Doubles Cup I

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The Doubles Cup I was a Youtube Poop Tennis Tournament organized and hosted by RAKninja that served to be significant in helping to cement the popularity of the variant that would be known as Doubles Tennis. It was launched in November 2008 and continued until June 2009, and introduced many of the people that would go on to become some of the most widely recognizable names in the world of tennis, spawning two matches that are still greatly considered as some of the greatest matches ever played; seminfinal match TheChutley+trepmaws vs. Gamebop+MycroProcessor, and final match AjaxCubed+Aesaun vs. MycroProcessor+Gamebop, in which Aesaun and AjaxCubed would emerge as the winners of the Tournament. The gameplay model that was created and used in this competition would later see a revamp in the form of the Doubles Cup II.

Development

The earliest doubles match attempted was one started between RabbitSnore and Miscellaneous10 going against Furnessly and TheHappyFungus in March 2008, which as of today has not seen any progression past the serve and remains the oldest match sitting in the "In Progress" section, with every original player considerably having gone inactive long since. This continued to be a concept that was brought up and discussed frequently amongst the Tennis Staff and in the Cafe, and eventually RAKninja would begin to look for a way to turn it into a competition, originally as part of a set of quarterly events, with this being the one to happen on Winter. With nothing set in stone, he would make a thread in November 2008 asking for suggestions and additional ideas.

The original idea was set to happen as something of a "doubles league" which used an early form of the finalized doubles varient, primarily that in which each player from each side would volley round, with every player volleying once for a total of 4 rounds. FuturesPassed/RobotComics and uncleer would disagree with the idea of only one person individually due to the fact that it didn't seem collaborative enough as well as not fitting true to the spirit of tennis (in addition to the serving player never having to edit any previous round). It was suggested however that if made to be 8 rounds under this system, it would work much better. The idea recieved a small amount of support amidst a number of other people who mistook the thread as an actual tournament and mentioned signing up as a result.

RAK then came up with what would become the dominant system for competitive Doubles Tennis, which at the time was an entirely original concept of play and put a clever new twist on the doubles tennis format overall:

"how about this

6 rounds total

on a team, one pooper serves

the other returns,

the last round (for both teams) is a collaborative effort

so that way, each player on a team makes his own remix, and the last video (or perhaps any one video) is a team effort.

and instead of having a reserve player on a team, we can always have a bunch of "reserve" players"

AjaxCubed, now expressing interest in the idea, refined the explanation as:

(Team 1: Person A and B, Team 2: Person C and D)

Round 1: Person A goes

Round 2: Person C goes

Round 3: Person B goes

Round 4: Person D goes

Round 5a: Person A and B work together using round 4 to make round 5

Round 5b: Person C and D work together using round 4 to make round 5 as well

And later Bluesraph would clarify that the Team of C and D should make Round 6 and not Round 5, since this would make for a proper full match. This would become the definite standard.

For additional rules RAK wrote that "the match is scored by a review crew member, a tennis staff member, and a popular vote as the third "judge". in cases where a review crew or tennis staff are involved in a match, the match with be judged by two members of the other staff,(except in the case of RC vs TS) so if i were in a match against anyone but a RC member, i'd be judged by two RCs rather than a RC and TS...it sounds more complex than it really is."

Popular vote this time around would be as an experiment dictated using the poll function of the threads used for the matches, rather than the use of a host account.

The Doubles Cup I would also see a record number of 7 individual threads created for various purposes in regards to the proceedings of this tournament, including a roster, threads for Week 1, Week 2, Semifinals and Finals results(as well as a thread announcing Week 2 polls were closed) and the original thread which would pitch the idea.

Players

By the time of creation of the roster thread in December 2008 most of the teams that would participate had already formed, primarily that of

Matches

Set 1

Quite interestingly the matches containing the two pairs of players that would eventually make it to the end both won their first matches due to the other teams forfeiting. While Terrorist + Nuthead vs. Gamebop + MycroProcessor was able to initially make it through the "solo round" half of the match before the serving team disbanded, KlausTheWizard + RealGenericFilms vs. AjaxCubed and Aesaun failed after only two rounds. At the very last minute RGF was prevented from being able to continue the match due to family affairs, and while attempts were made at a replacement with both SesakaGenX and CommanderSky, no continuation was seen here.

Over in the camp of Jacktron7000 + trepmaws vs. TheChutley and vvaluigi however there was much afoot. The serve brought into the match what could only be signature to a year such as 2008 in it's use of the "RAN RAN RU" Japanese Ronald McDonald source, of which was the subject of a very large fad around this time. The videos end would contain the message "SAY YOUR PRAYERS, VVALUIGI AND YTPSOURCE". TheChutley's Round 2, in an effort to "kick this match off with a bang", would waste no time in instantly bringing about a sense of energy into the match by distorting much of the audio throughout the round and editing it in a much quicker fashion, adding in Fear Zero and Hotel Mario into his mix and adding to the previous ending message with "VVALUIGI IS AN ATHIEST ASSHOLE!" Retrospectively however TheChutley has looked upon his work from this period and tournament rather negatively, claiming with some that he "had no idea what [he] was doing."

