Battle Two - Wrap Up
Atlanta's second laptop battle has come and gone, and I will dare say that it was even more successful and more fun than the first.
The only disappointment for me was that we had so many people register for the event who later cancelled or just didn't show--or showed up too late to get in on the action. Still, with the twelve contestants who did put it on the line, the competition was stepped up from our first battle, and there were quite a few new faces in the mix.
With new faces came a little more variety too. From Reset's pounding song for New Orleans to Pixivixen's lounge music cut ups to Poppa G's southern fried hip hop, the competition moved further away from kitschy mash ups and into more creative territory.
Not that mash ups and remixes didn't and don't have their place, as Merkatroid clearly showed. Since a lot of the Laptop Battle's success depends on the crowd getting into the action, a quick hatchet job to a well know track can be an easy way to win favor.
Last battle's second place finisher, Recompas, managed to squeak in to a fourth place finish this time, securing him a spot in the finals along with Minidestroy, Merkatroid, and Laptop Battle II's champion, Tricil.
The format changes for this battle seemed to help. For the fist couple of matches, most people still didn't use their entire two minutes, which was a limit we lowered from the three minute rounds that we set last time. As Laptop Battle veterans Christopher Morris and Dharmatronix both showed, you can do a lot in two minutes, and you can have a fully realized song arc in that short span.
The judges brought another new dimension to the event, making the scoring process perhaps a little more fair and a little more controversial at the same time. Sometimes the clear crowd favorite wasn't the judges' choice, and sometimes the judges themselves weren't completely decisive about a winner in each match, but allowing the judges to look for elements other than crowd response gave people who were willing to push the envelope creatively and technically a chance to shine, even when their compositions weren't the most rousing, or when they hadn't brought the most supporters.
Many, many thanks are due to our panel of judges, the competitors, and the fine people at Lenny's for allowing us to throw this event. Laptop Battle III will be announced soon. If you'd like to sign up as a contestant or a judge, keep an eye on this space.
The only disappointment for me was that we had so many people register for the event who later cancelled or just didn't show--or showed up too late to get in on the action. Still, with the twelve contestants who did put it on the line, the competition was stepped up from our first battle, and there were quite a few new faces in the mix.
With new faces came a little more variety too. From Reset's pounding song for New Orleans to Pixivixen's lounge music cut ups to Poppa G's southern fried hip hop, the competition moved further away from kitschy mash ups and into more creative territory.
Not that mash ups and remixes didn't and don't have their place, as Merkatroid clearly showed. Since a lot of the Laptop Battle's success depends on the crowd getting into the action, a quick hatchet job to a well know track can be an easy way to win favor.
Last battle's second place finisher, Recompas, managed to squeak in to a fourth place finish this time, securing him a spot in the finals along with Minidestroy, Merkatroid, and Laptop Battle II's champion, Tricil.
The format changes for this battle seemed to help. For the fist couple of matches, most people still didn't use their entire two minutes, which was a limit we lowered from the three minute rounds that we set last time. As Laptop Battle veterans Christopher Morris and Dharmatronix both showed, you can do a lot in two minutes, and you can have a fully realized song arc in that short span.
The judges brought another new dimension to the event, making the scoring process perhaps a little more fair and a little more controversial at the same time. Sometimes the clear crowd favorite wasn't the judges' choice, and sometimes the judges themselves weren't completely decisive about a winner in each match, but allowing the judges to look for elements other than crowd response gave people who were willing to push the envelope creatively and technically a chance to shine, even when their compositions weren't the most rousing, or when they hadn't brought the most supporters.
Many, many thanks are due to our panel of judges, the competitors, and the fine people at Lenny's for allowing us to throw this event. Laptop Battle III will be announced soon. If you'd like to sign up as a contestant or a judge, keep an eye on this space.
2 Comments:
No pics of Poppa G.! He was the man!
he was indeed the man. unfortunately, none of my pictures of him came out. i think chad has one on his blog.
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