Karter Letter Association
The 10 Participants: Jason Whalls, Kevin Booth, Mark Jones, Alex Penev, Michael Liem, Louis-Philippe Sabbagh, Ben Miller, Thomas Grandjean, Simon Laflamme, David Wonn (Read: The people who participate in everything and/or anyone I could persuade on AIM)
A: Alex Penev (4/10 votes)
A was a pretty interesting letter. Penev was the expected favorite due to being near the top of the charts, but he was also the ONLY player to get more than 1 vote! Yes, folks, that means the other six votes went to other A's. A short breakdown of those...
Adam Hertz - My vote. If you don't know why he's here, you
probably haven't read the Bible yet.
Andreas Runnelid - Super Mario Kart? Yes. Mario Kart: Super Circuit? Sure. Mario
Kart 64? I don't see him on the PL, do you? =) Everyone point and laugh at
Booth.
Andy Launspach - Amazingly, only 1 vote for Andy. Liem was the only one to give
credit to our favorite 2-time world champ.
Alexandru Balaharu - A unique choice from Grandjean. I'm impressed.
Arthur Van Dalen - Something of a surprise given Penev and Launspach fit into
this catagory as well.
Atilla Aros - David Wonn reminds us all that 1997 did, in fact, take place.
B: Kevin Booth (5/10 votes)
Again, the predicted winner pulls through. Booth really has a
rather unfair advantage being the lead of Kart, but obviously 50% of people
don't really care for him.
Brian Gallo (2 votes) - Definitely a reasonable pick for B.
Jonathan Bernier (2 votes) - Again, I can see this one getting a couple votes.
HOWEVER, this vote is special because Kevin BOOTH voted for Bernier! That's
right folks, Booth forgot himself, and was the ONLY person out of the 10 to do
so! Let's all give him a round of applause.
Ben Miller (1 vote) - Yeah, Ben knows his own name. Hooray!
(Where is Myles?)
C: Sami Cetin (7/10 votes)
Yes, I know we had to dummy down his name, but the NonSC Champ
still gave a hefty beating to all other C's.
Craig Makepeace (2 votes) - Not bad when you're up against the likes of Cetin.
Dave Crawford (1 vote) - Team Michigan scores!
D: David Wonn (3/10 votes)
Yep, 30% of the vote cut it on this one, making this one of the lowest turnouts to win. D was also interesting in the way that A was though...all the remaining votes went to different people! Also worth mentioning is that at one point (I think through 7 submissions, everyone had submitted different people for D).
Dennis Gutierrez - My vote. Remembered him because of his part
site contributions.
Dave Crawford - Booth's vote. Go Team Michigan!
Dhugal Bedingfield - Penev was just looking for a way to add more Aussies to the
lists.
Arthur Van Dalen - Liem's pick.
Daniel Huntsman - Louis goes old school.
Derek Clark - Kevin Booth tried to block this vote by Ben Miller, but it didn't
work. (Congrats to anyone who got that joke)
Blank - Grandjean couldn't come up with a name in a reasonable amount of time,
but did eventually think of "David" though it wasn't necessarily
specified to Wonn, so I didn't give it credit.
E: Peter Elsaesser, Edwin Peeters, Jason Engel, Blank (2/10 votes each)
Personally, I expected Peter to rail the opposition on this one, but the final results turned out something quite different. Engel turned out to be a pleasant surprise. I knew he had potential to take votes, but I didn't expect him to be able to win it. I also find it kind of funny that Blank ends up as a winner. That kinda makes all the others look bad.
Rene Elsaesser - Ben Miller picks the other Elsaesser.
Eise Smit - Glad he got a vote. Thanks for Laflamme here.
F: Beau Fairbourn, Blank (3/10 votes each)
Beau gets the honor of not being completely forgotten, so I guess he can be proud. People stuggled a fair bit with this, it seems. Shouldn't really be so, since there is a fair selection with F. Just not a ton of high ranked people.
Francis Fiduk (2 votes) - I'm rather surprised
that Fiduk didn't take more of the vote. Especially since he has the first/last
name thing working for him.
Anton Forsander (1 vote) - Somewhat surprising vote by Jones.
