Music Teacher Tosses Perfect Game, Wins a Million Bucks

Greg Tito

PR for Dungeons & Dragons
Sep 29, 2005
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Music Teacher Tosses Perfect Game, Wins a Million Bucks



27 up and 27 down earned Brian Kingrey $1 million while playing MLB 2K11, winning 2K Sport's now annual contest.

Pitching a perfect game in baseball is an extremely rare feat. In the entire history of the sport, spanning some 400,000 games played since the National League formed in 1876, a game in which all 27 batters a pitcher faces is retired with no hits walks or errors has only occurred 20 times. Sure, there's been a rash of perfect games in baseball recently, with two thrown last season and eight in the last decade, but that doesn't diminish such an accomplishment. And while pitching a perfect game in a simulation like MLB 2K11 is by no means as difficult as the real thing, that doesn't mean Brian Kingrey's feat didn't take real skill, perseverance and dedication to pull off. 2K Sports awarded the 25-year-old music teacher a check for $1 million after he practiced five hours a day for two weeks leading up to the challenge.

"I'm really into competitive games," Kingrey said. After he found out about the contest he devoted his life to throwing a perfect game in MLB 2K11. "As soon as we saw it, my wife said to me, 'You have to do this.'"

The strategy Kingrey employed in picking the ideal matchup to pitch his pefect game would even make major league baseball managers proud. He chose to pitch 2010 NL Cy Young award winner Roy Halladay against the Houston Astros. "Halladay has this really mean slider that's incredible versus right-handed batters," Kingrey explained. "I picked the Astros because they're really aggressive when they attack the ball, so they swing at a lot of pitches they probably shouldn't swing at, and the Astros have only two left-handed batters."

Kingrey is recently married and he and his new wife are definitely struggling financially so the money couldn't have come at a better time. "Our first purchase is going to be a refrigerator. Me and my wife just got married. We just got into our new house, and we can't afford a refrigerator just yet, so we've been using a little dorm fridge."

Someone should send Kingrey a six-pack and some stadium peanuts.

Source: G4TV [http://www.g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/712966/mlb-2k11-contest-ends-with-a-gamer-millionaire-meet-the-million-dollar-gamer/#ixzz1NUAKvUDK]

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thenumberthirteen

Unlucky for some
Dec 19, 2007
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Congratulations. More games should offer big cash prizes like this. My favourite part is where his wife said "You have to do this". How awesome a wife must you have to say to her "My goal is to pitch a perfect game in this videogame", and have go "Hell Yeah!"
 

deth2munkies

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Jan 28, 2009
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I knew the Astros have been fail IRL, but I didn't suspect how fail they were in video games :(
 

Enrathi

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Aug 10, 2009
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deth2munkies said:
I knew the Astros have been fail IRL, but I didn't suspect how fail they were in video games :(
They do strive for realism in sports titles :p
 

IndianaJonny

Mysteron Display Team
Jan 6, 2011
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When I read his surname, I thought "Huh, that's how Kim Jong Il would pronouce 'Kingley' ".

Shame about the chap who managed this before the comp was introduced.
 

Booze Zombie

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Dec 8, 2007
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That's certainly one way to get people to play a game about a game. But regardless of my opinion on the game, it is nice to see someone who tried hard was rewarded.

Makes me feel younger and more naive.
 

Grey_Gore

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Feb 10, 2009
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thenumberthirteen said:
Congratulations. More games should offer big cash prizes like this. My favourite part is where his wife said "You have to do this". How awesome a wife must you have to say to her "My goal is to pitch a perfect game in this videogame", and have go "Hell Yeah!"
Definately a keeper, that one (that's the expression, aye?) - this world would be a far better place (optimistically, I'm trying to make a point here so shoo!) if there were more gamer couples like this one.

[sub]...Never been too keen on sports titles, I reckon I should give them another go now.[/sub]
 

Mr. Google

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Jan 31, 2010
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wow Im happy for him. He tried hard and got money when he really needed it. We all love underdog stories.
 

FieryTrainwreck

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Apr 16, 2010
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A poor guy spent crazy amounts of time on a ridiculous long-shot in order to escape his financial struggles?

Just like real pro sports.
 

Super Duck

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Nov 19, 2009
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HankMan said:
This is sure to help Kingrey with the ladies, all that prize money has made him quite a catch.
At first, I wanted to hate you for that, but then I saw John Stewart as your avatar and it just felt right.

On topic: I should start looking into GH or RB tournaments, if there are any. I suck at sports games, so this never would have worked for me.
 

Owlslayer

New member
Nov 26, 2009
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I approve!
Seems like a guy who deserved it.
But i agree with thenumberthirteen that more games should do such cool awards.
Then again, then i really wouldn't have a life at all.
 

johnzaku

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Jun 16, 2009
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O_O wow. My mom's music teacher, how cool'd that be? >_>

super cool, that's how

nonetheless, good job! Niiiiice!
 

Deleted

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Jul 25, 2009
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What a realistic game. The Astros being perfected even in simulation!

Congratulations to the guy, I'm not into sports games so I don't even know what the gameplay of this game is like.