History Film / TheKingOfKong

* AmbiguousDisorder: [[invoked]] There is discussion about Steve's tendency of becoming hyperfocused and delving deep into one thing that happens to catch his attention, and those close to him (including his own mother and friends) speculate that he may be either autistic or have OCD. However, no formal diagnosis is presented.

* TheEveryman: Steve is portrayed as this, as someone who pursues gaming as a serious hobby outside of a regular life. He stands in stark contrast to Billy Mitchell, who based his entire life around the reputation he built as a gamer, and Walter Day, Robert Mruczek, & Brian Kuh, who've more or less dedicated their entire lives to the classic gaming community.

* AmbiguousDisorder: Various people who know Steve speculate that he may be either autistic or have OCD due to his tendency of becoming hyperfocused and delving deep into one thing that happens to catch his attention.

->"If I have all this good fortune...if everything's rollin' my way...if all these balls have bounced in my favor...there's some poor bastard out there who's gettin' the screws put to 'im. [laughs]" --'''Billy Mitchell''', just before Steve Wiebe's introduction

%%* ChallengeGamer: Billy and Steve are examples of this trope.

* ManipulativeEditing: Allegations have floated this movie's way. Tim Sczerby had a record beating Mitchell's during filming, but he doesn't even appear in the film (at the time, Mitchell was leaning on Twin Galaxies to constantly disqualify Sczerby's scores). An entire film, ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gro4GJDv7Qg The King of Con]]'', was made challenging the film's claims.

* OrcusOnHisThrone: Billy Mitchell and his skills as a gamer are spoken about in hushed and reverent tones. He's mostly seen going about his business as a restauranteur, hanging around his friends, and getting updates on Steve Wiebe's progress over the phone.

* AdultFear: Nicole, Steve's wife, recalls feeling angry and violated when Brian Kuh and Perry Rodgers barged into her house and began rummaging through their things in the presence of her mother and two young children while neither she nor Steve were at home.

* ManipulativeEditing: Allegations have floated this movie's way. Tim Sczerby had a record beating Mitchell's during filming, but he doesn't even appear in the film (at the time, Mitchell was leaning on Twin Galaxies to constantly disqualify Sczerby's scores).

** Real life has shown that Billy Mitchell himself is an example. Almost all of his scores - not just the ones seen in the game - were fraudulent. Records of the yearly event known as [[https://kongoff.net/ Kong Off]] show that he never placed better than ''fourth'', coming in ''dead last'' at least once.

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Brian Kuh brings a crowd around Steve at Funspot to try and psyche him out through performance anxiety, but this actually helps Steve reach the kill screen (a first at Funspot) because the electricity in the air pulls him out of the zombie state he had fallen into after playing the game for such a long stretch.

%%* ManipulativeEditing: The movie is accused of this by both Billy and Steve.

* NintendoHard: One of the early scenes of the movie explains how hard this game is by making a passing fact that most players won't ever see past the third level of this game.
* OrcusOnHisThrone: Billy Mitchell and his skills as a gamer are spoken about in hushed and reverent tones. He's mostly seen going about his business as a restaurateur, hanging around his friends, and getting updates on Steve Wiebe's progress over the phone.
* PacManFever: Averted, since this documentary is about people who compete to get the world record on Donkey Kong, they're all actually playing the game.
* PassiveAggressiveKombat: Brian Kuh attempts to do this at Funspot, remarking that at the very elite levels of arcade gaming, you might want to play mind games with those you see as rivals. He starts making thinly veiled comments about "luck" and "randomness" playing a role in Steve's run, staring over Steve's shoulder, and bringing a group of people to crowd around Steve. Steve, meanwhile, isn't fazed and becomes the first person to reach Donkey Kong's kill screen at Funspot.
* ThePiratesWhoDontDoAnything: Billy Mitchell speaks at length about what it means to compete at the highest levels of arcade gaming and other characters wax poetic about how good he is. Yet, he never makes a public attempt at breaking his own record during the course of the film and only submits videotapes of his purported high-score games[[note]]later determined to be footage taken from emulators, thus disqualifying his score and resulting in his being banned from ever submitting scores for consideration[[/note]].

* SeriousBusiness: Classic gaming is almost life-and-death for those depicted in this film. Billy Mitchell built his entire reputation on his status as an elite gamer and Steve Wiebe finds himself going through a roller coaster of highs and lows as he seeks to establish break the Donkey Kong world record.

* WearingAFlagOnYourHead: Billy Mitchell's American flag tie. He even used to use "USA" as his handle in arcade games.

* GuinnessEpisode: Non-TV example where as what spurs Steve on near the end of the movie is when Twin Galaxies gets a contract from Guinness that they will be now the official classic arcade score keeping arm of their business.

* DoubleStandard: Billy Mitchell repeatedly states that only live demonstrations should count as official world records, yet sends in a dubious tape to Funspot to reclaim the world record after Steve travels there and succeeds in beating his previous records. Twin Galaxies counts as this too, given that they accepted this score after previously rejected Steve's video taped game.

** ->''"If l have all this good fortune, if everything's rollin' my way, if all these balls
have bounced in my favor...there is some poor bastard out there who's gettin' the screws put to 'im.
-->-- '''Billy Mitchell''', just before Steve Wiebe's introduction.

* AmbiguousDisorder: Various people who know Steve speculate that he may be either autistic or have OCD due to his tendency of becoming hyperfocused and delving deep into one thing that happened to catch his attention.

* Hypocrite: Billy come off as this in hindsight when he and his associates keep accusing Steve of playing on an improperly refurbished cabinet. Mitchell was latter accused and stripped of his records for playing on an emulator.

* BrokenAce: Family and friends all say that Steve is a genius at everything he does and had the potential to achieve big things. But for various reasons (including insecurities, injuries, and pure bad luck), he's never really been able to achieve his full potential.

%%* TheDragon: Brian Kuh is this to [[BigBad Billy Mitchell]].

* CursedItem: Robert Mruczek remarks that the Donkey Kong machine at Fun Spot is particularly difficult and that some gamers, including Billy Mitchell, consider it to be cursed[[note]]Due to the nature of older computer technology, there are slight variations in board construction that results in each cabinet playing differently and some being easier while others are harder[[/note]].

* DespairEventHorizon: Steve crosses this while at Fun Spot, as Billy's tape submission shatters his elation shortly after he sets the Donkey Kong world record and reaches the game's kill screen.

* PassiveAggressiveKombat: Brian Kuh attempts to do this at Fun Spot, remarking that at the very elite levels of arcade gaming, you might want to play mind games with those you see as rivals. He starts making thinly veiled comments about "luck" and "randomness" playing a role in Steve's run, staring over Steve's shoulder, and bringing a group of people to crowd around Steve. Steve, meanwhile, isn't fazed and becomes the first person to reach Donkey Kong's kill screen at Fun Spot.

* TheEveryman: Steve is portrayed as this, as someone who pursues gaming as a serious hobby outside of a regular life. He stands in stark contrast to Billy Mitchell-who based his entire life around the reputation he built as a gamer-and Walter Day, Robert Mruczek, and Brian Kuh-who've more or less dedicated their entire lives to the classic gaming community.

%%* SeriousBusiness
%%* TheEveryman: Steve is portrayed as this.