Food (1 vote) - Ben Miller apparently karts with a ham sandwich.
G: Brian Gallo (5/10 votes)
Can't say this one was a surprise.
Greg Ihnatenko (2 votes) - Ihna put up a good fight, but Gallo
is just an easier G to think of quickly.
Leo Gallaguillos - Booth with an odd pick.
Thomas Grandjean - Take a wild guess who voted this one in.
Blank - Now, normally I wouldn't say much here, but Sabbagh actually picked
Gallo for B, yet somehow missed him on G. How does this happen?
H: Blank (3/10 votes)
That's right all you H people out there. Be ashamed. You haven't made yourself known well enough to win this. Of course, this is also my fault, as I can't believe I couldn't think of an H (but neither could 2 others, so HA).
Dave Hines (2 votes) - One of the more obvious H's.
Matt Horwitz (1 vote) - I'm surprised he only got 1 vote. He would've been my
predicted winner.
Chris Hames (1 vote) - Another reasonable pick.
Daniel Huntsman (1 vote) - Listed earlier, so another vote isn't a surprise.
Hakan Cetin (1 vote) - Pays to be related to one of the best, eh?
Harrier100 (1 vote) - Wonn almost picked a blank here, but when I said I allowed
nicknames, he fired out Engel's.
I: Greg Ihnatenko (6/10 votes)
A nice solid victory for Greg. However, the competition was hot on his heels.
Iacopo Sorce (4 votes) - Yep, Puff takes all the rest, and was just one changed vote from tying for the win. Too bad too...I would've liked to have seen a 2 way tie take all the votes.
J: Jason Whalls (7/10 votes)
This couldn't have had anything to do with the fact that I am the one asking the people to write up these lists, can it? Nah! In all fairness though, 7 is one of the larger wins, so maybe you guys really do like me. Or maybe you really hate me. Whatever.
Jonathan Bernier (1 vote) - Booth doesn't like me.
Mark Jones (1 vote) - Gee, who voted for him?
Michael Jongerius (1 vote) - The recent star of Kart gets a nod from the guy who
recently met him.
K: Kevin Booth (8/10 votes)
Big surprise, huh? I bet he wouldn't fare so well without his site though! Mwahahaha.
Stephen Kittel (1 vote) - Wasted Booth! That's
what you get for not voting for me! I won't vote for you! Of course, we didn't
know each others results when doing these lists but....um....yeah.
Zack Kennedy (1 vote) - Laflamme doesn't like you either.
L: Michael Liem (4/10 votes)
Not surprising given Liem's position in the community. He was up against some big name L's though...
Louis-Philippe Sabbagh (2 votes) - A well known L
with help from his own vote.
Simon Laflamme (2 votes) - Same as Louis.
Andy Launspach (1 vote) - Amazingly, only gets one here too. Back a couple years
and he probably would've owned both A and L.
William Lacey (1 vote) - I'm rather shocked that I was the only person to think
of Lacey for this one.
M: Mark Jones (4/10 votes)
Lots of well known M's, so I guess you can say
that 4 votes is quite good here. Pretty close call though...
Michael Liem (3 votes) - Being a winner of L helped Liem a lot because he got a
few double votes. Not enough though.
Neil Marsden (1 vote) - No clue why he stuck out in my mind.
Ben Miller (1 vote) - And for the 2nd time, Ben is the only person thinking of
himself.
Mike Simmons (1 vote) - Another person you would expect to get more votes...
(Where is Myles?)
N: Mike Nardone, Nathan Stinson (3/10 votes each)
I expected Stinson to pull this one off, but
Nardone holds his own as well.
Neil Marsden (2 votes) - Neil almost pulled off the tie, but fell 1 short.
Louis Nebout (1 vote) - Sabbagh's vote...go figure.
Null/Nil/Nobody (1 vote) - Wonn exercises his vocabulary.
O: Blank (4/10 votes)
O is another one of the harder letters. Some interesting results in here...
Olaf Timmermans (1 vote) - A real karter! Simon
Laflamme shows off his knowledge of the lower ranks.
Jeos Oreamuno (1 vote) - Wonn tips his hat to the LR SC creator.
