I would say that 8 out of the top 9 are there simply because their mental abilities are much stronger than the rest of the population.
Are you trying to break my world record for most Vincent Lemay insults?
Maybe.
LOL you sussed out who my 1 in 9 was!
OK, I'll explain my rubric, and why I picked Vincent Lemay out as the bright (120 IQ), but not near genius level intelligence (140/150 IQ and up)
1st) I eliminated those that had Phd's. So Hank Chien was out.
2nd) I eliminated those who got a very high score without playing the game a ton of times. That eliminated Jeff Willms, Robbie Lakeman, and Phil Tudose.
3rd) I eliminated those who got a significant score from other games without playing those games that much. That eliminated Dean Saglio who has done great at Zookeeper while rarely playing it.
4th) I eliminated those who have done great at this game without help that people in the current day have. So that eliminated Steve Wiebe, and Billy Mitchell.
5th) I eliminated those with amazing scores on other games. Mark Kiehl's 1.4 million score on Donkey Kong Junior is simply amazing, and so I eliminated him.
So that left Vincent Lemay who has played this game a ton of times, with no Phd, with no amazing scores from other games, and who has had help along the way to his great Donkey Kong score. Finally there was one major thing I remember Vincent saying that made me single him out. He had trouble with Donkey Kong literally for months early on without any significant progress.
But I don't think of this as a bad thing. He in my mind is a hero to the non near genius gamer. The guy who proved that through a lot of dedication, and perseverance that one can have one of the highest scores of all time on the most competitive classic arcade game out there. If this was tennis he would be David Ferrer. If this was golf he would be Vijah Sing. People who were not known as the most talented people in their field, but were known as the hardest workers in their field, and were able to have tremendous success through their hard work.