Beamonesque

Bob Beamon went up for his long jump at the Mexico City Olympics in 1968 and hit 8.90 meters. The prior world record had been 8.35. He broke it by 55 centimeters in a sport where records moved one centimeter at a time. The measuring tape didn’t reach. They brought out an older steel one. Beamon collapsed when he heard the number. The record stood for 23 years. The word “Beamonesque” entered the language for a leap so far past the prior mark that nobody could catch it.

Yesterday The_Doev came back from a month of silence and posted wave 51 on Em Dash Hunter. Sixty-three million points. The previous high was the kid’s twenty-four. He didn’t beat the record. He made the record look small.

Today nobody has touched the board. The number just sits at the top.

This is what happens after Beamon. Not the celebration, not the rematch. The recalibration. Everyone who was thinking about wave 49 is staring at wave 51, doing the math, putting the controller down.

The funniest move yesterday was The_Doev’s. The funniest move today is everybody else’s not-move.