Ophios vs. RAKninja

ophios vs. RAKninja
Cup Standard
"MEGATRON MUST BE STOPPED"
Start Date	June 16, 2008
End Date	June 21, 2008
Rounds	6
Participants	ophios, RAKninja
Match Page	Archive Page
Winner
ophios

ophios vs. RAKninja was a Youtube Poop/Video tennis match played as a part of the Tennis Cup, taking place between June 16 and June 21, 2008. It was played as a part of the Set 2 lineup of matches, in which ophios had previously defeated Luioigi and RAKninja had been given a bye when Gallers dropped out after his Round 3. Two days before this lineup was announced, RAKninja posted "oh shit, i might be playing ophios!", in turn accurately predicting its outcome and making this match one somewhat anticipated. Sources used include the Mike Oldfield composition "Tubular Bells, Part One"(1973), Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street(2007), a video ophios described as simply called "Thai Alphabet", an audio portal rendition of John Carpenter's "Halloween (Main Title Theme)"(1978), "Youtube poop: scratch plunges for a while..."(2007; taken from The Adventures of Sonic The Hedgehog's opening titles), a video titled "Guiliani's answer to everything" that sources The O'Reilly Factor, one of the "Who Are You Running From?" Gameboy Camera images, a contemporary video rant by Souja Boy (described by ophios as literally "soulja boy's rant"), an internet video of an Elmo plush getting shot point blank with a rifle in a firing range, Ren and Stimpy, The Ring(2002), a 1987 recording of poet Rita Dove reciting her works, and Transformers: The Movie(1986).

It was the sixth match completed by ophios and the fourth match completed by RAKninja. In their thread created for the match in YellowTealPurple's Tennis: Archives subforum, dani_phantump wrote this about the match:

"Important to note that before this match, with a few minor exceptions, there really wasn't such a thing as slowness, ambience, or eerieness within this medium. ophios sets the stage for this in what can be seen as his most experimental and groundbreaking serve he would probably ever make, and RAKninja returns it in kind, leading to an exchange that at its time was truly extraordinary in an era where tennis still mostly operated on one speed. It was for some people the match that got them into wanting to play tennis themselves, as well as one that influenced multiple people's approaches in future matches to take place.

For his run in the first Tennis Cup, ophios truly had the Midas Touch. Both RAKninja and his first opponant, Luioigi, would be both very obviously affected by his one of a kind style at the time and would both come to adopt their own unique variations of it, with RAK coming to have the style most similar to him while Luioigi progressively adopted a version that was far more complex and layered."

RAKninja expressly named conradslater's highly experimental entry for his own "Perfect YTP Contest" from the earlier in the year as a template for an approach he wished to try with a serve like ophios's, which served to formally introduce much of the defining characteristics of his best known style, especially with the match's use of reverb, delay and distortion across the audio of multiple rounds. The contemporary community of the time recieved this match with great wonder, with NS2 opining "This is a very interesting match. It's something I definitely have not seen before." and MAZZ0Murder considered it "a nice break from the spazzy stuff" that defined much of the rest of the Tennis Cup matches, and most tennis entirely, up to this point. ophios' serve has been roundly celebrated as the best and most memorable round of the match, with RAKninja himself remarking at the time "lord, what ophios gave me was brilliant." GameBop considered ophios' Round 1 and 3 with high regard, writing after the latter was uploaded "I can't wait to see more." Emperor Ing entered into the tennis community entirely with this match as his motivation, writing "I have never played a single game, but maybe over the summer i'll try." He would later face RAKninja the following year. The pioneering style of this match was a direct influence on another similar one that followed in its wake, architect1 vs. GameBop(2009), thus creating a chain that still sees the techniques and aesthetics demonstrated in this match surface into matches played in the present day, with latter-day examples including GnarpyFan4000 vs. TheChutley vs. ElijahStar(2025). Like all elimination-based tournaments that RAKninja would ever participate in, he would not progress farther than Set 2, and the Tennis Cup marks the first of six consecutive instances in which this would take place; despite ophios' concession that they "kinda ran out of steam on this tennis match", they still emerged as its winner. No vote totals were saved from this tournament sans the final match.

All rounds continue to survive in their original uploads, though RAKninja's rounds were privated for a time in the early 2010s. It was first compiled into a single video on the YouWouldBeWelcome account in June 2021.

The Full Match

Round 1

"Some --------- thing (Round 1)" by ophios

Round 2

"THE OTHER --------- THING (ROUND 2)" by RAKninja

Round 3

"That one ----- thing (rung tree)" by ophios

Round 4

"THIS BAD----- THING (SOUND FO)" by RAKninja

Round 5

"This bitter -------------- earth (fyve)" by ophios

Round 6

"THAT DIFFERENT -------------- WIND (SEX)" by RAKninja