Multi-Way Tournament

This article is about a site sanctioned Poop Tennis tournament.

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The Multi-Way Tournament was a Youtube Poop Tennis Tournament hosted by an evolving assortment of hosts starting with dewmann, the original creator/organizer, then switching over to Gamebop, and then being managed to its finish by a joint effort between trepmaws and Sid from September 2013 to October 2014, with LaVie CestLol becoming the eventual winner beating BSP666c and AshcrementVII in a three-way finale. It is the longest running tournament that has ever taken place on the site, with the shortest duration of time (14 hours) between the start of this tournament and the end of previous one. 10 of its 18 original participants would replaced more than one time throughout its run with a total of 14 additional participants, currently the most ever, beating even that of the Three-Way Tournament.

Development

dewmann originally concieved the idea in conjuction with CaptainStringCheese in the form of a massive single 20-way match that would slowly decrease until one player remained as early as September 2011. Discussion was later carried over in private discussion with the rest of the active Cafe Staff at the time(plus RAKninja), where it was eventually molded into a rough version of its final state through an exchange of ideas between all involved. At its conclusion, dewmann and Captain became enthusiastic to possibly get this tournament idea into a proper manifestation, but were informed that a tournament was already due to happen quite soon, which would come to be the Doubles Cup II. The idea was subsequently put on hold for some time; with dewmann and Captain occasionally revisiting and revising bits and peices. Captain would later tell dewmann that the idea had essentially become "his tournament", even though dewmann liked the idea of both of them being credited with its creation equally as well as both hosting it come its fruitition, though Captain assured that he would certainly sign up for it come the time.

By 2013 however dewmann and Captain had fallen out with each other and remained out of contact for some time. Toward the close of the Triples Tournament dewmann revisted the idea once again this time with Cafe skype chat, discussing its current state and refining last touches with assistance from Gamebop and MycroProcessor, who supported the idea of it becoming the next tournament and even volunteered ahead of time to sign up for it. It was believed by dewmann that the Staff had already agreed to this becoming an event previously and that with this confirmation all would go smoothly, and within the day that Triples Tournament announced its winners the thread was created, and spots filled up almost instantly.

There did, however, occur at this time a dispute about the tournaments sudden and unexpected appearance especially as soon as it had appeared following the Triples Tourney's conclusion, in which Ashcrement was the most vocal about. It contradicted at the time the written rules of the Tennis Section that supposed "official" tournaments had to be discussed with the Cafe Staff and that the final authority of the tourney being a site-sanctioned event rests with the Staff itself, which were quickly corrected as the rest of the staff pitched involvement and the fate of the tournament was decided by majority vote. In the end the favor went for the tournament being an official one by a vote count of 4-2(though technically considered 4/5-1; MrDrunkenFox voted no, but it is thought that he wasn't entirely aware of the situation at hand), meaning the winner would recieve a trophy and the Tournaments section would recieve proper use. dewmann realized his mistake and apoligized for his unintentional hastiness but was very thankful that his tournament was given a chance and promised that there would not be disappointment.

The finalized version of the tournament that would become played borrowed in part from MycroProcessor's 3-Way Tournament in terms of matches outside of the 1v1 range, but extending far beyond the amount of players that had played in previous tournaments. The layout of sets were drawn as:

Set 1: 18 Players, 3 6-way matches

Set 2: 15 Players, 3 5-way matches

Set 3: 12 Players, 3 4-way matches

Set 4: 9 Players, 3 3-way matches

Set 5: 6 Players, 3 standard 2-way matches

Set 6: 3 Players, 1 3-Way Final Match, with the winner going to the reciever of the highest score.

The number of rounds for each match would be 3 times the amount of players, or 3 rotations. The round time limit was also deliberately set to half the max time limit of the standard (0:20 to 1:30), as dewmann anticipated that many extensions would be needed and that this would hopefully be a way to compensate for the time that people would spend on each round, de-emphasizing the utilization of long round times. The turnover time was also put back to 3 days, as opposed to 4 which had been used over the last few tournaments.

trepmaws is to credit for the idea of this Tournament's voting style; an olympic method in which voters give scores to all players based on a score from 1.0 to 10.0, from which the individual scores for each player were calculated for a final average. The reason for this is because rather than declaring one match winner, voting results would instead declare one match loser, the player who would drop out after each set thus decreasing the amount of players for each match. Penalties for lateness/going outside of rules was fixed at one point for each off the total average score, the lateness being for every 3 days a player was late, resulting in disqualification after 9. It would be after this a replacement would be requested.

dewmann wrote regarding replacements that "During a match, if a player decides they will no longer be able to participate in the tournament, they may select a player from the list to play for them, who will simply pick up from where the player left off in a match*. Note that a replacement is permanent**, and once chosen they will take the place of the original player for the remaining course of the tournament. In the event a player is disqualified due to late penalties or does not choose a replacement, the replacement players will be contacted about the open spot and whoever volunteers first will play in place of the disqualified."