Olivier Payraud (1 vote) - Penev knows he exists, but he's not on the PL. =)
Orange (1 vote) - Ben Miller again karting with edible opponents.
David Wonn (1 vote) - Jones really stretches for a connection, but
remembers that Wonn is from Ohio. Pretty cheap.
Jason Enright (1 vote) - Either Booth pulled a Jones and was thinking Oregon, or
he is completely insane. Which it is, nobody knows.
P: Alex Penev (3/10 votes)
Yep, Alex takes home a victory for both letters, but again, it is a pretty weak one. In all fairness though, Alex picked some bad letters for his initials, so his competition is pretty tough.
Peter Elsaesser (2 votes) - Probably worked out
the way it would've been expected to. Penev first and Peter second.
Blank (2 votes) - Grandjean and Laflamme couldn't think up a P name.
Paul Solo (1 vote) - An old star in Kart 64. Plus, our best Star Wars reference.
Louis-Philippe Sabbagh (1 vote) - Yeah, Louis voted for himself again...
Phalock (1 vote) - An unknown pick by Wonn. Was actually the nickname of the
person who sent him the e-mail about LR SC.
Q: Blank (4/10 votes)
Jim Quinn probably got hosed here because I forgot about him, but oh well, that's what you get for claiming the impossible on Royal Raceway. He is pretty old school though, so with the newer members, he's not going to ring many bells.
Jim Quinn (3 votes) - As stated, the famous creator
(cough...liar...cough) of Royal Raceway Shortcut version 3.0.
Sam Querbes (2 votes) - A good selection, and perhaps the only other Karter with
a Q.
Queensland (1 vote) - Miller drops the food for a while and instead gives his
vote to a section of Australia.
R: Rene Elsaesser, Blank, Andreas Runnelid (2/10 votes each)
Yes, it's a sad day when people can't think up an R vote. There are quite a few out there. Rene would be the easiest pick...he even used REX as his nickname. Andreas isn't on the PL, but it's nice to see people think he is. David Runnelid is on the PL, but I made sure that the people voting for a "Runnelid" were going for Andreas, just so that I could point out their foolishness. =)
Chris Rayola (1 vote) - He's pretty well known in
the N64 community, so no surprise here.
Russel Clapham (1 vote) - Not as well known as the others, but a nice selection
nonetheless.
Ruokai Chen (1 vote) - Surprisingly didn't pick up more votes. I would've
expected at least 1 more person to remember him with all that has been going on.
Rainbow Road (1 vote) - Yes, Kevin had to go way old school for this vote.
Rainbow was actually one of the greatest karters in the early days of the game.
He influenced the community so much, we decided to have Nintendo program a name
change into the game, and have him added as a course, replacing "That Long
Course With All Them Purdy Stripes."
S: Steven Zwartjes (3/10 votes)
Zwart just barely squeaked this one by, but he had some pretty good competition.
Sami Cetin (2 votes) - Probably the biggest
threat to Zwartjes in this one, but Sami's massacre in C wasn't enough to pull
him through here.
Mike Simmons (2 votes) - Another of the top karters with an S.
Louis-Philippe Sabbagh (1 vote) - Yes, Louis voted for himself 3 times. Some
would call that unfair, but he lost pretty bad in every letter, so don't worry
about it. =)
Nathan Stinson (1 vote) - Another fairly well known karter.
Simon Laflamme (1 vote) - How'd this get in here?
T: Tom Gaffikin, David Tran, Thomas Grandjean (2 votes each)
T, despite being such a common letter, doesn't have many listings near the top of the charts, so the rankings here ended up being pretty close. Grandjean, of course, had the advantage, because he was the only one of the winners capable of voting for himself. =)
Tom Hoban (1 vote) - A relative unknown takes home a vote.
Todd Worcester (1 vote) - Ditto, but he has been actively lately, it seems.
Thugpassion (1 vote) - Mark Jones gives some credit to our world champion...or
not.
Blank (1 vote) - Since there are no T's above 30th place, I suppose I can see
this happening.
U: Blank (7/10 votes)
Yes, Blank laid the smackdown on this one. Don't feel bad though, people, believe it or not, there are ZERO Kart 64 players on the PL with a first or last name starting with U!!!! I guess Uma Thurman doesn't want to play N64 games (damn). Here comes some ridiculous crap...