Round 3 would be the first tennis round that trepmaws would ever make, and due to the fact that it was able to play at the level of the person he was volleying surprised and astounded many spectators. He would add in Nine Inch Nails, Zelda: Twilight Princess and an old Squirrelous video into his round and display such chaotic energy that in the words of Aesaun, who was serving as the judge of the match, "Usually by this time, one team starts to shine above the other, but in this one, both teams are bringing their A-game." From the comments of the original video, TheChutley and vvaluigi are known to have been just as blown away upon seeing it for the first time.

vvaluigi would say that for his Round 4 he was forced to switch to an "ear-rape" style, working for several hours on implementing distortion, chorus and reverb and then "using .01 of it to make it seem like a 'mind rape', and adding some several sources that includes Sonic". As a result the video is a quite interesting display of some much more advanced editing than what vvaluigi today is known for, utilizing a number of layer tricks and peices of edited video that made interesting use of audio effects, such as with the AosTH footage.

Round 5

FINAL MATCH

Things finally came to a fantastical heat in the match of AjaxCubed + Aesaun vs. MycroProcessor + Gamebop, which seemed to be in some ways a match as equally as even as the Chutley/trep/Gamebop/Mycro match before it, perhaps even more so. RabbitSnore and RAKninja would serve as reviewers of this match as well as it's Judges, each providing their own feedback as the match progressed and both coming to an individual conclusion as to who they're vote was to go to.

Beginning with an energized and enthusiastic serve from AjaxCubed that already set a precedent for the match's course, especially with bits such as the keying of layers to form a ramp in which a ball rolls off of, it further delved into an erroneous clash of different pacings as Mycro's Round 2 would serve to up the intensity but at a greatly slower pace.A signature feature of this video is the usage of the shrill noise from AjaxCubed's serve slowed down throughout the entire length of the video until a point where it's layered upon with gradually higher instances in pitch of the clip applied with much reverb to give a very ghostly and powerful feeling to the round. RabbitSnore said of Round 1 that it was "An elegant and well-assembled light show. A finely raped serve, but with a definite sense that it was a beginning of a match. I don't think the round could have stood alone, though it had some very fine moments." RAKninja speaking for the same video would say that "This starts out great, like a lawn mower you have to pull the string on a few times to get started. When it does start, you'll want to hold onto the top of your skull, because it's about to flip off. the whole thing meshes together very well, though of interest to me were the use of pitch slides, and the ending. A very well crafted serve."

On Round 2, RabbitSnore would express that Mycro's response was "Impressive. This is the sort of thing that if viewed in full-screen mode in a pitch black room would make me shit myself. I thought it could have ended more strongly though." RAKninja responded with "This volley is a great meshing of interesting audio and video, much like the serve that was in part made from. This video gives off much the same vibe that the favorite round I've made does, which in itself is not something I see often, or this well done. The way Micro spreads out video layers like a deck of cards is very visually appealing, and his use of black spaces is top notch."

Aesaun in his Round 3 went right into working within his own strong point, which was making his response an overly musical one. By taking a single clip and creating a short buzz out of it he was able to create the video's main backing track, then adding short instances of other pieces of the round to create harmonizing instruments and percussion, which here were done with great expertise and, while not as technically advanced as the round it volleyed, proved to still be quite strong. RabbitSnore on this round wrote "Some of the best timed rape I've ever seen. Musical and excellently paced. The rhythm brilliantly demonstrates the talent of this round's maker." while RAKninja would write "The first twelve seconds of this volley were very intense. I especially liked the section where the pitch scaled up. Aesaun wastes no time getting into a chiptune style YTPMV using great clip selections and overall effects, distorting wonderfully. The ending is especially noteworthy, as three dimensional cubes of video layers start popping up out of nowhere."

Gamebop for his Round 4 would initially respond with a video that seemed in contrast relaxed to the last few rounds, although didn't fail in responding to some sections with levels of intensity that matched those of before, with many assortments of layered tricks dotted throughout the video amongst his added Kukori sources. His follow-up YTPMV to that of Round 3 would be much more complex starting with a backing "bass" track of clips in a slow 6/4 meter and then becoming overlayered with an assortment of "treble" clips that played against it in standard time(although in places the backing track would switch to 4/4 again to make much of it seem very in time), making it incredibly compositionally unique in that it would be one of very few times something of this nature would be heard in YTP as of the present. RabbitSnore commented saying "Another impressively musical round, which beautifully built off the style of the last round. To use my own terminology - an example of a fine synthesis of constructive and destructive adaptation" while RAKninja said that it "Starts out fairly standard for this type of match, and then distorts the last round's musical section with a beat and a pitch variation that I actually wish was continued out another couple of repetitions. The next portion of the video serves out some fantastic rape, with a notable effect beautifully using layers and Gamebop's signature source. The musical section that Gamebop constructed for this match more than makes up for the more pedestrian rape that makes up the meat of this round. The ending was also an impressive effect, giving me the impression of a great conduit of videos in outer space."

