Words cannot express how thankful I am for everyone's support.
My road to a 1.1 score was paved with tragedy. When I hit 1.045m in DKO4 I was already playing way below what I was actually doing in practice. Roughly a month after DKO4 I scored the 1.0995m, which was heartbreaking in and of itself.
After the 1.0995m I had twelve or thirteen games that crossed the 900k mark on pace for 1.1, but due to extreme anxiety or lack of confidence I just was never able to seal the deal.
Starting last Friday, I began a complete relook at how I approached pie factories and rivets. After this relook, my success rate on these boards has increased astronomically. On Monday, I had the 1.0993m game where I got about 850k on a single man. On that game, I really cut my start down (only about 120k) and I really cut my pace down, and that is the reason why that game did not break 1.1 million. I was zoned out most of that game, and for the most part was completely relaxed as it was well under the pace I do in offline practice.
Yesterday I decided not to cut my start as much (128k+) and not to cut my pace as much (58.5k+ the majority of the game). I still felt completely relaxed at this pace and entered L19 with a 59k+ level average. At that moment I "woke up" and realized if I just finished the game it would be 1.1. Anything higher than that was a secondary achievement, so I purposely dropped over 16k points in the last three levels of the game to err on the side of caution.
I could not have done this without everyone's well-wishes and encouragement. I had an extremely strong support system of friends, family, and fellow players to get here. I would love to list names, but there are literally so many people who have helped me along the way I don't believe it's possible to list everyone without leaving someone out, and I believe that is a great gift worth stating. I had seriously convinced myself I would be retiring only just a bit over a week ago, but I see now that was a huge error in judgment. After I pulled that statement, I was able to reapproach the game with a restored sense of humility and respect.
I plan on taking a week or two off, and during that time I'm going to be hard at work getting my control panel in a state where I'm finally happy. After that's done, I'll be switching to arcade and will begin pursuing the world record full-time. I'm playing well above WR pace in offline practice, and I am 100% certain I'm capable. I consider Robbie a great friend. I completely credit a lot of his advice and techniques for helping me get to where I am today. He is both a great player and a great person, so I want to make it absolutely clear that any type of score-chasing rivalry that happens is not a personal thing I have with him in any way and is more done out of humor (ie - my avatar). With that in mind:
I believe having two players sparring for the record (Billy vs Steve, Hank vs Vincent) is essential in maintaining a competitive and healthy atmosphere for the game, and while others may have let this one sit on the shelf, I will not.
