2006 Laptop Battle National Championship

[algorhythm]

Calendar Event: December 7, 2006

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I'll get some pictures this time. Starkey, last year's winner, from Philadelphia, will be judging and playing and showcase set.
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2006 Laptop Battle National Championship
Thursday, December 7th, 2006

Chop Suey
1325 E Madison
Doors at 9pm $8

Presale Tickets:Brown Paper Tickets

Laptop Battle is proud to present the Third Annual Laptop Battle National Championships, featuring competitors from Seattle, Dallas, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Miami, Austin, Chicago & New York City. This will be a double elimination tournament, meaning everyone gets a second chance to become the new National Champion. Dj Collage on the mic and Scratchmaster Joe on the decks, with showcase sets by Starkey, 2005 Laptop Battle Champion & Vincent Parker, the Bit Rocker! Come out to cheer on your favorite, it's going to be a wicked night of laptop performances.

Competitors:
Seattle :Squid Leader
Chicago :Protman
Austin :Matthewmatics
Miami :Doormouse
Dallas :Cygnus
New York City :Velapene Sceen
Atlanta : Threv
Philly : Vytear

Showcase Sets:
Starkey
Vincent Parker

MC: Dj Collage
DJ: Scratchmaster Joe

Visuals:
Killing Frenzy
Tracer

Judges:
Starkey - 2005 Laptop Battle Champion/Philly
Vincent Parker - Bit Rocker/Vancouver BC
31Avas - Kulturezene/Portland
Matt Carthum - Hakea/Seattle
Rian Pierson - B.O.M.N/Seattle

Sponsors:
Ableton
Audio Damage
Brushed Golden
Drumcore
Fab Filter
Fourthcity
Little People Postering Company
M-Audio
Mackie
Native Instruments
Oseao
Sonic Charge
Soy Clothing
LaptopBattle.org

http://www.laptopbattle.org/forums.html?x=BATTLES

[velapene]

this battle is going to be rad! great line up! is there anything going on as far as an after party?

[algorhythm]

There were a lot of great performances at this year's Laptop Battle Championship. I arrived late during the second battle and I didn't take enough notes so I'll just give my impression of the performances.

On the equipment side Mac and Windows laptops were equally represented, though I couldn't tell because some of the computers were covered with stickers and paint. There were a variety of controllers, Behringer B-Control Rotary, Akai MPD24 pads, Doepfer Drehbank 64 knobs, Alesis and several M-Audio mini keyboard controllers. Cygnus, from Dallas, had a strap on his M-Audio controller to move around the stage. Threv, from Atlanta, mostly used the computer keyboard and fingertip mouse pad for his performance.

Protman, from Chicago, played some great melodic beats. He pieces had great intros and finishes. He was eliminated by Valapene Sceen in one of the best battles of the evening. I would like to hear more from this artist.

Threv, from Atlanta, played a drum and bass style. I thought the first piece was D&B version of a Sousa march, his second piece was a D&B hoedown, a nice mix of melody with D&B. It was great party music, but Threv was eliminated by Velapene Sceen.

Matthewmatics, from Austin, did something I would like to see more. During his performance he sampled the audience and used it his piece, very creative with nice beats and lush sounds. But Matthewmatics was eliminated by Threv's planned D&B hoedown.

With his strap on controller, Cygnus, from Dallas, played some high energy drum and bass, more industrial than Threv. Cygnus, who got the crowd dancing, was eliminated in a hot battle with Doormouse, the judges decision was booed by the audience.

Doormouse, from Miami, used a lot of samples with his hip hop style. Doormouse brought a lot of variety to his sets, in one set he started singing/rapping without a mike before jumping into a drum and bass refrain. Doormouse was shut out of the finals by Velapene Sceen in an intense battle.

The local favorite, Squid Leader, from Seattle, played some heavy beats with arpeggio melody lines. Squid Leader is a high energy performer jumping and moving around the stage. Squid Leader won third place in the consolation round being beaten by Velapene Sceen. I don't think Squid leader was at the top of his game, I think the performances that won him the Seattle Battles were better.

Thanks to the double elimination tournament Velapene Sceen, from New York City, almost ran the table to win the championship. Velapene Sceen is kind of an IDM style with nice ever changing melodic lines and progressive beats. He lost in the first round against Vytear because his computer crashed, so he was stuck in the losers bracket eliminating all comers until he could battle back to meet Vytear again in the Finals. I really liked Velapene Sceen music, and hope he has a CD or some music on the Web.

Philadelphia wins the National Laptop Battle again! Vytear won with a variety of pieces, mostly glitch style with lots of beat changes, filtered noise and wild melodies. His first piece sounded like 8bit tones and rhythms and his last piece was an incredible high energy piece, the best of the evening. While I prefer Velapene Sceen style of music, Vytear won with more variety and with a more hands on performance.

And maybe Vytear won because Starky, last year's champion from Phily, was a judge. Starky played some sets during breaks and at the end. With all this great laptop talent in Phily, maybe next year's Philadelphia Laptop Battle should take place during the electro-music Conference.

[egw]

Congrats Jason (vytear)!

[Mohoyoho]

Congrats to Jason! I'm not surprised he won. Since he has been at EM05+06, I feel Jason is from our team.

[starkey]

Vytear deserved to win because he brought it battle style. the judges were in love with him from the start.... i did not sway anyone's opinion. his sound was exciting to people who had never heard him before...... that's really what it was. i've seen jason play a ton of times, plus we used to throw FM together.


also....

i never played in-between sets.... only at the end.

Velapene Screen also lives in philly.... about 5 minutes up the street from me. But, he was representing NYC after winning that regional battle.

I was representing the Mid-Atlantic Laptop Battle (Washington D.C.) last year...... even though I am from Philly. That was the regional battle I won to get to the championships.

Overall it was a good battle. It was funny to see vytear and velapene play each other 3 times during the night, after velapene came in 2nd behind Vytear at Philly battle 5 this past july.

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[velapene]

it was one of the most fun nights ive had in a really super extra long time. Vytear brought it.
jason and i are going to go on tour to battle eachother in every country you can think of.
we are bringing starkbot with us as a permanent judge, who with us?

[starkey]