Retirement from the Tennis Elbow Tour

[Richie1308]

It's been a long trip since November 2012, when Vramvrim and me came to enter the Tour on Tennis Elbow. Almost 4 years, that's just huge. I already knew ITST since Top Spin 3 where I played one single match, and especially Top Spin 4 where I played around 50 matches. I won't even compare those to my numbers on TE which are ridiculous in comparison.

After all this time, I can announce today with a part of nostalgia that I will stop the Tour after Wimbledon. This will be the last tournament of my TE career. This has come to me as a natural decision considering my mindset since the beginning of this year : I've completely stopped training and only played officials in the few tournaments I was signing in, and clearly as a fierce competitor when I am in a match, I lost that will to win and refusal of defeat. Once's motivation is necessarily linked to the amount of effort he is giving in order to accomplish his goals. And mine has pretty much gone to absolute zero now. Be it a victory or a loss, that is something I don't care anymore and that's a mindset I cannot accept. And I am way more interested in Street Fighter V and even Rocket League in terms of competition gaming than TE now.

TE is still a very cool game, probably the most interesting tennis game I've ever played. I'm just at a point where I really need a fresh new tennis game, be it a TE2, Top Spin or whatever to get back into a tennis game.

I will use that occasion to express the joy I've had to discuss with all you guys on the chat for around 3 years, that was very cool. And well, it will continue anyway, I'll still come to the chat, I'll stick to ITST even if I don't participate in the TE Tour anymore. Also, I'll say something to Inseedious who happened to have taken the same decision a bit earlier : congrats for your RG title, I know you did a lot of efforts to get to that level despite the hardships, and that is something I really respect. I hope to see you again later on another game, we spent really good moments together on this one.

I can now look back at what I've accomplished on the game and the Tour and be proud of all this. I've loved this game for years already and I still love it the same today. Concerning the ITST, I'll use this announcement to say that this organization is really awesome and that's the reason I've stayed there despite an unconvincing TS3 match to begin there (the idea of having half your stats at 100 and the others at 30 was not to my taste ).

So in the end, concerning my ITST presence, nothing will change. Concerning compitition on the Tour, I shall see you in the next tennis game here at the same place as always, even if it's in 2035 ! And hey, I still have one last Wimbledon. I'll bring the best I can bring for this one (I'll probably even train for the first time since 6 months) and I don't consider letting Wimbledon go by easily. But I won't have any expectations for this one : what shall happen will happen and that's it.

[FEDERER2]

Top 2 players retiring, watch out for pidzi

Honestly don't know what to say, you are the GOAT and an inspiration to pretty much every player. You are one of the only guys who had perfect sportsmanship in every single match you played. You will definitely be missed.


Congrats, and I really hope you focus on your real life!

[inseedious]

I perfectly understand the reason of this retirement, as it's almost the same of mine. Though, it's still very sad to hear that a very fair player and, first of all, the greatest player in TE era is leaving the tour.

Thank you very much for your kind words you spent for me. Thank you for all the great matches we had so far - especially in the last 12 months, when our levels were similar . And thank you for all you did for the tour.

I really wish you good luck for your life and the other games you'll play, hoping to meet you again in the next TE. I also hope that you'll win Wimbledon, to say a great goodbye to the tour!

See you mate

[Robbin92]

You'll always be remember for the 12-0 H2H with F4ill.

See you in the next one!

[C4iLL]

Mister Richie,

I can't sleep for years. I still have nightmares about it... My head-to-head record against you... You stole us so many titles !

A few weeks ago, I was surprised to see you active at the top when I checked back ITST after so many seasons played at the highest level with a positive behavior and a fierce competition ! I wonder, what can motivate him to keep playing ? I have the answer now
At the end, there is no contest : you're definitely the best player of Tennis Elbow and among the very best in ITST history.

You deserve a serious post for your retirement. With such a high level of competition, how someone managed to be so dominant in terms of results ?

H2H between 2013 and 2015 against the 10 other best players of this period.

