Calling KO1'ers

[LMDAVE]

Just curious what the DK status is of the original KO1 players now (other than Steve & Billy). Seems most have either retired or still giving it a rest. Any of you guys still playing, or trying to up your PB, or plan to get back into it again sometime? I haven't jumped in on Dean's latest streams, but see he goes online everynow and then....is he trying for something?

Dean?
Hank?
Vince?
Ross?
Marky D?
Eric H?
Ben?
Kyle?

Dave? Well, I'll answer for myself, I find it harder and harder to start a session. I want to up my PB again (1.1M+), but if I don't get game going within 20-30 minutes I'm quick to turn it off. So many other non-gaming things going on.

[Xermon54]

Vince? I'm relatively done with Donkey Kong. By "relatively", I mean that I will most likely not try to up my personal best, nor try to break the record again (at least in a near future). But I will obviously still be in touch with the kongers on this forum/Facebook/twitch for the rest of my life 

Since my 1,135,900, I don't have any pleasure in playing Donkey Kong anymore. But I will still enjoy playing from time to time some 1-1 or 5-1 savestates level on MAME! Yer buddy!

[cheetah33p]

So Vince is now saying that he won't even try to beat his PB and even try to come close to Hank at all?  Being only that 2,700 points behind?  Why would you give up on something that you are that close to?  Even if it would be for a WR?  So I guess Vince is now saying that a WR isn't that important or beating Hank is that important anymore?  I sure wouldn't give up that easily if I knew I was that close to trying to beat someone for a score like that!  I would keep on trying and "Not Giving Up!"  But I guess thats just me!  I'm sorry I'm posting this but if this is anyone else who would be this close to actually getting a WR in Donkey Kong for Arcade give up this easily if they knew they were only like 2,700 points away from doing it!  Even if it would be a fun competition with the #1 person like Hank!  But again thats just me!  I just wanted to hear some other opinions from some other people on this matter and what they think about it!  :-).  I don't mean anything bad or wrong by this!  I was just saying what was on my mind!  I just wouldn't give up on a goal like that!  I would just keep on working towards it!  Like I did my first KS!  I never gave up that easily and kept on working hard towards finally getting one!  Why would you even bother to go to a Kong off then and actually compete then?  There wouldn't be any use of going if you aren't really willing to actually try your best when you go there!  But again this is just me! 

[lakeman421]

I can see why players like Ross and Vincent wouldn't have any desire to up their scores and get the record.  They have been playing for at least 5 years and the game can get tiring after a while.  I've been playing for just over 2 years and lose desire and want to do or play something else sometimes.  Once you are trying to play at 1.15 pace, you start playing 1-1 through level 5 way too much and get no where and it can be frustrating.  I still play because I feel more than capable of getting at least 1.1 and even a shot at the record.  I have thought about this on a daily basis if I were to get a 1.1 or even come close to the record what I would do afterwards and at the very least I would take a long break from the game, then maybe go for the record again.

[ChrisP]

Jason, Vincent has said that he considers Dean's 1.2 to be the world record, and that there's no way he will ever beat it. So beating Hank or getting the "arcade world record" may not be particularly important. (Ross feels the same way about MAME vs. arcade.)

And just because Vincent is close to Hank on the scoreboard doesn't mean he's close, in terms of time and effort, to getting a score like that a second time. It took him weeks of hardcore play to get that 1,135. It would probably take weeks to match it. Maybe even longer, since he's out of shape on DK.

Running boards to get a kill screen is one thing, but playing at super-high pace is grueling and draining and frustrating and really time-consuming. You have to really want it.

It would be one thing if it were a guarantee that Vincent could beat his PB in a day, but that's not how DK works, especially for a really high score. Vincent beating his PB would actually involve some serious time and effort. The higher your score gets in DK, the harder it becomes to duplicate or pass it. At some point it stops being interesting. That point is gonna be different for everybody, but it looks like Vincent is at that point.

Actually, at least from my perspective on everybody, it seems that all the players on Dave's list (except maybe Ross) have reached that point!

Dean got the 1.2, Hank seems to either be uninterested or is waiting for someone to beat him, Ross is a "we'll see", Mark Kiehl looks to be happy with his score and would rather play other games, Eric Howard disappeared from CAG completely, certainly DK at least, Ben wants 1.1 eventually but isn't fired up about it, and I have no idea about Kyle.

(Curious how right I am on all of that...)

[marky_d]

No, I still play but maybe once a week. And, like Dave, if I have a rough time getting a start going I usually just stop. I'm definitely not happy with my pb as I feel I'm a little bit better of a player now. I do want to get at least 1.1m before I put it away for a while, but yeah not real fired up about it though.

[marinomitch13]

It's funny thinking back to how I was basically a click away from going to the KO1. I found out about the KO1 literally a day before it was to happen (on TG's old site). At the time, I was a 370K PB player, but I felt I could have a breakout 500K+ game any moment. I filled out the flight info and got a price and everything, but I ultimately felt that my skill at that moment didn't merit the money -not to mention I basically knew no one in the community at that time. It wasn't until maybe 5-6 months later that I discovered twitch via the very indirect means of looking up Dean's "up2ng" handle from his TG account on google ( didn't even know about the impromptu streamers thread at that time -which would have made me connect the dots a lot sooner). Even though I didn't go, I ended up watching basically every minute of the KO1 stream live online. I was there in spirit. Was pretty cool. Fun to reflect back upon.

[Xermon54]

I could always beat the arcade world record, and feel happy of having the "Donkey Kong world record", but then again, Dean has an unachievable score of 1,206,800 on MAME. I ain't gonna beat that 

But I would've enjoyed doing the same I did last year: Spending like 2-3 weeks at a place in USA and only play Donkey Kong during that amount of time (I did that in Denver in January 2013, and it actually only took me 10 days to get 1,135,900). I definitely think I could get 1.15m+ withing 2 weeks. If I wanna do a new high score one day, this is the way I wanna do it, since I enjoy more playing Donkey Kong for a short amount of time, but very intense aboot it and at a "live" location.

