Earlier today one of the oldest times in The Elite, Runway Agent 0:23, became pointless! Wally achieved the WR of 0:22 to deliver the final blow; big congrats to him! With that, a huge pile of players lost their final point, and many others gained a 0 pointer hole in their times page!
The non-WRs of the original Boring 4 are now all pointless, making points a fair bit more difficult to achieve initially as the basic levels require WRs (or now former WRs; thanks Karl
)! There are still many similar levels with easy points, including Runway SA, Surface 1 A, Bunker 2 A, Depot A, Streets A, and more, but some the go-tos are gone.
I've been predicting and analyzing for awhile how this could potentially affect newer players who now have a stronger barrier of entry into the points. I generally argued that new players will simply become stronger than the new players before them, as has always happened in previous generations. Certainly, we've seen some new guys get some fantastic times including Irie with Runway SA 0:22, Silo SA 1:11, and a nadeless start Bunker 1 00A 1:06, Dusky with Surface 2 00A 1:31 and untied slaying Surface 2 LTK 1:30, FrostHops with Frigate A 0:23 and Surface 1 A 1:02, Andrew Wash sweeping Cradle in a day, Timmy with Silo A 1:04 and a well-rounded times page, Harry cusping Surface 2 SA 0:47, and more (as well in Perfect Dark with Fork, Alka, and MW)! Boostless Dam 0:53s and 1.2 Runway A 0:22s are pretty shiny too! At the same time though, the criticisms of the direction the rankings are going has also come true and lead to quite a few new players struggling to get anywhere.
I believe it's very beneficial to the new players more than ever now to share videos for others to critique, spend time learning and analyzing the game, and to keep their spirits and mentality strong. The highly competitive nature of Goldeneye makes the game very difficult to get good at and to be ranked well, but that's the same reason that makes doing so very rewarding. There are still many cheap points available too, especially on the more complex levels on SA and 00A, and difficult as they may be, those massive boosts from Dam 0:53, Runway 0:22, Bunker 1 0:17, and Archives 0:16 will rocket any player high up on the rankings! As it stands, a mere 200 points almost puts a player in the top 200, and just 3 points is top 300! Much better than the bloated rankings we had previously!
I hope that the way activity has been going continues and we see more new players becoming monsters and achieving wicked times, and more clean-up on the rankings alongside! To the newbies and improvers: engage with the community, stream your attempts, and share videos with others to critique to help yourselves out as much as possible. Don't feel shy or embarrassed about doing so either as most people are nice enough to help. I'm ranked fairly high and I made use of it myself not long ago.
To the veterans and skilled players: help build the community and do your part with answering questions, giving tips, and critiquing runs when you can. It doesn't take much of your time to give invaluable information to players, and it's one of the easiest ways to keep new guys around.
With a majority of players at the bottom of the rankings wiped out into the sea of zeroes (as well as Dam 0:53 and Archives 0:16 being worth 97 points), here is the currently listing of all players with 96 points or less, as well as all of their PRs worth points. If you happen to be interested and get enjoyment from cleaning out players, consider targeting these times.
Domingos - Depot A 0:26, Silo 00A 1:48, Aztec 00A 2:28
Askaruk - Silo A 1:07, Control A 4:06, Silo SA 1:18
David Raymond - Statue A 2:25, Depot A 0:26, Statue SA 2:23, Statue 00A 2:24
Cook - Streets A 1:14, Streets SA 1:57, Caverns SA 1:31, Streets 00A 1:57, Caverns 00A 2:22
Adam Flint - Runway SA 0:23
Blupex - Runway SA 0:23
Debrebeuf - Runway SA 0:23
Nolife9face - Surface 1 A 1:04, Bunker 2 A 0:26, Surface 1 SA 1:52
Dean Barnhart - Train A 1:16, Egypt A 0:50, Dam SA 1:21, Silo SA 1:23, Frigate SA 1:10, Bunker 2 SA 1:01, Train SA 1:51, Frigate 00A 1:21, Egypt 00A 0:52
