2. Top Ten Jacks Of All TradesIn the last Top Ten, we described how hard it is to achieve greatness in one game. It is therefore astonishing that we have players who bring the pwnage across the many games and varied disciplines we compete in here at TSC. We're looking for strong performances in the original 2D games, in 16-bit land, in 3D, in the new-style 2D games and in what we shall generously call "misc" which is basically everything else. Though they might not be the absolute best at every game they play, the sheer breadth of their awesome deserves the recognition they get here.
Note: it is not a requirement of this chart to be called Jack, but it can't hurt your chances :)
10. nobody?Whu? What the hell is going on here? No #10?
Well, yes. As explained in the last chart, it's hard enough being great at one game at TSC, never mind across sufficient categories to be considered for this one. High rankers we might have for this one are players like Shadow Jacky, who may be supreme in the 3D stakes but his 10th in S1 is purely about rings (3D Blast doesn't count for GeneDrive in my warped little world) and he has no presence in new-skool 2D; maggot, if he played more than 4 games and any of them were at all recent; sonicam, who again rocks in 3D but has no GeneDrive or GBA/DS pwnage to speak of; me if only I could play 3D AT ALL; Judgement (who totally would have got this if he'd placed any higher in SA:DX, by the way) - the list goes on and on, but nobody's really brought the win in three out of the four main categories (and I'm not weighting misc highly enough to make up for that - sorry SJ!).
Okay, so this comes across as a bit of a cop-out - which it is, I guess - but also a message to all of us. That sage oracle of Pure Pwnage, teh_Masterer, tells us
"to truly pwn, one must pwn in all games". This is a call to arms for all of us - let's take the fight to these 9 noobs!
9. bertinOkay, hands up who saw this one coming? I know I've associated bertin with . . . well, the past stupidness we don't need to go over, and recently the comedy being-a-bear shenanigans, but blow me if he isn't a damn good player too. bertin's been with us just over 2 years, joining in October 2006, and unlike a lot of players on these two charts, he didn't exactly set the rankings alight as soon as he got here - in fact, it wasn't until nearly a year later that he really made any impact at all. The first game he was to make an impression on was to be Sonic R, jumping straight into 3rd spot; this was quickly followed up by decent showings in Sonic CD and STT as well as a bunch of other submissions across many charts. Fast forward to the new year and he's up to 2nd spot in STT (he may have been champ at some point but Time Machine's playing up for me; doubtless bertin or SkyLights can enlighten us all with the knowledge). He also briefly held the Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity title by dint of being the only competitor >_>. Moving into the summer, we start to see where bertin earned his spot here; the STT title was definitely clinched then and held for a respectable time (he now holds 2nd once more), and he had earned a spot in the Heroes top ten with some pretty impressive stats; also of note moving towards now are his continued strength in CD, earning him a few marks in the GeneDrive portion of this selection, 10th in SA:DX to accompany Heroes in the 3D bracket, and very strong places in S2GG and Chaos to go with STT.
What bertin doesn't have, though, is any real presence in new-skool 2D; however the rest of his profile shows he's got plenty talent across a variety of games. Congratulations dude - oh, and since you're no longer TSC's Most Underestimated Member, you need a new forum subtitle. My vote goes to "The Little Bear That Could".
8. ThornThorn - originally gamersince93, until RPG and Aitamen convinced him that was too much of a mouthful - joined us in November 2005 (yeah, I thought he'd been around forever too!). Besides various hacking exploits and working at TUSC, he's found the time to be a pretty awesome competitor.
It took Thorn just a couple of weeks to grab top spot in the game he's most well known in, Knuckles Chaotix. He followed that up with a foray into the top 5 of Sonic CD, Sonic Jam, and STT, setting what would become a recurring theme in Thorn's time here - strong performances across a number of games at a time.
It would take far too long to list all the games that Thorn was competing in over the next few months (all the while continuing to head the Chaotix charts, and not just because nobody cares ok). By the time his 1-year anniversary rolled around, he was competitive in 26 games and top ten in 20 of them, although to the best of my knowledge he hadn't taken any further championships. One was to follow in March of 2007 though, as Thorn claimed the 3D Blast crown (and his
vids are worth checking out). There was more back-and-forth over that one that Thorn was used to (read: any at all), but he was the top dog throughout 2007. At the start of 2008, Thorn then claimed another title, although somewhat less impressively this time as there were only 2 other Rivals 2 players at the time >_>. This was probably when Thorn was at his peak at TSC; soon thereafter he lost both Rivals 2 and 3D Blast; he did hold Jam for a bit though, bringing his championship count up to 4 (edit: 5, apparently he had SPA at one point).
