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Original Post
A History of Ukebash Replays (Work In Progress)
OK so i talked about this in discord earlier and this project is dedicated to detailing the development of ukebash replays from the beginning of the game. As of now the outline of replaymakers I want to cover is as follows:

Pioneers: CheZDa, Dafe, Noweb
Second Wave: War_Hero, Rutz, Oracle, Shook(?)
ORMO Generation: Tamer0, Splinter, Mosier, DeeJayy741(?)
I don't have a name for this era: Larfen, Pulse
Swexx/Largekilla era
New School: Pusga, notnoob(?), internet(?), ... i'm not sure who is best for this category

Question marks indicate players who I'm not positive need to be included. I'm going to write a few of these to let you know how I want things to look, but I intend for it to be a collaborative effort if people are interested. I'm definitely not writing blurbs for all of these players in the detail that I think is necessary, plus I don't believe I have the proper knowledge for certain players without going into serious research that I do not have the motivation for.

__________________________________________________ _____

INTRODUCTION

Toribash was released in 2006 so some dudes decided to play it. One of the more unique features of this fighting game is that its "training mode" soon became one of the main modes of play, and became something of an artform in time. The fact that moves could be saved and shared on the forums in .rpl files gave birth to singleplayer play, commonly called replaymaking. As of now, the main forms of replaymaking are Realism, Hacking, and Ukebash. The latter can be seen as the "purest" manifestation of replaymaking since when you press the Free Play button when you load up the game, your Tori is placed face-to-face with a Uke who is asking to get his ass beat. Beating said Uke's ass in the most creative ways possible became one of the most popular forms of replaymaking to this day. The evolution of ukebash replays will be the focus of this piece.

PIONEERS

Two players in particular originated not only ukebashing, but the entire replaymaking tradition as we know it today: CheZDa and Dafe.

CheZDa revolutionized the way that replays were made for the first time with his replay thePowerof1, which is the first major attempt by a replaymaker to use frame-by-frame editing ("I'm guessing that most of you haven't tried going one frame at a time (you can press shift+space to go one frame). You can do some pretty awesome stuff with it!" - quote from the replay's original post). This is something that is now taken for granted in replaymaking. In fact, it's hard to imagine anyone making a serious attempt at replaymaking today without using this technique. The resulting replay is most definitely dated by today's standards, but it's influence cannot be ignored.
CheZDa's greatest achievement in ukebash comes about a year after thePowerof1, and is still featured in the default replays of Toribash to this day: limpstyleshiz. If we were to take Toribash seriously for a moment, this replay could be called a masterpiece, one of the greatest of all time. Not only is it remarkably impressive for the time of its release (September 2007), its still impressive even if you had not a clue that it was made so early. The use of selfdamage for both booms (as is now standard) and flair (seen around frames 940 and 430, which is most definitely not standard) is superb, and CheZDa's signature creativity shows through his unique spins throughout the replay.
CheZDa's other merits were not always inherited by later players. One of the trademarks of his replays that is not common in ukebash replays today is a tendency to "fill the frames" with moves that might not be needed to actually bash uke, usually dancing. It can be seen through all of his replays that once he was finished with doing dismemberments, he did not immediately pose, but would rather throw pieces around (but not skeet) or do some spins before he ran out of time. Perhaps a reason for this was that he would often not actually edit his replays when making them, a necessity nowadays for making any competent ukebash replay. When you're not editing, the flow of the game may take you to continue spinning even when you've run out of things to hit.
Additionally, CheZDa notably created a series of youtube videos showcasing his replays that would bring many new players to the game, the best being Velocity Shift and ToriTastic.

