Diddy Kong Racing Tournament Go! 2012

Many groups have organized tournaments for Diddy Kong Racing. This article is about Tournament Go! 2012.

Tier List

Tournament Go! decided to create a tier list showing each character's potential in tournaments, similar to the Super Smash bros. series

Criticism

Tournament Go! tier list

While some people liked T.T., Drumstick and Banjo being the top 3, others criticized Tournament Go!'s tier list for being too top speed heavy. Most of these people commented that many novice players used Tiptup and Pipsy. This tier list did not favor those characters and only favored the game's fastest characters.

Krunch

Many people criticized this tier list's placement of Krunch, which they felt to be too low. While some considered Krunch to be the worst character because of his horrible acceleration and turning, others thought that in high-level play, he could make use of powersliding and barrel rolling. Krunch can hold a powerslide for the longest, tied with Drumstick. When in a plane, he actually has the second-best barrel roll in the game, with the best being Conker. In competitive play, because there are no items, Krunch does not suffer extremely long hitstun when hit by an item.

Community Course Predictions

In Tornament Go! 2012, courses are divided into netural stage, counterpick and banned stage. Netural stages can be chosen for the first,third and fifth random selects. These courses can also be counterpicked. Counterpick courses are not in the random select but can be counterpicked. Banned courses are banned from the tournament.

Neutral Courses

Ancient lake

Fossil canyon

Frosty village

Whale bay

Treasure caves

Haunted woods

Counterpick Courses

Jungle Falls

Everfrost Peak

Crescent Island

Greenwood Village

Darkmoon Caverns

Banned Courses

Course	Reason	Banned for HC/Plane tournaments
Hot Top Volcano	Alternate routes allow camping. First pedestsal allows stalling. Lava bounce is an advantage to Tiptup and Pipsy in hovercraft tournaments. Car can't be used.	Hovercraft:Yes Plane:Yes
Snowball Valley	Extremely thin bridge at the start of the course. Random snowballs at end of course. Not very many passing oppertunities is an advantage to Tiptup and Pipsy.	Hovercraft:Yes Plane:No
Pirate Lagoon	Jumps are an advantage to lightweights. Air passing is possible.	Hovercraft:Yes
Windmill Planes	Heavyweights can't make all turns. Overly large.	Hovercraft:Semi-banned Plane:yes
Spacedust Alley	Palm tree stalling. Random obstacles. Heavyweights can push lightweights into lasers in plane tournaments.	Hovercraft:No Plane:Yes
Spaceport Alpha	Extremely campy in nature. Random lasers and obstacles. Tunnel gives advantage to characters with good acceleration (Car Hc) or good turning(Plane)	Hovercraft:Yes Plane:Yes

Semi-Banned Courses

In the DKR tournament community,four courses are left up to the tournament organizer to decide wheather they are counterpick or banned.

Course	Reason	Counterpick or banned in TGo! 2012
Walrus Cove	Boost loop gives advantage to characters with high top speed. Heavyweights can push lightweights into Bouncy ice at the end of course. Thin path at end of course gives advantage to Tiptup and Pipsy. Extremely thin paths surrounding bouncy ice at the end of the course. Banjo, Krunch and Drumstick cannot make the downhill curve in the course without powersliding	Banned because of many advantages to Banjo and Drumstick.
Crescent Island	Thin path at the start of course. Heavyweights can knock Pipsy into the water which is an almost certain lost. Krunch cannot make turn inside the pirate ship. (Banjo can just barely make the turn) Krunch cannot make final turn of the course. Second way around sculpture at end of course is only accessible by Pipsy,Tiptup and Conker.	Counterpick
Greenwood Village	Well shortcut is much easier with lightweights. Log is very campy. Banjo, Krunch and Drumstick must powerslide on the inside to make a turn. Lightweights get more air on bump section	Counterpick
Star City	Many turns are an advantage to Tiptup and Pipsy. Tiptup and Pipsy are much easier to green boost with.	Banned

Semi Netural Course

One course in DKR is up to the tournament organizer to decide if it is neutral or counterpick.

Course	Reason	Netural or counterpick in TGo! 2012
Whale Bay	Whale shortcut cuts time in the water. Hovercraft only course.	Netural

Other Tier Lists

Hovercraft Tier List

The following tier list was used for the Diddy Kong Racing hovercraft tournament at Tournament Go! 2012.

Changes

Among the most drastic change between the car and hovercraft tier lists was the rise of Tiptup and Pipsy. While these two characters were considered bottom tier in car tournaments because of their poor top speed, they both became top 5 characters within the hovercraft metagame.

This can be attributed to the importance of acceleration in hovercraft tournaments, since the A button mashing glitch cannot be used. As a result of this major difference from the car,previously dominant characters, such as Drumstick and Banjo fell to the bottom of the tier list. Bumper also received a significant increase, mostly due to his combination of medium weight and high acceleration being considered extremely effective in hovercraft tournaments. Finally, due to his effectiveness with the vehicle, Diddy Kong rose to fourth place on the tier list, due to the increased effectiveness of average stats in hovercraft tournaments and the removal of his poor ability to perform the acceleration glitch.

Plane Tier List

As the competitive plane metagame is very different from the metagame of the car and the hovercraft, the tier list used for this event is also different

Changes from Car Tier List

As Drumstick has achieved almost every WR in the plane category, he is currently placed first in the plane tier list. Due to increased importance in top speed during the item- less races seen in DKR tournaments, top speed is the most emphasized stat in the plane. For this reason, Drumstick,

T.T, Banjo and Krunch are the top four characters, with Bumper, the next fastest character placing fifth. Although unintended by the developers, Diddy Kong, Pipsy and Tiptup actually share the same top speed in the plane, resulting in Tiptup and Diddy Kong being almost completely outclassed by Pipsy. Krunch's high rise on the tier list can be attributed to his surprisingly effective stats when placed in a plane, almost equivalent to those of T.T. While considered average in the car category, Conker and Timber are placed in the bottom tier in plane tournaments, as their balanced stats act as an impediment while others excel in a particular area.

Course Voting Results

After Diddy Kong Racing was revealed to be a game at tournament Go! 2012, the competitive community voted on the courses that should be considered neutral, counterpick and banned for each vehicle. Below are the results

	Car	Hovercraft	Plane
Neutral	Ancient Lake Jungle Falls Treasure Caves Windmill planes	Ancient Lake Jungle Falls Everfrost Peak Whale Bay Windmill Planes Greenwood Village	Ancient Lake Fossil Canyon Jungle Falls Everfrost Peak Windmill Planes
Counterpick	Fossil canyon Everfrost Peak Frosty Village Greenwood Village Haunted Woods Darkmoon Caverns	Snowball valley Frosty Village Hot Top Volcano Treasure Caves Haunted Woods Walrus Cove	Frosty Village Treasure Caves
Banned	Walrus Cove Snowball Valley Crescent Island Spacedust Alley Star City Spaceport Alpha	Fossil Canyon Pirate Lagoon Crescent Island Boulder Canyon Spacedust Alley Darkmoon Caverns Spaceport Alpha Star City	Hot Top Volcano Spacedust Alley SpacePort Alpha Star City

Results

The following are the rankings for each character based upon the results of Tournament Go! 2012

Diddy Kong Overall Rank: 6/10 Best Vehicle: Hovercraft Best Placement: 3/45 (hovercraft)by wafercrisp

Pipsy Overall Rank: 7/10 Best Vehicle: hovercraft Best Placement: 10/45 (hovercraft) by Mr. Bursh

Tiptip Overall Rank: 5/10 Best vehicle: hovercraft Best Placement: 2/45 (hovercraft) by turtledo