Top Spin Tennis League

[JR Alberda]

I already did this but now with the XSN Sports thing up I figured I would move it.

I am going to start, ASAP (when it comes out) a Top Spin Tennis League, unless I am rebuffed by and XBA member I will call it the Official XBA Top Spin League.

I am not sure exactly how they will do the characters but if you can create custom characters then the league I make will require customs. I might just make 2 leagues if you can do both (XBA home court league for customs and XBA Pro court league for pro names) Of course if there are no custom players then the home court league will not exist.

I just read the top spin info at XBOX.com and it appears that the custom player will be in.

So if you are interested please post below. !!!SPECIFY IF YOU WANT IN "HOMECOURT" "PROCOURT" or BOTH. If you specify both or PRO then post which pro player you want. INCLUDE YOUR GAMERTAG!

** LOOKS LIKE ONLY 16 PRO PLAYERS IN LEAGUE** I will take the Lleyton Hewitt 1 so here are your 14 to choose from. This is from the game profile, so there may be more by release when players are confirmed we will revisit by order of posting here.

James Blake <-Squid413's6
Tommy Robredo <-Scorcher's5
Jan-Michael Gambill <-Acid's7
Michael Chang
Gustavo Kuerten <-Canadianboi3's2
Meghann Shaughnessy <-Tim's8
Sebastian Grosjean <-Yeszir's3
Anna Kournikova <-Hiter's4
Daniela Hantuchova
Martina Hingis
Barbara Schett
Ashley Harkleroad
Elena Dementieva
Amanda Coetzer
Pete Sampras <-Acid's7<maybe not since he is now retiring we will work it out later.

I want in Both and my pro will be Lleyton Hewitt1


Edit: I saw Pete Sampras's name was in on some site so I added it.
edit: now Pete is retiring, we will see if hes still in.

[canadianboi3]

I want in both, and my pro will be Gustavo Keurten.

[yeszir]

I want in both and my pro will be grosjean please (where are all the good players?). I was tempted to go with anna, but nah. My gamertag is yeszir.

If more pros are released, can i call federer?

[hiter101]

i want Anna Kournikova

and im in both

my gamertag is hiter

and screw u ill beat u all with a chik :D

[dances with broom sticks]

Count me in for both, Ill take Robredo, unless they add more people. which they must be going to do, cuz they are missing a bunch of good people.

Gamertag: Scorcher

[yeszir]

Is this like that thing with michael jordan, where he was never in any videogames? Like, do tennis players have to approve of being in a video game and the top ones havent or something?

[JR Alberda]

By the way: If they announce full lists I will give opportunity in signup order for people to switch to a better pro. These lists are not final. If John McEnroe gets put in I might just take him :)

[yeszir]

Originally posted by JR Alberda
By the way: If they announce full lists I will give opportunity in signup order for people to switch to a better pro. These lists are not final. If John McEnroe gets put in I might just take him :)
ok cool. And i think it sould be the official XBA top spin league. Sounds really official like that. :D

[squid413]

damn thats all the pros?

I guess i'll be in both pro and home , and my pro will be james blake but if this isn't the full list and they have rod**** i get rod****

[JR Alberda]

That is all the confirmed pros, the press release said at least 16, so we can count on more. But the switching of pros has already been set at the order of signup, so you might be able to get Rod****, unless one of the top 5 chooses him first. But there probably will be alot more great players on the list in the end.

[yeszir]

Originally posted by JR Alberda
That is all the confirmed pros, the press release said at least 16, so we can count on more. But the switching of pros has already been set at the order of signup, so you might be able to get Rod****, unless one of the top 5 chooses him first. But there probably will be alot more great players on the list in the end.
Woohoo! So that means i get 3rd pick at a pro if more come out!

[JR Alberda]

That would be correct. Trading will be allowed before a point in time as well.

I have some really big plans for these to leagues depending on the XSN sports league deals we have heard so much about. (sarcasam of course). But We will def do the tourneys that the pros do during their actual times ie French open, Wimbledon etc.

Hopefully it will be as good as I think it can be.

[JR Alberda]

A bit of an addition to the league description. Basically Im planning that the custom (maybe the pro league) will just have all the players challange who they want, will have to play people within 20 ranks of yourself or so. It will just be a ladder, with tourneys every now and then for different ranking divisions. example, the French Open will be played by the top lets say 20 players at the time. (ranked of course by the XSN sports however they do it. Anyway it will be hard to make any of these rules firm until a XSN sports league game is released (NFL), when we see how it works some decisions can be made. It would be great to get 50 people in the custom league and have it really big.

