RAKninja vs. RetroTheRaccoon

RAKninja vs. RetroTheRaccoon
Standard
"A strange flash of light, and an explosion, followed by LOVE IS HERE"
Start Date	November 20, 2008
End Date	June 22, 2009
Rounds	6
Participants	RAKninja, RetroTheRaccoon
Match Page	Archive Thread

RAKninja vs. RetroTheRaccoon was a YouTube Poop/Video tennis match that took place between November 20, 2008 and June 22, 2009. RetroTheRacoon had only recently appeared as a complete unknown in the community, having enticed Crash2991 into what became Retro's first tennis match, and immediately made an impression on other community regulars of the time such as RabbitSnore and NS2 for his immediate grasp on the classic tennis fundamentals, along with his style of humor and above-average source preferences that leaned into classic anime. RAKninja would become his next challenger, saying "watching what he did with crash convinced me of his talent, so much so i accepted the match and served it a day or two earlier than i considered myself ready."

The match is remembered largely for its usage of Super Life-Form Transformers: Beast Wars Neo, the series that RAK had previously used to create the "ROBOT BUNNY BOOBIES" community meme in his match with Futures Passed. With this being used again for the serve (including the above meme making a second appearance), RAK takes the opportunity to make a new element from the series the main feature of the match: the very beginning of its opening titles, of which the first words are the english-spoken "Love is Here." This phrase would become used in different contexts for every single round, and served to be the origin of what became an enduring motto of the tennis community entirely up into the present day. Other sources used in the match include Death Note, Robotech: The Macross Saga(Episode 1 - "Booby Trap"(1985)), Genesis Climber MOSPEADA, Tenchi Muyo, and the 1980 Astro Boy series.

It was the 15th match completed by RAKninja. During the six month wait that eventually yielded RetroTheRacoon's final round, the match accumulated tremendous acclaim from many of the other contemporary members of the tennis staff, and most expressed great anticipation for how Retro would conclude the match. RabbitSnore was influenced by the match's Round 2 in making "SOLID SNAKE and the Five Pillars of Islam"(2008), his Round 1 with NS2, and NS2 himself wrote "I am blown away by this match. I favorited Round 2 and 3, and last night I watched Round 2 on loop over and over." Emperor Ing also praised the match saying "Round 4 is one of the better [YTP]s I have seen, and as such, I favorite'd it. That's not to say this is one damn amazing match, and a funny one at that." MycroProcessor also praised the match upon Round 6 finally being uploaded, writing their only commentary for this round. RAKninja vs. RetroTheRaccoon is also notable for being an instance where RAK forgoes his "source-cutting" style of approach, an indication that this was among the matches he played where he thoroughly enjoyed the sources he was working with.

RetroTheRacoon's rounds of this match, three of the only 7 videos he apparently ever made, were considered lost for many years before being rediscovered again in a mass video archive linked on the YellowTealPurple forums. Both of RetroTheRacoon's matches with RAKninja and Crash2991 were compiled for the first time into single videos on the YouWouldBeWelcome account in August 2025.

The Full Match

Round 1

"DID I EVER TELL YOU ABOUT THE TANOOKI TRANSFORMER?" by RAKninja

Round 2

"TELL ME ABOUT LOVE" by RetroTheRaccoon

Round 3

"I TOLD YOU ABOUT THE REGIS" by RAKninja

Round 4

"The Tale of the Big Breasted Bunny" by RetroTheRaccoon

Round 5

"THE EPIC OF STAMPY, THE TRANSVESTITE RABBIT" by RAKninja

Round 6

"Astro Boy Tells the Story of Love" by RetroTheRaccoon