The Reigning King Of Kong Keeps Changing Every Hour
Quick — name the current serving King of Kong. If you thought of Billy Mitchell or Steve Wiebe, get with the times — those guys are ancient history. The world record in Donkey Kong continues to be smashed by new challengers, and this weekend, it was broken twice.
The Donkey Kong Online Open 2015 was held by DonkeyKongForum.com last Thursday. It was an online competition where those who considered themselves the best players in the country competed live via Twitch. Only actual Donkey Kong arcade units could be used, but that wasn’t a problem for the hardcore members of the forum, who each had their own.
There is already an answer to the proverbial question asked on the game’s screen — we know How High You Can Get. Most arcade games have a bug-out point and Donkey Kong is among them, though it’s not as spectacular-looking as Pac-Man’s glitched-out 256 screen. There comes a point where Mario will simply, randomly die for no reason and the game will end.
Most competitors for the title of King of Kong reach this point, so the goal has shifted to how many points one can rack up before then. Wes Copeland, a competitor in the Donkey Kong Online Open, threw down a high score of 1,170,500; a new world record. You can see it in the photo above, though it’s such a huge sum that the game can’t display it — it only shows you six figures at a time, but it still counts the seventh digit.
Later on, while Copeland was sleeping, Robbie Lakeman did one better with a final score of 1,172,100, achieved at 2:45 in the morning.
The world record was once held by Hank Chien; then it was stole from under him by Robbie Lakeman, who got to enjoy it for one year. Copeland got it next, but Lakeman quickly took it back before he had time to breathe. Copeland still holds the record of scoring 1.1 million points on his first life, which he also achieved during this competition.
It’s far from over for the two of them. The next King of Kong rivalry will be settled at the Twin Galaxies Entertainment Festival in Banning, California. Copeland and Lakeman have promised to meet up there for a DK duel that will prove once and for all who the faster man is. In the meantime, you can watch both their record-shattering performances here and here.