Who would win if you put Billy Mitchel vs Steve Wiebe in a face-to-face match off on Nintendo’s Donkey Kong arcade game?
Following up in “direct-sequel” fashion to the infamous rivalry as documented in the hit videogame documentary film “The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters“, a new tournament known as “The Kong Off” was recently held.
The main draw of the tournament? Pit the world’s 10 best Donkey Kong arcade players against each other in a brawl of epic proportions, and see the first head-to-head live-and-in-person battle between Steve Wiebe and Billy Mitchell themselves. No recording of footage or dueling on different time schedules here, this time they faced off for real!
So what were the results?
In the end, Steve Wiebe landed in second place with 986,900 points. Hitting #1 was “Dr. Kong” himself, Hank Chien, who Steve Wiebe rightly prophesized would be the winner of the tournament. So what about Billy Mitchel? He came in 6th place on Day 2 of the tournament with 821,200 points.
Although these scores were high, they are no where near the best scores that these best-of-the-best players have achieved, and there were no instances of a new world record being set or a million point game being achieved. Which, although disappointing, was still a might cool thing to be seen. Hopefully all of the players will return next year for another similar tournament.
Here is a trailer for The Kong Off.
You can read about all the Kong Off drama in this fantastic piece by 1UP.