I AM FUMING!!!!!!!! I hope this will illustrate my point...

[Baghdad Baghdatis]

Hello All,

Well 5 months away from ITST and boy was I looking forward to playing SIM again and being part of this community.

Now I couldn't care less if this thread got 1 reply or 31 replies, the fact of the mater is that I feel poor sportsmanship and limp tactics needs to be escalated or at the very least, aired.

Before I commence let me say that I am writing this on the back of having won my Quarterfinal match at the Aussie Open SIM vs MINNESOT AS 6-4 6-4 6-7 6-7 7-6. So to all the people who have ever complained when they lost lets this be proof to back up genuine member claims of foul play.

I have learnt my lesson from the EPOX rant, I will not get personal but just say it how it is, like I always do. At 2 sets to love I was the clearly the better player and MINNESOT AS could not get into the game. Now I have lost to the guy all my 2-3 times on ITST and have held my hands up and said "too good". MINNESOT and I grew up together on the WT some 2 years ago and whilst we have never had any banter or spoke much offline (via PM's etc) we have always respected each others game and played TS3 within ITST guidelines.

At 2 sets to love down he simply got desperate and every single serve was slow short out wide kick followed by drop slice with x+back+rt (or lt). My usual LT deep returns or ball players were turned into mud by short slice risk half killers. EVERY SINGLE POINT, oh and at 40-0 he was kind enough to hit one down the centre (occasionally) and then short slice risk killer. The only way I could return was to hit slow slice return to try and catch him out - MAN i don't want to resort to game glitches to stay in match! I so hope TS4 does not have any spoilers like that but as these things go, there are always elements of games people are going to feed on - I just don't expect ITST members to act that way. Cheesy tactics I believe it is called.

Now I played Illuv yesterday in an AO SIM warm up and lost 3-6 4-6 4-6 and I had nothing but fun in the match and he is an awesome player and and players like that have my respect. Same with Djarvik, beat me twice I believe the other day with Lopez, quite simply the better player on the court and had loads of fun - again plenty of respect on and off the court. The same is said for any ITST losses apart from the EPOX one which was dealt with on another thread.

I am kind of glad TS3 is coming to an end now, ready for a new challenge and some fun to be had in a new game in TS4. However my above illustration is applicable to TS4 and it is because I have signed up to ITST and I take the community and its members with respect & adhere to rules/ fair play and I will continue to stand up and speak my mind and so should other people in the future if foul play goes on....

[emate007]

I AM ALSO FUMING!!! Too much chili, wife has evacuated house.

[emate007]

But yeah, TS3 has been out so long that LOTS of people have picked up on the holes in the game. Very annoying to be sure, but as the users of said holes will say:
"It's part of the game, deal with it."

Here's to a new game with fewer holes that can't be found/exploited for at least a year.

Probably too optimistic, but we can always dream.

[beltic caldy]

I posed a question recently on a new 'cheese' thread that had already been created re 'moonball' returns, specifically in the women's tour. The subject of my question, aside from the moonball return and the 'rightness'/'wrongness' of it was really as a result of a match I played against this very fellow.

The match was very very finely balanced - neither of us quite able to get the upper hand....until MINNESOT AS started returning my serve with these poxy moonballs. Before everyone jumps on me, I know I know - it can be returned, ok? Also, before the man himself jumps on this - it wasn't all the time, unlike Baghdad's experience - rather it felt 'measured' - i didn't see it happen at all until we were at 4-4 with me serving and then he threw a few in - just enough to break serve - I refused to do likewise, or exercise ANY kind of cheese and lost the set 4-6.

In the 2nd set he did it quite a lot (MINNESOT AS - for the record - you're stating afterwards that you 'only did it 2 or 3 times was and remains a blatant lie sir - we can get into my word v yours - you know the truth, and so do i) - but I managed to deal with it without too much issue - when I say quite a lot, I don't mean on every serve - for anyone who's played me in the womens series, you know I mix the serve up a lot - probably wasn't able to do it as much as he wanted...who knows.

It went to tie-break, and who'd have guessed it? every return that comes back is nearly a lob (yeah yeah MINNESOT...you didn't use the 'y' button, but they were still all lobs) - and it made the difference - or more specifically, what made the difference was my refusal to play the same crappy do-anything-to-win tactics.

