Guinness Reinstates Billy Mitchell’s World Records!
Mike Sanders / 4 years ago
If you’re not familiar as to who Billy Mitchell is at this point, then quite frankly you’re probably either not interested in him or you haven’t been paying much attention to the gaming news over the last few years. Put simply though, as one of the most recognizable figures in ‘professional’ gaming, his ‘official’ records have been subject to a lot of criticism. So much so, in fact, that practically every major record-keeping website, company, or organization decided to expunge him completely in 2018.
Rather than reeling off all the shenanigans of gamings answer to John McAfee, however, if you want to get up to speed on Billy Mitchell, you can check out the link here!
So, are we all on the same page now? – Good! Because in a new and shocking twist, following a video released on Guinness World Records official YouTube channel, they have confirmed that all of his previously removed scores (and records) have now been reinstated. Yes, you read that correctly!
Billy Mitchell Gets Reinstated With Guinness World Records
As part of the announcement, with Billy Mitchell now having all of his records reinstated, he is, at least in the eyes of Guinness World Records, no longer under any apparent scrutiny. So, as such, a check (pending update) of their website will now show all of his world records back on there which include:
- 3 July 1999 – First Perfect Score on Pac-Man – 3,333,360 Points
- 7 November 1982 – Highest score on Donkey Kong – 874,300 Points
- 4 June 2005 – Highest score on Donkey Kong – 1,047,200 Points
- 14 July 2007 – Highest score on Donkey Kong – 1,050,200 Points
- 31 July 2010 – Highest score on Donkey Kong – 1,062,800 Points
I must admit though, having found this out, I am massively surprised that Guinness has done this. I had, in fact, finished work for the day, and discovering this was enough to get me back at my desk! So, what do I think? Well, call me crazy, but I think that there might be a more pressing reason for this reinstatement than any ‘convincing new evidence’.
What Do I Think?
It’s well known that Billy Mitchell recently threatened to sue Guinness World Records for the removal of his scores. While (to my knowledge) he never officially filed that action (at least not yet), it was shown a few months ago that he did at least have the intent when he officially began proceedings against various other people/groups.
Put simply, and I’ll freely admit this is my own opinion, I think Guinness World Records got scared. So much so that they simply decided to bow down before a man who has a pretty strong (alleged!) reputation for being a bully! While Guinness cites ‘new evidence’ in the video, to my knowledge absolutely nothing ‘new’ has been revealed over the last year with the only exception being Billy Mitchell’s own (genuinely amusing) ‘evidence package’. – Oh, and by the way, in that package, Billy Mitchell cites that his Donkey Kong 1,047,200 points was not an official submission. So I’m mildly curious as to why he hasn’t asked Guinness to remove it?…
How will people react to this though? Well, in the video confirming his reinstatement, it’s rather significantly noteworthy that Guinness has decided to disable the likes/dislikes/comments. Then again, it doesn’t exactly take a genius to figure out that they knew this wasn’t going to be a popular decision. Notorious might be a more apt word!
For the sake of balance, I have reached out to Guinness World Records and enquired as to what ‘new evidence’ led them to change their decision. We’ll let you know if they choose to respond, but I wouldn’t count on it. Personally, though, I think something stinks here!
What do you think? – Let us know in the comments!
PS – Just in case Mr. Mitchell or Guinness World Records are reading this, if you find any comments within this that you consider defamatory please note that the author notes that ‘alleged’ should (and is presumed to) feature immediately prior to them.