Myles Bukrim (2 votes) - Yes, take
a nice long look at that. Myles Bukrim took TWO votes. I can see Penev voting
for this because he is from Australia, after all. I can't quite figure
out Jones on this one though. =)
Yrvin Van Wijk (1 vote) -
Booth's vote could've been worse than the Bukrim stuff if it weren't for Bukky
The Vampire Slayer getting 2 votes. Yrvin doesn't even have a U anywhere in his
name!
Yeah, I gotta talk just a bit more about this. In order to not make a fool out of yourself here, you would either have to go way old school and find an ancient unknown Karter (might not even happen then) or use nicknames. Umyoguy is the only current one that would work, but everyone forgot about Kretschmer. There have probably been a couple more nicknames in the past to feature a U at the start.
V: Blank (4/10 votes)
With the assortment of Vans we have around here, you'd think that someone would've been better known than Blank, but I guess not...
Arthur Van Dalen (1 vote) - Yes, Van Dalen makes it into the
rankings in 3 letters, just like Sabbagh. However, unlike Sabbagh, he wasn't the
one putting himself there. =)
Jerry Van Wagenen (1 vote) - Old school player.
Yrvin Van Wijk (1 vote) - How did he not win? Jones almost redeemed himself for
that U vote, but not quite.
Van Allen (1 vote) - Sabbagh votes for a Karter that doesn't exist. Oh well. I'm
trying to figure out if it was a typo of either Van Dalen or Van Halen. =)
Myles Bukrim (1 vote) - Alex just continues to make himself look worse with this
one. He claims the V is for West Virginia. Yes, we're getting far too creative
here. I would also like to draw attention to the point that Myles got no votes
for M or B, but yet got 3 between U and V. Sad.
Volcano (1 vote) - And Miller continues his streak of voting for completely
random stuff.
W: William Lacey (5/10 votes)
Apparently my writing this wasn't enough to influence the votes away from Susan.
Jason Whalls (2 votes) - Damn you all.
Yrvin Van Wijk (1 vote) - Fair enough.
Brent Wingert (1 vote) - He has been pretty active around the MB and such
lately, so I can see this.
David Wonn (1 vote) - Wonn somehow thought of himself before me. What are the
odds of that?
X: Blank (4/10 votes)
Not a huge X population here, but the vote that should've won almost did so, so I haven't lost all faith in the community yet.
Xavier San Giorgi (3 votes) - So close.
itbeenxed (1 vote) - Booth tells me that this is David Wonn's friend Kenny's
nickname. Whatever.
X-ray/Xylophone/aleX (1 vote) - Penev takes a page out of Wonn's book and has
fun with his vocabulary too.
Xena (1 vote) - No Miller, we don't have a Warrior Princess in our ranks.
Y: Blank (4/10 votes)
Another close call as a real karter gets hosed by no karter (if that makes sense).
Yrvin Van Wijk (3 votes) - Yep, Yrvin makes it into 4 letters
somehow (the only person to do so). And, of course, on the one he was favored to
win, he doesn't. Figures.
Eli Young (1 vote) - Fair enough.
Bobby Yu (1 vote) - Yep, that works too.
Mike Simmons (1 vote) - Nope, that doesn't. Jones claimed it was because of
Yoshi Valley.
Z: Steven Zwartjes ( 7/10 votes)
A sweep was predicted for Zwart, but instead he fell short, and only brought in 7/10.
Blank (2 votes) - This was rather surprising, I though.
Grandjean and Wonn are the guilty parties here.
Zane Van de Meulen-Graaf (1 vote) - One of the coolest names in Kart...I'm glad
he got a vote. Laflamme is apparently the only one with a little creativity.
Well, there you have it. Obviously the biggest surprise was Bukrim taking in no votes for his letters, but making entries into ones he has little to do with. Booth wins for most recognizable with 8 votes on K, more than anyone got anywhere else. Blanks won or were tied for the win on 10 letters. That's kind of sad. And of course, Booth, Penev, Jones and Miller showed us why we shouldn't pay attention to anything they have to say.