Players of the Year Over the Years
At the Nintendo 64 High-Scores Site



During the course of each year, players who submit scores and times to this site are acknowledged for their talent (or luck if they believe that's what helps them out at critical gaming moments =). The Player of the Year award is reserved for players who have shown particular talent or diligent gaming throughout an entire year, generally in multiple games. Although this site has been functioning in its entirety since January 2000, Iacopo Sorce had maintained several separate Top 10 Chart pages for at least 18 months prior. However, he only began recording the assigned awards on January 1st 2000, with the limited exception of a few POWs and a couple of POMs he assigned specifically for StarFox64 late in 1998.

So, now that management of the site has passed from me to Daniel Hasting, and from him to Nicholas Harvey and I begin to assign the Awards for the latter part of my era as Webmaster and Updator, I find it important that the all-round best players of each year are remembered here, beginning with the year which for many was not an extraordinary one for any reason as far as gaming was concerned. There was much gaming prospect on the horizon, with a startling FOUR new consoles scheduled to be released in the year after: Microsoft's X-Box, Sony's PS2, and Nintendo's "Project Dolphin" (now termed the "GameCube") and revolutionary new handheld console, the Game Boy Advance.

Best Regards,
Andrew Kent, Esquire.
February 07th-March 01st, 2004


Player of the Year for the Year 2000

Throughout the year there was undoubtedly activity in a wider variety of games at this site than in any year before or since. It was the N64HS's most active year, and there were unbelievable numbers of players submitting scores. The main two players who were pushing the envelope were a long-established player Christopher Graves and a (then) new talent, Nicholas Harvey.

Christopher Graves had thoroughly made his skills known in many of the old skool N64 games: Ocarina of Time, GoldenEye 64, StarFox 64 and several others. Since early 1999 he had been playing Super Smash Bros. with dauntless promise. He was all but #1 in the game, and found competition in none but Kevin Fabian and Steve Smith. He remained a dominant force in this game all through 2000, reaching a never-before-seen height of over 230 points in the Rankings. His standing in this game far outshone that which he had in any other, but he was active in several other games on and off throughout the year.

Nicholas Harvey had sent scores for two games on his debut: StarFox 64 and Yoshi's Story (which later became his trademark title). He also tested out his skills in Mario Party, Super Smash Bros, Ocarina of Time and Banjo Kazooie, amongst others. It was clear he meant business in the games he played. Right from the start of the year he made his mark in the N64HS as a prolific gamer, grabbing no end of POD Awards: a staggering total of forty-nine over the year, a number which remains unbeaten to this day. For this reason, but not just for this reason, he is awarded the honour of Player of the Year for the Year 2000.


Player of the Year for the Year 2000
Nicholas Harvey
Mississippi, U.S.A.

Runner Up for the Year 2000
Christopher Graves
South Carolina, U.S.A.



Player of the Year for the Year 2001

This year began much as the previous year had, with the main competition existing once again in Smash Bros. 64, Ocarina of Time, Mario 64, StarFox 64, Mario Party PAL and NTSC, and Mario Party 2 NTSC. The major action was in the foremost game listed above, with competition hotting up between new arrivals Brandon Eberly and Matthew Harrison. They were blowing the old Bonus Nai WRs away one by one, in spite of much playing by Graves, Stinson, Zielinski, Smith and others.

Brandon was the first player to seriously challenge Graves' position at the top, by bettering him throughout the Bonus charts. He was also working hard on Ocarina of Time, making the Top 30 in the Rankings. He was drawn back to Smash Bros. soon enough though, with the arrival of Paul Kang, who tore up all three areas of the game, decimating Graves' lead and finally passing him. Brandon fought back after Kang's beief appearance, and grabbed the #1 spot from Kang, keeping it fron June until October. Meanwhile he continued to fight against the talent of Harrison, the onslaught of new players, and the newfound skill of another old player who'd been inactive for some time: Andrew Kent.

