Nice summary Mario, always nice to read the perspective of one of the more fanatic/passionate participants. Your 3rd place GV1 platform-jump in the TT competition was a truly legendary feat if you ask me. I tried to go for the same glory, but didn’t even get the boost. Furthermore, a VL2 island-jump lap in the new CR (mid 52, holy fuck) is something special as well. You can be proud of that, though I agree the MR and GP quarter finals were more or less “gifted” to your opponent (I’m saying that because I know you played quite a bit under your potential lvl).
Anyway, time to share my experiences:
Day 1 - Time TrialDay 1 includes the journey, which was smooth, except for 1 minor incident.
Clark & Aron losing the posse during their smoking break (which they honestly did not have time for, considering how tight the transfer to the train was at Montparnasse). Well, all would have been fine if they had just found the way @ the station, but still. In the end it’s something we can laugh about a little, (especially as if it had to happen to anyone, it would happen to that duo
), though it was very ‘fortunate’ Narnet pulled the same blooper to save the day.
In the end everyone arrived in time (except Harold, who sadly missed TT…if he had to pick 1 day to miss, it would be that one though of course), so all was good.
The competition started quite a bit later than planned, because Patrick ran into problems with the Excel file (if I am not wrong). It could have been prevented, as Djo sent him the file weeks before with a bunch of instructions, but considering Patrick had been on holidays for 2 weeks we can hardly blame him for a lack of preparation. Anyway, that shit should all be a lot smoother next year (if we’re going to use the same template-file & system).
Ironically, TT was the mode that ended the latest (3AM, correct?), but it was a memorable tournament for sure. I really enjoyed the result scoring system, with half the group noting the times of the other active half thanks to super convenient result sheets. Whoever thought of this idea should be proud of himself, it worked brilliantly. Aron & me had some fun during our jury duty, each supporting our ‘horse’ against the other. Aron was paired with Garreau, while I was paired with FF. At first we expected FF to win this, but Garreau showed a remarkable ability to drive safely and avoiding crashes all together. In the end he only missed the zoomstart on MC1 and collided with an iceblock on VL1 (like everyone), so he crushed my horse completely. Aron went 2-0 up with that whole horse vs horse thing, when it was our turn to play, as he did a better job at the group stage than I did. I sucked more than ever before (I used to be a TT specialist, but those days seem to be long forgotten
). I did see it coming though, as my preparation showed a complete maladjustment to PAL driving (thanks to my NTSC GP150cc adventures. Basically I had only played NTSC GP150cc after the 2013 CDM to prepare for my ESA 2014 run that happened a few weeks before this event). I also had more problems than before with NBT consistency, dropping
booschts left, right and centre. I’m not sure if that’s because of me or my pad, though it’s probably a bit of both. Anyway, I qualified, but don’t ask how.
For the top-16 I immediately drowned at VL2 (deep drown within 5 secs after the start), so I had immediately accepted a potential knock-out at this early stage. I told myself to just focus and drive the rest of the race clean, as likely there’d be more people taking a bath on this track. And so it was; the second track being GV2, enabled a “chicken-tonight-safety-strats” finish. In quarter finals I was exclusively facing players that had done better than me on the day and in all honesty I would have deserved to get knocked-out there. However, I suddenly hit the right form and drove a very solid GV3/CI2 pair. I was happy when GV3 re-appeared at this stage as it allowed me take revenge on my own performance there from last year (when I had driven a superb 1’29 on MC3 and decided to safe it on GV3 with 0 platform-jumps thinking other players would crash…which was not the case. Playing too safe and losing is the worst way to go if you ask me). In the semi-finals the usual suspects were there: Mario, Sami, Neo and me. VL1 was the first track and since I really don’t like this track in 1-tries it was far from a lucky draw. The brightness of the TVs can really bother me on this track, making it very hard to distinguish the snow from the track. I asked for the brightness to be lowered, but this proved to be a daunting technical challenge with a failing remote control. In the end all was fixed, but all in all, not the perfect preparation for a semi final. In the end I failed VL1 (above a minute) and DP2 was not a track where any repairs were possible. That said, all 3 of my rivals deserved to be in the final more this year.