"* This rule is exempt in the 2 way matches of Set 5. In this set replacements will be chosen like that of the 4th tennis cup; if a player decides they will no longer be able to participate in the tournament, they may select a player from the list to play for them. If done so, the match will restart from the beginning, using the un-replaced player's first round as the serve. In the event a player is disqualified due to late penalties or does not choose a replacement, their opponent may choose to either accept the win automatically and move on to the next set of matches, or select a new player from the replacement list to play against. If the replacement is disqualified then the opponent will automatically move on."

• • If in the beginning of a tournament a player drops out before submitting any rounds for their match (or the tournament entirely) their replacement essentially acts as the original player of said match and the dropout can rejoin the tournament as a replacement if they wish to later on. Once a round is submitted by a player however, this window becomes invalid and dropouts afterward become permenant as originally. This also only applies to conditions in Set 1.

The reason for the second exception was due to the numbers who originally ended up not being able to stay committed before start, including dewmann himself, but may be more committed at a future time and still want to play.

Players

The first 6 people had already signed up via skype, among them were dewmann, Gamebop, MycroProcessor, and Bloodis as seasoned players. Magged Rat had previously signed up in the Triples Tournament but had failed to deliver a single round, a mistake that he hoped to rectify in participation of this tournament. Cornflakes and imoutofideas1 had previously also played in the Triples Tournament for one match each. Sid, plasticfishtank and JowlHog4 would both play for the first time competitively, with other seasoned players BSP666c, CorruptionSound, therazoredge, StickerBoyTheNextGen, sanemurzu and ZACHTOMCAT also signing up.

Already at its start though players started becoming unstable. dewmann would at this time face multiple interferences with his computer and ultamitely end up having his spot filled by eletricalmonkss, until he eventually was able to sign up again as a replacement and eventually replace StickerBoyTheNextGen, who would only ever contribute a single round. trepmaws's situation would also change and he would drop out and be replaced by GabrielCol595, who after one round would be replaced again by djninjalovemistake. This would serve to continue almost regularly through the first 3 sets.

Matches

dewmann in a humorous tribute split up the three matches by Yellow, Teal, and Purple, in order to also easily categorize the placement of players in each set. No one would stay restricted under one color, as the match draws were all randomized as had long been the tradition.

Week 1

Match Yellow for this set was therazoredge vs. MaggedRat vs. CreepahWeegie vs. StickerBoyTheNextGen vs. CorruptionSound vs. MycroProcessor. A powerful serve kicked the match off that was Razor's blend of heavy ambience and technical bliss, mixed with atmosphere and editing techniques that ranged from being both calming to unsettling. Round 2, which would be MaggedRat's only video in the competition, cut the round time in half and mostly featured an overlaying of a YTPer of the time known as Austrock or Dozzyrok dancing in a seizure like manner, doing little with the round itself. He would subsequently become replaced by FlamingRaptorClaw, later known as Razerek, due to other commitments once again(as had been the case in the Triples Tournament as well). CreepahWeegie's response however would be one of the better ones of the Tournament so far, displaying much technical ability in addition to cleverness, as it made use of Duck Amuck in a humourous way to counter the previous round. It's two minute length was done rather innocently, as Creepah had not yet adjusted to the new time limit in the rules. Very little of this round was used in StickerBoy's Round 4 however, as much of it's 28 seconds ended up being added source, which would continue to be added onto in CorruptionSound's Round 5, though also utilizing more of the previous Round in a way that continued the match in a more organized way.

MycroProcessor's Round 6 bore a striking resemblance to "5", specifically the "5" from his Round 9 with Gamebop and Luioigi in the 3-Way Tournament, as the same sort of sharp and abraisive noises that eminated from that video were also present here, coupled with a similar brand of simple-yet-complex-in-appearance editing. Notable in it's source additions is a interview with Robert Fripp, which would continue to make appearances throughout Mycro's videos. TheRazoredge's style would find a great element in responding to this Round as it would also be very favoriably appreciated by Mycro himself, employing the same aethetically driven style in cooperation with the mysteriousness with the previous video's atmosphere. FlamingRaptorClaw, now making his appearance into the tournament, delivered a Round 8 in a style that was not unlike that of piodx, using many of the same effects and even the same resolution, but a noticably better step up in editing than that of the previous player in his spot.