Thorn falls down due to a lack of 8-bit skills and an average showing in the 3D games, but just looking at the sheer number of games he's got orange ranks in - particularly in the games we're unfairly lumping together in "misc" - and you'll understand why he deserves his place. I hope he won't mind me saying he's not been seen as the kind of epic champion we're accustomed to singing the praises of here, but he very much embodies the spirit of all-around pwnage of this chart.
7. sonicherosonichero has been around since forever (also known as February 2004), although has been pretty much inactive of late. As of this writing he holds no championships; however, he's got strong performances in many charts, so let's take a look at what qualifies him for 7th spot. First off, on the GeneDrive-era 2Ders: he holds a very respectable 4th place in Sonic 3, but it's Sonic CD where he shines - although he's never really challenged maggot's iron grip on the championship he's pretty well represented across all categories and currently holds 2nd. Likewise with Knuckles Chaotix, I don't think he's ever taken Thorn's title, but another 2nd place is still decent even if it's a game nobody cares about >_>. Moving on to the 8-bit games, we see top ten places in all of them, although again no championships and nothing that really jumps out as spectacular - just consistently good performance across the field. Again, in the Advances we see top ten places for all, with 3rd in Advance 1 being the highlight here. In the 'misc' categories we also see good performances; back in the early days of TSC, sonichero was champion of both Battle and Sonic R, still holding 5th in the former.
It's really the 3D titles in which sonichero falls down; although once upon a time he was a highly ranked SA:DX player those days are sadly long since passed; 12th isn't bad, but it isn't really enough to pimp you as a 3D player; further, the lack of championship reigns does have to be taken into account. Still, sonichero clearly demonstrates a ton of skill across the board (and it's worth remembering that many of his stats date back many years and still hold up well today). sonichero holds 6th spot on the sitewide rankings, and 7th on our list of awesome. Congrats dude :)
6. DarkspinesSonicMarch 17th, 2007. A day that will live in the memories of TSCers for a long time, for it was then that DsS (then known as Da1AndOnlySonic) joined the site. He immediately made a mark, needing only 3 days to take his first championship in Sonic 06. He did realise that Sonic 06 is crap and nobody cares, though, and moved in on the Sonic Battle championship, first taking it on April 27th. They he realised that nobody cares about Battle, and seized both the Riders championship (14th May) and Fighters (23rd May). That's 4 championships in just over 3 months.
Fortunately for the rest of us, DsS's rate of progress then slowed - it took him until late on in the year to realise that he
still wasn't champion in anything anyone cared about! The next to fall were Drift (12th December) and Drift 2 (20th December), and then just to make this unfunny joke stretch even further he took 3D Blast (30th January). At this time, there was a concerted effort to fight back - Thorn issued a rallying call to all TSCers when DsS passed RPG for fourth in the Sitewides back in December (
http://www.soniccenter.org/forum/index.php?topic=2852.0) and the site experienced huge activity, but it was no use - DsS continued his domination of irrelevant charts.
It was clear, however, that he was finally turning his attention to bigger things, however; he had a bunch of impressive Heroes stats and was rapidly closing in on the upper echelons of the SA:DX charts. It was in the latter that he finally cemented his place as a true TSC great on February 19th, placing himself above Jawzun, F-Man, yoshifan and other such luminaries in one of TSC's most prized championships (and holding his personal best of 7 simultaneous titles).
Almost exactly a year after he joined, on March 30th 2008, DsS achieved what had once been thought impossible but with his rise had become almost inevitable - he surpassed mike89 in the sitewide rankings, claiming his place as TSC's #1 (and fortunately Rolken didn't follow through on his threat to take down TSC if it happened). At the time, he was only champion of the Drifts, Riders and Fighters, but as we've seen he'd shown he was massively competitive across a large number of games. These days, he has Heroes and Chaos (zero pointed!) in his grubby little paws too, and a commanding lead in the sitewides.
