Sami Cetin

Sami Cetin, the UK Champion of Super Mario Kart (SNES) and World Record Holder of Mario Circuit 1

Introduction

Sami Cetin was born in London, UK in October 1982 to Finnish and Turkish parents, and is the Founder and Director of the Super Mario Kart (SMK) Time Trial World Records Site for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System SNES. He was the chief times and news updater of the SMK community since November 1998, and continues this job on the 2006 automated reincarnation of the site as a Global Director. His dedication and long-service to Super Mario Kart have earned him the title 'Godfather of SMK'. Sami is a two time PAL Time Trial World Champion of Super Mario Kart (also holding the title of the longest reigning PAL Time Trial World Champion by cumulative number of days) and is currently 2nd in the World following his rival Guillaume Leviach of France. Sami first held the Time Trial title from September 1998 to April 2004 (at one point holding all 40 WRs) and has also maintained the title as the UK National Champion on SMK for all of the modes from 1998 to present. He is most famous for his achievements on Mario Circuit 1 (the first race track in the entire Mario Kart franchise), by being the first to reach a Non-NBT 1'00"99 in August 2000. This led to an eventual Guinness World Records entry in 2012 with a 58.34 seconds World Record time. On Christmas Day 2013 he became the first person on Earth to break the PAL 58 second barrier with a 57.90 seconds World Record and broke a similar barrier in November 2014 by going sub 56 seconds on NTSC with 55.97 seconds. Sami won the overall Multiplayer Title one time at the Super Mario Kart World Championships 2012 held in Thil, near Reims, France during 21st - 26th August 2012. He was also the overall PAL and NTSC Super Mario Kart Online Multiplayer World Champion from 2011 - 2014 on the SNESOT Rankings based on a combined overall points system (not individual years). Sami is a senior moderator of the SMK forum and a popular member of the kart community.

Involvement in other Mario Kart games

Sami's prowess extends to the other kart games, and he is one of the best all-round Mario Kart players: currently ranking in 9th in the Combined Mario Kart Rankings which were created as a fun side statistic combining all Mario Kart games. He was briefly in 1st place years ago. He was formerly the Non-Shortcut Time Trial World Champion in Mario Kart 64, where he had many impressive WRs and broke milestone barriers such as Wario Stadium 3lap in which he got 3:39.99 as an NTSC time. He was also world champion of Mario Kart Super Circuit for the first few months of competition including taking many former World Records during a visit to Germany in early 2002 before retiring from the GBA title. He has spent a bit of time on Mario Kart Double Dash and a little more on Mario Kart DS. He competed on Mario Kart DS becoming UK Champion during the start of 2007 but retired within a few months to make a return to Super Mario Kart where World Multiplayer Competition was picking up. Following winning a Nintendo Wii U at the SMK World Championships 2014, Sami has acquired a copy of Mario Kart 8, but has no plans to play this to a professional level. He may look to run some tournaments for fun at events on this game for others to compete in.

World Titles and Records in a few other games

Sami is often asked at gaming events if he competes in other games for records. This was true as he did back in the day used to play a few other titles. These were mainly SNES games... Stunt Race FX (Wild Trax on SFC) was released in 1994 and Sami is known for being the current Time Trial World Champion there on both PAL and NTSC versions of the game holding all 16 respective Free Trax Time Trial World Records on PAL and almost all on NTSC. Sami's main rival on NTSC is Dave Phaneuf from Canada.

F-Zero SNES was also a big favorite for Sami where he also enjoyed PAL Time Attack competition, and he holds the UK Records for Mute City 1 and Big Blue, amongst many other strong times that are some of the best in the country. The competition on this game has been huge around the globe, making it tough; nevertheless Sami has reached 12th in the World on F-Zero Combined PAL and NTSC World Rankings not taking into account some additional professional F-Zero players from Japan who are unranked. Combining these it is expected that Sami would be in the Top 16 overall at the most. His Mute City 1 time is officially joint Top 16 in the World ever (with the Brazilian Champion and 3rd fastest in USA). Above them in the Top 15 are the Canadian, Dutch, German and Swedish records, plus the two fastest in the USA. And as National Competition was so great here; a great 9 players in Japan hold records in the Top 15, including the Official World Record Holder, Legend.

Street Racer for the SNES was a Super Mario Kart clone (although had different handling) but still followed the same Mode 7 graphics. It had a Time Attack mode aswell where you could specify how long a course time you wanted to do and a system to do Best Laps primarily. Sami is the unanimous Time Trial World Champion of NTSC on this game and holds most of the World Records on PAL (17 out of 24). His main rival being Pierre L'Hoëst of France who holds the other 7. However on an overall basis this makes Sami the Time Trial World Champion of both PAL and NTSC versions.

