Gaming Achievements
My top 5:
#5: Expert 40 - 5,000 (Tied WR)
In 2021, I decided to attempt to IL every single level in Super Monkey Ball 1, including Expert 40. However, I decided to save it for last, as I suspected that it would take a while. Eventually, I finished ILing all the other levels, leaving me with just Expert 40. Because this was such a special IL, I kept track of 2 stats:
- My Best Score
- Time Spent Playing
As you can see in the video, I played the level for 8 hours, 44 minutes, and 43 seconds before getting the tie, and my best score I achieved before the 5,000 was a 4,800, which is a run with two missed bananas. What makes my tie so special on this level is that I managed to skip 4,900, which is practically unheard of on this level! Also, taking less than 10 hours to tie this record is quite impressive, as many others who have tied this record took far longer to achieve 5,000. With this information, it definitely makes it sound like my tie was a fluke. I don't like to think of it this way, despite the fact that it's probably true. However, it's important to note that I got my first 4,800 just over four hours into attempts, so a 4,900 was a long time coming.
#4: Overwatch 2 - Masters 2 Rank
- Team Fortress 2
- Splatoon 1/2/3
- Halo 3
However, of all the FPS games I have played, none can compare to the enjoyment I get from Overwatch. You may think I sound like a crazy person; don't all overwatch players hate the game, yet still play it? Sure, there can be frustrating moments, and it's not fun to get a toxic, throwing teammate. Also, it was lame waiting for years for any new content due to Blizzard's inability to act like a modern game developer, only for them to scrap a large portion of the planned content. Despite all that, I have yet to play a game that can replicate the feelings I get when I win a really close game of Overwatch.
I have been playing Overwatch ever since launch, but I rarely dabbled into competitive play until around 2019, and ever since then, I have rarely touched Quick Play. Since 2019, I have climbed from mid-Plat on all roles, to reaching Masters on Support and Damage, as well as Diamond on Tank. My main heroes are:
- Ana
- Baptiste
- Echo
- Lucio
But I believe I can play a good amount of the heroes at a fairly decent level. Eventually, I would like to reach Grandmaster on Support, and perhaps on Damage as well!
#3: E12 Punched Seesaws - 33,330 (Former UWR)
- Totalitarianism Score Strat
- Coin Slots Score Strat
- Planets Time Strat
- Earthquake Score Strat (which has since evolved from my initial discovery)
I am not the most skilled Monkey Ball player, so when I find a new strat, sometimes I am not even able to pull it off, and if I can, usually others are able to replicate it, often beating me in the process. What makes Punched Seesaws so special is that I found a new strategy on that level, executed it on March 15th, 2015, and it took almost 8 years for someone to beat it! The discovery I made on this level is that it is possible to collect the second banana while still managing to finish in the green goal with all the other bananas. Previously on this level, people would grab all the bananas except the second one, but I managed to figure out a way to grab it.
On January 14th, 2023, I came back to this level, and managed to improve the record by 2 points, a single frame! This inspired fellow Monkey Baller Alex to give the level a shot, and on January 15th, 2023, for the first time in nearly 8 years, I no longer held the record, when he beat my score by another frame. Despite these recent advancements, I am still most proud of that original record, and how long it managed to stand.
#2: GCN Waluigi Stadium (Glitch) - 1:45.860 (Former WR)
Since then, however, I picked up Monkey Ball as my speed game, and discovered the joys of ILs. Well, in Mario Kart, the equivalent to ILs is Time Trials, and ever since I started playing Monkey Ball, I have been invested in following the time trial scene for Mario Kart Wii. Getting a World Record in Mario Kart Wii is one of those things that I always thought would be cool, but I never really believed I could ever do it, as my Mario Kart Wii skills are nothing compared to some of the top Time Trialers.
In July of 2020, I began to notice developments for a potential new glitch on GCN Waluigi Stadium, which caught my attention. Finally, after some time, MKWii TASer Ejay B found a human viable strategy for the ultra shortcut, which would save multiple seconds on the World Record if done properly. For one reason or another, I became fascinated with this glitch, and decided to make it a goal of mine to pull it off; getting World Record was a nice bouns in my mind. I even kept track of good attempts:
- 588 Total Bypasses (using the finish line to clip through the track)
- 310 "Good" Bypasses (bypasses where my bike landed "close" to the spot where the glitch is performed)
- 18 Mistimed Hop Bypasses (bypasses where I hit the correct spot, but mistimed the hop to perform the glitch)
- 2 No-Lap Glitches (getting the full glitch, but with minor mistakes which caused it to not work)
After grinding attempts of this glitch for two weeks straight, many hours a day, at around 2:30 AM on the morning of July 28th, 2020, I pulled it off the 1:45.860 while in a Discord call with one of my friends. It was really late, so I ended up having the most intense yet quiet pop off of my life after crossing the finish line on lap 3. Although it was only World Record for around 24 hours, just having my name in the game's permanent history is something I will cherish forever.