Play-By-Play Commentary

I'll Show You 'Outside the Box'

Whoa. Take your browser window and stretch it wide, my friends. If you've widened it to the full width of your screen already, run out and buy a 30-inch display.

There's never been a shot like this in Layer Tennis before. Inman isn't just playing with the surrounding elements on the web page -- he's consuming them. The rules call for an image 900 x 280 pixels; Inman's magnum opus measures a whopping 1920 x 458. I questioned how Inman's original concept could fit in the box, and Inman has answered, and that answer is "Fuck the box."

Fair? I don't know. But impressive? Hell yes. At a technical level, the image is inserted as a CSS background, which provides it with precise interplay with the web page elements even when the browser window is resized. (Alas, it also prevents those of you on small displays from scrolling to see the entire image. Seriously, get a new display, cheapo.) My sideline sources tell me Inman planned this out in advance -- at least technically -- with the tacit approval of the Layer Tennis honchos.

It's not just big, though, it's fiendishly clever: Markers for volleys 9 and 10 which do align, standard size be damned. A "Ketchup" marker for the B match, mocking those laggards for having fallen, as of this writing, two volleys behind the pace of this match (get it? "catch up"?). A corresponding "Mustard" marker referring to nothing other than its own color, but which color was plucked from the Layer Tennis web page design itself. And then, literally to top it all, a pixel-perfectly-placed "I ♥" next to the "Layer Tennis Live" in the page header.

My scorecard had this match tilted toward Glass heading into the final round, but I'm calling this one the best shot of the entire Layer Tennis season.

Play by play commentary for this match is provided, as it happens, by John Gruber.

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Live Match Blog

Congratulations to Mig Reyes, Layer Tennis Season 3 Champion. jc-12.20

Thanks to all the players, commentators and fans who made Season Three of Layer Tennis a big success. And thanks to the crew at Goodby Silverstein & Partners and all the folks at Adobe Creative Suite for making it possible. Watch this space (or sign up for Season Tickets or follow us on Twitter) for news about some special exhibition matches being planned and about Season 4. jc-12.20

Cast your votes on The Championship Match. Both Finalists will receive invitations to play in the post-season tournament for Season Four. jc-12.17

Here's how the voting works. Decide who you'd like to declare as winner and then simply tweet their first name following a hash mark. Either #mig or #noper and, this is important, also include #lyt in that tweet. We'll leave the voting open all weekend and announce our Season Three Champion on Monday. jc-12.12

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