Sami has also competed on Micro Machines 2 : Turbo Tournament for the SNES for Time Trials. But didn't favour the game for Multiplayer as much. To add another racing game to his list of professional competition from the 16 Bit era, Sami is currently the UK Champion based on overall points on Cyberscore, although his UK rivals Chris Clark and Ben Allen have many faster records, they are due to complete timesets. He has expressed interest in competing with the World Records there as well as a side project for the future.

Micro Machines V4 for Playstation 2 was well enjoyed and introduced to Sami around the Norway 2007 meet time. The current Time Trial World Champion based on full completions average finish is Marius Hukkelas of Norway. However a faster player currently holds 29 World Records out of a possible 51 and is considered to be a Champion on this category; Super Mario Kart's Multiple Championship winner Florent Lecoanet of France. Sami doesn't have any World Records here but is the UK Champion of this game.

Sami was a keen player of many Nintendo 64 Titles, although mainly for recreational purposes such as Banjo-Kazooie. However prior to that, a racing game called Diddy Kong Racing was released which was a huge hit. Time Trial competition was also fierce here and he is the London overall Time Trial Champion on combined charts.

Another game which Sami had some moderate success in was Banjo-Pilot on the Game Boy Advance. He is currently the 2nd fastest player in the UK on Time Trials following Ben Bayntun.

Sami Cetin's Super Mario Kart PAL Time Trial Videos (Some are current or former World Records or UK Records)

• PAL NBT Mario Circuit 1 Course - 0'57"90
• PAL NBT Mario Circuit 1 Lap - 0'11"23
• PAL NBT Donut Plains 1 Lap - 0'13"67
• PAL NBT Donut Plains 2 Course - 1'25"55
• PAL NBT Donut Plains 2 Lap - 0'16"79
• PAL NBT Bowser Castle 2 Course - 1'41"21
• PAL NBT Bowser Castle 2 Lap - 0'19"86
• PAL NBT Mario Circuit 3 Course - 1'26"98
• PAL NBT Mario Circuit 3 Lap - 0'17"05
• PAL NBT Bowser Castle 3 Course - 1'29"41
• PAL NBT Bowser Castle 3 Lap - 0'17"61
• PAL NBT Ghost Valley 3 Course - 1'14"66
• PAL NBT Ghost Valley 3 Lap - 0'14"69
• PAL NBT Vanilla Lake 2 Course - 0'48"33
• PAL NBT Rainbow Road Course - 1'26"64

Sami Cetin's Super Mario Kart NTSC Time Trial Videos (Some are current or former World Records, or UK Records)

• NTSC Mario Circuit 1 Course - 0'55"97
• NTSC Mario Circuit 1 Lap - 0'10"83
• NTSC Mario Circuit 4 Lap - 0'17"88
• NTSC Koopa Beach 2 Course - 0'53"95
• NTSC Ghost Valley 3 Course - 1'12"27
• NTSC Ghost Valley 3 Lap - 0'14"28
• NTSC Vanilla Lake 2 Course - 0'46"29

