Previous Contests:
2003 - #1 seed, Far Side - Defeated #16 Come 45-14, #8 Breckish 41-4,
#4 Wes 40-9, #3 Zeebo 44-9, #1 Clark 34-22, Tied #1 Snap 35-35,
2003 Co-Champion
2004 - #1 seed, Old School Division - Defeated #15 MLM 33-9, #8 Wes 33-6,
#4 Zeebo 32-11, #2 Snap 30-17, #2 Youse 36-18, Defeated by #1 Clark 30-29, 2004 Runner-up
Perfect Dark Rank: 88th (64th Proven) ::
Goldeneye Rank: 133rd
Other Games: Super Smash Brothers, Ocarina of Time, Pokemon Snap,
Donkey Kong 64, Conker's Bad Fur Day, numerous others
The Man(gamer) {His Version} Jon Barber is The Man. When it comes to The Elite, it's hard to pick a subject without him being involved in some facet of its creation or continuation. In fact, the entire Elite may not be around without this man's dedication and activity over the past 6+ years.
Ngamer's big impact on the gaming scene came soon after the release of Perfect Dark, near the end of May, 2000, though he was active in Goldeneye competition the previous year. He was the first World Champion at PD, as he held the most World Records at Pdark.com before it's demise shortly thereafter. Along with Yako, RaydenEG, PerfectLight, SnapDragon, ExpertGamer, and ParagonX9, Ngamer created what would soon become the Perfect Dark Elite, and along with SnapDragon, decided the layout of what would become one of the most popular time trial sites in gaming history. Soon after, he helped ExpertGamer create a community for the rising stars of the league at EZboard, where he's been the active administrator of what has grown into a 1500+ member message board. Jon would continue playing through 2000, even accomplishing a record setting 0:58 AF1 A, which spent 164 days as the longest lasting WR of all time. While he has made several mini comebacks to PD, including some PAL play, he has been mostly inactive since the first year of the games release.
While his PD skills are not to be overshadowed, they have been... in a good way. His Perfect Dark History Page has kept track of the Elite's progression through the game since the time of the Founding Fathers. Among the many pages within, the Player of the Month and Longest Lasting WRs have provided current players with goals to achieve, and a great look back at the PD superstars that preceded them. The Greatest Topics page also provides much entertainment and foresight into the creation of the PDE, and definitely shows the Ngamer influence over the community since the beginning.
Jon's influence has spanned over more than just PD and keeping statistics. He's always been one of the most popular posters in General Chat, and for good reason. Ngamer has persued more Elite activities, contests, pages, programs, and publicity stunts than anybody. Ever. First (and only) Elite video game? Ngamer did it. First (and only) Elite TV show? Ngamer did it. Elite April Fools Day jokes? Ngamer did it. Annual Elite NFL/March Madness/Oscar pick'em contests? Simpso.. err.. Ngamer did it. He's even invented new words that are definitely Elite-related. (see whoarding, three hole punch) His enjoyable sense of humour and tendency to keep a copy of everything ever (years worth of AIM chat logs) have made him one of, if not THE most popular Eliter across the Internet. He's extremely active over at GameFAQs, helped create NGC-Elites, denies being passed and helps set up contests over at the MK64 Players Page, and has worked very hard in promoting The Elite over at SDA and even getting us linked from the high-traffic nerd megasite Slashdot.
As his longevity suggests, Jon has been a staff member from day one of the-elite.net's history, and he upholds his position as well as anyone, keeping things fresh and exciting for both old and new gamers. He also currently maintains his own website, thengamer.com, which hosts many gaming videos and subsites on an extremely dedicated server, something that we've always struggled with keeping. The biggest project he ever embarked upon was.. well.. this contest. From the original idea in 2003, Ngamer was there, helping lead the way and set up the first ever event to involve just about every notable Eliter. While the initial concept and setup was good, there were still some doubts over its popularity, how serious people would treat it, and if it would be an overall success or not. Jon set out to destroy those doubts, and the first clue (remember, this contest stuff was all a big secret at one time) did just that, as The Big Project Preview Trailer stirred up excitement in what was becoming a fairly dull Elite, at the time. The subsequent contest management and literally hundreds of hours spent working on bios, writeups, first vote competition, and statistics would ensure Jon's spot as The Man around the Elite, and his Co-Championship with fellow Old School king Snap is a testament to just how many people love the big N. 2004 saw the contest get bigger and brighter for all involved, and this time, Ngamer took the crown in the Old School division, only to be defeated by 1 vote in the final match against Derek Clark.
That brings us to 2005, the most recent installment of Elite tournament madness. This year, Ngamer's absence from the main contest has allowed him to be more in depth in writeups and promote the contest throughout all Elite ties, which has led to higher vote totals than any of us would have imagined in the beginning. His top seed in the Champions Bracket is well deserved, as previous contests and his incredible career only serve to validate what Jon has meant to our site. As the saying goes: "To be The Man (whoo!), you gotta beat The Man," and there's no doubting that Ngamer has been the top dog in all things Elite. Showing no signs of slowing down, will Jon finally be able to take the championship all by himself, or will he be overthrown by one of his Hall of Fame rivals? Whether or not he wins, Jon Barber will always be highly revered as an administrator, a gamer, and maybe most important of all, as a friend. Vote Ngamer!
