Xaelar

xaelar (as of 14 August, 2015)

Ranking Spot Score 0th Rankings Top-20 Rankings Lvl 0th Rankings Ep 0th Rankings Total Lvl Score Total Points 7th 6th 7th - 2nd 2nd 4 0ths 547 Scores 4 0ths - 71545.075 8386 Points Achievements Personal Bests • 277 0ths (23 September 2009) Other Achievements • 5th highscorer to reach 100 0ths • 3rd highscorer to reach 200 0ths • 6th Grandmaster • 5th highscorer to reach 70000 Level Score • 3rd highscorer to reach 71000 Level Score • 2nd highest amount of 0ths ever held (277)

Xaelar (AKA xela on IRC and N 2.0) is a retired Dronie-winning highscorer and former grandmaster, hailing from Germany, who started playing N 1.4 during January 2007, and became one of the top 5 highscorers (ranked by 0ths) in May 2007, before overtaking Mr_Lim to be the overall 0th leader for a then-record consecutive 3.5 years—a record that stood until EddyMataGallos broke all of the grandmaster longevity records. Not long after the release of N++ in 2015, xaelar retired from N 1.4.

Xaelar is one of the best-known and most prolific highscorers of all time. His dedication to N (especially Metanet levels) has earned him a lot of impressive awards, achievements and prestige; praise has been given by highscorers and non-highscorers alike. During his times as grandmaster, xaelar peaked with a record high of 277 0ths; however, it was initially thought that xaelar peaked with 273 0ths until it was proven that he had, in fact, reached 277. Xaelar continued to hold this record until Eddy broke it in early 2013.

Xaelar also has an outstanding Total Level Score of over 71.5k seconds, which seemed almost insurmountable at the time of attainment, until it was eventually surpassed by EddyMataGallos during September 2012.

Xaelar reached around 556 top-20 scores during 2008, and, incredibly, despite his prolonged inactivity, that overall tally has only been reduced by nine top-20 scores seven years on; it is a true testament to the strength of his highscores. During April 2011, xaelar suddenly disappeared from the community. Everybody thought he had left, until 6 months later—during October—he posted saying that his computer had been having problems saving his progress, and that he would be coming back. However, in the following 2 months he made a mere 11 posts, and then he completely disappeared altogether. His did not post on the forums from December 2011 until November 2012, where he made a post congratulating Eddy and the community for their achievements, and also improving his top-20 on 89-4. Due to vankusss losing multiple 0ths and Last_FairyTail being revealed as xaelar, he overtook vankusss once again—without submitting a single score from March 2012 to November 2012. However, he was now ranked 1st on the 0th tally, with the Grandmaster being Eddy. As of 20 March, 2014, xaelar is ranked equal 2nd on the Total 0th Rankings with 44 0ths, and 5th on the top-20 Rankings with 552 of them. He is also ranked 2nd on Total Game Score Rankings with 71544.475 seconds.

Xaelar, along with Mr_Lim, began to dominate the highscoring scene in early- to mid-2007 and rapidly took a lot of 0th scores, rising into the top-5 for that category. By 2008, Mr_Lim's departure left xaelar as the most dominant player in the game. By May 2008, xaelar had the most 0ths, with over 200 of them—he was only the third player to accomplish this. He also had the most highscore 0ths on NReality at one stage, having well over half of all possible NReality 0ths, but is currently ranked 2nd behind Eddy and swipenet. Xaelar also has a forum account[1], which he sometimes uses to post runs and compete in competitions.

On June 1, 2009, xaelar continued to assert his highscoring dominance when he amassed an incredible 268 0ths on the original Metanet Boards, claiming 16-3 to reach the milestone. At the time, this made xaelar statistically the best player of all time, beating retired veteran player Trib4lmaniac's longstanding four-year-old record of 267 0th scores. On 23 September, 2009 (highscore ranking #70), xaelar reached 277 0ths; it was a record that lasted for over 3 years, when Eddy surpassed it at the start of 2013.

The flag representing xaelar in Blur 4 & 5.

By 23 January, 2010, xaelar had fallen to 249 0ths, and, consequently—due to his steady decline in activity, coupled with the sheer mass of 0ths he was defending from new wave players such as vankusss and eru_bahagon—fell to under 200 0ths. It was the first time he had been sub-200 0ths since late 2008. Xaelar eventually slipped from 0th to 1st in early January 2011 when vankusss had five consecutive weeks of taking 10 0ths or more, and it was the first time in over three years that xaelar didn't have the most 0ths. When EddyMataGallos asked xaelar if he'd defend the coveted grandmaster position, xaelar simply responded: "No." However, a few months later, during March and April 2011, xaelar submitted a barrage of 0ths to clinch the top spot once more from vankusss, although the reacquired position and comeback was mostly short-lived.

Xaelar remains a semiactive part of N's highscoring community, which includes entering highscoring tournaments such as Blur. In Season 4, he surprisingly failed to qualify in the top-8 for the highscores section after evidently struggling to find a good route on the round-5 map (which was largely attributed to the fact that demos were kept hidden from other players). Xaelar finished 10th in both the highscores and speedrun section of the competition. In Season 5, xaelar returned to just enter the highscore section, but he lost to Jp27ace in the semi-finals.

Xaelar innovated 88-4 and fought determinedly with vankusss to post a very impressive run, which earned him a Dronie nomination; he smashed lookatthis's previous 0th run by 2.175 seconds, until Eddy improved the run further by 0.750 seconds a couple of years later.

Xaelar has also submitted some maps on NUMA which have been positively received.

Awards

Xaelar has won several awards and honours, including a Dronie award for player of the year in 2008. He was also ranked 1st in ska's list of most influential N players of all time,  behind Mr_Lim; won Elimination 2 in early-2008, which was hosted by ska; and came runner-up in seasons 1 and 3 of Blur.