The thing that stops DsS being further up is that despite the fact he's held a whopping 10 different championships, he's not got the GeneDrive (3D Blast doesn't count ok) or Advance/Rush brackets covered - yet. However, with a current tally of 5 championships held and an overall sitewide rank of #1, it wouldn't really be possible to have this list without him. Also, now I've said all this, ten quid says by next time round he's got championships in both >_>
5. eredanieredani joined us in November 2005, and is an arse because he took away my rightful #1 spot in the Periodic Top Ten chart the next year. Also he played some games and stuff.
eredani quickly gained a reputation as a destroyer of records with a huge breadth of skill. Historically, he's been fantastic at three games in particular: Sonic Heroes, where he battled over the championship with Shadow Jacky; S&K in which he locked horns with mike89; and Chaos, which he originally pinched from mike but later came under attack from many people seeking a cheap championship. The remarkable thing about this, though, isn't the three championships and defences thereof, it's that they were all happening
at the same time - few players can hold off assaults from players of that caliber in a single game, never mind three completely different styles of competition.
These days he's also strong in S1/2/3 (particularly 3), Shadow and STT, but it's the fending off some of our best in three games at once that firmly cements his place on this list. Had he a presence in the new-skool 2D titles and maybe a bit more of a showing in the 3D titles, he's be a serious contender for #1 on this list. I should also take this opportunity to remind him that he claimed he would be #1 sitewide by the end of 2008 - quite where that's going to come from, we don't know, but hey - if anyone can peg DsS back a bit, it's eredani.
4. SkyLightsWait what? SkyLights in this category? Surely all he does is Rush and Rush Adventure?
Well no, actually. It was Rush that drew him in to the site when he joined in December 2005, and by his own admission his various tussles therein (against Ben, Crowbar and latterly his loss of the title to SDM) have shaped him into the gamer he is today. However, while he's long been acknowledged as the best DS gamer TSC has to offer (sorry SDM!), he's also excellent across the other categories for this section. He's shown 8-bit talent by taking the STT championship; he snatched the S&K championship from mike89 and has a decent showing in S1, so he has the GeneDrive base covered; and he's also been champ of SSR. In fact, he held all 5 of the championships he's had at once, making him the most prolific champion at the time.
SkyLights' weakness in this Top Ten is 3D - despite 11th in SA:DX and 3rd in SSR (with a former championship), he's never shown himself to be truly amongst the greatest to grace this category. However, that doesn't take anything away from his other achievements, his 7th place in the sitewide ranksings, and a thoroughly deserved place on this list.
3. yoshifanYoshifan has respectable stats in Sonic 1, Shadow and Advance 3 as well has his infamous SA2(B) dominance, and in the last Top Tens mike described him as the definitive all-rounder, so it's only fair he end up in here. When he started at TSC way back in 2003, Yoshifan was known as a 2D specialist, and in the early days he and SM held a monopoly on 2D vids, and in fact many of his GeneDrive stats hold up well even today (he'd be much more competitive if he filled out the brackets, particularly the points whore ones we've already discussed). He's also not bad at Advance 3, holding 8th spot. However, it was after a brief hiatus that he returned at the tail end of 2005 to take on what was to become his calling: the 3D titles. Initially smashing records right and left in Heroes, he went on to take the Shadow championship in short order, before turning his eye on SA2(B). Despite it being our most competitive game, Yoshifan has at the time of writing amassed an almost-500 point lead - a deficit so brutal it's quite possible it won't ever be overturned. To hold that level of dominance over the most prized championship is nothing short of sensational.
Yoshifan could easily have been top of the One Trick Pones chart for the utter domination of TSC's Crown Jewel, but he clearly shows his abilities across a range of games. Fear him. Or play something other than SA2(B). Either works.
