Sami Cetin Interview: UK’s Super Mario Kart Champion

With great pleasure I give to you my interview with Super Mario Kart (SMK) legend Sami Cetin.

Holding the World Record times for Mario Circuit 1, Ghost Valley 3 and Rainbow Road, Sami is one of the best and one of the few able to perfect SMK’s pro techniques (some of which are mentioned in my earlier article).

Sami won the Super Mario Kart Championship in 2012 and runs the Super Mario Kart Time Trial World Rankings site in which racers of all levels showcase their time trial times for each circuit and are ranked accordingly.

The Super Mario Kart Time Trial World Rankings community is a mixture of professional players, casual players and beginners new to Super Mario Kart on the Super Nintendo and/or Super Famicom, absolutely everyone is welcome to join. It’s fun to see how you fare against players locally, nationally and the world as a whole.

You can read about my progress right here and you can see I’m having a blast, indeed as of right now I am officially the fastest Super Mario Kart NTSC player in Essex (ok I’ll admit it, I’m the only one who owns the NTSC version in Essex).

Please enjoy the interview.

Simon:

When did you first play Super Mario Kart (SMK) and at what point did you realise you were so fast in time trials?

Sami:

25th December 1992, my sister Ayla Hasso got SMK for me for Christmas (Leyla’s mother). During latter half of 1993 probably i picked up the pace and learned the rapid hop jumping technique. Maybe moreso into 1994 aswell when i was definitely playing regularly.

Simon:

Leyla is raked number two in the UK and entering this years SMK Championship with you right?

SMK has so many techniques to master like hop jumping, especially with regards to cornering and boosting.

Just how hard is it to put all these techniques together to come up with a perfect run?

Sami:

Leyla is UK #2 on PAL Time Trials and UK #3 on NTSC Time Trials and Multiplayer.

It takes time to build up a perfect run, but as you play time trials over long term you can eventually piece together all of the driving techniques and do a great run confidently and while relaxed. While racing you have to watch your opponent though also.

Simon:

Your concentration needed over five laps for your best time trial times and during a championship race must be incredible, how do you get into the “zone” to set such fast times?

Sami:

An old technique, practice, practice, practice. But also experience of attending many years and playing different players and learning moves and techniques. Patience is important for Time Trials as well, to be a high level racer you need all of the components including a high time trial level. Then you will be in the zone.

Simon:

The SMK Championship has been running since 2002 in Europe, when did you first enter the championship yourself and how was that experience for you?

Sami:

Yes, it has been around for many years, the first one I attended was in 2008, though i met several of the international players a few years prior, that was the largest SMK event i had attended yet. The setup was awesome and the atmosphere. I performed well in the group stages and gave it my best in the bracket rounds, but had a lot to learn and returned in 2009 prepared.

I have attended ever since and more than anything else, meeting all the great people from around the World was by far the best experience from it.

Simon:

Winning the overall SMK Championship in 2012 against Florent Lecoanet is an incredible achievement, how did it feel to win and what’s your best memory from that day?

Sami:

It was amazing as we had a large crowd from Team UK. It was Leylas first year too.

The memories was probably all of it as it was a journey plus at the time the hardest line up of players and level yet. It was to be a huge struggle but somehow i pushed through and won vs Florent Lecoanet overall.

Simon:

The eSports scene is massive these days, it’s amazing to think a game released in 1992 is being played professionally in 2018. Where do you see Mario Kart in the eSports scene going forward?

Could the championships be held outside of Europe?

Sami:

We never thought years ago that SMK could be a part of the esports scene but why not? It has a great competition which is fast paced and the game is built well for the multiplayer purpose as well as Time Trial.

We have featured at speedrunning events such as AGDQ. So we hope it could go in that direction and holding Championships outside europe has been discussed. It would be a matter of finding the right venue to fit all the timings and have all of the very specific equipment we need present.

We would love to have a World Championship held in USA or Japan for example. Definitely one of our dreams we wish to come true.

Simon:

You run the fantastic Super Mario Kart Time Trial World Rankings, with over 500 racers from all over the world who have joined, which showcases the best time trial times for each circuit, and you have a ranking system.
It’s an incredibly detailed website, which you update weekly.

How long have you been running the site?
Is it a team or just yourself who runs it?

Sami:

I started it on November 1998 and update weekly minus holidays or any other emergencies when I am away. I do all of the updates and news myself. In 2006 the site underwent a revamp to be on the same format as the new sites of the other Mario Kart games. The databases at the background were created by a colleague abroad; although we don’t handle the coding, i was shown how to do the main updates functionality.

Simon:

It’s an extremely competitive scene for all skill levels and a lot of fun (I like the fact I can see who the top players are locally too).

Do you have any tips for new players looking to improve their times?

Sami:

Definitely all new players should play all of the tracks evenly; it is a top tip. The majority of the casual players seemed to only like to compare records on Ghost Valley 1 only or a few other favorite tracks.

You will learn more overall in the game playing all of it, plus it is the way to climb the World Rankings.

Simon:

Final question, Bowser or DK Jr?

Sami:

Bowser or D.K.Jr are equal driving stats, it is just the sprite differences, I always used D.K.Jr for Time Trial or general use in the game, though I am always happy to race with Bowser as well.

My thanks to Sami Cetin for the interview.

This August, Sami and Leyla will be entering the Super Mario Kart Championship in Holland, an event I hope to attend myself next year.

You can join Sami, me and over 500 Mario Kart racers at Super Mario Kart Time Trial World Rankings, see how you fare against the world.

As mentioned before, all gamers are welcome from pro to new players. You can check out some of my recent race times in the video below, as you can see all levels are indeed welcome.

You must own the Wii download or the original cart to join, PAL (UK and Europe) or NTSC (USA and Japan), eBay sells both Super Mario Kart PAL and NTSC as well as Super Nintendo consoles from all three regions.

If you have any questions please contact Sami on the Super Mario Kart Time Trial World Rankings website.