Week 3

This particular gameweek is recognized as being the most disastrous of the tournament as well as the point in which the Tournament itself almost ground to a complete halt in progress, with only Match Yellow seeing completion and several holes in participation appearing due to the disappearance of a lot of players leaving. Match Purple(dewmann vs. BSP666c vs. AshcrementVII vs. Cornflakes) would manage to complete two rotations before the first player slot, originally dewmann and then Captain by the second rotation, would become ultimately vacant for the rest of the Set. Cornflakes would also disappear after this as well, with his Round 8 being his last contribution. Match Teal(3tp vs. CreepahWeegie vs. Gamebop vs. Jowlhog4) would fare far worse in only completing one and a half rotations with CreepahWeegie being the player to vacate as of that point, with the match never progressing past Round 5. Despite the match's dead end Gamebop's Round 3, which very greatly resembles his Round 6 vs. guitarrocker100 and CorruptionSound to the point of being a spiritial successor to that video, is considered by some to be the best round of what there is of the match is addition to one of his more recent classics.

Week 4

With the ajustments of the Tournament Lineup done, the Multi-Way Tennis Tournament could go on with a reborn dynamic, with the remaining contestants showing interest in finishing this event.

Match Yellow : Gamebop vs. Mycroprocessor vs. Sploltoen – Given the line-up, this match gathered a lot of hype even before starting, and Gamebop’s serve would live on to it by also being round 7 from the similar match of the Three-Way Tournament (which Gamebop had to drop out at round 7, being replaced by SuperKoffee). The three players will proceed to continue in the same highly technical vein the original match took place in the first place, competing in terms of creativity, weirdness and controlled chaos, while still revolving cleverly on the sources used in the original match (Most notably the Puzzle Game Myst). The reception of this highly followed match has turned in the favour of Gamebop, giving him the highest note of the set, with 8.5, while Sploltoen managed to qualify himself in a very fine stretch by beating Mycroprocessor by only 3 cents of a point (7,83 for Sploltoen, 7,80 for MycroProcessor).

Match Teal : AshcrementVII vs. djninjalovemistake vs. LaVie CestLol – Ashcrement’s serve, extensively using the video game Bayonetta, opened the gates for a match that will revolve on atmosphere, while still having a witty edge to it. djninjalovemistake put his trademark eerie, slow and rhythmic style to good contribution, while LaVie CestLol, in his Tournament debut, managed to blend this with an extensive use of 3D effects and an emphasis on sound design especially. The result is a back and forth exchange dealing with heavy use of erosion, YTPMV snippets and a very musical edge that was celebrated. Surprisingly, newcomer LaVie CestLol got the higher raw score of the match with 7.5, but got a penalty for making his round 9 too long (putting him at 6.5), while AshcrementVII got 7,43 and djninjalovemistake 6.77, with two penalties (one because of his lateness, the other because of the length of round 8) giving him a final score of 4,77, eliminating him.

Match Purple : Valkiriforce vs. Cornflakes/Trepmaws vs. GabrielCol595 – Valkiriforce's serve was done at the surprise of his author, who at the time didn't knew that he would play for the whole match and not just one match, and is filled with sources (Sherlock Hound and Soundgarden's "Black Hole Sun" video to name a few) edited in valk's very recognizable fast-paced style that will be the staple of the match, along with the use of 90's grunge music videos. Because Cornflakes wasn't able to respond in time, trepmaws would then take his place. This would lead to a very musical match (with the extensive use of 90's grunge music videos), but in the opposite dynamic that the Teal Match had. Unfortunately, trepmaws would not be able to finish the match and it would remain stalled at round 7, with valkiriforce and Gab being advanced to the semifinals of the Tournament.

Week 5

The semifinals would lead to pretty high expectations, as this was now a direct confrontation to find who would then be competing for the final win, in a 1v1, 6-round match.

Match Yellow - Sploltoen vs. valkiriforce : Serving with his brand of technicity and use of football-match/Gran Turismo footage, Sploltoen would give a very complex and highly technical performance, whereas valkiriforce would rely more on hard-hitting effects and added sources. Unfortunately, valkiriforce would later admit that match felt not great for him as he thought he couldn't out-match Sploltoen, though his performance was pretty well recieved by people like Sid or LaVie CestLol. The scores would be in favor of Sploltoen, whom with 7.73 would beat valkiriforce (who got 6.68) and be part of the Grand Finale.

