Profile in Mania: MMFL

by Crazy Ivan


Over the following year (and possibly years) I want to take a few paragraphs from time to time to honor the many Myachi fans across the country who have been so instrumental in the growth of the game.  I'll be calling these segments "Profiles in Mania" unless a better name occurs to me (or is suggested).

When I first considered this there was really no question who should kick off this series.  It should be somebody who has shown unparalleled longevity in their commitment to the Myachi movement so who better than a person known as "Myachi Maniac for Life"?

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In the modern world, people take eternity pretty lightly.  People use terms like "forever" and "always" without any real thought to exactly how long that is.  I first became aware of this in Junior High when I noticed that half the girls in my class had something like "I love David forever and ever" scribbled on their notebooks.

With that in mind, we didn't think much of it when some dude showed up on our forums calling himself "Myachi Maniac for Life".  I can't imagine that any of us would have predicted the extent to which he would live up to that title.

Kevin Timm first learned about Myachi in 2003, long before such familiar names as Animal, Monk or Crazy Ivan had so much as heard of the game.  He happened across it at the Sobe booth of the 03 Gravity Games where they were giving away free Sobe Myachis.  Yes, giving away free Sobe Myachis.  I'll give you a minute to salivate over that thought.

Like this, except 3 dimensional.

Now keep in mind that Kevin didn't get the full on Myachi Master treatment.  He met some dude working for Sobe that gave him the skinny on what the game was all about.  Myachi Man, Kid and Big Dog were there but were probably wandering the crowd when he happened by.  Even now, 8 years later, he has yet to meet any of the Myachi Masters in person.

But that's not to say that we don't know him.  He's as familiar a name at the House of Skills as any of the Maniacs that we see every week.  His presence in the Myachi movement is and has always been 100% online and it has been omnipresent.

He joined the old Myachi forum shortly after checking out the Myachi website and learning what he could from the terrible video selection we had back then.  Back then the community was small, the forum sucked and whole days would go by without a single post showing up so it was inevitable than his interest in the game would wane a bit.

It was in 2006 that his involvement in the movement skyrocketed and it was at this time that he first donned the monicker "MMFL".  Butter had just built us a new forum so we sent out an email blast to everyone who had ever signed up to the old one.  "Come check out our new forum," we said.

"Sure, why not?" Kevin responded and he signed up.

Of course, back in those days there was
an initiation rite to join the forums...

Since then he has built a well earned reputation as one of the most trusted voices in the movement.  In the intervening time his presence on the forum has had some minor ebbs and flows, but by and large he has been a daily presence there for going on five years.  A couple years back he earned a well deserved (and long overdue) promotion to a forum leader and has been a conscientious moderator since.  As anyone who has been a (good) forum mod in the past knows, this is often a tiring and thankless job that earns more ire than praise.  Despite that I feel safe in saying that every veteran member of our forum would count MMFL amongst their closest online friends.

In 2007 MMFl undertook a task that would cement his Myachi celebrity (most likely) forever.  Despite the enormity of the challenge, he set about creating a compendium of every Myachi ever made that he dubbed the "All Sacks List".  Now, I did a similar thing and I had the advantage of every Myachi invoice ever received and every shipping manifest since 1999.  I also had MMFL's All Sacks List as a ready resource.  It took me 3 years and I'm still not done.  With none of those advantages, MMFL managed to put together what is undoubtedly the single most utilized resource in all of Myachidom.

Okay, maybe the 2nd most
utilized resource...

MMFL would be the first to tell you that he will never stand up to be counted with the greatest jammers in the game.  Like many, his interest in Myachi is more in jamming than learning ever tougher tricks.  I would venture to say that he spends more time now answering questions and helping newbs navigate the forum than he does actually playing the game.  When I talk with him about his fondest Myachi memories they always revolve around the rewards of helping others and the reputation it has earned him.

And he has as many accolades as anyone in the game.  When we decided to start the "Jammer of the Year Award" he earned the highest honor in the Lifetime Achievement category.  He took home another JOTYA in the Forum award category as well and has as many total nominations in all categories as any other forum member.

Soon Myachi will move on to a new forum (since the old one is essentially falling apart) but there is no question in our mind that we will start with a solid core of dedicated maniacs and there is no doubt that MMFL will still be there leading the way.