FirstCuts: The Best Sports Picture of the Year

By Vinnie Iyer
Iyer is a columnist for Sporting News and former “Jeopardy!” champion (seriously) who posts in this space from time-to-time.
When I checked out a featured premiere of a documentary film then just titled “King of Kong” at the South By Southwest film festival in Austin, Texas, almost a year ago, I had no idea what I was about to see.
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After I saw it, though, I knew there would be no better sports movie I would see the rest of 2007. Yes, I consider competitive video gaming a sport. And no, Generation Text, we’re not talking Halo or Madden. We’re throwing it back to the day when Donkey Kong, Pac-Man and Q*bert ruled the arcade.
Now called “The King of Kong: Fistful of Quarters” and out on a special edition DVD, it’s an awesome doc about Washington science teacher Steve Wiebe, who looks like an older, overweight Carson Palmer, and his dream to become the world-record holder in Kong, beating out “Gamer of the Century” turned hot-sauce proprietor Billy Mitchell, who shares a stylist with Barry Melrose. That’s all I will say about the plot, but there a few more reasons why KoK is indeed the ultimate sports movie:
-- The competition and the competitors are real. You just can’t make this stuff up. They are planning on making a feature-film comedy based on the events in the movie, but it will be hard to keep it as funny and as entertaining.
-- It’s got a Belichickian villain. It’s approriate that his name is Billy and needs the use of videotape to maintain his gaming edge and air of superiority.
-- There’s an actual referee. OK, he looks a lot more Rip Van Foot Locker than Ed Hochuli, but having an official just makes things, you know, official.
-- “You’re the Best” and “Eye of the Tiger” are both on the soundtrack. Enough said. Watch trailer below, get pumped, rent/buy this movie.

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