I was surprised to face Mario in the bronze medal play-off, expecting him to win the 1-try like last year. But of course in 1-tries everything is possible. When the track was announced to be GV1 I was very excited about the prospect of trying a platform-jump. Knowing Mario, I knew he would seriously consider the possibility as well. I decided that I would go for it in final lap, unless I was far ahead (one can tell from the final lap jingle starting). In fact, Mario entered final lap in the lead (by a tenth or so), so I actually HAD to go for it. The execution let me down horribly though, as the NBT didn’t trigger and the jump was hopeless. As I was getting Lakitu’ed I heard a big roar from the crowd, indicating that Mario actually managed to succeed his jump!
1’06”6x @ GV1 in a bronze medal play-off is a truly exceptional result, so that was one of the most deserved medals anyone has ever gotten in these 1-try tournaments. I accepted my faith easily, as even if I would have made it, it would have been 1’06”7x or 8x. Plus at least I went down "no guts, no glory" style, unlike in 2013.
Then there was still the final left. When Patrick announced it would be a Mario Circuit, you could literally hear Florent thinking “please, not MC1 or MC3/4 for that matter”…when he got the MC2 that he wanted, he already had a small moment of celebration, knowing the odds were in his favour there. Going for the LB @ MC2 has cost Neo in 1-tries before, but this time he was brilliant. After performing 2 of them in the first laps and gaining an insurmountable lead on the captain of safety (Sami), Neo put it in cruise control and finished comfortably. Fantastic strategy and execution there, so it leaves me with nothing else to say then:
Day 2 – Match RaceI’ll be briefer about the other tournaments, simply because my memories of them are less detailed.
I was happy with how the time tables were respected, leading to the conclusion that in terms of organization and structure, this year’s CDM has been the most successful one thus far. My first shakedown opponent of the day was Sophie, who effectively lost her CDM virginity there
. I actually remember that she put up a very good fight on 2 of the tracks; on BC3 I could only secure the victory in final lap. For a new entry her lvl was surprisingly high and it was fun seeing Wolmar & her training so fanatically all week (testament to this, they were the only ones still playing SMK on the ceremony day at first
). The rest of my group stage went more or less as expected, with a #6 finish. The biggest upsets were Sami finishing behind me still at #7 and Leyla finishing only 1 place below at #8! The top-5 of the group stage was 100% French, so the rest of the world was facing a whitewash if things were gonna continue like this.
In the top-16 I faced Anthony, a dangerous opponent in a first to 5. He managed to win 2 tracks, but I had sufficient form & luck to not get too deeply into trouble there. Sami had some problems with Drew (5-3), but avoided an early elimination. Similar between Geo and Roach (Geo facing a multitude of matchpoints, yet surviving). All was back to normal for the quarter finals, with the big-8 all being present. The biggest match was unquestionably ScouB vs Sami, both major favourites for the overall win. Whatever happened there to result in a 7-1 win to Sami, one thing was certain…Sami had found his traditional killer form just in time. My match vs Geo was a bit more eventful and exactly the type of match that make the CDM such a fun competition to participate in. It had everything: massive mistakes, great moves, weapon fights and a dramatic scoreline. Geo went 5-2 up and was on the verge of scoring 6-2 (and quintuple match-point) on BC2, but ate a few Fenners to give me the opportunity to mount a comeback. Until that point both my driving and tactics had been mediocre at best (apart from an excellent start at MC4, dodging a red and hitting Geo with 1). I managed to claw myself back into the match to reach double match-point at 6-5. The first one I spoiled on MC2 by missing the zoomstart and crashing the Fenner section (by being distracted by a huge roar from the TV next to me, where the Harold & Mario match had just finished. I know it's a lame excuse, but you do need 100% focus to navigate tricky sections sometimes, especially as Geo had also dropped a banana there). This meant that DP3 would decide who of us would progress to the semi finals to face Sami. An epic red shell face-off ended with both of us in the water at the bridge. The game then gifted me a red shell in the lead to finish the match, which I carelessly wasted at the start of lap 5 by trying to throw it backwards in a circle. I was too close to the wall for the red shell to circle and Geo was probably too close behind me. Considering the scenario, I should have been way more on point, trying everything in my power to make that red shell count. I still had a narrow lead, but a good item from Geo would seal the deal. He got a star, which proved to be enough to win this thriller. I was unhappy with my performance (especially regretting the red shell waste), but very happy with the match (no random green / lightning bullshit).