Richie vs TOP 10 = 111 victories, 23 defeats (82,83% of victory).

Richie - Pidzi : 13 - 3
Richie - Vramvrim : 13 - 8
Richie - Butcher : 13 - 2
Richie - Magav : 10 - 4
Richie - Inseedious : 13 - 1
Richie - VMoe : 14 - 2
Ricxhie - C4iLL : 12 - 0
Richie - Florian : 7 - 2
Richie - Isaldor : 10 - 1
Richie - Robbin : 6 - 1

83% of victories, it's a collective rape. How did you achieve that ? The answer is known by all the people who faced you : great control of the game, subtile balance between defense and attack. Easy to say, hard to achieve. Somehow, you were the One: the incarnation of the "Power Pusher" concept I once talked about (very offensive when needed, very defensive when needed). No joke !

This was not enough to win though, it was sublimated by some specific mental skills. Among those :

- an ability to control the rhythm of a game, that is to say, optimise positive and negative momentums (VMoe's weakness ?)
- an ability to manage properly the risk of the shots (I was a risk monkey... Magav was a risk averse... And we both didn't beat the competition)
- an ability to kill your opponents in tie-breaks, which is crucial to succeed in such a dense field of high level players (89% of tie breaks won in 2013 and 2014 seasons I think).
- your versality (you won with so many characters and styles, it was hard to design an "anti Richie" gameplan) and of course your tactic skills.

Still, no one is perfect : you were not the very best to save break point opportunities (Pidzi may be the best here) and from time to time, it seems you gave up a bit early in a set when you were one break down (for instance when you lost vs VMoe at RG, I saw it on streaming ) or lost the momentum.

All in all, you certainly developed the best mental package to reach the top of any tennis games (and potentially to make some good runs in real tennis competitions, at your technical level of course).

These skills may not be directly transferable to non-tennis games and you may also forget them with time (like the previous ITST Hall Of Famers who didn't succeed in the last tennis games), but it shows your brain works well.
I'm sure you're gonna succeed in your next projects, either in gaming or real life ! Good players are problem solvers and generally great mind (except Magav who's just a wall, a wall has no brain... and Alexjasmins, whose brain crashed multiple times).

Now to talk again about TE, being good in attack and defense is great to win practice sets, but not sufficient to go far in real competition. Technical abilities are only 50% of the winning package. The mental skills highlighted above are completely underestimated by the outsiders and sometimes not even known...

I think several top players were able to display the highest level possible in a specific part of the game (attack, defense, mental skills) and even sometimes temporary surpass Richie in one of these domains.
But no one was able to maintain this excellence at the same time in all these 3 domains, in the course of tight match, a tournament or even a season.

To go more in details :

- Defending : Pidzi, Magav and Vramvrim were potentially as good as you in their peak. Pidzi and you are on part for the title of the very best defending performances ever made though (your defense with Raonic was unbelievable at the WTF 2013 or 2014, same about Pidzi with Klizan at RG 2014... The match Ferrer-Nadal at Madrid is crazy too with these famous 150 rallies shots).

- Attacking : Pidzi, Butcher, Vmoe, Vramvrim and me were as good and sometimes even better than you at peak level.
It's maybe your only little weak spot but wasn't it just an illusion ? And actually a question of risk control ?
Some other guys like Isaldor, Robbin, Isniperxz, The Dude, Isniper were able to display that level too for short periods.

- In terms of match management, it's hard to distinguish names, but once again, VMoe's nick can be pointed out, and it prevented him from reaching the very top.

Some people beat Richie, took him sets, he also didn't win Wimbledon, while Pidzi did it two times... Some people might be legitimate to think they sometimes equal or surpassed him. The stats and result results show a different story : we have been destroyed

Personally, I've sometimes reached a level of control of the game vs other great players that made me think I could beat you in straight sets in the next round. Sometimes I was able to display that level during a few sets, but never during a full match and at the end you always managed to turn the match in your favour...
Some god-like robots training 1 000 000 000 hours a day to beat IA Incredible level 26 only grab 3 victories out of 16 matchs against you during the two last seasons. The ratio "hours spent in practice court / victories on Richie" is pretty bad
Others beat Richie with very favourable match ups in useless tournaments and thought they made the match of their life.

