Year of the Three-Ways

The Year of the Three-Ways is a term invented by dani_phantump in January 2025 to describe an early period in tennis in which 3-way matches were played at particular frequency and prominence. While this term tends to loosely point specifically to 2008 as this consolidated "year", the actual era of most prominence for casual 3-way matches in tennis is roughly double this length, lasting from October 2007 - when the first 3-way matches began to be attempted and successfully played - to September 2009.

3-way matches have their origins in the initial efforts of the early player MahsuginaChicken, who only briefly dabbled in tennis in late 2007, but otherwise successfully created the first complete 3-way match playing alongside SeductiveBaz and hom906sar (the 41st match ever played) after originally attempting it with Calcbox and Sunnyerik. Following this, the next 3-way match, BMATF vs. UncleChuckTH vs. Wikiwow(2007) became the first match to solidify the potential of the variant, and has remained influential into the present day.

It would not be until early 2008 that activity for 3-way matches began to increase before peaking in the summer of that year, with many being attempted throughout this period but only few ever completing alongside other ambitious variant attempts such as 4 and 5-way matches, the first attempts at Doubles matches, and even an attempt at a 3-way Duel. Highlights from this period include InsinerateHymn vs. zacheatscrackers vs. GameBop(2008), which was successful enough to manage 15 rounds in a single week of activity, Luioigi vs. Aesaun vs. guysafari(2008), Emperor Ing vs. NS2 vs. strong414bad(2008), which later inspired the Windows Movie Master, and TheDarkRises vs. XBR4D3NX vs. Crash2991(2008-2009), the match that took the longest of all attempts in this period to complete successfully, after over a year of stalled progress.

Casual 3-way matches significantly slowed in activity after this point, and in lieu of much larger and complex multi-ways rising in prominence over the next several years, were rarely attempted as often again outside of sanctioned tennis tournaments. The 3-Way Tennis Tournament(2010-2011) and the 3-Way Tennis Tournament 2(2024-2025) were both created explicitly around this variant in the years subsequent.

List of Known Matches

MahsuginaChicken vs. Calcbox vs. Sunnyerik(October 2007)(failed)

MahsuginaChicken vs. SeductiveBaz vs. hom906sar(October 2007)

BMATF vs. UncleChuckTH vs. Wikiwow(November-December 2007)

Erarg vs. Markie vs. Ikwaylx(January-March 2008)(failed)

peskyplumber vs. AbsoluteBillion vs. Hoss1993(March 2008)(failed)

Cloggedone vs. GameBop vs. theHappyFungus(April 2008)(failed)

zacheatscrackers vs. CptLexCrunch vs. Erarg(April 2008)

FourTwoNineStudios vs. tonyjcant vs. Applewithcheese332(May 2008)

PapaGonzales vs. FullMetalKiwi vs. AjaxCubed(May-June 2008)

InsinerateHymn vs. zacheatscrackers vs. GameBop(June 2008)

LolBananaPhone vs. HightVoltageChrist vs. KonXII(June 2008)(failed)

Y2Zero vs. Dekabreak vs. Intenseowl(April-July 2008)(failed)

MeiAIDS vs. ADHDYoshi vs. Domorato(July 2008)(failed)

Intenseowl vs. ShadowWario/FancySanta vs. DrGenericMan(July 2008)(failed)

NEVERGONNAGETIT92000 vs. HenoTalkie vs. navyhusky11(July 2008)(failed)

MycroProcessor vs. SesakaGenX vs. Squid0862(July-August 2008)(failed)

Grabboarm vs. GorillaCrap35 vs. 3inchhorse(July-August 2008)

Luioigi vs. Aesaun vs. guysafari(August 2008)

Emperor Ing vs. NS2 vs. strong414bad(August-September 2008)

ThaNuke vs. WowComics vs. Aesaun(September-October 2008)(failed)

Kulsprutejojjo vs. YouGotGroped vs. thedeadonesrise(October-November 2008)(failed)

eletricalmonkss vs. thedeadonesrise vs. FuturesPassed(November-December 2008)

saba0th vs. GasmaskAvenger vs. InsinerateHymn(December 2008)(failed)

JohnshiBRPG vs. Xample2008 vs. 4evervids4you(November 2008 - January 2009)(failed)

WowComics vs. OMGulator vs. FuturesPassed(December 2008 - January 2009)

AlexanderZero vs. MAZZ0Murder vs. FridgeMcFabric(cloggedone)(February-March 2009)(failed)

CrisArriran10 vs. yomismobruto vs. GuidoAstrokz(February-April 2009)(failed)

ferretfreak111 vs. SesakaGenX vs. Aesaun(February-April 2009)(failed)

TheNeopreneJunebug vs. YTPHaruko vs. MAZZ0Murder(March-May 2009)

bkbusters vs. OMGulator vs. McMANGOS(April 2009)(failed)

OMGulator vs. TheDarkRises vs. AmiralMachin(April-May 2009)(failed)

Quax vs. TheGreatFlamingHobo vs. GameBop(May-June 2009)

zacheatscrackers vs. XBR4D3NX vs. JohnFordDanceTroup(Malkmusian)(June 2009)

GasmaskAvenger vs. RobochaoXX vs. hobopigeon(February-June 2009)

Blueseraph vs. FuturesPassed vs. MycroProcessor(December 2008-June 2009)

Fiddlesticks411 vs. Blueseraph89 vs. TantricInferno(April-August 2009)(failed)

NotAnS vs. bkbusters vs. Rarenut59(May-August 2009)

SpiralWierdo vs. PunctualJinx vs. AmiralMachin(July-August 2009)(failed)

hemanlovepancakes vs. Rarenut59 vs. AmiralMachin(August 2009)(failed)

TheDarkRises vs. XBR4D3NX vs. Crash2991(June 2008 - August 2009)

TheChutley vs. deckman92 vs. RapskallionXYZ(June-September 2009)(failed)