Both semi finals were fairly one-sided affairs, with Neo and Sami convincingly disposing themselves of their opponents. One thing that really stood out was Neo’s shocking power display on GV2 using Mario (for the IB strat). Eventhough that tactic itself backfired, his feather back-up strat was monstrous to behold and provided one of the sickest moves in CDM history!
Harold proved that his rampage vs Neo in MR earlier this year and his semi-final qualification was a lot more than luck by leaving Geo little chance in the bronze medal play-off. For another year we had ‘el Classico’ in the final and I was happy to commentate it for the growing Twitch viewer’s crowd. At one point Sami seemed to be running away with it, with his typical solid, business-oriented style. Neo resurrected himself with some crazy moves and ended taking the second gold medal home. Though the victory was deserved, it did feel like the item-Gods had not favoured Sami for once. It could have been a finish to the wire otherwise. Perhaps next year?
Day 3 – Battle ModeI believe it is fairly well known that BM is by far my weakest mode, I believe I can defend that claim way moreso than Sami will ever be able to.
Knowing this I am always a tad more relaxed on BM day, though I will obviously still give it my best in every match. Just before the beginning I noticed Drew looking very tired, on the verge of falling asleep. I asked him where he had spent the night and he answered: “no, I didn’t sleep. I just walked around.” Not exactly the perfect preparation for your tournament of choice right? I wonder what would happen if Drew approached this tournament like a normal human being for once.
There were some very intense battles that I fought in the group stage, including a 2-2 draw vs Conor and a 2-2 draw vs Jey, in which I came back from 2-0 down. I ended up qualifying as #9, which was actually a little bit better than anticipated. All the players that qualified ahead of me are better players (though I guess we can still consider Jey of similar lvl) and Tif & Anthony could have beaten me if they had their day.
In the Top-16 match I had to face Conor, undeniably a better BM player than yours truly. I ended up losing 5-0; though the attacking power he received from the item boxes was quite superior to my streaks of feathers and mushrooms, the result was logical. I might have pulled a closer match under more favourable circumstances, but I wasn’t feeling ‘hot’ enough to mount a serious challenge. Conor deserved his place in the top-8 in any case. Facing ScouB was the least favourable quarter final draw imagineable though and it showed (7-2 to ScouB). In the meantime we had a special moment for birthday-boy Clark, with a nice cake to celebrate it. That cake was pretty godlike actually..
When it was time for Drew to face Sami, ‘Team Drew’ took shape, in the form of Mario, Aron & me flopping our chairs on the ground, chilling in a relaxing position and chanting “Drew! Drew! Drew! Drew!” between rounds. In short, glorious times
. When Drew turned on demolition mode vs Sami, there were some happy minutes to be had for Team Drew. Even in the semi-final vs Neo things were looking good at first, but somewhere Drew lost the plot and started taking stupendous & unnecessary risks (of the type driving into the open without a shell and Neo having a red). If you give Neo the slightest chance to get into the match, he will find his fighting shoes and squeeze everything out of it and that was exactly what happened. It was cool to see Neo beating his demons from the past (I believe Drew eliminated him in 3 out of 3 previous KO stage meetings), but we now had to live with the worrying prospect of him actually performing the Grand Chelem…
Though this would be a sensational and historic performance, it would also declassify the rest of the field, deny the existence of specialisms in SMK and make the competition downright predictable.
After a fantastic bronze medal play-off between Geo & Drew (and an equally close fight between ScouB & Geo in the semis which could have easily been the final), ScouB made sure, in no uncertain terms, that the Grand Chelem was postponed for at least 1 more year. Rarely have I witnessed such a rare display of dominance in a CDM tournament…ScouB was displaying monstrous form; dodging almost everything, attacking constantly with the sickest combos…he left Neo without a ghost of a chance. When Neo finally snuck a point in there he gave a “thank you” wave to the Gods for letting him at least leave the final with some dignity intact. It is very rare to see anyone teach Neo a lesson in anything SMK related, it was a refreshing experience to behold. I salute you ScouB, for the highest lvl I’ve seen anyone reach in BM thus far. That final was the sickness. I congratulate Neo for picking up the silver as well, because getting 2nd in this field of players is nothing less than incredible. As for Geo’s 9 BM medals in a row stranding just before the 10 mark…man that’s gotta suck. I was slightly hoping for Drew to pull through (because, you know, he’s Drew after all), but it still sucked it happened at your expense. It is exactly like you told me afterwards though: you reached the semi-finals in all the 2p modes, which is something that is usually only achieved by Neo himself. You can be proud of that for sure.
