paced games are better for friendships so you don’t blow 2-3 hours at a time for each score you put up.
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I’d assert that shorter higher paced games are better for friendships so you don’t blow 2-3 hours at a time for each score you put up.
You're probably right and it's something event organisers in Australia are already talking about.
As great as the Kong Off events have been - it seems like they have run their course in the USA - the KO7 was pretty disappointing tbh in terms of the number of top players who didn't attend. I can't as an Australian answer the "Billy" factor in stopping players going - but I do strongly suspect that he will have little to no influence if "they" fly him to Australia for the 3rd Aussie Kong Off - the main contenders just do not want him there - though they'll probably attend regardless.
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Richie, I just saw your appearance on the East Side Dave show this Tuesday night - usually appearing on that show is a bad idea, nothing good ever comes of it. You dropped in here talking about “healing†the community, but then as the lead organizer of the Kong Off, you appear on the show and cast shade on McCurdy and state that you don't even know the name of the guy who got the WR during KO7, that he's some “anonymous guy†who plays from home, won’t play live at KO, that you don't even know if McCurdy was using MAME or not, and then provide the disclaimer “And just so there isn’t any hate on me, I haven’t seen the tape, I only heard about the tape, no comment.†Then why comment at all, although I thought there might have been the chance it came up with Robbie? And considering that your DKF account was last active three days ago, and McCurdy's name and score went up on the landing page by the day after KO7, your diss about the "no name guy" is just plain awkward and bad form overall. You extend an invitation for McCurdy to appear at KO8 here and there during the show, but then quickly state by then Robbie will be 100,000 points ahead of him anyway. Frankly I’m not sure why he’d want to bother given that you haven’t met the guy but you apparently have already made up your mind about who he is. I get that you're friends with Robbie, but if you’re going to call for healing, you really shouldn’t be in there throwing sucker punches at McCurdy - Lakeman and McCurdy can handle their own rivalry.
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That is really disappointing. It seems to me, from the outside, that Richie & Billy camp truly believe that any press is good press, and that conflict is the path to keeping them in the spotlight, rather than the opposite.
Richie, I just saw your appearance on the East Side Dave show this Tuesday night - usually appearing on that show is a bad idea, nothing good ever comes of it. You dropped in here talking about “healing†the community, but then as the lead organizer of the Kong Off, you appear on the show and cast shade on McCurdy and state that you don't even know the name of the guy who got the WR during KO7, that he's some “anonymous guy†who plays from home, won’t play live at KO, that you don't even know if McCurdy was using MAME or not, and then provide the disclaimer “And just so there isn’t any hate on me, I haven’t seen the tape, I only heard about the tape, no comment.†Then why comment at all, although I thought there might have been the chance it came up with Robbie? And considering that your DKF account was last active three days ago, and McCurdy's name and score went up on the landing page by the day after KO7, your diss about the "no name guy" is just plain awkward and bad form overall. You extend an invitation for McCurdy to appear at KO8 here and there during the show, but then quickly state by then Robbie will be 100,000 points ahead of him anyway. Frankly I’m not sure why he’d want to bother given that you haven’t met the guy but you apparently have already made up your mind about who he is. I get that you're friends with Robbie, but if you’re going to call for healing, you really shouldn’t be in there throwing sucker punches at McCurdy - Lakeman and McCurdy can handle their own rivalry.
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Haven't watch it, was this the same cringe worthy show that Billy showed up on when he first got accused of cheating? Such a dirt ball group of people. I can't blame the top talent not showing up to these things anymore. Don't support this shit, its past its prime and the folks promoting it are pretty rotten to the core these days. I hope McCurdy or anyone else just continues to push these scores higher from home and turn their back to this shit. The top guys on this forum could do what the NES runners do, run an annual Best of Kong. Take the format of Best of NES https://bestofnes.com/marathons best players stream their games and best score in a 2-4 hour period wins. Or have them all play at once and do a Knockout tournament. You really shouldn't support someone shitting on players like they do.