But with a baby, an important job and a girlfriend... I don't think it will be easy to do that again!

And honestly, after everything that has happened to me for the past 5 years because of DK, it definitely exceeded my expectations. I could really not ask for more   

Let's remember that even if Donkey Kong is a relatively very popular game, it's not like League of Legends/Dota 2/Starcraft 2, etc. If there was Donkey Kong tournament with 1m prizes, I would definitely play the shit out of this game! 

[VON]

Just think Vince, in a world without Hank, we could have been rivals. 
________________________________________________________

Dave: I've been taking an extended break..., from an extended break.

Yet I have been playing No Hammer, and finding it quite rewarding shitty acceptable.

Run some No Hammer next session Dave.  Run at least three No Hammer sessions, and then be hooked, and then join the damn No Hammer Tournament.

[syscrusher]

I'm definitely gonna shoot for that 1.1M at some point when I feel like it.  I don't play anymore except to get ready for competitions, which I really love, and there are enough tournaments these days to more than satisfy my DK needs.

[mikegmi2]

If all the top players played DK all day, the record would have been broken at least a few more times by now.

DK isn't everyone's #1 priority. As far as I know, the only player that has made it their #1 priority is Vincent (during the time he was playing live at the 1UP for a couple weeks).

If it was, the arcade WR would probably be pretty close to Dean's MAME record.

Vince makes a good point: If there were a $1M prize pool at the KO...people would for sure take DK a lot more seriously.  It isn't 'popular', per se.  There isn't much competition out there for the game.  I put the same amount of time and effort into getting good at LoL...and it took me that long to make it into the top 50% of players in the ranked ladder. 

If you forced the top LoL, SC, and DOTA teams to stop playing their games and paid them well to play only DK for a year...Dean's MAME score would probably be broken multiple times (I think perhaps, this has been discussed before).

It is not about 'quitting' or 'giving up'...I think it's about priorities.

[homerwannabee]

If you forced the top LoL, SC, and DOTA teams to stop playing their games and paid them well to play only DK for a year...Dean's MAME score would probably be broken multiple times (I think perhaps, this has been discussed before).

It is not about 'quitting' or 'giving up'...I think it's about priorities.

I don't think that is the case necessarily.   I see video games as a mental sport in a way.  It would be like saying.  Take the MLB players, and have them play kricket for a year, and records are going to be broken.

Now one argument I could see happening is say Donkey Kong became 1000 times more popular.  Yeah, if that happened things would definitely change big time.  I mean if there are a thousand more 1.1 million games than odds would state that there would be a better shot of another 1.2 million point game.  Because Dean's 1.206 million point game is almost 70,000 higher than the next highest score I am not too sure what those odds would be.  Dean is the outlier in this game, and how far of an outlier is something I don't know.

[Xermon54]

Just think Vince, in a world without Hank, we could have been rivals. 

This would have been  maybe one day we will! You just need to break Hank's record. Then, Hank will try to beat it back, and it would be good for the DK community! Come on Ross, it would only take you 1 week to break the current record. Do it for the sake of the community! 

And yeah, if like 1k world-wide competitive gamer would be paid 50$ per hour to play only Donkey Kong for a year, there would be at least 200 1.1m+ scores, and maybe like 10 1.2m+ scores. Let's remember that the difference between 1.1m and 1.2m is extremely big. Even the difference between 1.17m and 1.2m is huge in term of risks, frustration and skills!

But now, if you would give 50$ per hour in addition to 1m dollars to everyone that reaches 1.2m+, then I think at least 100 people out of the 1k people would get it within a year.

Trust Vincent Lemay math on that 

[hchien]

My motivation decreases every year.  The arcade record isn't as high as it should be.  It's a score that's about 1.5 years old now.  I may make a run for it sometime this year, but yeah, I would like for someone to beat it first.  Hank beating Hank is getting old.

I've been thinking about Funspot this year.  I *may* make a run for it then, but I have to get in shape fairly quickly.  Things are busy at work, but it should quiet down by then.  Honestly, I enjoy myself much more when I go up just to hang out.  No pressure and I can just have fun.  Last year, I felt people were expecting Vince and me to play DK when we were both there just to have fun.  We'll see.

Just think Ross, in a world without Vince, we could have been rivals.

[WCopeland]

If you forced the top LoL, SC, and DOTA teams to stop playing their games and paid them well to play only DK for a year...Dean's MAME score would probably be broken multiple times (I think perhaps, this has been discussed before).

It is not about 'quitting' or 'giving up'...I think it's about priorities.

I don't think that is the case necessarily.   I see video games as a mental sport in a way.  It would be like saying.  Take the MLB players, and have them play kricket for a year, and records are going to be broken.

Rest assured if the guys on KT, SKT1, or CJ Entus started playing DK full-time at least one or two of them would break 1.2m within a year, if not sooner. 

There was a huge discussion about the switch of the Korean eSports Association (KeSPA) teams from SC1 to SC2 (even though they're the same franchise, the games are wildly different in how they're played).  A lot of start-up Korean teams were starting to capitalize on SC2 before KeSPA made the switch, and they did capitalize for about a year. Once KeSPA switched, after about 6 months their players began to dominate all leagues, foreign and abroad.

There was a time in Korea a few years ago where there were 8 non-KeSPA teams. Only one of those teams is left. The other seven could not compete with the strength of play that KeSPA brought to the scene, and most of them dissolved once the vast majority of prize money began going KeSPA's way.