At the end mister Richie, you were n°1 for 3 seasons.
Playing you was different than playing an AI in incredible mode or another guy in the top 10, it was special ! The big challenge. More pressure, more tactics... More fun ? I always had fun playing you !

So okay, you didn't win the last RG 2016, but who cares ?

It's a weak era : the new generation has not peaked yet, the last great players don't seem to practice and care. The winner of this tournament wasn't even able to go further than R16, two years ago. Winning now is like reaching a quarter in 2013-2014.

If Butcher, Magav, Isaldor, Robbin, Magav or me would still be active like before, he would not even be in quarter finals. Back then you had sometimes 4 big matches to win a serious title. Now, only 1 match is sufficient. Is this serious ?

Richie was the best when everyone played and when everyone was at its best. I didn't play for almost a year, I faced Karse recently : he beat two top 10 after our match and I can tell you he had the level of JasonBourne last year, who didn't reach top 10 I think. So the level of the field has clearly decreased.

Now, when Kyuuji and Fox left, it hurt the tour but it became stronger. The game was already old and a new generation of talents emerged. It will be the same here.
I've checked the recent results and I see interesting prospects for the future (Filas, mignogna, TheBoss, clement..).

I admire no one, but what Richie did here was really great and people like him must be applauded.
Bonne continuation, I will be around to fight you in the next tennis game

[inseedious]

I honestly feel pretty annoyed and offended by how you exploited a serious and nostalgic thread like this to denigrate some people. If I were Richie, I wouldn't appreciate it.

The tour isn't in a weak era, there are just some different names at highest places in the rank. There's no weak era if the 3 best players of ITST history are playing and have been very active for a great part of the last 12 months. We can't know what retired top players could have done if they were active, since overall tour level is always inflating/increasing and a player's level has always been relative to others' ones.

There are many contradictions and conclusions based on nothing in your post, and that's something I noticed very often in the things you wrote recently, especially when you try to prove something that is untrue or just relative.

I won't write anymore in this thread, since I don't wanna steal any more attention from Richie, who deserves it all.

[Vramvrim]

Wrong place to start this weak era argument, C4iLL. Is the fact that Richie could win 3/4 slams last year with sporadic training a sign of a lack of competition or another proof of how great of a player he is/was ? I do have my opinion, but this is irrelevant to this thread. Create another one if you want to discuss this.


Otherwise, pretty interesting thoughts in your post.

With such a high level of competition, how someone managed to be so dominant in terms of results ?

Quick, complete grasp of the game mechanics after a few months of play (i.e. hundreds of sets against me), and GOAT mental toughness. Hate of defeat (do not mix up with lame complaints/being a sore loser), willpower to put up with the bullshit that happens during top level matches, ability to fight, refocus, reset his mind after a tough moment ; that's where he made the difference.

Attacking : Pidzi, Butcher, Vmoe, Vramvrim and me were as good and sometimes even better than you at peak level.
It's maybe your only little weak spot but wasn't it just an illusion ? And actually a question of risk control ?

Just a choice, because there is always a little uncertainty on where the balls lands, even with a similar timing. He could have played a reckless style like yours , had he wanted to, but prefered to have a small margin. + he's great at attacking too, it's just overshadowed by his defense, a bit like Djokovic IRL. Pidzi is the best at attacking in my opinion though.

Playing you was different than playing an AI in incredible mode or another guy in the top 10, it was special ! The big challenge. More pressure, more tactics... More fun ? I always had fun playing you !

It's always a different feeling when you face the best. In my case, I'd say it was less pressure and more motivating, fun, because we knew each other years before ITST. I felt it was easier for me to be focused and play my best against Richie than others players, for sure. Because we both "grew" to top players by playing against each other, I knew his playstyle perfectly, too. Doesn't help that much to beat him, though

These skills may not be directly transferable to non-tennis games and you may also forget them with time (like the previous ITST Hall Of Famers who didn't succeed in the last tennis games), but it shows your brain works well.