Iain Everett - Streets A 1:14, Jungle A 0:54, Streets SA 1:57
Paul George - Bunker 2 A 0:26, Silo SA 1:19, Silo 00A 1:49
Zach Mulac - Surface 1 A 1:04, Streets A 1:14, Train A 1:17, Egypt A 0:49
Michael Bastien - Streets A 1:14, Caverns A 1:03
Sean Price - Facility A 0:47, Streets A 1:14
Asherza - Depot A 0:26
Brian R - Depot A 0:26
Jared Kirkness - Depot A 0:26
Michael Maguire - Depot A 0:26
Thiago Trujillo - Bunker 2 A 0:26, Streets A 1:14, Streets SA 1:57
Martijn Kool - Facility SA 1:00, Surface 2 SA 0:57, Facility 00A 0:59
Meatball Man - Egypt A 0:50, Egypt SA 0:50, Egypt 00A 0:52
Danyal I. - Facility A 0:48, Bunker 1 SA 0:27, Dam 00A 2:08, Surface 2 00A 1:46
John Kaleta - Streets A 1:14, Streets SA 1:57, Streets 00A 1:57
Matt Hammond - Caverns SA 1:28
AHurdOfBronies - Surface 2 A 0:49
DMan - Train SA 1:50, Egypt SA 0:51, Train 00A 2:25, Egypt 00A 0:52
Adrian Chin - Facility A 0:49, Surface 1 A 1:04, Train A 1:16
Nodjo - Egypt 00A 0:52, Dam 00A 2:07, Bunker 1 00A 1:16, Egypt 00A 0:52
Michael Anthony - Facility A 0:48, Facility SA 1:00, Surface 1 SA 1:53, Surface 2 00A 1:46
Slayer - Egypt A 0:49, Egypt SA 0:52, Egypt 00A 0:52
Alex Hollingsworth - Frigate SA 1:11, Silo 00A 1:53, Caverns 00A 2:59
Brad Cutler - Frigate A 0:26, Bunker 1 SA 0:27, Depot SA 0:46
Dark Master - Depot 00A 0:56, Jungle 00A 1:12
Napa - Cradle SA 0:40, Cradle 00A 0:42
Robin Chauve - Facility A 0:49, Facility SA 0:59, Facility 00A 1:01
Deep Darkness - Jungle A 0:57, Egypt 00A 0:50, Train SA 1:51, Aztec SA 2:04, Egypt SA 0:52, Dam 00A 2:08, Egypt 00A 0:52
Ledwith - Surface 1 A 1:04, Control A 4:06
Adam Archbold - Egypt A 0:50, Egypt SA 0:52, Egypt 00A 0:51
Dan O'Grady - Bunker 2 A 0:26, Dam SA 1:21
Yoshifan - Bunker 2 A 0:26, Bunker 1 00A 1:17
Logan West - Surface 2 A 0:50, Streets SA 1:57
Moltov - Facility A 0:49, Streets A 1:14
Steve Henning - Egypt 00A 0:51
Victor Lima - Aztec SA 2:01
David Cliff - Train A 1:17, Surface 2 00A 1:43
James Taylor - Surface 2 A 0:51, Streets A 1:14
Dark Slayer - Streets A 1:14, Depot SA 0:46
Adam Miller - Streets A 1:14
Abney - Streets A 1:14
Bruno Alberto - Streets A 1:14
Joakim Karlsson - Streets A 1:14
NGamer - Streets A 1:14
Marc Robert - Streets A 1:14
Michael Gantt - Streets A 1:14
EverAlert - Streets A 1:14
Scott Lowe - Streets A 1:14
William Lacey - Streets A 1:14
William Zino - Streets A 1:14
Marc Katz - Control SA 4:30
Dan Furst - Caverns 00A 2:24
Denis Akel - Control 00A 4:43
Joshua Nash - Aztec 00A 2:29
Mike Martin - Surface 2 SA 0:57, Surface 2 00A 1:44
Jodri Duran - Frigate SA 1:12
JBop - Surface 2 A 0:50
Brian Richards - Frigate A 0:26
Herman Yeung - Frigate A 0:26
Matthew Kazuk - Frigate A 0:26
Wolverbear - Frigate A 0:26
Stefan Glosby - Frigate A 0:26
Ryan Woodward - Bunker 2 SA 1:02, Train SA 1:50, Egypt 00A 0:52
Wes McKinney - Surface 2 SA 0:57, Train SA 1:51, Jungle 00A 1:20
Qoiz - Bunker 1 00A 1:16
Joseph Pierman - Bunker 1 00A 1:16
Graeme Faulds - Surface 2 SA 0:57
Kevin Dick - Surface 2 SA 0:57
Ryan Honkonen - Surface 2 SA 0:57
Forrest Hinton - Egypt 00A 0:52
Damian Coe - Train 00A 2:25
Morgan Malm - Dam SA 1:21
Softman25 - Facility A 0:49
Leo303 - Facility A 0:49
Bruno Giacomini - Egypt SA 0:52
Richard Vallon - Frigate 00A 1:21
Blake Brown - Egypt A 0:50
Nari - Egypt A 0:50
Michael Coe - Jungle 00A 1:21
Minion Procyk - Bunker 2 SA 1:02
Otto - Dam 00A 2:08
A lot of the same PRs appear repeatedly throughout here, most of which are similarly basic times that haven't quite died out yet. Some of them include Facility A 0:49, Facility SA 1:00, Surface 1 A 1:04, Surface 2 A 0:50, Surface 2 SA 0:57, Bunker 2 A 0:26, Streets A 1:14, Streets SA 1:57, Depot A 0:26, Egypt A 0:50, Egypt SA 0:52, and Egypt 00A 0:52. They're great PRs to target if you want to bop a huge pile of players all at once!
Hopefully with Runway Agent 0:23 gone, we get a wild west going at the bottom of the rankings with players achieving stronger PRs, attacking more of the low point times, and improving at rates faster than ever! Let's see where the community and rankings continue to go!