Dafe

Noweb

SECOND WAVE


War_Hero was a second generation player who perhaps most cohesively combined the styles of the two godfathers of ukebash: Dafe and CheZDa. From CheZDa he inherited a playful sense of style while, following from Dafe, he implemented these whimsies with a deep understanding of the mechanisms of Toribash. Like Dafe, War_Hero once served a stint as a developer for Toribash, so few players truly "understood the game" as well as him, which can be seen in his pioneering experiments in hacking, which few players were capable of doing at the time.
War_Hero's greatest addition to the ukebash tradition is his dedication to speed and booms, which heavily influenced the prevailing style of the game for years. His most accomplished collection, "Kicks and stuffs", contained one of the earliest 5dm booms (the first known 5dm was made by friedrice in june 2008), mach speed punches and kicks, and he also showed surprising grace in replays such as Dafe Kick.
After 2009, War_Hero's ukebash output significantly diminished, though he would still make contributions to the community through holding numerous records for years, such as highest speed attained and the difficult flawless total dismemberment (75ED). He also developed numerous scripts, such as BezCam which he used to create a classic toribash video: Millionaire.

Rutz, formerly Rutz0r, was probably the most stylish player of his time. You would be hard-pressed to find a player with a more distinct style. Rutz, through his abrupt, jittery dance moves, showed the community one of the most beautiful things about replaymaking: you can express yourself in such a way that someone could look at your Tori's movements and immediately recognize the player.
One of the replays that best represents this aspect of Rutz's play is his humbly titled splitcap, which features dance steps that you simply couldn't imagine anyone but Rutz doing. The titular kicks are a formality more than anything, the star of the show is Rutz's movement before and after the dismemberments. Much of Rutz's best work in ukebash follows in the same vein, with one notable exception being his creative teamwork replay, featuring the use of a selfsplit which I'm not sure had ever been done before in such a way that point.
Outside of Ukebash, Rutz was a popular community figure due to his entertaining personality, and hosted radio shows for the community for a while, creating a cult of personality of some sort in the process.
Additionally, Rutz is well known for his ability in creating skating replays, and showcased them on his youtube channel.

Oracle

Shook(?)

ORMO GENERATION


Tamer0 was quietly one of the most influential ukebashers of all time. No single replay can sum up his contribution to the way that replaymaking was approached, but perhaps the best example to give is his thread Warning: Viewer Discretion is Advised. Tamer0 was, as far as I know, the first to vocally support an individualist philosophy when making replays. Tamer0 didn't create replays to impress you. He shunned boomhits which were exceedingly popular at the time. He made replays because they were fun to make, and the results were pleasing to himself, and that was all the fulfillment that was needed. This philosophy of replaymaking ended up causing more people to play the way that they wanted to, and not the way that the replaymaking community wanted them to. Ukebashing became less of a display of technical ability and more of a display of creative talent.
Two of Tamer0's most accomplished replays came late in his career and ended up spending time as defaults: Glimmer and Swing of the Clock. Glimmer is a madman noted for its flawlessness (he takes no damage) and its focus on dismembering unusual joints, which would become a staple in later replays that were influenced by his style. Tamer0 was often seen breaking elbow and wrist joints on uke, which was uncommon at the time, usually because he was setting up for skeet shots, a technique he was known for being a master of. Which leads us into Swing of the Clock, a replay completely centered on its extraordinary skeet shot, which would be entirely unremarkable if not for its "twist ending", where the skeeted lumbar is caught without moving anything other than a wrist. I'm sure no other evidence is needed to prove Tamer0's ability when it comes to skeets.
Tamer0 was accomplished through more than simply making replays as well. Tamer0 was a leading member of both [T] and ORMO, two organizations with enormous influence and clout among the replaymaking community. Tamer0 was active in IRC and quick to give advice to newcomers, as well as editing their replays to show what was possible for them. Many replaymakers owe their careers to Tamer0's guidance (e.g. Larfen)

Splinter (and his creation of ORMO)