Andrew was also active in other games: Zelda V, StarFox 64, Mario 64, 1080 and The New Tetris mainly. But it was his activity in Smash Bros. which was most fierce. Searching for new strats he battled with and against Brandon, (against for the first part of the year, and with, once the uncanny achievements of new players arrived). He smashed his way to the #1 spot in the Rankings in October, but then the unthinkable happened: Iacopo finally quit updaing the N64HS for good. Competition died down on all sides. As a matter of fact, the Player of the Year Award for 2001 needs to be judged on its first nine-and-a-half months alone.

In this unique circumstance it is very difficult to award the honour. In the end it has come down to points. Brandon Eberly: 1 Quarterly, 3 POMs, 7 POWs, 41 PODs = 87 points. Andrew Kent: 1 Quarterly, 3 POMs, 8 POWs, 38 PODs = 87 Points. Oh dear. It is obvious that these two players claimed one- half of the year between them, and precisely a quarter of it each. However, the award must belong to someone. Since Brandon was Awarded Player of the Day on more occasions, (and thus was active for a greater amount of time), or possibly since I should feel strange presenting myself with the award, Brandon is awarded the honour of Player of the Year for the Year 2001.


Player of the Year for the Year 2001
Brandon Eberly
Pennsylvania, U.S.A.

Runner Up for the Year 2001
Andrew Kent
Victoria, Australia



Player of the Year for the Year 2002

The year 2002 saw a new Webmaster managing the Nintendo 64 High-Scores Site (or N64HS as it became fondly known; inspired in part by "N64HQ", the Nintendo 64 HeadQuarters): Andrew Kent. Trying hard to fill the r\'f4le of Iacopo, and in the final year of secondary College, updates came only as often as fortnightly, and generally nowhere near as frequent. However, The Elite was booming as the number of Perfect Dark players passed 250 and the new TimeSplitters II Elite (among a few other NGC Elite Rankings) was becoming more prominent, ensuring the survival of all sites affiliated with The Elite. Gradually competition resumed although not at its peak until the third quarter of the year. Infact the Player of the Year for this year must be judged on its last nine months. There was wild gaming coming from two well-established players: Daniel Hasting and Chris Rayola.

Daniel Hasting had made his debut on the site back in 2001 along with other players at Mike Lenehan's site, at around the time of the sadly failed SSB64 Tournament. After his superb accomplishments in that game (in all three disciplines, reaching as high as fourth place Overall in the Alternative Rankings, and being the first great all-rounder since Paul Kang. He branched out over time, getting the #1 spots in Mario Party (for which he earned Player of the Quarter for the second such part of that Year), Zelda V (Tied, as was the custom at the time), and grabbing #3 in Mario Party (and Zelda VI, soon after the page was created). He made great progress in Mario 64 and other games aswell.

Chris Rayola (also known as ExpertGamer) had been a very well respected and well accomplished player for years, having entered the Top 20 players in GoldenEye and Perfect Dark, being just second to tie the Top Spot in Zelda VI with Brian Wong and Marc Ubaldi, and being more or less the undisputed Cruis'n USA champion, what with his amazing comeback to finally pass Jeremy Prolic. He also enjoyed the #4 Spot in Super Mario 64 for awhile and of course, lest we forget, had been the King of Donkey Kong 64 forever! Doing much to further his scores in many games until September when he sadly traded his '64 for a GameCube (a movement for which some members of The Elite may never forgive him), he earned the Player of the Quarter Award for the third such part of that Year.

It's plain that both gamers had played themselves crazy, but since he managed to take three Player of the Month Awards that Year, Daniel Hasting is awarded the honour of Player of the Year for the Year 2001.


Player of the Year for the Year 2002
Daniel Hasting
Indiana, U.S.A.

Runner Up for the Year 2002
Chris Rayola
New York, U.S.A.



