Dr. Mario Champion: Dominating the Dr. Mario Championship
After five annual Dr. Mario Championship tournaments, four people have claimed the title of Dr. Mario World Champion. They are Patrick “Packie” Haendle, Heather Ito, Snipe06, and Swong.
As we did for the CTWC Champions, we’re going to get to know more about the Dr. Mario Champions and I will be listing their Twitch Channel so you can catch them live when they are streaming. As always, I will be listing them in order of who won their first tournament the earliest.
William “Packie” Haendle (3-Time Dr. Mario Champion)
- Location: California, USA
- Number of Wins: 3
- First Appearance: 2017 since the beginning of DrMC
- Years Won: 2017, 2018, 2021
- Twitch: Packie619
Before his appearance at the DrMC, Packie was one of the finalist at the 2015 Nintendo World Championship, where he competed against other finalist in games such as Splatoon, Blast Ball, Mario Kart 8, and Balloon Fight.
2017: Packie Wins The First Annual Dr. Mario Championship
In 2017, Packie qualified for the tournament as the #4 seed. This gave him a bye to the second round.
In that round, he faced off against Alex (#13 seed). One thing that stood out in that match was that it came down to a decisive Game 5, after Packie and Alex had alternating wins. Packie ended up winning the last game to win the match.
After that 5 game match, Packie faced Chris Bidwell (tournament organizer) in the Quarter-Finals. Packie wins the first 2 games, loses Game 3 after an early top-out, and then wins an intense Game 4 after Bidwell messes up his board and tops out.
Packie then faced Emily (#1 seed) in the Semi-Finals, where he wins with a clean sweep.
In the 1st Dr. Mario Championship Finals, Packie swept Vince Clemente to become to first Dr. Mario Champion.
2018
In 2018, Replay FX hosted the DrMC for a second time and Packie returned as a defending champion.
He qualified as the #1 seed and got a bye to the Quarter-Finals, where he played against Brandon R. Packie won the first 2 games, which we are unable to see due to technical problems. He then loses Game 3, but manages to win an intense Game 4 to win the match.
In the Semi-Finals, Packie competed against Dmhero where they had alternating wins which brought the match all the way to Game 5. In that showdown, Packie managed to win the game.
He faced off against qsrl in the finals. In that round, Packie topped out and lost the first game but won the next three games to win the tournament for a 2nd year.
2021
The DrMC moves to the TORG Gaming Expo in Ohio. Packie qualifies for the tournament as the #1 seed. I write more about his results here.
Some highlights from his match, includes his Round 2 match. In that round, he was down 2 games to 1 against Joe Cheng. Packie wins the next 2 games to win the match and advance. Eventually, Packie wins the entire tournament to become the 3-Time Dr. Mario Champion.
Heather Ito (2019 Dr. Mario Winner)
- Location: Hawaii, USA
- Number of Wins: 1
- First Appearance: 2019
- Years Won: 2019
- Twitch: seriousproducer
In 2017, Heather Ito picked up Dr. Mario and decided to play it. Overtime, she posted impressive speedrun times for the game.
At the 2018 CTWC, the organizers held a Dr. Mario Invitational where she ended up facing Packie in the semi finals. Both Heather and Packie were the dominating players at that event which made the match-up between them exciting to watch.
2019: Heather Ito Becomes The New Dr. Mario Champion
In 2019, Heather made her debut appearance at the Dr. Mario Championship by winning all her games in the Qualifying rounds.
Heather (#8 seed) dominated the first round of the playoffs after defeating Laura B and thanking her for playing the game.
In Round 2 (Top 16) she managed to defeat Yukari (#9 seed). By winning 3 games to 1.
In the Quarterfinals, she faced an intense match against Dmwit (#1 seed). In this match, every game came down to the last few viruses and nobody topped out.
After knocking out Dmwit, Heather swept Andy G in the Semifinals and Michael G in the Finals to become the new Dr. Mario Champion.
Trivia
- Heather has a Dr. Mario Level 0-10 PB of 12:42
- She was married to Jonas Neubauer (7-time CTWC Winner)
- Is one of the commentators for the CTWC.
- Has a NES Tetris PB of 879180
Snipe (2020 Dr. Mario Champion)
Growing up, Snipe played a lot of Dr. Mario against his father. Fast forward to 2019, he discovers the Dr. Mario Championship on YouTube and the rest is history. Thanks For Playing! Just kidding, I have more to say about his journey.
2020
Snipe signs up for the 2020 DrMC, which turned out to be an online tournament due to the Covid-19 Pandemic. The Nintendo Switch was used to play NES Dr. Mario as the game system offered a way to play multiplayer online.
Snipe’s Qualifying Performance
In the Qualifying Rounds, there were four 3-hour blocks for players to qualify. In the first block, Snipe finishes with an 83% win rate by winning 5 out of 6 games in one of his pools. He ends up becoming the pool winner which gives him a guaranteed spot in the playoffs.
His performance in the second block gives him a 100% win rate in one of his pools. In the third block, he was unable to improve his score.
In the fourth and final block, Snipe had an interesting technique to score more points and get a higher ranking. With the way the scoring system works in qualifying, the player gets rewarded more for clearing viruses rather than making their opponent top out early.
So Snipe changed his playstyle. He would make less combos and was more focused on clearing viruses. Since the combos can still wreck his opponents, he checked his opponent’s board often to make sure they were not topping out. For 4 of his games, this strategy allowed him to clear the board and score a ton of points. For the other 2 games, his opponents did top out but Snipe was able to destroy most of his viruses. His strategy of not making his opponents top out early allowed him to get the #1 seed.
Snipe enters the 2020 Dr. Mario Championship Playoffs as the #1 Seed
The first 2 rounds has Snipe sweeping both Faeniks (#32 seed) and Doc (#17 seed) to advance to the Top 8. Both of these matches has him winning 3 games to 0.
In the Quarterfinals, he sweeps DM+ (#8 seed). By winning 4 games to 0. (All matches in the Top 8 are a best of 7.)
With the Semi-Finals, he faces Packie (2-time Dr. Mario Champion). Snipe wins Game 1 against Packie, In the next 3 games, Snipe suffers early top-outs and loses his games. With that, Packie leads the match 3 games to 1. Snipe then wins the next three games and wins the match.
In the Finals, Snipe faces Dmhero where he wins the first 2 games. He then suffers an early top-out in the third game, giving Dmhero the win. Snipe ends up winning the next 2 games to win the match and become the 2020 Dr. Mario Champion.
Swong (2022 Dr. Mario Champion)
- Number of Wins: 1
- First Appearance: 2022
- Years Won: 2022
- Twitch: swong_GG
While Swong was streaming on Twitch, competitor, Sara Sparkle, recruited him to the Dr. Mario community.
He first competed in the Dr. Mario Monthly tournament in January 2021. To view his stats from that tournament, check out the DrMC website. Learn more about his background in his interview on Level 25 Podcast.
In 2022, he competed in the Dr. Mario Championship and won the tournament after defeating 3-time champion, Packie, in the Finals.
In 2023, he successfully defended his title and became a back-to-back champion.