Richie, I just saw your appearance on the East Side Dave show this Tuesday night - usually appearing on that show is a bad idea, nothing good ever comes of it. You dropped in here talking about “healing†the community, but then as the lead organizer of the Kong Off, you appear on the show and cast shade on McCurdy and state that you don't even know the name of the guy who got the WR during KO7, that he's some “anonymous guy†who plays from home, won’t play live at KO, that you don't even know if McCurdy was using MAME or not, and then provide the disclaimer “And just so there isn’t any hate on me, I haven’t seen the tape, I only heard about the tape, no comment.†Then why comment at all, although I thought there might have been the chance it came up with Robbie? And considering that your DKF account was last active three days ago, and McCurdy's name and score went up on the landing page by the day after KO7, your diss about the "no name guy" is just plain awkward and bad form overall. You extend an invitation for McCurdy to appear at KO8 here and there during the show, but then quickly state by then Robbie will be 100,000 points ahead of him anyway. Frankly I’m not sure why he’d want to bother given that you haven’t met the guy but you apparently have already made up your mind about who he is. I get that you're friends with Robbie, but if you’re going to call for healing, you really shouldn’t be in there throwing sucker punches at McCurdy - Lakeman and McCurdy can handle their own rivalry.
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I like the idea of having a format where every game matters, and the bracket really captured that. I would take this even further into the qualifying. I would make it something like 4 quarters total points. Doing the bracket in 1 day with the length of the games also makes it a long watch. Cutting the games down to like level 10 might be good too. Maybe full games for qualifying shortened for the bracket.
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I know the members of DKF are an expert audience, so this article won't be revelatory, but I wanted to share it here as a reference for the curious and those that might visit this thread in the future.
https://www.twingalaxies.com/feed_details.php/4832/jeff-wolfe-john-mccurdy-are-the-new-kings-of-kong/25
During the week that followed KO7, I noticed that TG hadn't pushed a story out about the events. That didn't feel right given that it was a natural place of course for classic gaming / retro gaming news in the past in lieu of esports, so I approached Jace about possibly writing an article - he said give it a go, so I wrote it late Sunday night/Monday. It's not the most detailed article in capturing the various moments of KO7, but I didn't know I'd be writing something at the outset of watching KO7. My main goal was to get something in TG's hands quickly while hopefully doing justice to overall story. Cheers
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Haven't watch it, was this the same cringe worthy show that Billy showed up on when he first got accused of cheating? Such a dirt ball group of people. I can't blame the top talent not showing up to these things anymore. Don't support this shit, its past its prime and the folks promoting it are pretty rotten to the core these days. I hope McCurdy or anyone else just continues to push these scores higher from home and turn their back to this shit. The top guys on this forum could do what the NES runners do, run an annual Best of Kong. Take the format of Best of NES https://bestofnes.com/marathons best players stream their games and best score in a 2-4 hour period wins. Or have them all play at once and do a Knockout tournament. You really shouldn't support someone shitting on players like they do.
Yes, it's the same show that Billy appeared on following the presentation of xelnia's updated evidence package.
I think the DKF community already does something along the lines of Best of NES? Or at least I came across some older threads with an on-line format that echoes what you suggested.
For me personally, I think the overall balance has been that the KOs have had a positive impact on the DK scene and traditionally KO has been a season "highlight" for the community. I think like religion and politics, maybe there's a point where people can participate in the event knowing we're going to have a fundamental disagreement over what Richie called "the elephant in the arcade" and therefore agree not to dwell on or talk about it for the duration of the KO. That said, there might be other "background factors" surrounding KOs that I'm not aware of - as you can tell from my post count, I'm not a veteran member of the community, there's only so much I can glean from the shoutbox so maybe in all honestly there's more fault lines at play here. In terms of future KOs, I guess the community will vote with its feet.