2012 Gringo Bandito Chronic Tacos contest
update August 17 Damon Wells and Karikasi have videos
OCWeekly and ESPN LA have galleries
update August 13 The page has been updated with officical results. The Gringo Bandito facebook has a gallery ZehHeiefer videos: Intro | Part 1 | Part 2
video of Wee Man kicking “Furious” Pete in the nuts
update Naader Reda has the top 6
update #2 more results
1) Takeru Kobayashi 106 $5000
2) Damon Wells 65 $1000
3) “Furious” Pete Czerwinski 57 $500
4) Stephanie Torres 53 $250
5) Naader Reda 50 $100
6) Jimmy Lin 33
7) Matt Cohen 29
7) Aaron Ybarra 29
9) Shawn Kirby 25
10) Frank Paulin 24
Naader Reda has a preview of the contest
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anonymous said
August 11, 2012 @ 5:41 pm
who cares another boring event another $$$$$ in Kobayashi pocket ZZZZZZZZZZ
Anonymous said
August 11, 2012 @ 5:56 pm
My interest is in how many Kobi can eat. Go Kobi!
Anonymous said
August 11, 2012 @ 6:22 pm
Damon did a grate job!
Ron Koch said
August 11, 2012 @ 6:34 pm
Great job, Damon and Naader. The name of the game is competition and fun..
567 said
August 11, 2012 @ 7:10 pm
Looks like furious Pete is no longer the “Top Dog” Indy pro eater. He had his 15min of fame
Correction said
August 11, 2012 @ 7:11 pm
Damon did 61 I believe
Anonymous said
August 11, 2012 @ 7:40 pm
As he destroys independents, so would he destroy Major League Eaters. Nuff said!
anonymous said
August 11, 2012 @ 9:00 pm
This contest was missing the great El Toro
Anonymous said
August 11, 2012 @ 9:02 pm
Kobi is in a league of his own.
Anonymous said
August 11, 2012 @ 9:04 pm
The only man who could stand a chance of taking Kobi down a peg is that legend, that phenom, Beautiful Brian Seiken.
Anonymous said
August 11, 2012 @ 9:38 pm
el toro would have been great for the contest. gilbert a no show
No Contest said
August 11, 2012 @ 10:17 pm
With Damon leaving MLE he was finally able to eat with a true legend. It must make him realize how poor MLE eaters are.
anonymous said
August 11, 2012 @ 10:48 pm
It just proves that even former ranked MLE eaters in the top 25 can easily take down Pete
Anonymous said
August 12, 2012 @ 2:33 am
Yeah, I agree with anon 10:48, the fact that Damon came out of MLE Ranking in the 20’s and came in 2nd easily in a big Independent contest shows the credibility of some of these Independent Eaters….
No Contest said
August 12, 2012 @ 9:54 am
Already, Damon’s decision to leave mle is paying handsome dividends.
Ignatius Rake said (Registered August 6, 2012)
August 12, 2012 @ 2:12 pm
Top taco eating all round. Here’s our report: http://www.therakeandherald.tv/society/societystory.php?id=160
Anonymous said
August 12, 2012 @ 4:58 pm
What was the pay out breakdown?
Anonymous said
August 12, 2012 @ 5:32 pm
9:54 am It appears in dollars literally a thousand times more than the entire time he was bound by MLE to a suckers contract. The MLE bottom 40 could all make more doing what ever contest they choose as a indy instead of being Sheas bitch and making jack shit.
Damon Wells said
August 13, 2012 @ 12:22 pm
@ 10:48 and 2:33
First off, Pete is a stud! Anybody who says otherwise hasn’t followed the sport for very long. I happened to catch him and Steph on a sub par day while I probably had the best day in my whole CE career. For some reason I kick ass when I stay close to home, when I travel I can’t seem to get it together. On a normal day I don’t think I take down Pete or Steph. Pete & Steph IMO would keep up with MLE’s top 10-15 without a doubt, and most of you likely (biases aside) share that same opinion…
@4:58
monetary and even networking wise, yes going Indy has paid off better then I’ve expected. I’ll admit competing with MLE’s top ten and abiding by the contract rules was a tough way to make a living. (No I wasn’t trying to make a living off of CE for those who actually took that last sentence literally)
Another thing that should be said, Naader is really coming up, being so close to Steph is showing his skills at speed eating are improving! Great event all around, Chronic Tacos, The Offspring and crew, Kobi & Maggie are really great people, top shelf high class!