The collab Round of AjaxCubed and Aesaun would by itself serve to become a quite a significant video in that it would be the round that would see AjaxCubed come into the full development with the bits of his style that would become his ultamite signature in the world of tennis, and in combination with the adrenaline driven peices provided by Aesaun serve to be an incredible visual spectacle of the time. Quite possibly the most famous segment of this video occurs 13 seconds in when an effect never before seen makes it's first appearance: a final cut plugin that can turn a single bit video into a massively complex replication of 3-dimensional buildings, creating almost a "video city", provided by AjaxCubed himself with Aesauns part playing in it's background. Other enhancers of this video are several frame recursion effects also provided by Ajax and slower more intense peices provided by Aesaun, overall making for a fantastic fusion between the two players as a whole. It was hailed by RAKninja who said that "This stands as one of the greatest videos I have ever seen. The entire thing is a delicious mixture of complex effects. What really caught my attention was the use of layers and three dimensional columns of videos using the Star Trek source. The round is like a perfect marriage of source and effect centered tennis." RabbitSnore by contrast however would say that "This round had enough interesting and inventive effects to keep my attention fondly held, but it lacked the musical quality of the last round, and I felt it did not adequately serve as the previous round's progeny."

Round 6 from Gamebop and Mycro together while overall was considered good seemed to overall struggle in coming up with a way to effectively counter what was presented in the round before them, but was still able to provide a fitting note in it's ending of the match, with it's last section being a very dark and thunderous slow mix of assorted layer effects and snippets from a program known as Goldwave used to enhance the videos final clips. Rabbit would write "The timing of this final round was good, with fine effects work. It's difficult to say that it made the most of the previous round though. The most impressive part of this last round was the use of blank space and silence toward the end" while RAKninja would say "This round was a very well crafted exhibition of effects tennis. like the round it volleys, the teams collaborated so well that the seams (if indeed there are any) are quite well hidden. That said, this round was almost a letdown after the previous one. Micro and Gamebop did what they do well, but too much of it stayed in "explored territory", so to speak. My personal preference in the rounds that end a match is to have them somewhat stand out. I did, however, really like the rotating sphere of layers, and i really wish those sections were longer so that i could appreciate the scope of the effect."

The final verdict by RabbitSnore on the match was thus: " I very nearly want to call this a draw, since both teams shined in their element in this match. The last two rounds did not impress me as much as the middle two, and round 4 is definitely my favorite. For that reason, I have to give this match to Gamebop and Microprocessor, which especial kudos to Gamebop. But I have to commend Aesaun for really impressing me as well.

My preference for winner is the team of Gamebop and Microprocessor."

RAK by contrast would verdict with "As I mentioned in the beginning, it was very hard for me to make a decision on this match. Everyone involved gave 110% and it shows. Ultimately though, only one team can win. The main points of my decision are rounds 3 vs 4, and rounds 5 vs 6. Three and four both used a chiptune like musical section, and i found i preferred round three more. The last two rounds are one of my judging points because of the very nature of the tournament, and my personal views that the last two rounds of a tennis match are the 'finished product'.

That explained, I cast my vote for Ajax and Aesaun."

By popular vote the results would end up coming out to AjaxCubed and Aesaun recieving 13 votes and 57% of the vote and MycroProcessor and Gamebop earning 10 votes and 43% of the vote, making AjaxCubed and Aesaun the official champions of the Doubles Cup. Aesaun would claim that he expected quite the opposite to happen, while MycroProcessor would say that he thought that they would win based on the level of impressiveness of their videos as well as agreeing to the notion that he and Gamebop could have very well made Round 6 stand out much more than they did with it. Many people praised the match for it's wild intensity while also calling it a very fitting finale, saying all four players deserved to get to the end and that voting for it was definitely difficult. AjaxCubed and Aesaun would also be the first players as of this tournament to recieve the Tennis Tourney Winner medal, which had just been newly created at the time, and later on would be awarded also to Ishkibibl for winning the Tennis Cup I and PapaGonzales for winning the Tennis League I.

With the conclusion of this tournament, everyone would now move on to commencing the start of the Windows Movie Master, which had already been completely organized with players by this time and ready to be deployed.

Initial Doubles Cup Thread

Player Roster

Week 1 Thread

Week 2 Voting Thread

Week 2 Results Thread

Week 3 Results Thread

Finals Results Thread