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  • Daybreak Games

    'H1Z1' Pro League's Vegas matches stream on Facebook this weekend

    by 
    Rob LeFebvre
    Rob LeFebvre
    04.20.2018

    H1Z1's take on the battle royale genre may not be as popular as, say, Fortnite or PUBG, but it has something the other two don't: an eSports tournament in Vegas. On Saturday the 21st, 75 pro players from 15 well-known teams like Echo Fox, Cloud9 and Luminosity will try to survive to the bitter end at the Twin Galaxies eSports Center, which is located just off the strip within Caesars Entertainment Studios.

  • David Greedy via Getty Images

    Guinness strips Billy 'King of Kong' Mitchell's world records

    by 
    Timothy J. Seppala
    Timothy J. Seppala
    04.13.2018

    Well, that was fast. When Twin Galaxies announced it'd stripped Billy "King of Kong" Mitchell's high scores from its forums yesterday, the gaming record-keeping outfit said it'd notified Guinness World Records of such. Today, Kotaku reports that Guinness will strip all of Mitchell's forged video game high scores including entries for Donkey Kong, Pac-Man and Donkey Kong Jr. from its ledger as well.

  • David Greedy via Getty Images

    Billy 'King of Kong' Mitchell's 'Donkey Kong' scores were a lie

    by 
    Timothy J. Seppala
    Timothy J. Seppala
    04.12.2018

    It's over. Billy Mitchell (above, left), the "King of Kong," has had his long-contested Donkey Kong high scores stripped from the Twin Galaxies leaderboards and the organization has notified Guinness World Records of its decision. More than that, all of his records have been removed from the forums and he's banned from TG's competitive leaderboards wholesale. TG ran an independent investigation, in addition to having "at least" two third-parties perform their own, with other experts weighing in on the dispute as well.

  • Daybreak Games

    'H1Z1' eSports league will stream solely on Facebook

    by 
    Jon Fingas
    Jon Fingas
    03.08.2018

    H1Z1 has had to fight hard for time in the spotlight with PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds and Fortnite hanging around, but it might have a way of grabbing attention. Twin Galaxies' H1Z1 Pro League has unveiled an exclusive deal that will stream all digital content on Facebook. It has an official home, too -- it'll be situated in Las Vegas' Twin Galaxies eSports Arena, with Caesars Entertainment as the official venue and entertainment partner. The first season starts April 21st with 15 teams (including well-known outfits like Cloud9 and Luminosity) competing in two splits of 10 weeks each, with the championship due in the fall.

  • Talaj via Getty Images

    Video game records are broken. Can anyone fix them?

    by 
    Timothy J. Seppala
    Timothy J. Seppala
    02.14.2018

    After a period of relative quiet, Twin Galaxies recently found itself thrust into the spotlight. The arbiter for video-game recordkeeping played an intrinsic role in disputing two long-standing achievements hosted on its forums: Todd Rogers' unbeatable Dragster time and Billy Mitchell's Donkey Kong high score. Both records have had their share of challenges over the decades, but before users on the TG forums raised their concerns the other week, nothing was done to officially dispute them. In 1982, Rogers sent Dragster developer Activision a letter saying he'd finished a race in 5.51-seconds -- without proof -- and in return, he received a certificate saying he held the record. For many, Mitchell is the "King of Kong" thanks to his appearance in a documentary by the same name. He has recorded higher scores since, but allegedly, Mitchell's 2010 best wasn't recorded on an actual Donkey Kong cabinet, but in MAME (Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator). (We reached out to Mitchell and Rogers for comment, but they haven't responded.) According to Jace Hall, TG's head custodian of records, it was only a matter of time before these disputes happened.

  • Picturehouse

    The ‘King of Kong’ could be stripped of his high score

    by 
    Rob LeFebvre
    Rob LeFebvre
    02.02.2018

    Just days after video game high score champ Todd Rogers was stripped of his Dragster title for mathematically impossible times, the man who was the Donkey Kong king for almost 20 years has also come under scrutiny. Billy Mitchell's 2010 high score for Donkey Kong has been called into question on a Twin Galaxies dispute forum by Jeremy Young, the moderator of Donkey Kong Forum (DKF). Young has presented a wealth of evidence to show that Mitchell's performance was likely faked, and has thus removed the high score from DKF's leaderboard.

  • Twin Galaxies

    ‘Dragster’ record holder stripped of his title after 35 years

    by 
    Rob LeFebvre
    Rob LeFebvre
    01.29.2018

    Back in 1982, Activision verified the fastest time on its Dragster video game on the Atari 2600. The record belonged to Todd Rogers, with a time of 5.51 seconds. According to Twin Galaxies, the current holders of the applicable video game records, this score was also acknowledged by Guinness World Records. In 2017, however, Twin Galaxies member Dick Moreland officially disputed Rogers' time, citing analysis by Eric Koziel that showed such a time was mathematically impossible. Twin Galaxies has now decided to remove all of Rogers' score and ban him from future participation in any of its competitive leaderboards.

  • Joystiq review: The King of Kong (film)

    by 
    James Ransom-Wiley
    James Ransom-Wiley
    05.02.2007

    Truth is stranger than fiction. And while it needs to be threaded by a capable hand, even Donkey Kong can be woven into a compelling canvas that examines the comically-profound idiosyncrasies that drive human competition. The King of Kong, director Seth Gordon's first feature, is a remarkable film that documents the little-seen niche of competitive gaming, as waged on '80s-era, coin-op arcade machines. "That ape is very, very cunning, and he will do what he needs to, to stop you," warns a Funspot regular, squeezed into a t-shirt emblazoned with a geeky kung fu joke. The same could be said of Billy Mitchell, the film's antagonist, a blown-dry Machismo americanus and heir to the Rickey's World Famous [Hot] Sauce empire. Mitchell (above), whose 3-letter high score handle (typically one's initials) is U-S-A (notice the Liberty tie?), is stiff and threatening, at least to the mild-mannered circle he maintains a firm grip on. He regards his "Video Game Player of the [20th] Century" title as a symbol of patriotic heroism. Speaking of symbols, Mitchell's wife's cleavage is paraded on screen like a tangible manifestation of his ballooned ego, which is predictably deflated by Gordon's touching narrative of the first true challenger of the Donkey Kong high score; a score set by Mitchell more than two decades ago.