I'm pleased to inform you that Richie is pretty good at pretty much every game.
Even golf with eggs


By the way, I don't feel like making a specific thread myself, but Wimbledon will probably be my last tournament too. Reasons are basically the same as Richie, I played the game for a long time and have no motivation left. I could have retired months ago, but I thought I should push until grass, my favorite surface. Pretty fitting that our careers end at the same time, just like we started together.
Good luck to the new generation !

[FEDERER2]

Ashamed to see arguably the best 3 of 4 GOATS of ITST retire, but like I have said in every post. GL and focus on real life too. Vramvrim, richie, and inseedious were amazingly inspirational to the whole tour with winning amazing matches and having amazing sportsmanship (and tolerating me asking for a set about 50 times a day ). What can I say though, like almost everyone has said here, it's inspirational to play vs the best, it inspires you to play like them. Not that I ever would Now I agree with Inseedious and vramvrim about the weak era post, it's just that lower ranked players that i had played with in the futures tour (i.e. kenos) have discovered the game mechanics, and are confident in theirselves.


GL to #1, #2, and #4 players, and we hope to see you guys again on itst.

[C4iLL]

@Vramvrim : Interesting elements about Richie. We could also also write a long message about your achievements.

People must remember :
- Your 7 M1000 serie won with 0 final lost. Really big achievement.
- Your awesome Davis Cup Match vs Pidzi, such a speed !
- Your 2 sets down vs VMoe @ Wimbledon Semi Final... to finally reach the final.
- Your incredible match points missed vs Fox at Australian Open...
- Your incredible fail vs Magav at US Open, with a 2 sets lead and many match points missed.
- The best ratio vs Richie (of course because you practiced with him, but still the best).
- Your M1000 victory with Llodra
- No grand slam victory... When someone like... Ok I stop

And globally, all the stuff written about Richie are more or less true about you.

Now about my previous message, it's not me who talks about RG 16 in the first place, it's Richie himself.
I just answered him "don't worry dude, the best don't care anymore, you killed the real competition for 3 seasons". You can agree or disagree to this statement, but I think it's linked to his initial message.

Anyway, even if it's just a game, it was way funnier to take it seriously, as if we were in an ATP role play game.
In a way, everyone is/was playing a role here. And we were all involved in this really funky competition experience.

We were not particularly friends, but we have common memories of good rivalry and intense matchs. Richie's retirement is a way to remember them
Sometimes unfortunately, these rivalries and ambition made some people get completely nuts and forget the initial values of ITST. I don't forget these guys, two of them are in the top 10 all time.

@Inseedious : truth is sometimes annoying indeed. I don't see the point to be an hypocrit on Internet. I could answer so many things, but as you said, it's Richie's topic.

[Vramvrim]

Now about my previous message, it's not me who talks about RG 16 in the first place, it's Richie himself.
I just answered him "don't worry dude, the best don't care anymore, you killed the real competition for 3 seasons". You can agree or disagree to this statement, but I think it's linked to his initial message.

Hm, saying that is one thing, it's your opinion and to be honest I kinda agree with most things you said, but taking shots at certain individuals here is another thing. Whatever


For me you were an interesting person and player in the ITST Tour, taking things a bit too seriously sometimes for me who had a pretty carefree mindset. Nevertheless, you were capable of providing great matches, fun facts about the tour, contributing to the life of the community. I thought I'd tell you that since you came back from your grave just for this topic. That, and also I think it's a shame you parted ways with Llodra at some point, he was still a nice char at the end of 2014. (lul US Open 2014 SF)

[C4iLL]

Deleted to make Djarvik useful for the first time in years.

[djarvik]

Mister Richie,

I can't sleep for years. I still have nightmares about it... My head-to-head record against you... You stole us so many titles !