Match Teal - GameBop vs. AshcrementVII : GameBop kicks off with a very experimental serve (in his own words) that would lead to one of the most bizarre and surreal matches of the tourney, Ashcrement giving a witty yet poetic performance, while GameBop would rely on effect creativity and also a YTPMV segment and VHS-conversion on round 5 that were looked up to by the viewers. The raw results were very tied, GameBop winning by only 0.03, but a penalty for lateness would retract Gamebop to 7.24 while Ashcrement would be the second finalist with 8.21.

Match Purple - LaVie CestLol vs. GabrielCol595 : After giving a good impression in his previous match, LaVie would begin with a very straightforward, effect-based serve using Studio Uha's "Wet Short". Gab would respond cleverly to his antics, for instance using Debussy's Moonlight to craft a breakbeat YTPMV in round 4 (one of his best work at the time according to him), which in return would get LaVie to go all YTPMV Soccer in the match. But despite winning in raw scores, technical difficulties would be what made Gab lose the match, getting from 8.02 to 6.02, leading LaVie CestLol to be the third finalist (for his tournament debut) with 7.82.

Week 6 (Finale)

The line-up of the Final would then consist of two veterans and already well recognized tennisers : Sploltoen, with an already impressive Tournament Background, and AshcrementVII, already victorious of the Doubles Cup II alongside ChrisGendo ; with newcomer LaVie CestLol being in the middle, whose, even though his style has been appreciated ever since he joined, was really the underdog of the competition.

Sploltoen’s first round would be a recap of some of his most impressive antics from all over the tournament, putting everybody he has faced into the final as well as his own trademark, visually stunning style, despite the round being short in time. LaVie would respond to that round with what would become one of his trademark traits as time went on (especially in the competitive field) : filming himself writing and reading a letter to his opponents, asking about the mere practice of tennis, asking “What do you think of what we do? These videos, as a whole?”. AshcrementVII would give to the questions LaVie raised his own interpretation in a methodic depiction of his round, the “ABCs” which stand for Arrange, Build Blocks and Construct, which leads to a round evenly paced by added sources, weird video mechanics and witty snippets, finishing with a reference to the NINJA CHALLENGE. From then, Sploltoen would also give his own voice on the matter in a very somber, ambient response that emphasized in atmosphere and effects, giving it an dark turn that LaVie would take to his own perception, in a weirdly structured discourse on the audio and destructive 3D animations and glitches for the visual part, one of the more heavy videos he has done to this day.

From then on, Ashcrement would go for a completely different approach, adding more Ninjas and Skeletons while giving to the previous round a more destructive manner, putting them more in the background of the action, having more fun with the elements he now added to the mix. Sploltoen’s round 7 would go more into the pure reconstruction he’s known for, with a beautiful finishing animation that has been recognized as one of the highlights of his part of the match, completed with a more proeminent use of databending. Round 8, described by LaVie CestLol as a “love letter to YTP Tennis”, is structured around snippets of the song Battery Point by the Krautrock band BEAK>, rearranging Sploltoen’s animation to resymbolize the match and the Tournament as a whole, the two most notable elements being the 3 contestant’s avatars kicking a ball and a frieze of various rounds from the tournament. He also pays homage to his favourite match of the tourney, the 5 way match of Jowlhog4, Mycroprocessor, Gamebop, Dew and Bloodis/Saper by putting the three beeps that Gamebop and Dew used in their own final rounds of said match. Ashcrement would then conclude the match and the tournament with a redoing of the ending credits of Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt, with Sploltoen and LaVie’s avatars as respectively Panty and Stocking, finishing in a joke-y manner while still making a statement that he’ll make clear after the ending results have been announced.

Results and Legacy

As no contestant had a penalty, the end results would only be due to the votes, and LaVie CestLol would be proclaimed victorious with 8.76 points against 8.34 for Sploltoen and 8.12 for Ashcrement. This victory would be welcomed by the community, especially given that LaVie CestLol was very new to the community yet managed to make a name for himself somehow. However, AshcrementVII would then give his opinions on the match, describing it as “The most boring Tournament Match [he has] played in”, which he found as a symptom of a growing tendency that Tennis would just be “a rapey, color soup style of tennis”, especially given his rounds being sometimes described as “puzzling”. This statement would have been discussed and thought about by many, especially LaVie who would learn a lot from that experience, still being sort of new to the scene even if he won, but also for the Tennis Staff and Café who would then go on to make the next tournament a more broad, multi-style-friendly competition where many would have fun without having to deal with “rapey color splooge”. This, along with other elements, would lead to what has been organized next, the Tennis League IV.