Video Tennis: Difference between revisions

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==Conrad's "Freewheeling" Era (2007-2008)==

At first, there was hardly any tennis community in a well defined sense to speak of; much of the tennis matches that did happen following the first one was done so in a way that would be seen by modern standards as very disorganized, as many merely skirted around the concept in curiosity without ever really committing fully to the potential that tennis in a YTP/Video context could offer. That being said, there were a handful of notable early names that became early fixtures in the world of tennis: BMATF played the second ever tennis match with Markie, and UncleChuckTH played the third ever tennis match with conradslater (his second match), and the two of them together would continue to exist in the world of tennis until the early 2010s. TangerineImpz vs. SeductiveBaz was played entirely start to finish on August 21, 2007, the day that the final round of the first tennis match was uploaded, and this was for a very long time the fastest tennis match ever played; SeductiveBaz would also be an early fixture and continued to tennis in some capacity until a full 12 years later. Second only to conradslater's early activity in tennis was that of MrDrunkenFox, who played multiple early games including with Tentor, plex14, PapaGonzales and Furnessly. This latter player, along with other such players such as InsinerateHymn, JazzDanceForChildren, TyrannosaurusReich~~, strong414bad~~, Luioigi, ADHDYoshi, GameCubeHero, Intenseowl, MVJ5197, 3inchhorse, ELPSteel, SushieBoy, Vorhias, sonicnerd23, and SesakaGenX would also serve to play their own individual roles in defining the nature of tennis at its earliest onsets.

At first, there was hardly any tennis community in a well defined sense to speak of; much of the tennis matches that did happen following the first one was done so in a way that would be seen by modern standards as very disorganized, as many merely skirted around the concept in curiosity without ever really committing fully to the potential that tennis in a YTP/Video context could offer. That being said, there were a handful of notable early names that became early fixtures in the world of tennis: BMATF played the second ever tennis match with Markie, and UncleChuckTH played the third ever tennis match with conradslater (his second match), and the two of them together would continue to exist in the world of tennis until the early 2010s. TangerineImpz vs. SeductiveBaz was played entirely start to finish on August 21, 2007, the day that the final round of the first tennis match was uploaded, and this was for a very long time the fastest tennis match ever played; SeductiveBaz would also be an early fixture and continued to tennis in some capacity until a full 12 years later. Second only to conradslater's early activity in tennis was that of MrDrunkenFox, who played multiple early games including with Tentor, plex14, PapaGonzales and Furnessly. This latter player, along with other such players such as InsinerateHymn, JazzDanceForChildren, TyrannosaurusReich, Luioigi, ADHDYoshi, GameCubeHero, Intenseowl, MVJ5197, 3inchhorse, ELPSteel, SushieBoy, Vorhias, sonicnerd23, and SesakaGenX would also serve to play their own individual roles in defining the nature of tennis at its earliest onsets.

Aside from all of these other players however, one of the most important to come out of these first months was RabbitSnore, who played his first tennis match with real-life friend Thereisnospoon303, or TINS, in October 2007. Rabbit immediately came to develop a passionate and vested interest in tennis - the places that it could go and the ways in which it could develop - from the very offset of his entrance into it, and he sought to give the medium the attention and the analysis that it deserved through his initial position on the "Vanilla" YouChew forums as chief editor of the forum's "newsroom" - from October/November 2007 onward, Rabbit began his regular "Tennis Review" series of articles, with InsinerateHymn vs. PukingCyberman(2007), GameCubeHero vs. Intenseowl(2007) and Furnessly vs. MrDrunkenFox(2007) the first three matches he covered in this matter. He would contribute a "retrospective review" of conradslater vs. Misselaineous10 shortly thereafter, and it is from this point onward, largely through his insistence, that the importance and the nature of the first ever tennis match began to become recognized in the way it now is today.

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His prominence in this activity and the quality of his articles gained him the trust and admiration of Conrad himself, and he was able to use this sway to convince him to allow the tennis section to begin hosting its first [[tennis tournament]]s, with Gallers being the initial organizer of the first few to take place. After Rabbit had accumulated a respectable roster of completed matches including with YamiMario, SushieBoy, Miss10, and PapaGonzales, Rabbit took on Conrad himself in the now legendary match of [[RabbitSnore vs. conradslater]](2007). At a time when tennis usually came in the language of either "comedic" or of the extreme varieties conceived in the first match, this match was seen as a completely different third approach - of tennis as very much an art and of a thoughtful exchange in and of itself, even if this exchange was liable to get wild in other ways.

In January 2008, Rabbit had gained enough of an influence over tennis - having played further matches with MrDrunkenFox, pimpsahoy, strong414bad, and UncleChuckTH, that he was able to create some of the earliest foundational texts on how tennis was meant to be played and approached: the Observational and Recreational Guides to tennis. On January 28, Rabbit also created the first of the "Tennis Cafe" threads, a general chat for the tennis section that allowed for the community to begin to consolidate together and organize themselves properly for the first time. Around this time, newer members began to enter into the community or gain a greater degree of visibility in the section, including Crash2991, GameBop, and Nuthead. For much of the original Cafe thread's incarnation, only Rabbit and Crash would be doing the majority of the regular posting, and between them talked about tennis matches often, with RabbitSnore vs. conradslater, conradslater vs. Miss10 and MilkR0und vs. Y2Zero(2007) receiving repeated reference and discussion as part of an early canon of foundational matches for the community.

