Finn Berger

Finn Berger is the oldest active member of the community (53 years old). Despite the fact that he's not one of the most talented karters on the site, he's still one of the most respected players. The reason for his popularity--he finished 2nd in the 2004 Karters Contest--is mainly his great personality on the message board and his very insightful posts.

Finn's main game is Mario Kart 64. He joined the rankings in the spring of 2003, after having played the game since 1999 (the game he actually bought for his son...). He started a relatively slow but very steady rise on the rankings. His playing philosophy was trying to focus on one track at a time until he reached a satisfying time, before moving on to the next track. With this strategy he never made really big jumps on the rankings. However, his strong point is that he can keep playing almost forever to improve his times very patiently one by one. He saw many young and talented players fly past him on the rankings. In the end he managed to pass back the majority of them, often when the other guy was retired, and Finn kept on playing. This way of playing earned him the nickname "the turtle".

When Finn played a particular track, he always shared his thoughts about the tracks with other players on the message board. By sharing his knowledge, and asking others for their advice and opinions about that track (often about small but very useful details), he often created a discussion that was very valuable and insightful for everyone who needed strategy help on a track.

Finn's currently ranked #32 in Mario Kart 64 (Legend A) which shows that he's more talented than he often says himself. He's also Norway's #1 non-sc player just a few places ahead of Marius Hukkelaas. His MK64 career has, for now, ground to a halt because of the double effect of (almost?) maxing out and finding true love at the same time.

Finn also played MKDD for a couple of months just after the release of the game, expecting his MK64 background would make it easy for him to succeed at the new game. He achieved some strong Peach Beach times, but then he found out that MKDD a very strong competition where people were quickly able to beat his times. Finn decided for himself that he was a better MK64 player and, more importantly, that he simply enjoyed playing MK64 more than any other game.

Finn earns his living as a history teacher. Very occasionally, you can tell that from his posts, when he decides to launch a lecture. Many people on the board could only wish they had a teacher that was as cool as Finn.

Finn's influence has waned a little during the 2005-2006 period, because his significant other has been taking up all of his free time. (Kart = Chicks, even for prehistoric turtles.) But Finn will one day have to return, because of all the unanswered questions regarding his daughter.