Tennis League 1
The Tennis League 1 (TL1) was a competition-based collection of tennis matches organized by Gallers that took place within the span of one month on the early pre-YouChew "Vanilla" Forums(youtubepoop.com) from November to December of 2007. While relatively informal in nature, it is considered to technically be the first site-sanctioned tournament and the first overall tennis competition, being foundational for the more complex-in-design tournaments that were yet to come.
Nearly all of TL1 is Lost Media, six rounds remain in reuploaded form, all from Misselaineous10. The other three participants were PapaGonzales, SushieBoy and RabbitSnore; RabbitSnore would subsequently partake in the Tennis League 2, the Tennis Cup and the Tennis Season, Misselaneous10 would return as a belated replacement player toward the end of the Tennis League 2, while SushieBoy would not return to play in another tournament until the Grey Tennis Tournament. The winner of this event was PapaGonzales.
Origins
Gallers drew inspiration for the idea from a Billiards League that he played in at the time, in which a group of players all pair up and play games against each other until eventually everyone has played everyone and every game is voted upon for winners of each round, with the eventual winner being the one that has acquired the most points. The Thread was created on November 12th explaining his version of the idea as pertaining to YTP Tennis, which at that time had only been around for almost 3 months to the day with roughly 67 completed matches in existence.
His idea called for at least 8 players, all of whom would tennis each other once on a weekly basis. Each Round that would be voted upon would be equivalent to 2 Rounds, or a volley from each side, with a total of either 2 or 4 rounds to allow for a tie-in or a draw. 'Round points' would be awarded to the player who received the highest votes per round, and the player with the highest round points at the match's end would receive 3 additional 'match points', with one point going to each in a tie. The winner would, like in the billiards variant, be the player with the total amounts of points by the end.
Development & Players
RabbitSnore was initially reluctant of idea, reasoning that it wouldn't work due to tennis -- still in its infancy -- not getting the attention it deserved much of the time. Gallers in response modified the required number of players to 4, making it in his terms a "mini-league". Other conditions were later outlined as:
- "videos 1-2 minutes maximum,
- 36 hours between videos,
- 3 source videos to begin with, up to 3 may be added afterwards,
- 4 participants for the league"
conradslater was much harsher and expressed his dislike for the idea entirely. RabbitSnore, however, saw that Gallers was determined and at that moment volunteered to join if more support was garnered toward the event. PapaGonzales and Misselaneous10 confirmed their participation subsequently, though it was proposed within thread discussion (mostly by Conrad) that Gallers should play a tennis match first to get a better understanding of the game since at that point he had not played anyone yet, which led to a match between him and Crash2991 during that time. RabbitSnore then became the event's co-host at the advice of Conrad (who famously regarded regular members as "citizens" and didn't trust them, especially for managing events) and the expression for assistance by Gallers. SushieBoy then joined as the fourth player despite saying at an earlier time that he was unavailable. With everything in place, matches could finally be organized.
Matches
Only rounds by Misselaineous10 survive in any way, so it is hard to commentate on what these games were like.
Set 1
SushieBoy vs Misselaineous10
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhI-EdLtznIXZU9Phka-LGuVTaiHj0eV9
RabbitSnore vs PapaGonzales
This match is completely lost...
Set 2
SushieBoy vs RabbitSnore
This match is completely lost, however there is a chance SushieBoy still has their rounds. They have yet to reupload, however.
Misselaineous10 vs PapaGonzales
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhI-EdLtznIWM2LkVtY4QmO9AEXX3PJJz
Set 3
PapaGonzales vs SushieBoy
This match is completely lost, however there is a chance SushieBoy still has their rounds. They have yet to reupload, however.
RabbitSnore vs Misselaineous10
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhI-EdLtznIXq_bcay-KwfXyZMiXhIFah