In January 2008, Rabbit had gained enough of an influence over tennis - having played further matches with MrDrunkenFox, pimpsahoy, strong414bad, and UncleChuckTH, that he was able to create some of the earliest foundational texts on how tennis was meant to be played and approached: the Observational and Recreational Guides to tennis. On January 28, Rabbit also created the first of the "Tennis Cafe" threads, a general chat for the tennis section that allowed for the community to begin to consolidate together and organize themselves properly for the first time. Around this time, newer members began to enter into the community or gain a greater degree of visibility in the section, including Crash2991, strong414bad, GameBop, and Nuthead. For much of the original Cafe thread's incarnation, only Rabbit and Crash would be doing the majority of the regular posting, and between them talked about tennis matches often, with RabbitSnore vs. conradslater, conradslater vs. Miss10 and MilkR0und vs. Y2Zero(2007) receiving repeated reference and discussion as part of an early canon of foundational matches for the community.

Conrad's last match played was with TheDarkRises around this time. He began to exhibit a lot of strange, aggressive and elitist decisions in how he shaped and restructured the forum community, including among other things enforcing his "War on AIDS"(a crusade against what he termed to be low effort YTPs based on source and editor preference) upon the community in addition to a requirement for forum users to play at least one tennis match in order to be eligible to be "featured" on the site. The decline of his reign on the "Vanilla" forums coincided with the tennis community, in the absence of most everyone else, continuing to grow and consolidate around a growing collection of regular tennis players and posters in the Cafe. RAKninja, theHappyFungus, and NS2 became such members at this time, and all engaged in tennis matches both with each other and other exterior players, with Temeku/MTB710, GreatBritishTurd and TheDarkRises all beginning to make regular tennis appearances. The "Vanilla" forums officially shut down at the end of March 2008, as conradslater relinquished control over to RabbitSnore and TINS, who purchased new forum software and a new server to give the community a fresh, laid-back start - free from the drama and the hardship of the site's original incarnation. Rabbit promptly created a new version of the Tennis Cafe, and it was shortly in the wake of this site's beginning that the official rules of tennis were finally laid down for the first time, stipulating the 6-round standard with which all tennis would orient itself around from this point onward.