Anonymous said
August 13, 2012 @ 1:07 pm
Damon was ranked #19 when he left .
Mega Munch said
August 13, 2012 @ 9:33 pm
Any MLE eater ranked outside the top 10 can make way more money on the independent circuit that they can on the MLE circuit. I think that’s a well known fact (though rarely, if ever, acknowledged by MLE eaters ranked outside the top 10).
Anonymous said
August 13, 2012 @ 11:21 pm
Much respect Damon!!
Take care of your own said
August 14, 2012 @ 10:42 am
If anything this should open MLE’s eyes and convince them to try and keep all their eaters happy or else risk losing them to a now growing and somewhat respectable Indy scene that Kobi (former MLE) seems to be pumping life into… Stephanie gets the boot and has made news, Pat Moonachi is a recgonizable figure, Damon (Who showed flashes while with MLE) put up a respectable number and even Kevin Ross has done well for himself outside MLE.
Not everybody has the potential to be a Joey Chestnut, (who if you look at his Hot Dog numers ate 68 while the 7th ranked eater RESPECTFULLY gets down 35) but if they want to maintain the self named label of “world class eating league” they need to step it up a notch and give a little back to their eaters… like someone mentioned last week, this contest paid out more then the next 6 billed MLE events.
Anonymous said
August 14, 2012 @ 2:33 pm
It also paid out 1st-5th even if most of it went to Koby most MLE events only pay out to the top 3.
anonymous said
August 14, 2012 @ 3:53 pm
If you want to put your body through 3 gallons of water per day. practice with food using 4 or 5 microwave ovens until you push your body till it reaches your max capacity , then you might put up half the numbers chestnut puts up or maybe more . Its not that hard its just the risks you have to deal with
Anonymous said
August 14, 2012 @ 5:33 pm
That is okay. Janus, Crazy Legs, and Juliet Lee will never leave, and as long as they have a really good male eater, female eater, and promoter, M.L.E. will forever thrive.
Anonymous said
August 14, 2012 @ 6:15 pm
Eaters as great as Joey Chestnut and Juliet Lee only come once in a generation.
Take care of your own said
August 14, 2012 @ 8:21 pm
3:53 – That’s a good one! Yeah and I’m sure if I spend 8 hours a day in the pool or on the track I’ll be just like Michael Phelps or Usain Bolt!
5:33 – I agree, but I never said MLE will fall, I was trying to make a point that they will no longer be the only game in town when there is also a stong indy scene and sponsors don’t have to pay $8-10K just to have a contest with MLE’s eaters.
anonymous said
August 14, 2012 @ 9:10 pm
Well , Another rated MLE eater will be going inde on August 29th, an eater who was and still is loyal to the IFOCE.
Curious said
August 15, 2012 @ 10:47 am
Was there any press coverage of this event or was this just a big thud for the restaurant? I can’t find any coverage of the event either locally or nationally. It seems the restaurant paid Kobi $5,000 for nothing. And, what’s up with paying first place $5,000 and the second place eater $1,000? Isn’t that a fairly large discrepancy between first and second place? So, if Kobi wasn’t doing this event, Chronic hot dogs would of paid a bunch of independent eaters a greater slice of purse? So, why than does Kobi get credit for an event that Chronic would of done anyway. Kobi didn’t attract any media and sure took a lot of money from the other independent eaters. I guess it’s just idol worship by the chumps that Kobi slaughtered in this event. Wow that’s kind of sad. Please don’t bring up anymore comparisons between independent eaters and MLE eaters after this event. The best independent eaters really suck if Kobi can nearly double his closest competition. So I guess this event really only underscored why would anyone want to see any event between Kobi and these independents in the future. Therefore, it sounds like Kobi is actually sending any interest of independent eating other them himself into the toilet regarding media interest.
Take care of your own said
August 15, 2012 @ 12:53 pm
@9:10
Wings… Subich?