Tell your Tennis loving xbox playing friends to sign up.

[yeszir]

Will it be possible to have two pros per gamertage because i know my brother would most likely be interested in signign up for this. He likes tennis as well. Maybe i could recruit a few friends.

[JR Alberda]

I was thinking of that myself, my roomate might want a player. We will see later, because XSN might not allow it in the league makeup.

[Acid]

I want in!

I'll take Sampras (if available), if not, Jan-Michael Gambill :)

[yeszir]

I dont mean to complain but were we allowed to claim players that werent on the list to begin with? I thought we would have a second round or something like that to claim new pros that were added later or that we found out about later (like sampras). Ayays, no big deal really. The newly launched internet xbox live stuffs look cool. Im more excited than ever for this game!

[Acid]

Oh yeah, I want in both Home and Pro

[JR Alberda]

yeah that is true abou the future players. If sampras is in the others will have the first choice at him in order.

[yeszir]

Here's the official top spin list from the xba front page:
Lleyton Hewitt
Pete Sampras
James Blake
Meghann Shaughnessy
Tommy Robredo
Jan-Michael Gambill
Michael Chang
Gustavo Kuerten
Anna Kournikova
Daniela Hantuchova
Sebastian Grosjean
Martina Hingis
Barbara Schett
Ashley Harkleroad
Elena Dementieva
Amanda Coetzer

Im dissapointed, i would have thought they'd include some more of the top players. Oh well.

[yeszir]

Oh, and the question i have:
Do you think sampras and michael chang are in with their current skills (ie: not too much) or what they did a while back (ie; very good)?

[JR Alberda]

not sure hopefully when they rocked. But anyway I highly doubt that the list on the front page is final. I bet we should see about double that at release time.

[yeszir]

are we still going to go through with this?

[Acid]

Hopefully:cheers:

Looks like Sampras is in the game..yay

[JR Alberda]

Of course we are still doing it. But we got a bit still before its released and I bet that when it is released a bunch more will join up.

[Tim]

I'll play. I don't care who I play as so you can put as whoever! I'll update my profile to include my Live gamertag.

Thanks. This will be a fun game!

[JR Alberda]

Alright Tim, I put you as Meghann Shaughnessy you can change at the swap (order of sign up thing) if you want.

[JR Alberda]

There is a topspin review article over at teamxbox.com, go check it out for the great info on the game which will come out within the next days. IF you havent already sign up for the league.

[JR Alberda]

It looks like the 30th we should be able to get the game and the league will be able to be set up on November 18 or so. I guess that means we have 18-20 days pre-league to get your custom players to a skill level where they can compete.

I will look at it when the game comes out, we may set an initial custom player limit of level, so that you unemployed or school aged kids dont have an advantage over people like myself who work a full workweek.

All details will be decided before the official ladder start. So if it is possible (not sure as i have not yet seen the game) try to save your custom character at certain skill levels. For example, if your character levels in stages (level 1, level 2 etc. save every few levels so that when the limit is set you have a player that is close to the level.)

Any ideas that you guys have in how we should set up the custom player league, if they end up being possible with how MS sets the XSN leagues up, is welcome. just spew your great ideas right here.

[Acid]

Don't have any ideas but I can't wait for the game to come out!

Are we doing only created guys? I like that idea better than using the pros.

[JR Alberda]

Acid I know you probably forgot abou this in the long time since this started but we are going to do both types, at least to start, we may just ditch the pros though if it isnt as fun, which seems likely.

[yeszir]

yea, there doesnt seem to be a big enough list of decent players. I think we should ditch the pros and go with all custom people. It would certainly make it more fun since it is more tailored to how you want to play. Plus 2 tournaments may be to time consuming for you and for anyone in the league.

[Tim]

Originally posted by JR Alberda
Alright Tim, I put you as Meghann Shaughnessy you can change at the swap (order of sign up thing) if you want.

JR: Thanks, but I'm going to have to back out of the tourney. I'm not going to get a copy of TopSpin until Christmas. I promised my buddies in Cali that I would get Links 2004 and I can't get both. (Too close to Christmas, feel bad blowing money on myself.) But, after Christmas is a different story:D .

Thanks again, and I'll definately be in for the next tourney.

[squid413]

hey jr i might have to back out of the league also. i don't know when i'm gonna get this game. i might get it for christmas. dunno yet though.

[Acid]

Ok so what levels are we getting for our created guys, cause i have 3 stars on serving, and 2 on everything else, should I stop there?

[dances with broom sticks]

Originally posted by Acid
Ok so what levels are we getting for our created guys, cause i have 3 stars on serving, and 2 on everything else, should I stop there?

