NiGHT
how i got started in the scene...
how i got started in the scene...
Sup everyone, I'm NiGHT (short for NightCrawler) and I've only been playing Mario Kart for about 13 months. I'm 27 years old and am originally from Boston, Massachusetts. I work in the entertainment and travel industry, which led me to relocate to Las Vegas, NV. I've been in Las Vegas for the past 3 years, and in September of 2018 I went to the 6th ever Saturday Night Speedway (a 50-70 person LAN tournament weekly in Las Vegas)
Like anyone just starting out, I was pure garbage. I never owned a Nintendo in my life (sorry, but it's true) and I didn't even know how the controls worked. I originally was finishing in the top 20, but found myself in the first 2-3 tournaments on the outside looking in. My original intention was to go to the tournament with some coworkers and just drink and have fun after a long week of traveling. After 3-4 tournaments, I invested in my own switch and started grinding. I ended up becoming a top 20 player in Vegas and accumulated one of the craziest winning streaks in tournament history- 7 months straight of being undefeated in 200cc Baby Park and Shine Thief. If you won the "2nd chance" it would guarantee you into the semi finals. It wasn't the best streak to be known for, because I was a fringe player still and hella inconsistent.
I started making a ton of friends who consistently would go to this tournament week after week. I hopped online one day and I noticed Kyret, Joronimo, and Cherry all hopped into my lobby with some random two letters in front of their name. I thought it was a joke at first. They clapped me. Turns out, they were all members of Horizon and Cherry was personally recruiting players from SNS to join the squad. Looking back, I laugh at this moment because I was making jokes about their "SNS club". I had no idea the scope of Horizon, the history, or what it actually meant to play competitive mario kart. Long story short, I was on the up and up at the tournament and I was the 4th or 5th player recruited. I didn't trial or anything... I just joined the team. (This was in late march of 2019 - so I've still only played competitive for about 8 months now)
In my short 2 weeks in Horizon, I learned a lot. I still credit Rhys and LMDS despite the tough love to how my play style initially took form. I had no clue what a war was, I just knew I was on a team. It's one of the final weeks in Season 6, and Horizon was in a war. They needed a sub, and I was the ONLY PLAYER online. Rhys, LMDS, and Yellow gave me clear instructions on what to do. Turns out, Horizon put me in an MKU MATCH (I had no clue what that was at the time) and I was forced to bag. I had no clue how to bag really or what the strategy was. I think I got one 7th and then 10th-12th every single race I was in. The whole team mode being off and not team killing thing made me hella nervous. It was D6, old format and I was way out of my league.
The Start of ph
Hz parted ways with most of the Vegas racers- I won't really get into that but honestly it was for the best. I have the utmost respect for Rhys and LMDS and what Hz was able to do before/after I left. I was mainly let go by association, and I for sure needed to develop.
But now I finally had an idea after doing some scrimmages how things actually worked. Cherry was debating on leaving the scene, and with some support from other former Hz members we created a clan- the Pirate Hackers. The name is a more politically correct name for the "Dirty Pirate Hookers". Because it didn't matter what our name was- we needed to prove ourselves and our job wasn't finished. It was just getting started.
Our first war as a group, we were humbled by JBZZ. They had no clue who we were, I wish I had the table. It was a 400+ win for them. Then, we had a rough showing in our first season of division 6- winning in points in our first match against XP but having it be over turned because of an alt. It caught us off guard, but it was a great learning experience for how we later went on to dominate recruiting. We ended up season 7 with 2 wins and 7 losses. We knew we had to practice a lot and also recruit some other members.
Our past season was pretty solid. 6-1 against EO who outmatched us in a DC heavy lobby. Re-Birth came back in the first round of the playoffs strong and went on to win division 6 in Season 8. This season I turned into more of a leader, helping Cherry and others who came on balance out the team.
I've had past experience in a IRL / Racing team before when I went to school at UNC Charlotte and I would race go karts with some of the top NASCAR drivers who led the team. (I'll expand more on this later in the thread)
MKC Tournaments
As a leader I wanted to meet more members of the community and I decided to race in 200cc UML. I was unknown, and got picked 3rd to last. Devoty made the call to pick me based off of my name alone, and despite being one of the last kids being picked at recess I made a lot of friends in the welcoming Initial D team.
I played in 3 matches, and excelled surprisingly in two of them. I came back from being out of the country for work (I ran spring break / concerts in Mexico) and I had very little time to practice. I basically pulled the strategy that ph is known for and what I learned in hz - shock bagging. I knew Wingull Squad like the back of my hand (I was originally supposed to be picked by them in the closing rounds) from racing with Darky and playing with Hobbie in the Vegas tournament intermittently. I had 29 points in 11 races and our team was only down by 16-20. I don't recall exactly the deficit. But race 12 was music park. The team was nervous, and I didn't want to let them down since I was already a massive anchor. I got the shock in the 2nd to last item set, and nobody knew I had it. I believe Devoty counted it down, and we TSed the entire team off of the drum on the final turn. We top fived, and ended up getting a super clutch victory to start off the season.
Picking up a win in the Game 2 Give Charity FFA was huge. Being a threat to the top 6 up until the final race was so much fun. My FFA game improved and Kyret and I despite being slightly lower in skill spent months racing in a 10 person FFA format in Vegas. Being able to time the shock and dodge led to my win on RMC , right behind Kyret's on Water Park. Kyret is one of the top players in Vegas with the most FFA wins, so me just racing him down to the final turn was a huge success which I haven't even been able to do in Vegas yet. Kyret and I were killing each other, and Lee almost crept in and stole 6th from both us. I ended up choking the final 3 races, falling onto a sitting red shell after a shock at Sunshine Airport following a trick off baggage claim, getting last. I got item screened at the final box and went all in, but Kyret got me in 6th which sent me to dead last at RWS. This was the first time a ph member went past R1 in an FFA and it honestly deserved to be Kyret. I played out of my mind, recovering from the flu.
The Future
Going into S9, ph is evolving yet again. We have a big / ever growing group skill wise, and I've personally noticed how well I've been improving. I love playing all positions in a war and our team which once used to be the Los Angeles Lakers (we were all indiv FFA players, not really a team to start with tbh) are now on the up and up. You may have noticed some unique things we've accomplished in tournament play both in Vegas and online as well.
As for Saturday Night Speedway, I'm consistently between 10th and 13th overall as the skill gap has lessened. I'm picking up multiple wins a night due and have accumulated the nickname "The Weatherman" because of my shock timing. The 2nd chance now is an afterthought, and I haven't been forced into battle mode or baby park for about 3-4 months now. My former nickname was the "BabyPark Bully" after I won against an 8 year old and an 11 year old, forcing one of them to cry offstage. His name is Abraham, he still shows up but has yet to play in a tournament since.
What's funny is I've only highlighted a few things, many of them leading from failures. I had a lot of success bagging and running in Season 8 of MKU but turning some of these mistakes / failures into positives have definitely shaped me to be a better racer.
That's basically it for now, but I'll update more with friends, hobbies and some other stuff as things progress. Not sure why, just figured I'd share this first to kick off the thread!
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