So the tourney's all said and done. Here's the breakdown.
Before I begin, let me start off by saying after some experimenting with the Mach Bike on Manual last night, something just clicked. I was no longer swerving, and popping wheelies in a straight line worked when I wanted it.
After some last minute practicing before the main event, I did a comparison with Wild Wing vs Mach Bike. Wild Wing gave the stability with decent speed, Mach Bike gave me the speed and handle for hairpin turns. As I was driving to the location, I was still deciding which one I would use.
So I show up to the site, and notice the participants and the setup.
Setup: Projector screen. It was about 50" or so. the emergancy lights in the facility turned on when they turned the lights off. They couldn't cut the power to the emergency lights, so the projector was barely, and I mean
barely visible. Imagine trying to play with the brightness maxed out, and then some.
Controls: It was the Wii Wheel, but a 3rd party variety. It was a little bigger, the wheel itself wasn't a complete circumference but it didn't have the jumbo B-trigger that I was accustomed to. I had to extend my middle finger for drifts and mini-turbos.
Selection: Apparently they brought a Wii that didn't have a Mario Kart save file, so it was the starting line-up, starter levels and starting vehicles. In short, no Daisy
I went with Mario/ Mach Bike which leads to...
Competition: Seasoned vets. This was not amateur hour. Everyone knew what they were doing. I went with Mach Bike, having recently gotten comfortable with it, but I knew I needed the speed if I wanted to compete.
Rules:
A)Multi-player vs mode
B) Default settings in the rule option (100cc, medium AI, balanced items,etc)
C) 2 players at a time, double elimination
D) Best of 3 races. 1st player chooses a track, 2nd player chooses a track, random selection by the organizer if there was a 3rd race.
As a special note, the Blooper ink, which is at best an annoyance on a regular TV, was a credible deadly item on this projector.
I passed my prelim rounds with little fuss. The little fuss was that I chose Ghost Valley for my pick. It was virtually unplayable. The organizer offered a mulligan because of its un-playability, but I said no, and soldiered on. After the first lap, my competition conceded the round, being unable to navigate. I was able to navigate albeit very slowly. I followed the light wood rails and followed the map to finish the race.
The second race was DK Summit, which was just as horrible because of the snow. The blue outlines on the track though were helpful, but not enough as my competion cruised away with the victory.
The 3rd race Coconut Mall, where I raced to an easy victory. Good thing I practiced, as hitting those drifts and turbos saved my bacon. Thankfully there were no blue shells tossed this round, which helped tremendously.
My semi-final round was atrocious. I don't know what compelled me, but I chose Toad's factory. It was doable until you reached the indoor turns, specifically the one after the hair pin turn with the converyer belts. They were pitch black on the projector, so I didn't know when to turn, much less drift. My competition must've known this track from memory, as it didn't slow them down. Needless to say, I lost bad. When it came to their turn, they chose Toad's Factory again. A dick move IMO, but hey, this is a tournament, you do what you have to do to win. I wasn't able to maneuver better in those indoor areas, and lost bad again.
The final round was Luigi/Mach Bike (whom I lost to) and Donkey Kong/Flame Flyer. In what seemd to be an exericise in sadism they, went to DK Summit and Toad's Factory for their choices. The Luigi won DK Summit, whereas Donkey Kong won Toad's Factory. It came down to a showdown at Coconut Mall, which came down to a battle of the shells and bananas. Shells were flying, bananas expertly placed, plus the randomness of the CPU's. Donkey Kong got hit with a blue shell right at the finish line, but it was too late, as they crawled to victory.
My prize would be winning the battle for 3rd place, with two victories at N64 Mario Raceway and Luigi Circuit. The person foolishly chose Koopa/Bit Bike, whereas I stuck to Mario/Mach Bike. They got quite a few bullet bills to try and keep up, but Mario Raceway is one of my favorite tracks. I could say in confidence they didn't stand a chance.
But to the true winner got the spoils of a real snazzy t-shirt, whereas 2nd and 3rd got the bad memories
When they asked for suggestions for the next they would do this, people stated the obvious. Have a television next time, have a Wii with everything unlocked, provide some food.
Overall, it was interesting, but far from ideal experience. I could complain about the poor visibility, unexpected controls, unexpected selection and so on, but that'd be excessive whining. I figure true champions win no matter the conditions, where losers make excuse after excuse. I walked away knowing that 2 weeks ago, I couldn't maneuver with the Wii Wheel to save my life, now I was able to hold my own against a tough crowd.
I would like to thank the Reggienators for whipping me into shape indirectly. Were it not for them, I would've settled with Automatic, and probably lost in the prelims. Mop_it_Up for her sage advice, the countless other people I've raced online, and a big GTFO to the hackers.
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but I might show up just to have fun and mooch as food as possible 
