4th American & 9th Worldwide as of August 6th, 2024.
Huge thank you to Core for recording! Subscribe to him here: @mkwiicore
I've been away from time trialing for many months. The last thing I really played for was the TF backwards competition through the Tournament Museum mod. That was back in October 2023, and I hadn't played time trials since. That is, until the new rSL glitch method came out.
When Justin dropped his TAS and the alignment ghost, it was the most tempted I had ever been to coming back to the game. I didn't even play the first day, but I picked it up the next day when I saw many people getting their first 2/3 runs. I just had to see if this lived up to the hype.
As it turns out, it did. I got my first 2/3 on July 27th with a 1:24.513. It did glitches laps 1 and 2, and drove lap 3 horribly because I was not prepared for penguin cycles. It was 9th American at the time, but quickly dropped off amid the activity. I wasn't happy with the run, so I kept playing. I knew I could get back on American tops, but the more I played, and the faster I aligned and drove the course, I realized WW tops were becoming more and more feasible.
Grinding this game really isn't good for me anymore because in the grand scheme of things, it doesn't make me happy. It's why I've mostly stepped away from the game in that capacity. Despite this, I decided to do one last grind for something I may not accomplish again.
The grind quickly became grueling, and I nearly gave up a few days into it when I hadn't made a glitch one in a 3 hour session. Planning not to play the next day, I decided to get MKW SP for the first time and mess around with the save states and wheelie timings. From there, I learned that my wheelie timings were so far gone. MKW SP was honestly a lifesaver for helping me get back on track. This gave me new motivation to continue on.
I got my consistency back, but glitches were still hard to come by with my fast, haphazard approach. Meanwhile, WW tops were slowly slipping away from me. One moment they were at 1:19.9, the next they were at 1:18.5. I still felt, I could do it, but I hard to play harder than I did before. In time, I was getting paces to get me there, but had no improvements or 2/3 runs in over a week.
Late last night, I finally pulled through, with Logan and Jeremy watching. This was my second 2/3 run, and it was a big one. 6th WW was certainly a possibility, although less realistic, but I told myself that I would be content with any WW tops time. This run is a huge relief for me after 11 days, because I was looking to get away from the game sooner rather than later with a time I was okay leaving alone. Even though those extra three spots are right in front of me, I feel content leaving this where it is. Having this be (barely) a 1:17 makes this all the more satisfying.
Both glitches were sufficiently fast for me. My best lap 1 is a 13.499, and I never really hit a good 1 shroom respawn lap. The lap 3 glitch did take slightly longer, but had I not taken that extra time, I would've failed it, so I'm very okay with the sub-20 lap. The no-glitch driving was fine aside from a very shaky straight.
I'm really happy I was able to do something cool in this game in 2024, and it could very well be the last cool thing I ever do. That is, until some other revolutionary discovery happens that may pull me back in again. If this is truly the last thing, I'm happy with how it ended. I won't take this for granted. My plan now is to try and set this game aside and focus on other things again. As always, I'll still be around watching everyone else play and celebrate the awesome things people are doing today in this game I love so much.
Music: th-cam.com/video/7h9HVZNDpdI/w-d-xo.html
Until next time, thank you all :)