A few weeks ago, I was surprised to see you active at the top when I checked back ITST after so many seasons played at the highest level with a positive behavior and a fierce competition ! I wonder, what can motivate him to keep playing ? I have the answer now
At the end, there is no contest : you're definitely the best player of Tennis Elbow and among the very best in ITST history.

You deserve a serious post for your retirement. With such a high level of competition, how someone managed to be so dominant in terms of results ?

H2H between 2013 and 2015 against the 10 other best players of this period.

Richie vs TOP 10 = 111 victories, 23 defeats (82,83% of victory).

Richie - Pidzi : 13 - 3
Richie - Vramvrim : 13 - 8
Richie - Butcher : 13 - 2
Richie - Magav : 10 - 4
Richie - Inseedious : 13 - 1
Richie - VMoe : 14 - 2
Ricxhie - C4iLL : 12 - 0
Richie - Florian : 7 - 2
Richie - Isaldor : 10 - 1
Richie - Robbin : 6 - 1

83% of victories, it's a collective rape. How did you achieve that ? The answer is known by all the people who faced you : great control of the game, subtile balance between defense and attack. Easy to say, hard to achieve. Somehow, you were the One: the incarnation of the "Power Pusher" concept I once talked about (very offensive when needed, very defensive when needed). No joke !

This was not enough to win though, it was sublimated by some specific mental skills. Among those :

- an ability to control the rhythm of a game, that is to say, optimise positive and negative momentums (VMoe's weakness ?)
- an ability to manage properly the risk of the shots (I was a risk monkey... Magav was a risk averse... And we both didn't beat the competition)
- an ability to kill your opponents in tie-breaks, which is crucial to succeed in such a dense field of high level players (89% of tie breaks won in 2013 and 2014 seasons I think).
- your versality (you won with so many characters and styles, it was hard to design an "anti Richie" gameplan) and of course your tactic skills.

Still, no one is perfect : you were not the very best to save break point opportunities (Pidzi may be the best here) and from time to time, it seems you gave up a bit early in a set when you were one break down (for instance when you lost vs VMoe at RG, I saw it on streaming ) or lost the momentum.

All in all, you certainly developed the best mental package to reach the top of any tennis games (and potentially to make some good runs in real tennis competitions, at your technical level of course).

These skills may not be directly transferable to non-tennis games and you may also forget them with time (like the previous ITST Hall Of Famers who didn't succeed in the last tennis games), but it shows your brain works well.
I'm sure you're gonna succeed in your next projects, either in gaming or real life ! Good players are problem solvers and generally great mind (except Magav who's just a wall, a wall has no brain... and Alexjasmins, whose brain crashed multiple times).

Now to talk again about TE, being good in attack and defense is great to win practice sets, but not sufficient to go far in real competition. Technical abilities are only 50% of the winning package. The mental skills highlighted above are completely underestimated by the outsiders and sometimes not even known...

I think several top players were able to display the highest level possible in a specific part of the game (attack, defense, mental skills) and even sometimes temporary surpass Richie in one of these domains.
But no one was able to maintain this excellence at the same time in all these 3 domains, in the course of tight match, a tournament or even a season.

To go more in details :

- Defending : Pidzi, Magav and Vramvrim were potentially as good as you in their peak. Pidzi and you are on part for the title of the very best defending performances ever made though (your defense with Raonic was unbelievable at the WTF 2013 or 2014, same about Pidzi with Klizan at RG 2014... The match Ferrer-Nadal at Madrid is crazy too with these famous 150 rallies shots).

- Attacking : Pidzi, Butcher, Vmoe, Vramvrim and me were as good and sometimes even better than you at peak level.
It's maybe your only little weak spot but wasn't it just an illusion ? And actually a question of risk control ?
Some other guys like Isaldor, Robbin, Isniperxz, The Dude, Isniper were able to display that level too for short periods.

- In terms of match management, it's hard to distinguish names, but once again, VMoe's nick can be pointed out, and it prevented him from reaching the very top.

