The Layer Tennis Season 2 Finals came to a wrap last friday when Shaun Inman and myself laced up our gloves one last time. The match was a pretty weird one. I don’t think either one of us really ever seemed to get our footing. Definitely one of the odder feeling games of Layer Tennis that have gone on lately. I ran into a major snafu in the eighth round when I put up what might be a layer tennis record of a sixty minute volley. Here’s a list of how I failed:
A) Used way too much of a music track that made the video way too long and therefore huge.
B) Used a really bad synth copy of a song from the wrong era.
C) Exported the video without sound
E) Five to ten minute transfer times to the server
D) Realized the video had no sound, had to re-export the video with sound
E) Five to ten minute transfer to the server
F) Challenges presented as to the legality of using bad cover sound
G) Eventual approval but more waiting as Coudal compressed and transfered the video
H) Restless crowd amasses outside my door with pitchforks
I) Video really wasn’t that funny in the first place, but especially after an hour.
So, in other words I made a huge snafu in the eighth round by trying to make a bad joke. Technical difficulties made the bad joke even worse. On the other hand, Inman played an amazing game. His serve was perhaps the most clever volley I’ve ever had lobbed against me, and it definitely set a weird pace for the match. We kind of struggled over being totally stumped the entire time but somehow pulled something together. His Layer 9 was exceptionally well done. Overall I’m not at all ashamed to have been beaten (or so it seems) from the guy who did this.
In general I think I’ve been able to be successful thus far in layer tennis by having a pretty good idea of what was going to be thrown at me, or by isolating enough of the variables of a match down to let me focus on one or two things at once. Shaun never let me get that comfortable with him, and his unexpected nature proved to be very difficult to overcome. I’m not at all ashamed at the game I put up, and I’ll most probably be seeing Shaun in the arena again some day. Until then, check out the match here, and throw #lyt and a #hubacek or a #inman in your next tweet to vote. Also be sure to check out the “beyond bad-ass” season recap video on the Layer Tennis home page