I got a 'gg' message afterwards - I replied with a 'yeah - shame about all the lobbed returns' message and then got an armful of abuse about how he was the better player and deserved to win, and maybe I should practice more blah blah blah.

Sorry to hear about your experience Baghdad, but in a way I'm glad I'm not the only one who's had to experience these low-down tactics - anything to win? Go ahead and win then mate - a victory achieved by - lets calls it what it is - cheating is no victory at all, in my eyes, and makes the perpetrator less than nothing - a sad loser in the bigger picture.

[pollythewolly]

3 times in last 2 wks i have complained about minnesotas tactics and still he seems to be gettin away with it after reading bahgdads message.....i anm fed up with the line dancing during serve and have just played another top seed who did exact same but when i was a new player and did it i got disqualified!!
one rule for some and the rest of us suffer ....get it sorted...yes im not a brilliant player but i play for fun and this is ruining it

[oDEVLISHo]

MINNESOT AS = ACEUSAM = YAWN

[Hamburgerboy27]

MINNESOT AS = ACEUSAM = YAWN

No i think sure not...have inv Minnesot earlier too ITST and he is not Aceusam.

Baghdad:You write this was i think about 1 Years...not by 1 or 2 Players but rather by some or many TS3 Players...

[djarvik]

MINNESOT AS = ACEUSAM

He asked us to change his gamertag some time back.

[Hamburgerboy27]

MINNESOT AS = ACEUSAM

He asked us to change his gamertag some time back.

Yes my error...i have mistaken he with ._RaFaBuLl_....he have a almost the same Gamerday earlier...

Edit:MURDA MINDSTATE ok is not almost the same,have mistaken the 2 Gamers

[ILuvBillVal]

Honestly, I love ya both. Arnaud is a really good player as well. The only thing that annoys me is the whole serve D thing. To me that's one of the single most annoying things about the game overall because it's so easily exploited to great levels of "Cheeseosity." Yeah, the game has run its course, but where there's a game there's a cheat. Don't be surprised if you are all having this same discussion over TS4 about some new glitch.

[beltic caldy]

this goes back to the whole ethos of 'if its possible to get away with stuff, get away with it' - remember when we were discussing Thierry Henri's (arguably...ahem) blatant handball?

Just because a game or situation allows/makes possible/doesn't make impossible poor gamesmanship is no reason/excuse to engage in that behaviour, it simply isn't - isn't one of the reasons that we play on ITST rather than other arenas the idea that we're here to compete....as gentlemen (and ladies, kina and others)...and fair-minded sports-people?

one of the huge hopes i had/have for TS4 is, yes, the technical elimination of the possibility to cheat/exploit flaws - but also for videos and online watchability of live matches - including a 'record' facility' - it's not enough to look at a snippet of a match and make a decision - 'clever' (i won't write my true thoughts here) cheesers often only cheat at critical points in a match - the ability to fast-forward through a match after the fact would go a lonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnng way towards authorities being able to review and penalise poor behaviour as and when - might make things difficult from an admin perspective, but perhaps we'd end up with a fairer, happier place? Throughout all of this, I would readily and thankfully acknowledge that poor sportsman/womanship is not often seen here on ITST

[Vieira151]

But yeah, TS3 has been out so long that LOTS of people have picked up on the holes in the game. Very annoying to be sure, but as the users of said holes will say:
"It's part of the game, deal with it."

Here's to a new game with fewer holes that can't be found/exploited for at least a year.

Probably too optimistic, but we can always dream.

*removed unintentionally offensive remark*

[riley108]

i played a top seed in australian open mss QF the other day, he returned with double trigger 100% of the time which made the match boring and cheesey and to add to that his line dancing was like he was having a disco of his own, this was very off putting making me lose concentration and very intimidating, linbe dancing sdhould be disallowed, in tennis you dont see federer, nadal, murray or anyone doncing on the base line waiting for a serve, iot is very disrespectful, the top seed was norberto h, i'll not play him if that is part of his cheesey tactics to be ranked #1,, it sucks man

[Coolhand Texas]

maybe if murray does the riverdance while he is returning, he might win a slam?

[jayl0ve]

Pros do move around quite a bit on returns.

Look at David Ferrer, a man who Federer considers the 'best returner in the ATP'. The guy's feet are moving constantly while waiting for the serve. It's a way to not be caught flat-footed.