Some people beat Richie, took him sets, he also didn't win Wimbledon, while Pidzi did it two times... Some people might be legitimate to think they sometimes equal or surpassed him. The stats and result results show a different story : we have been destroyed

Personally, I've sometimes reached a level of control of the game vs other great players that made me think I could beat you in straight sets in the next round. Sometimes I was able to display that level during a few sets, but never during a full match and at the end you always managed to turn the match in your favour...
Some god-like robots training 1 000 000 000 hours a day to beat IA Incredible level 26 only grab 3 victories out of 16 matchs against you during the two last seasons. The ratio "hours spent in practice court / victories on Richie" is pretty bad
Others beat Richie with very favourable match ups in useless tournaments and thought they made the match of their life.

At the end mister Richie, you were n°1 for 3 seasons.
Playing you was different than playing an AI in incredible mode or another guy in the top 10, it was special ! The big challenge. More pressure, more tactics... More fun ? I always had fun playing you !

So okay, you didn't win the last RG 2016, but who cares ?

It's a weak era : the new generation has not peaked yet, the last great players don't seem to practice and care. The winner of this tournament wasn't even able to go further than R16, two years ago. Winning now is like reaching a quarter in 2013-2014.

If Butcher, Magav, Isaldor, Robbin, Magav or me would still be active like before, he would not even be in quarter finals. Back then you had sometimes 4 big matches to win a serious title. Now, only 1 match is sufficient. Is this serious ?

Richie was the best when everyone played and when everyone was at its best. I didn't play for almost a year, I faced Karse recently : he beat two top 10 after our match and I can tell you he had the level of JasonBourne last year, who didn't reach top 10 I think. So the level of the field has clearly decreased.

Now, when Kyuuji and Fox left, it hurt the tour but it became stronger. The game was already old and a new generation of talents emerged. It will be the same here.
I've checked the recent results and I see interesting prospects for the future (Filas, mignogna, TheBoss, clement..).

I admire no one, but what Richie did here was really great and people like him must be applauded.
Bonne continuation, I will be around to fight you in the next tennis game

Now that I quoted it - you wont be able to delete it after another childish tantrum.

[djarvik]

We all took it seriously and some slightly more than others. I assume totally my past involvement
The competitive players were definitely competition & adrenaline addicts. Otherwise, we would only played exhibitions ! As I said, ITST is a Roleplay game.

You start as a junior, playing challengers, you're young, motivated, you practice a lot, you want to learn (you play the role of these young guns between 15 and 20 years old in ATP).

You finally reach your peak, you're like a ferrari, an artist, an expert, a fierce competitor with high ambitions to reach. You can trash talk people, you can be nice, everyone can act as he wants. You have a karma, a reputation that changes through time. It's way funnier than games like Fallout or I don't know what RPG.

And then comes the time of retirement... and of funny come backs, you feel like Ljubicic, Haas, Hewitt in their last seasons, or Ferrer now, Borg when he tried to come back. You struggle but it's fun for a while, and you stop again

In this context, an official match will always be funnier than exhibition sets. ITST creates a high value for tennis game players. I'd say it's even funnier now when you're untrained : you discover something you forgot at each service game, it's a whole new experience and a very pleasant one. No ambition, no pressure, just enjoy hitting the ball and analyse

Now If you see a new solid n°1 emerging it will be tempting to try and see what you can do, just for fun, without ambition.

But everyone has its vision of the tour to improve the fun. My fun came a lot from this ATP simulation thing, the full context of rankings etc. Some people played the tour when they were not on their campus or holliday etc. ITST touch a lot of people, people with great life, bad life I think.

It will always be appealing, even in 20 years, that's why I say ITST is an institution. There will always be tennis games to maintain this community.

You can play tennis a lot in real life, but this ITST stuff is a different experience in itself.

* saved to protect ITST from C4 deleting skillz *

[isaldor]

ffs i wanted to use that gif

[C4iLL]

Deleted to make Djarvik useful for the first time in years.