Thats a really good question. It seems fair that you can have as much stars as you want, but then it wouldnt be a fair playing field.

Can you play with the pros? i thought i read you could only play custom characters in the book.

[dances with broom sticks]

Originally posted by JR Alberda

Any ideas that you guys have in how we should set up the custom player league, if they end up being possible with how MS sets the XSN leagues up, is welcome. just spew your great ideas right here.

I say we cap it at a certain # of stars... maybe 6 or 7... whatever seems appropriate.

[JR Alberda]

Ok I got the game , I read the book and it doesnt that I can see talk about stars, but from what i bet as you get better you apply them like in THSP. How many different places to put stars are there and how easy is it to get say, a total of 3 stars for each one, basically if there are 5 areas how hard is it to get a total of 15 stars?

OK here is my decision. We have 2 weeks (from what I hear) until the Tennis XSN is working, therefore I will set the limit of total stars at 15. So if you can get that many before the start then so be it.

Let me know if Im out to lunch here, I dont even know what the star amount maxs that you can get for each are. If I am high or low let me know (heh a rhyme) And suggest a reasonable number. I want it to be not impossible to reach but able to reach with a good deal of play.

[Acid]

There are 4 categories

Serving, Forehand, Backhand, and Volley

You get 14 stars and you can add them by training

And pros are available online, but created guys are more fun I think

[JR Alberda]

ok if I get you correctly acid, the max for each of the 4 areas is 14? If so then we will play that your max for the begginning of the league is 15 stars.

Although Im not really sure how this is going to work. The thing is once we start how can we assure that people are not gaining way too much by playing cpus and training. Or do we want to worry about that?

Lets just say that for now the first game that you play in the league will be between two players with 15 stars each max. Although I will keep that number variable until I set up the league. I think as I said before, try to keep copies of your character at different levels.

[Acid]

No, the max is 5 for each category

[JR Alberda]

Alright I see, just finished my first match, which i killed in. Man this game is really easy for beginners but I can already tell that its deep, so that the better you are the more challenging you can make it.

OK the max stars for the start of the ladder, unless somethying comes up will be 7 stars. Half of the max of 14.

Guys add me to your friends lists, I will start now, at least accept me so we can try multi together.

[dances with broom sticks]

Originally posted by JR Alberda
Alright I see, just finished my first match, which i killed in. Man this game is really easy for beginners but I can already tell that its deep, so that the better you are the more challenging you can make it.

OK the max stars for the start of the ladder, unless somethying comes up will be 7 stars. Half of the max of 14.

Guys add me to your friends lists, I will start now, at least accept me so we can try multi together.

Im not sure the stars affect online play? I think I read in the book everyone is even online. I dunno though. The game is great

[JR Alberda]

Alright guys here is the thing. I want, as well as all of you do too, to make a career character the best he can be before any official XSN tourneys that come along. Therefore I am lifting the restrictions on players.

Also it would be tough to make people who join after we start use a player with a certain amount of stars. Another reason is that there would be nothing to stop you from playing you career the day after the start and maxing him out for your second game, seeing as stars are from training not from winning.

Sooooo.... Max out your career players for use in our ladder. As many stars and skills as you can get before we start.

[Acid]

Originally posted by JR Alberda
Alright guys here is the thing. I want, as well as all of you do too, to make a career character the best he can be before any official XSN tourneys that come along. Therefore I am lifting the restrictions on players.

Also it would be tough to make people who join after we start use a player with a certain amount of stars. Another reason is that there would be nothing to stop you from playing you career the day after the start and maxing him out for your second game, seeing as stars are from training not from winning.

Sooooo.... Max out your career players for use in our ladder. As many stars and skills as you can get before we start.

Thank God!

I just maxed out serving and added aces as a skill:)

[JR Alberda]

Yeah after deciding that i went on to max out my 14 stars, 2 serve, 5 for, 5 back, 2 volley. Although I still have not gotten my 4th skill, so far I have Precision, Ace and Speed, what are the choices for #4?

[yeszir]

frustrating: I DONT HavE THE GAME YET!!!! ARGHHH

[Acid]

Sorry but I'm gonna have to drop out of this league

I don't have alot of time with school and I haven't been getting good grades..so I'm gonna have to work harder

Sorry again:(

[JR Alberda]

Well I dont know anymore, besides the fact that the turnout is so low, XSN sports has no sort of option of a league or ladder. They have tourneys, tours (4 major tourneys), and seasons (misleading it is a single tournament). Until further notice the league is on hold.