Billy Mitchell’s fight to clear his name and put it back in the video game record books appears to have been a success. The Donkey Kong player and subject of the King of Kong documentary has apparently been successful in his quest to overturn a ruling that banned his records after cheating accusations from many, including rival Steve Wiebe.

Mitchell said he would fight the decision, and in 2019 he threatened a lawsuit against the company for the ban. Wiebe, meanwhile, called the decision “surreal,” though even with Mitchell’s records taken down he no longer held the crown, either.

But it seems Mitchell won his case with Guinness World Records. Earlier in the week, Mitchell announced that the company had decided to reinstate his records, once again making him the King of Kong. Mitchell issued a statement on Pac-Man-like letterhead saying his records were reinstated.

The initial allegations against Mitchell are a bit complicated, but Twin Galaxies, a group Guinness uses for gaming records, ruled in 2018 that Mitchell’s high scores were not valid because he may have used a Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator (MAME) for his Donkey Kong and Pac-Man records instead of a genuine arcade machine.

“In this case, a re-examination of the records in question and the emergence of key eyewitness and expert testimonials led to a reversal of earlier disqualifications and the reinstating of Mr. Mitchell’s original records,” the Guinness statement said. “The records archive has been updated accordingly to reflect this.”

Records Mitchell reclaimed include his original 874,300-point outing from back in 1982, a 1,062,800-point game he recorded in 2010 and a notation for being the first person to reach the “kill screen” and score 1 million points in an arcade game.

View Entire Post ›

Donald Trump’s return to the campaign trail amid the COVID-19 pandemic didn’t go off the way his campaign hoped on Saturday. CNN reported that the campaign expected a sold out BOK Center and around 40,000 people outside at an overflow rally. But Saturday night brought images of plenty of empty seats in Tulsa and an overflow rally that was abruptly canceled because no one was outside.

The Trump campaign quickly blamed counter-protesters for not allowing people to enter the arena, but reports on the scene from accredited media said that was not the case. Whether it was a rumored campaign by K Pop fans or TikTok teens to flood the campaign with huge requests for tickets or simple hubris, the crowd that showed up on Saturday was much smaller than anyone organizing the rally anticipated.

Both Trump and vice president Mike Pence were scheduled to speak to the crowd outside the venue, but as the rally grew closer it was clear that the “overflow” area didn’t have any actually in it. The campaign soon canceled the planned speeches and started to take down parts of the stage before the rally inside began.

Many people on Twitter made a comparison to Fyre Fest, the viral concert failure that spawned a pair of movies and a million tweets.

A number of people tweeted out the infamous picture of the Fyre Fest luxury meals when comparing it to the rally.

Even Cardi B had a laugh at Trump’s expense.

Later during CNN’s coverage of the rally, a commentator on the network actually compared it to Fyre Festival. Trump’s Tulsa rally probably won’t end up with quite the disaster fallout that Fyre Fest had, but it’s clear the night did not go down like the president hoped.

View Entire Post ›

You’ll find yourself using these purchases again and again (and again).

View Entire Post ›

Are you a true Disney kid?

View Entire Post ›

Be warned – he’s only five.

View Entire Post ›

The Indiana Pacers are one of the teams headed to Orlando for the NBA’s bubble league to finish up the 2019-20 season. The team sat in fifth place in the Eastern Conference with a 39-26 record when the league’s COVID-19 hiatus began, and while you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who thinks they will win the conference, a big boost would come if Victor Oladipo could return to his All-Star form.

Oladipo suffered a pretty serious quad injury during the 2018-19 campaign, and as a result, he’s only played in 13 games and hasn’t quite looked like himself as he’s worked off the rust. Still, at his best, Oladipo is one of the best shooting guards in the league.

The issue is that he is still coming off a serious injury, and when the bubble league tips off in late-July, he’ll have gone four and a half months between games. As such, Oladipo explained to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN that he’s going to ramp his workouts up before making a final decision on whether or not he’ll take the floor at Disney.

“I feel a whole lot better,” Oladipo said. “I know there’s risk going into it with the unique situation that I’m in — being off so long and trying to ramp it up that fast. I’ve just got to be smart, that’s all.”

Oladipo apparently would like to play, but with how he’s coming off of a serious injury, it makes sense that the plan is to be cautious with the quad. As Wojnarowski noted, players have until Wednesday to inform their teams on whether or not they plan to go to Orlando, and rosters have to be submitted to the league by July 1.

Similar to DaBaby, who spent his Juneteenth trying to improve and make his mark on his hometown of Charlotte with an open discussion panel, YG and Mustard honored the holiday by delivering meals to residents in their Los Angeles hometown. The donation comes as the two artists teamed up with Postmates to make it happened.

In total, the partnership will result in $100,000 worth of meals delivered within the Los Angeles area. YG and Mustard spoke about the donation in a recent interview with Billboard. The donation comes after YG and Mustard recently acquired an equity stake in the Fishbone Seafood restaurants in addition to the Postmates partnership.

“I met one of the owners at a gas station, and he told me we should do business,” YG said to Billboard. “I called Mustard and told him about the opportunity, and he was ready to go.” Mustard then explained how he and YG hoped to ease the effects of the coronavirus on the community with their contributions.

“COVID-19 has hit Black and Brown communities the hardest,” Mustard said. “YG and I have not forgotten where we come from, and feel a duty to support those who are less fortunate and have been our biggest supporters from the beginning.”

YG and Mustard had $50,000 worth of food delivered to residents within the Postmates delivery radius on Friday while Fishbone restaurants provided healthy alternatives named after the rappers. Next week, the remaining $50,000 of meals will be given to a number of Los Angeles organizations including A New Way of Life, Hollywood Food Coalition, Midnight Mission, Watts Empowerment Center, Upward Bound House, and five St. John’s Well Child and Family clinics.

[via Billboard]

View Entire Post ›