Sami Cetin's Multiplayer Tournament Achievements

Year	Where	Tournament	Game or Mode	Rank	Notes
2017		Awesome Games Done Quick 2017 - Super Mario Kart	NTSC Time Trial Speed Run	1st	Win vs Karel van Duijvenboden in 29:59
2016		Super Mario Kart SNES World Championships 2016	Overall Result of 4 modes	4th	Out of 53 overall, Bronze Medal in 150cc GP
2015		Super Mario Kart SNES Online Tournament	PAL GP 150cc 2015	1st	13-7 win vs Karel in Final
2015		Super Mario Kart SNES Online Tournament	PAL Match Race 2015	2nd	12-8 loss to Karel in Final
2015		Super Mario Kart SNES Online Tournament	PAL Battle Mode 2015	8th	10-3 loss to Drew in Quarter
2015		Super Mario Kart SNES World Championships 2015	Overall Result of 4 modes	5th	Out of 56 overall, Silver Medal in Time Trial
2015		Mario Kart 64 VS Tournament at Four Quarters, Peckham, London	GP 150cc	1st	Out of 27 competitors
2015		Super Mario Kart SNES Online Tournament	NTSC GP 150cc 2015	3rd	12-8 loss to Garro in Semi
2015		Super Mario Kart SNES Online Tournament	NTSC Match Race 2015	3rd	13-7 loss to Karel in Semi
2015		Super Mario Kart SNES Online Tournament	NTSC Battle Mode 2015	8th	10-5 loss to Kart_King in Quarter
2015		Mario Kart 64 GP Tournament at Four Quarters, Peckham, London	GP 100cc	5th	Eliminated in Quarter Final
2014		Super Mario Kart SNES Online Tournament	PAL 150cc GP 2014	2nd	17-3 loss to Julien Holmiere in Final
2014		Street Fighter II SNES Tournament at 3Compasses	League	2nd	2nd out of 9 in league
2014		Super Mario Kart SNES Online Tournament	PAL Match Race 2014	2nd	13-7 loss to Julien Holmiere in Final
2014		Super Mario Kart SNES Tournament at 3Compasses	PAL Match Race	1st	1st Place of 32 competitors
2014		Super Mario Kart SNES Online Tournament	PAL Battle Mode 2014	4th	10-5 loss to Geoffrey Label in Semi
2014		Super Mario Kart SNES World Championships 2014	Overall Result of 4 modes	2nd	Three Silver Medals and 5th Battle Mode
2014		Super Mario Kart SNES Online Tournament	NTSC 150cc GP 2014	2nd	12-8 loss vs Karel van Duijvenboden in Final
2014		Super Mario Kart SNES Online Tournament	NTSC Match Race 2014	2nd	13-11 loss vs Karel van Duijvenboden in Final
2014		Games Expo East Kent 2014	Super Mario Kart SNES Match Race Head Start Exhibition	Win	14-6 vs Josh Wickenden (Margate)
2014		Games Expo East Kent 2014	Super Mario Kart SNES Match Race Head Start Exhibition	Draw	10-10 vs Tom Harvey (Margate)
2014		Super Mario Kart SNES Online Tournament	NTSC Battle Mode 2014	6th	10-5 loss vs Kart King in Quarter Final
2013		Super Mario Kart SNES Online Tournament	PAL 150cc GP 2013	1st	15-5 win vs Wayze in Final
2013		Super Mario Kart SNES Online Tournament	PAL Match Race 2013	1st	11-9 win vs Karel van Duijvenboden in Final
2013		RetroCollect Tournament Play Expo 2013	Diddy Kong Racing one try time attack	1st	Win on Ancient Lake
2013		RetroCollect Tournament Play Expo 2013	Mario Kart 64 NTSC one try time attack	1st	Win on Bowser Castle
2013		Super Mario Kart SNES Online Tournament	PAL Battle Mode 2013	5th	10-7 loss to Drew Blumfield in Quarter
2013		RetroActive Leicester	F-Zero SNES One Try Time Attack Tournament	1st	Win on Mute City 1
2013		Super Mario Kart SNES World Championships 2013	Overall Result of 4 modes	2nd	Wins 1st 150cc Gold Medal vs Florent Lecoanet
2013		Super Mario Kart SNES Online Tournament	NTSC 150cc GP 2013	1st	12-8 win vs Drew Blumfield
2013		Super Mario Kart SNES Online Tournament	NTSC Match Race 2013	2nd	12-8 loss to Julien Holmiere
2013		Super Mario Kart SNES Online Tournament	NTSC Battle Mode 2013	7th	10-4 loss to Julien Holmiere in Quarter
2012		Super Mario Kart SNES Online Tournament	PAL 150cc GP 2012	2nd	12-8 loss to Karel van Duijvenboden
2012		Super Mario Kart SNES Online Tournament	PAL Match Race 2012	3rd	12-10 loss to Karel van Duijvdenboden in Semi
2012		Super Mario Kart SNES Online Tournament	PAL Battle Mode 2012	6th	10-9 loss to Erik Petterson in Quarter
2012		Super Mario Kart SNES World Championships 2012	Overall Result of 4 modes	1st	4th Gold Medal at Match Race & 2nd Time Trial
