I know a guy from Ancient Greece. He’s old. I called him between the last round and this one. He was busy but he said he would call me right back. “Right back” takes about ten minutes because he has a rotary phone. He’s old, remember? Ancient Greece!
When he finally called me back, he asked what I was doing. I told him. He was very interested in the wrestling, though not so much in the Mexican-ness of it, and then he told me that the five events of the ancient pentathlon were wrestling, discus, javelin, jumping, and running. This was without even seeing Sam's Layer #2, which will heretofore be referred to as "the discus layer." The pentathlon was designed to hone skills useful in battle.
Suddenly, for a moment, my Ancient Greek seemed deeply psychic. He had pegged the first two exactly, in order. He had mentioned battle. I braced for Layer #3. Would the javelin be next? And if so, would the javelin-themed layer reflect the inherent danger of the sport? (We all remember that fateful day back in 2007 when the French long jumper Salim Sdiri was speared by a javelin thrown by Finland's Tero Pitkamaki.)
Layer #3 came in a few minutes ago, and there is no javelin. But there is battle. Is there ever! Armin has kept Sam's palette, give or take, and he has kept the first of his discus-throwing figures. Beyond that, though, he has moved forward by moving back, and reinstating the hand-to-hand combat of his first layer (if by "hand" I mean first "foot" and then "balls"). Without knowing anything about anything when it comes to designing instructional diagrams that deal specifically with ball-kicking, it seems like the #3 is a little close to the kicker's hand. I didn't even see it at first. On the other hand, I like the kicker's outfit. It should be returned to Sonny Chiba after Layer #10. And I like the way that Armin has gratuitously capitalized "Ruin." Does that strike fear into Sam's heart? Does Sam have a heart after being kicked in the balls? The figure that represents him looks pretty hurt. Sorry about that, cervical sympathetic ganglia. Can he recover? We'll know more with Layer #4.
Play by play commentary for this match is provided, as it happens, by Ben Greenman.
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Congratulations to Mig Reyes, Layer Tennis Season 3 Champion.
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.
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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.
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