Day 4 – GP150ccOn GP day I realized from the get-go that I needed to reach the semi final (probably even a bronze medal) to still breach the top-5. Also, most of us realized that there was a huge upset needed (in the form of a top-16 knock-out of Neo) to still give Sami or ScouB a chance to win the overall CDM. I started well with my big matches in the group stage, defeating both Geo and ScouB. Then I lost all the other big matches (Neo, Gatchan, Mario, Sami, Harold, etc.) and went down in Star Cup vs Jey in no uncertain terms. I got egged on the head on KB1 and Yoshi triple trolled me on CI2. Then Jey dropped a perfect banana on VL1 and all was over. In my match vs Neo I had the RNG working for me, as he got sniped by a mini shroom on the 2nd bridge (resulting in a deep drown), after which I flattened him as soon as he resurfaced. Neo being Neo though, he still got 2nd anyway and went on to win the cup regardless.
I expected my seeding position to be around the 8 mark, which would represent the huge risk of landing in the toughest bracket for quarter finals (Neo/Sami as likeliest opponents). Thankfully I finished a bit higher than anticipated after losing so many matches (#6). In the Top-16 match I faced Conor, who can be a very challenging opponent if you give him the chance to use his pushing & weaponry skills. This time around he didn’t give himself the chance though, missing way too many zoomstarts and losing 2-0. In the meantime I joined a big audience witnessing Salim giving Neo a serious run for his money for a quarter final spot. In the end Neo managed to pull through with a 2-1 win, but it was definitely too close for comfort (and it turned out later, a sign for things yet to come). In the quarter finals I had to face Mario, my tormenter in previous CDM GP tournaments. I estimated that whoever would win this one would finish 5th, so there was more at stake than ‘just’ a semi-final here. The match actually never became a true thriller, as Mario had lost his zoom-start-shoes and suffered a few too many crashes, whereas I was driving smoothly. In the end I cruised to a 3-0 win, something I certainly had not expected considering previous experiences.
The most eventful quarter final of the day (and perhaps ever as far as GP quarter finals are concerned) was the Neo vs Gatchan match. The moment Gatchan had put on his bandana and was pumping himself up before the match I had already half suspected that Neo would not get that semi-final pass for free. The scoreline went to 2-2 in cups (something Neo already had to put up a huge fight for) with mushroom cup being the decider. The thriller continued to be a crowd pleaser as both guys won 2 tracks, leaving MC2 as the final decider. You could really feel the suspense and pretty much everyone in the venue was crowded around that TV. Gatchan took the lead early on and was far enough ahead to stay outside of Neo’s clutches, unless he would get a mushroom or red shell. Neo had the luck of a champion once more though and did indeed get a red shell (in lap 4 if I remember correctly). Gatchan’s escape plan did not work and he wasn’t able to dodge it, but oh boy was he close to the most sensational victory of his career…
On a TV closeby an upset actually had happened, with Geo knocking out ScouB. Though Geo’s track-record in GP tournaments has been superior to ScouB’s, ScouB was the man on fire in GP this year (with both course and single segment WRs).
On to the semi-finals. First we had Geo vs Neo, which I got to commentate for the Twitchers. Another truly spectacular match, and Geo got the crowd on the benches more than a few times. I’m not sure, but that might have been just the best GP he has ever played. One moment really stuck with me, and that was the exchange of shells that happened on CI1. Neo had a red shell and psyched Geo out. Geo decided to go for a wall-ride at the last corner section of CI1, hoping to avoid Neo’s red. Neo decided to keep the red shell instead to psyche him out, but no one anticipated what happened next…Geo threw his blind green at exactly the right moment, crashing into the passing Neo and leaving the road open for Geo. One of the CDM highlights for me for sure. Neo always managed to stay in the match though and as the match progressed he pushed Geo out of the way to reach a 4-2 win. My match vs Sami was sadly never that close. As in previous years, I received another 4-0 schooling by the Godfather of SMK. He was just too consistent and too much on point with his shells (of which he got more than his fair share). In the end, I concluded that I am the one that needs good RNG to keep up with Sami and certainly not the other way around. Maybe another year.