2. RPGnutterRPG has been around since before forever, being one of the original GameFAQs competitors prior to TSC's inception. He was the creator of the SA2(B) Boss Times topic, where his epic site-spanning rivalry with Mike first began, and was brought to the site shortly after it started by SS101 (hear that guys - he's to blame!). It took him a while to get going, but in early 2004 he was establishing himself as a serious contender in SA2(B) and Adv2. It was around this time that the myth of TSC's Unluckiest Member began, for he held a bunch of championships but none for more than 2 days - this was at least in part due to him being an early submitter in new charts, and otherwise because he sucks and is lazy amirite *bricked*
During the downtime, RPG's rivalries with Mike and SS101 kept competition going, and it was these guys that attacked the charts hardest when TSC returned. RPG and SS101 both went at it tooth-and-nail in SA2(B) (followed shortly thereafter by the pwnage streak of Rayku), leaving Mike in the dust (which is an achievement by itself). With Cybrax no longer active, Rayku topped the boards from SS101 then RPG - a period of fierce competition ensued, but it took the introduction of scores and rings to championship rankings to give him the title for the first time. What followed was an intense period of championship swapping action between the two of them, with RPG eventually eking out enough of a lead to hold the championship for a decent time.
Then there's Advance 2. Unlike with Adventure 2, RPG actually became champion in short order, deposing Zealous with a strong showing in both Times and Bosses. He wasn't allowed to rest on his laurels, though, as NintenDan was hot on his heels, first in Times then later in Bosses. Taco's taking the championship sparked a 6-month continual fight over the title described best in a previous Top Ten; suffice to say I (Douglas) turned up and thought I'd put him out of action, especially with rings/scores being added. How wrong I was - SpinballWizard discovered a technique that allowed for huge scores to be obtained through button mashing, but it was RPG who successfully put it into practice, surpassing myself and Judgement to become champion once more. Judgy's awesome and my succumbing to score scalping has left him behind in 3rd these days, but he's been a huge trailblazer in this game, especially with Bosses (what is it with you and bosses btw?).
If I'm honest, I don't really know the details of his other escapades, but in his time here, RPG has racked up 8 championships, and is currently strong in Sonic 1, SA2(B), S1GG, SPA and Adv2, which covers all the bases set out for this category - a truly impressive feat (although it might be more so if his only current title was something other than SPA, I mean srsly). RPG is the All-Rounder, but the greatest is . . .
1. mike89Until DsS replaced him at the head of the sitewides, mike had long been held up as the very best TSC has to offer. Joining up way back in 2004, mike started out competing in Advance and Adventure 2 before spreading out to Sonic 1 through S&K, in which he left a trail of broken and bloodied competitors in his wake, holding S2, S3 and S&K for considerable lengths of time (indeed, he held S3 for around 3 years). When he turned his attention to the Game Gear games, he butchered them all, holding all championships except STT, and when he turned to Adv3 he displaced the legend of the Advance series that is NintenDan.
Following the Great Downtime, Mike
spammed all the charts to take cheap championships was a stalwart of the site, spurring competitions across many games. At one point he held 10 championships at once, although he prefers to count it as 7 as that was the state 'when the dust had settled' - either way, it's a terrific achievement. Another consequence of the downtime was that Mike was close enough for a tilt at the Adventure 2 title - at least until RPG and SS101 got off their backsides a couple of days later and put him in his place. Still, few have ever been so close to the Crown Jewel.
Upon the introduction of sitewide rankings, it was pretty obvious they would show Mike as TSC's greatest (and not only because he had a hand in their creation, either!) These days he has to settle for second, and even more shockingly for old hands like me he doesn't hold a single championship at the time of writing. That said, a quick look at mike's profile shows how good he still is across so many different disciplines. Top 5 in S1 through S&K cement his old-school 2D credentials (arguably where he excels most); 3rd in Heroes and a top ten place in TSC's most competitive game Adventure 2 show he can bring it in 3D; top 5 in all 8-bit games and 2nd in SPA show he's at home on the underpowered machinery; 2nd in adv3 and 4th in Rush show he's more than competent at the new-skool 2D too. Let's bear in mind that he's been quiet on the competition front for a while and his stats still hold up amongst the best - if he ever gets it into his head to take up serious TSC competing again, everyone's in trouble. Outside the charts he's done epic SDA runs as well as the now infamous Sonic Olympics S2 marathon run. There is nobody who performs to such a high standard across so many different types of game as Mike.
In the last Top Ten, mike didn't rate himself at #1, but we're not him so we don't have to be modest (yeah yeah, different criteria, bloody pedants). Anyway, congratulations Mike!