More than anything else, Mosier was an extremely creative player. He was one of the first players to make replays as if Uke was not only a dummy to beat up on, but a toy to use in any way imaginable. As a result, Mosier was years ahead of his time in his manipulation (or "Manip") replays, where he hit Uke, not to dismember him as was standard, but to juggle him up in the air. His finest replay, Manipunchikickulation, would serve as the gold standard for this genre of ukebash for years, and was a direct influence on the manipulation replays that became much more common as the years went on.
Good ideas aren't enough to put you in this post though. His ideas took advanced execution, and the way he implemented them looked nearly effortless. The nonstop, relaxed, fluid motion in Mosier's replays was a huge step above his peers, players who weren't even trying to innovate ukebash to the same extent as him. This is clear in his wallflip replay, whose titular move is something that I've never seen before or since, and is exemplary of both his creativity and ability to seamlessly incorporate his ideas into a complete motion. Similarly, his famous Headless Whoreman uses Uke's arm in a nearly "narrative" fashion, which I challenge any player to perform at all, let alone come up with.

DeeJayy741

I don't have a name for this era

Larfen

Pulse

Sprytryne

bust3r's videos

SWEXX/LARGE

Swexx

Largekilla is on the shortlist for the greatest ukebasher of all time. I don't think that any singular player has ever been so massively influential on the prevailing playstyle of the game. Along with Swexx, he invented what I call the "hyper-balanced" style of Ukebash.

NEW SCHOOL

Pusga

MrJingles

notnoob(?), internet(?), dezrai(?), Gramof0n(?), Mack(?)
__________________________________________________ ____

If you have any ideas for this (Fun name for Larfen/Pulse period, players I've forgotten, players you want to exclude) let me know.

If you have a player you want to claim, tell me and I can reserve that blurb for you to write (I got dibs on Tamer0)

I hope you don't think this is dumb
Last edited by Larfen; Jan 22, 2020 at 06:51 PM.
[12:00] <fudgiebalz> toribash SUCKS
Check my ~~~Dank Replays~~~
mmh
i recommend dezrai,tsuion and mack(?) for the new school thing
Aadame:I'm very signaturable
It's just no one usues my shit .
Originally Posted by BquadZ7550 View Post
im good at making shit explode is that enoguh for the list

no :b
Aadame:I'm very signaturable
It's just no one usues my shit .
Yeah I believe Mack and Dezrai should definitely be in the new school era. But good work on the beginning, this will be really good to remember the amazing people who just inspired people and did what no other would do.
ishi - "I'm Hampa's Bitch Slappin' Hand"
I'm so proud Sparky
mmh acually i wonder why is this thread is about ukebash only
shouldn't it be made for all kinds of replaymaking?
Aadame:I'm very signaturable
It's just no one usues my shit .
I'm curious as to why you think I should be mentioned in a history of ukebashing. I'd never consider my replays prolific or revolutionary compared to people like War_Hero or Rutz. I was always painfully frustrated with my replays, as I always saw my replays fall short compared to something already out, or shortly afterwards be overshadowed by somebody who took the same concept and ironed out the kinks I couldn't remove. As far as I'm aware, I would at best be a jack of all trades, but master of none. And that's probably overselling it.
nyan :3
Youtube Channel i sometimes post videos of other games
So I know at the very least both me and Internet are big fans of your replays, and they were influential in development of our styles.

I've talked about this with some guys on IRC and I think the general idea is that we consider Oracle replays to be some of the first that focused on smooth and creative movement as a primary focus of the replay (along with Rutz). Discipline is a good example of this, with a lot of focus put on the opener rather than the ukebashing itself. Balance began to play an important role in replays with this as well

That's the basic idea, I'm sure it will be explained better when the section is actually written. I will also say that I feel kinda uncomfortable putting myself on the list as well but people seem to accept the inclusion


Regarding as to why this isn't a history of replays in general, it may be expanded to that but I decided to limit it to an area that I'm familiar with as I expected a lot of the writing to come from me since it was my idea. If other people are willing to write up things about realism and hacking then you're free to, but I want to make sure I finish something. This is also why I'm trying to keep the list short because I want to treat the most important people in depth, rather than talk about a lot of people and lose sight of the most important things, or leave the piece unfinished.
Last edited by Larfen; Nov 11, 2016 at 08:38 PM.
[12:00] <fudgiebalz> toribash SUCKS
Check my ~~~Dank Replays~~~