The bronze medal play-off between Geo and me was a far better match. Geo had already lost two bronze medal play-offs this CDM and both of us have lost the GP one at previous CDMs more than once. One thing was certain though, one of us would finally get a bronze medal in here. Things started out very rough for me in mushroom cup, losing the first 3 tracks and facing a 1-0 defecit in the fastest way possible. I then claimed flower and star cup as mine to claim a 2-1 lead. All in all a very tight match was unfolding, not of the robotical lvls of Neo and Sami, but not too far off. I even got a 3-1 lead after an epic clash on RR, to decide the cup. I was in the lead, but Luigi trolled me. Then as I got back on track, Geo drove into me, flying off the track himself and I barely stayed on after, with some ice-cold rope dancing manoeuvres. Geo never gives up though and took mushroom cup to prevent me from sealing the match. At flower cup I set myself up by winning the first 2 tracks. Then DP2 happened…
I had a roughly 1 second lead going into final lap, Geo got a mushroom and used the LB to get into striking range. He navigated the final corners (populated with CPU’s for extra suspense) at the peak of his powers resulting in an amazing final corner climax. He collided with me after a mirror last corner slide, we both crashed, he got up to speed 1 frame ahead of me, I barely missed my green shot to stop him AND after colliding twice (!!) more, he finished 0”02 ahead. All in the space of a few seconds, all at match-point for me. Hype doesn’t even begin to cover it. Geo did win the flower cup thanks to that move. I kept my act together in star cup though, with the both of us now being 1 cup away from the bronze. At BC3 Geo obtained a feather to potentially let MC4 be the decider, but he bottled the SC at this crucial moment. I won the match, the bronze and the top-5 (Wii U and all that). What a match!
The final between Neo and Sami (which I happily commentated again) was never filled with that much suspense. The scoreline simply didn’t allow for it. The scoreline kinda lied though. Neo was a tad stronger sure, but 2 of the cups went 39-36 (decided by last track moreover) and Sami wasn’t getting much help from the items this time. At least not enough to stop Neo from powering to an unprecedented 5-0 victory. Neo got his third gold & recovered his GP #1, and though the final was more comfortable than he might have expected, the tournament had not been without its scares for him either.
Day 5 – Ceremony dayWhen I woke up and was leaving the hotel to prepare my planned GTA V run with Patrick I encountered team NESBlog in the lobby performing interviews with the top CDM players. I was invited for an interview and found it a very enjoyable experience. They asked exactly the right kind of questions and I think it made for a pretty decent item. I’m looking forward to the results of all that NESBlog did @ CDM actually!
The awards ceremony was a celebration of the SMK community as always and it was cool to be a part of it. Leyla got her moment in the sun as the participant showing the best improvements (and rightly so!), as did Patrick for all the work he put in to manage the scoresheets AND stream.
Afterwards, Patrick & me started GTA V a tad later than planned, with a prospect 2AM finish. The first 2 hours we were playing right next to Mario doing his Yoshi’s Island any% run. It was cool to glance over and watch his run, but I could have done without the game audio running at 100 decibel+ throughout all this time.
And I actually
like the YI soundtrack (love even!). In the meantime there was a racket going on behind us with Drew eating a kindersurprise with wrapper and all. He even took out the toy and ate that as well…which turned out to be a jab at US policy to forbid kindersurprise in their retail, afraid children might swallow the toy.
Classic Drew all in all. The Mario monopoly game happening was amusing as well, with the ‘outlaws’ of the SMK community uniting for a friendly game: Drew, Aron, Clark, Jey and Tif. Quel line-up de merde!
As Mario reminded us, Drew being the first 1 in jail was just perfect. Meanwhile, Patrick & me had some very cool moments in the GTA run (smashed by a truck at 200mph and surviving), but started to get worn out by the sheer length of the run. We were on the verge of quitting 4 times, but each time one of us pulled through to keep the run alive. In the end we even decided to watch one of the most epic cutscenes of the game (Michael and his family visiting Dr. Friedlander), as sort of an extra for our viewers (Garreau, Mario and el Nico mainly). We failed a couple of critical missions and were around 30 minutes behind schedule as a result, but still managed to end the run below the 9 hour mark. It had to happen, because you know, OCD and all. In the end I’m happy we did pull through.
Then it was off to bed and a long uneventful return journey (apart from Drew giving his Elvis painting to a random musician in the subways of Paris
).
Long story short, thanks to everyone for being there and consistently making this the best video-gaming/community event of the year!