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 ==Conrad's "Freewheeling" Era (2007-2008)==
-At first, there was hardly any tennis community in a well defined sense to speak of; much of the tennis matches that did happen following the first one was done so in a way that would be seen by modern standards as very disorganized, as many merely skirted around the concept in curiosity without ever really committing fully to the potential that tennis in a YTP/Video context could offer. That being said, there were a handful of notable early names that became early fixtures in the world of tennis: BMATF played the second ever tennis match with Markie, and UncleChuckTH played the third ever tennis match with conradslater (his second match), and the two of them together would continue to exist in the world of tennis until the early 2010s. TangerineImpz vs. SeductiveBaz was played entirely start to finish on August 21, 2007, the day that the final round of the first tennis match was uploaded, and this was for a very long time the fastest tennis match ever played; SeductiveBaz would also be an early fixture and continued to tennis in some capacity until a full 12 years later. Second only to conradslater's early activity in tennis was that of MrDrunkenFox, who played multiple early games including with Tentor, plex14, PapaGonzales and Furnessly. This latter player, along with other such players such as InsinerateHymn, JazzDanceForChildren, TyrannosaurusReich, strong414bad, Luioigi, ADHDYoshi, GameCubeHero, Intenseowl, MVJ5197, 3inchhorse, ELPSteel, SushieBoy, Vorhias, sonicnerd23, and SesakaGenX would also serve to play their own individual roles in defining the nature of tennis at its earliest onsets.
+At first, there was hardly any tennis community in a well defined sense to speak of; much of the tennis matches that did happen following the first one was done so in a way that would be seen by modern standards as very disorganized, as many merely skirted around the concept in curiosity without ever really committing fully to the potential that tennis in a YTP/Video context could offer. That being said, there were a handful of notable early names that became early fixtures in the world of tennis: BMATF played the second ever tennis match with Markie, and UncleChuckTH played the third ever tennis match with conradslater (his second match), and the two of them together would continue to exist in the world of tennis until the early 2010s. TangerineImpz vs. SeductiveBaz was played entirely start to finish on August 21, 2007, the day that the final round of the first tennis match was uploaded, and this was for a very long time the fastest tennis match ever played; SeductiveBaz would also be an early fixture and continued to tennis in some capacity until a full 12 years later. Second only to conradslater's early activity in tennis was that of MrDrunkenFox, who played multiple early games including with Tentor, plex14, PapaGonzales and Furnessly. This latter player, along with other such players such as InsinerateHymn, JazzDanceForChildren, TyrannosaurusReich, Luioigi, ADHDYoshi, GameCubeHero, Intenseowl, MVJ5197, 3inchhorse, ELPSteel, SushieBoy, Vorhias, sonicnerd23, and SesakaGenX would also serve to play their own individual roles in defining the nature of tennis at its earliest onsets.
 Aside from all of these other players however, one of the most important to come out of these first months was RabbitSnore, who played his first tennis match with real-life friend Thereisnospoon303, or TINS, in October 2007. Rabbit immediately came to develop a passionate and vested interest in tennis - the places that it could go and the ways in which it could develop - from the very offset of his entrance into it, and he sought to give the medium the attention and the analysis that it deserved through his initial position on the "Vanilla" YouChew forums as chief editor of the forum's "newsroom" - from October/November 2007 onward, Rabbit began his regular "Tennis Review" series of articles, with InsinerateHymn vs. PukingCyberman(2007), GameCubeHero vs. Intenseowl(2007) and Furnessly vs. MrDrunkenFox(2007) the first three matches he covered in this matter. He would contribute a "retrospective review" of conradslater vs. Misselaineous10 shortly thereafter, and it is from this point onward, largely through his insistence, that the importance and the nature of the first ever tennis match began to become recognized in the way it now is today.
@@ Line 29: / Line 29: @@
 His prominence in this activity and the quality of his articles gained him the trust and admiration of Conrad himself, and he was able to use this sway to convince him to allow the tennis section to begin hosting its first [[tennis tournament]]s, with Gallers being the initial organizer of the first few to take place. After Rabbit had accumulated a respectable roster of completed matches including with YamiMario, SushieBoy, Miss10, and PapaGonzales, Rabbit took on Conrad himself in the now legendary match of [[RabbitSnore vs. conradslater]](2007). At a time when tennis usually came in the language of either "comedic" or of the extreme varieties conceived in the first match, this match was seen as a completely different third approach - of tennis as very much an art and of a thoughtful exchange in and of itself, even if this exchange was liable to get wild in other ways.
-In January 2008, Rabbit had gained enough of an influence over tennis - having played further matches with MrDrunkenFox, pimpsahoy, strong414bad, and UncleChuckTH, that he was able to create some of the earliest foundational texts on how tennis was meant to be played and approached: the Observational and Recreational Guides to tennis. On January 28, Rabbit also created the first of the "Tennis Cafe" threads, a general chat for the tennis section that allowed for the community to begin to consolidate together and organize themselves properly for the first time. Around this time, newer members began to enter into the community or gain a greater degree of visibility in the section, including Crash2991, GameBop, and Nuthead. For much of the original Cafe thread's incarnation, only Rabbit and Crash would be doing the majority of the regular posting, and between them talked about tennis matches often, with RabbitSnore vs. conradslater, conradslater vs. Miss10 and MilkR0und vs. Y2Zero(2007) receiving repeated reference and discussion as part of an early canon of foundational matches for the community.
+In January 2008, Rabbit had gained enough of an influence over tennis - having played further matches with MrDrunkenFox, pimpsahoy, strong414bad, and UncleChuckTH, that he was able to create some of the earliest foundational texts on how tennis was meant to be played and approached: the Observational and Recreational Guides to tennis. On January 28, Rabbit also created the first of the "Tennis Cafe" threads, a general chat for the tennis section that allowed for the community to begin to consolidate together and organize themselves properly for the first time. Around this time, newer members began to enter into the community or gain a greater degree of visibility in the section, including Crash2991, strong414bad, GameBop, and Nuthead. For much of the original Cafe thread's incarnation, only Rabbit and Crash would be doing the majority of the regular posting, and between them talked about tennis matches often, with RabbitSnore vs. conradslater, conradslater vs. Miss10 and MilkR0und vs. Y2Zero(2007) receiving repeated reference and discussion as part of an early canon of foundational matches for the community.
 Conrad's last match played was with TheDarkRises around this time. He began to exhibit a lot of strange, aggressive and elitist decisions in how he shaped and restructured the forum community, including among other things enforcing his "War on AIDS"(a crusade against what he termed to be low effort YTPs based on source and editor preference) upon the community in addition to a requirement for forum users to play at least one tennis match in order to be eligible to be "featured" on the site. The decline of his reign on the "Vanilla" forums coincided with the tennis community, in the absence of most everyone else, continuing to grow and consolidate around a growing collection of regular tennis players and posters in the Cafe. RAKninja, theHappyFungus, and NS2 became such members at this time, and all engaged in tennis matches both with each other and other exterior players, with Temeku/MTB710, GreatBritishTurd and TheDarkRises all beginning to make regular tennis appearances. The "Vanilla" forums officially shut down at the end of March 2008, as conradslater relinquished control over to RabbitSnore and TINS, who purchased new forum software and a new server to give the community a fresh, laid-back start - free from the drama and the hardship of the site's original incarnation. Rabbit promptly created a new version of the Tennis Cafe, and it was shortly in the wake of this site's beginning that the official rules of tennis were finally laid down for the first time, stipulating the 6-round standard with which all tennis would orient itself around from this point onward.