Player of the Year for the Year 2003

It may not come as the greatest surprise that the Year 2003 was fraught with no less turmoil than the Years 2002 and 2001 as far as the N64HS was concerned. It witnessed the leaving of the second of its Webmasters, as Andrew was in March forced to put Tertiary studies first. Gamer and active member of the Community, Nicholas Harvey, indicated that his services would be available ~~ from three months hence when his secondary schooling would be completed. There were then worries over the gap which needed to be bridged, until Daniel Hasting stepped forward and offered to tide the site over until the time Nick could begin. Thankfully these drastic changes went off without a hitch and The N64HS began its new era, back once again at Geocities.

In the crazy manner, in which these acts are always drawn, the competition was sustained throughout by two players. Queb\'e9cian francophone Pier-Yves Lemire, (who took the Award for Player of the Quarter for the fourth such part of the previous year), and newcomer, Brazilian Victor Lima. Both spent the entire year ripping up their own scores, both ending up at the new Top of the Zelda V Rankings, and as the top two players of Zelda VI. Apart from this and Mario Party they mostly pursued different games (though strangely neither got very far in Super Smash Bros. or even made a debut in StarFox 64).

This was the biggest Award that Nicholas Harvey had ever had to assign, and his own words are presented below, as posted to the N64HS Main PAGE during the update of January 01st, 2004:

Victor Alexandre Reggiani Germer de Lima (or simply, Victor Lima) has earned the Player of the Year award for the hard work he put into his Nintendo 64 scores throughout 2003. A sampling of the things he's done to get this award:

Now that deserves some recognition!

With that, Victor Lima is awarded Player of the Year for the Year 2003.



Player of the Year for the Year 2007

Andrew Kent here. 2007 at N64HS has been dominated by activity in LylatWars, with over 20 players - some new, some old - active throughout the year. Other games were being played too: the Mario Party series enjoyed continued activity from the Revermanns on PAL and a host of players on NTSC; Alex Penev took the Nai WR for beating KtQ on the Battlefield to another level using a new strat; Fredrik Armfelt and Bruno Teixeira set some seriously good Nai WRs in SSB; and Tim Klebetz became the first player to ever ride the Zelda V Obstacle Course in 45 seconds. These don't come close to covering the activity at N64HS during 2007, but neither do they compare to the intensity of the StarFox rivalry which remained heatedd throughout the year. In consequence, both the winner and runner-up for this year's POY have made their accomplishments only in StarFox.

Felipe Willian has been active for the last nine months in StarFox, steadily rising through the ranks with scores like 500+ hits on Meteo on an NTSC cartridge (which to my knowledge only Mark and I have done before), 338 Hits on Sector X, 300+ hits on Aquas, 600+ hits on Area 6, and over 2,400 Total Hits! Not many players have achieved these heights in such a short time: certainly Dima and I never did. =) Felipe came out of nowhere and played hard enough to hit the Top 5, with Top 10 scores in most of the charts. It was a great effort, however it wasn't quite enough to win the POY this year, because there was one guy who managed to do even more...

Manfred Rieder entered the LylatWars fray at the start of January, with a score of 519 on Area 6 (set as a 511 on his PAL cartridge). He has pursued several of the Nai WRs, and as of the end of 2007 has the tied Venom Nai WR with Dimitrij (356), the Nai WR for Corneria (229, by one hit), and the Nai WR for Fortuna (147, by three hits), not to mention the #2 Total Hits score of 2,590 and over 5,000 points for his 15-level total! It has taken him a whole year to do it, but he is now equidistant from Dima and Mark in the rankings: a not-so-distant second place. For this, he earns the Player of the Year Award for 2007, and is the first player ever to win POY for activity in only one game. Congratulations, Manfred and Felipe! Best Regards, Andrew Kent, Esq. January 2nd, 2008.


Player of the Year for the Year 2003
Victor Lima
Brazil

Runner Up for the Year 2003
Pier-Yves Lemire
Queb\'e9c, Canada



Player of the Year for the Year 2004

To Be Ascertained!



Player of the Year for the Year 2007
Manfred Rieder
Germany

Runner Up for the Year 2007
Felipe Willian
Brazil



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