2012		Super Mario Kart SNES Online Tournament	NTSC 150cc GP 2012	1st	13-7 win vs Wayze
2012		Super Mario Kart SNES Online Tournament	NTSC Match Race 2012	1st	16-4 win vs Drew Blumfield
2012		Super Mario Kart SNES Online Tournament	NTSC Battle Mode 2012	5th	10-5 loss to Stephen Harloff in Quarter
2011		Super Mario Kart SNES Online Tournament	NTSC Choco Island 1 Match Race League	1st	Won 15-0-3
2011		Super Mario Kart SNES Online Tournament	NTSC Ghost Valley 3 Match Race League	1st	Won 15-0-0
2011		Super Mario Kart SNES Online Tournament	NTSC Mario Circuit 2 Match Race League	1st	Won 18-0-0
2011		Super Mario Kart SNES Online Tournament	PAL 150cc GP 2011	3rd	13-7 loss to Drew Blumfield in Semi
2011		Super Mario Kart SNES Online Tournament	PAL Match Race 2011	3rd	11-9 loss to Geoffrey Label in Semi
2011		Super Mario Kart SNES Online Tournament	PAL Battle Mode 2011	7th	10-1 loss to Drew Blumfield in Quarter
2011		Super Mario Kart SNES UK Championships 2011	Overall Result of 4 modes	1st	3 Gold Medals, 1 Silver
2011		Super Mario Kart SNES World Championships 2011	Overall Result of 4 modes	2nd	3rd Gold Medal at Match Race
2011		Super Mario Kart SNES Online Tournament	NTSC 150cc GP 2011	2nd	13-7 loss to Julien Holmiere
2011		Super Mario Kart SNES Online Tournament	NTSC Match Race 2011	1st	15-5 win vs Geoffrey Label
2011		Super Mario Kart SNES Online Tournament	NTSC Battle Mode 2011	1st	10-9 win vs Garro
2010		Super Mario Kart SNES UK Championships 2010	Overall Result of 4 modes	1st	3 Gold Medals, 1 Silver
2010		Super Mario Kart SNES World Championships 2010	Overall Result of 4 modes	2nd	2nd Gold Medal at Match Race
2009		SMK Tower European Open	Super Street Fighter IV	5th	Loss to Patrick Wessels in Quarter-Final
2009		SMK Tower European Open	Super Mario Kart Match Race PAL & NTSC	3rd	Loss to Karel van Duijvenboden in Semi-Final
2009		Super Mario Kart SNES World Championships 2009	Overall Result of 4 modes	2nd	First Gold Medal at Time Trial & Match Race
2008		Super Mario Kart SNES European Championships 2008	Overall Result of 4 modes	4th	Debut at Official World Championships
2008		Super Mario Kart Belgian Exhibition Match Races	PAL Match Race	1st	16-4 win vs Mathieu Jaspard
2008		Super Mario Kart Belgian Exhibition Match Races	PAL Match Race	1st	16-4 win vs Jean-Francois Schepers
2008		Super Mario Kart Belgian Exhibition Match Races	PAL Match Race	1st	14-6 win vs Geoffrey Ewbank
2007		Next Level Gaming (NLG) Championship Norway 2007	Super Mario Kart Match Race World Open	2nd	10-5 Loss to Florent Lecoanet in Final
2007		Next Level Gaming (NLG) Championship Norway 2007	Mario Kart 64 Match Race World Open	8th	5-2 loss to Tom Gaffikin
2007		Next Level Gaming (NLG) Championship Norway 2007	Super Street Fighter II Turbo (PS2)	4th	Loss in Semi-Final to Harold Christensen
2007		Next Level Gaming (NLG) Championship Norway 2007	Street Fighter III : Third Strike (PS2)	8th	Loss in Quarter Final to Patrick Wessels
2007		International Fun Cup 2007	Super Mario Kart Match Race Exhibitions	2nd	13-7 Loss to Pierre L'Hoest in Match Race
2007		SMK Tower Street Fighter Alpha 3 UK Training Exhibition	Street Fighter Alpha 3 Random Character Exhibition	2nd	102-98 loss vs Jonathan Sifleet
2006		SMK World Meet London, July 2006	Super Mario Kart Match Race Exhibitions	2nd	12-8 Loss to Pierre L'Hoest in Match Race
2006		SMK UK Meet, London, April 2006	Super Mario Kart Match Race Tournament	1st	13-7 Win vs Matthew McCarthy in Match Race
2005		SMK Tower Fighting Game Exhibitions	Super Street Fighter II Turbo PS2 Anniversary Challenge	2nd	9-7 loss vs Jonathan Sifleet
1994		SMK UK Meet, London, March 1994	Super Mario Kart Match Race Tournament	1st	Win vs Jonathan Cem Pulleine in Match Race

External Links

• Sami's SMK profile
• Sami's MK64 profile
• Sami's MKSC profile
• Sami's MKDS profile
• Sami's MKDD profile
• Sami's MKWII profile
• Sami's MK7 profile
• Sami's MK8 profile

• Sami's interview with NintendoLife