Now two weeks into Major League Baseball 2K12's $1,000,000 Perfect Game Challenge, nearly 275 verified perfect games have been thrown, out of more than 400,000 attempted, according to 2K Sports. Which means, potentially, hundreds of thousands of controllers, discs and maybe even consoles have been hurled, too.
That's a far less dignified response than T.J. Brida's, the Philadelphia gamer who went 13 1/3 perfect innings yet, unable to score himself, gave up a hit in the 14th inning to end the bid last Thursday. He stood up, calmly tapped the power button to his Xbox 360, then got dressed for work.
Here's EROCKhd's shattered controller (pictured above), after he missed his chance at perfection. SkinsGoForGold says the CPU violated an unwritten rule of baseball: Bunting for a hit with a no-hitter in progress. He lost his perfecto on the first batter of the ninth inning.
Hard-luck loser KodieB3 says he was on the final batter, a pinch hitter, when "dog comes running to the door needing outside to potty. + phone call. Had to pause it." Needless to say, that was hashtagged "#pissed."
IsmsAllDay says he lost a fashion similar to Brida's fate, taking the Giants' Tim Lincecum through 13 perfect innings and even getting the lead in the top of the 14th before losing. "By then he was so gassed," he tweeted.
OscarMaylaHoya, probably fresh off Jeff Samardzija's near-complete game this weekend, foolishly tried to take the converted Cubs reliever even further. "Perfect through 10 innings with Jeff Samardzija," he tweeted. "I just couldn't get a run on the board."
All of these contestants are in a monthlong playoff in which they are trying, not only to throw a perfect game in MLB 2K12 they're trying to throw a better perfect game than anyone else. That means striking out more batters on fewer pitches using a weaker pitcher against stronger opposition, ideally. The eight best on the leaderboard at the end of April make the cut.
2K Sports says the average perfect game "score" is 611 as of Friday, with Roy Halladay of the Phillies by far the most-used pitcher. Lincecum is second with 26 confirmed perfectos, and Clayton Kershaw third with 21. Cover star Justin Verlander has been the pitcher in 10 user-thrown perfect games, good for a tie for fifth. The most common victims are the Pirates, Diamondbacks and Padres.